Catch Up!

We've had some great visits and trips since the beginning of the year, so I'd like to try to catch up on these events.

Our first visitor of the year was Bobby (Andy's brother) and his family. They had arrived in Florida before we even left Phila, but they flew into Orlando to visit Joe first. The foursome drove to Boca shortly after we flew back in.

We took them kayaking/canoeing on the Loxahatchee River off of Indiantown Road. This is one of our favorite kayaking places. The river winds through a cypress swamp with overhanging trees, alligators, turtles, etc and really throws you back in time with it's natural beauty. The cypress knees can make it a challenging paddle requiring good steering. What we didn't consider, however, was the effects of the hurricanes. So we were surprised to see that a lot of trees were knocked down. Natural debris filled the waterways - trees and branches mostly. This created obstacles of a different kind. Now not only did you have to paddle around cypress knees and under branches, but in several spots we had to scoot over logs or even get out and pull the kayaks or canoes over downed trees. The canopy overhead was also reduced so we could see a lot more sky than on previous paddles. It's still beautiful, though, and we keep praying that development will be kept at bay so this area will be preserved for years and years to come.