Bill and Austin stink!

Well, we had another big day today.  Austin slept in again - probably for the last time this trip.  We drove to Wendys for a hamburger breakfast for Austin.  We have been eating real gourmet food this trip!  After 'breakfast' we drove south to Robbies Marina to rent our watercraft.  We rented a paddleboard for Austin and a kayak for us.  They gave us a trail map and told us how to avoid the crocodile.  Off we went.  We followed the trail out into the bay, up to bird island and into the mangrove trail.

It was so cool.  The roots grew down into the water and sometimes the branches were so low that Austin had to crouch down on his paddleboard.  It felt like we were cruising through the bayous.  You know that Austin is really having fun when he turns around while paddling and says 'thank you'.

After we followed the trail around we went back to the landing because Bill wanted to try the paddleboard.  He did very well standing up until Austin and Bill decided to change places.  They were wanting to find a shallow place to make the switch.  Bill came up upon a spot and was going to see how shallow it was and then he fell backwards into the stinky gooey soft ground that was like quicksand.  And, the goo was so thick,  Bill was in to just above his waist, which was difficult to get out of. Then Austin jumped in to change places and they were both mucking around in it until they got back up again.  After that they were pretty stinky.  Austin said that was the most exciting part of the day, grandpa falling off and getting stuck trying to get out.

Once back in the canoe, off we went cruising thru more mangroves.

Tight quarters

In the end we paddled the trail twice and were out for about 4 hours.  Robbies said they were just about to come look for us because most are back in 2-1/2 hrs. We are all a little sore from all the paddling.  Austin loves paddleboarding but I don't think he can do it much in Arizona.  He thinks this was more fun than the airboat, but I don't know if I agree.

On the way back to the hotel (to take showers), Austin said he wanted a big juicy hamburger with fries.  We heard that the grill at the hotel had a burger on the menu so we went there.  After reading the menu Austin ordered roast chicken!  The food was good and we had a great view of the sunset.