Florida Summer Trip - Day 4

One of our adventure items from our trips had been a trip the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  Tara had also wanted to rent bikes, so we combined the two for what turned out to be quite the adventure.  We first headed over to the local bike shop and sought out some bikes.  I was very tempted by this four person bike-cart thing that had a canopy over it, but we decided to go with two single bikes for the boys that were more like hybrids and a tandem for Tara and I.  I did give the salesman a pass after he questioned by biking prowess, but we were soon off for the four mile journey over to the entrance of the park.  The above picture is where we stopped to find some pretty cool large blue crabs.  They were too elusive to capture on film, I think. 

The refuge has an eight mile loop that you can drive or bike down all in a single direction.  As you ride, you can stop at any number of various wildlife lookouts or whatever you happen to catch by the side of the road.  Here is the view from a large tower that lets you look out over some of the waterways that you wind through.

On the way back to our bikes (you can see Gavin's here), this crow swept in and tried to steal our snacks from his front basket.  It got pretty bold and was trying to open the bag and pull stuff out.  We were quickly onto his game and scared him away.

What is hard to see here is our brief look at a wild manatee.  Two of these large guys strolled on passed us while we were stopped by the side of the road.  It is pretty awesome to see something like that in the wild rather than in a zoo.

The journey back from the eight mile refuge loop turned out to be quite the adventure.  By then, it was closing in on the upper 80s and humidity was in full effect.  We were all on these heavy bikes and had close to eight miles home on a bike path as well.  There was definitely some serious complaining, but we made it in the end.  Here is Tara and I on the tandem back at the bike shop.  This is the first time we have tried it and I think it was a pretty good time once we learned to make sure we leaned the same direction.

Unfortunately, by bedtime this night Gage started feeling really sick and developed a high fever.  I was able to find a convenient store open at close to midnight when he wasn't getting any better and started throwing up a lot go buy some kids Motrin and we were able to keep his fever in check so he could get some sleep.