Sometimes the greatest discoveries are found extremely close to home. For home school today I was going to take the kids on the Winter Park Boat tour and pay the Morse Museum a visit. The boys protested and said they wanted to get the boats and go exploring. It didn't take much arm twisting. We grabbed the Mohawk Solo 14, some mountain dews, and took off for Dinky Dock. I decided since the lake levels were up to try to make it from Lake Virginia to Lake Sue via the Mead Gardens Canal. It turned out to be amazing.
The current going to Lake Sue was strong and swift. On some tight turns it was kin to whitewater. We almost made it to Lake Sue, however, on the third pull over the boys became restless. We witnessed a red shouldered hawk grab, kill, and eat a male wood duck. We also spotted a river otter, green heron, little blue heron, red eared cooters, great blue heron, coots, more hens, crabby orb spiders, water stridders, and a two foot alligator that I almost caught with my paddle. The boys enjoyed hunkering down and going under the bridges.
For lunch we met Marty at Popeyes for some spicy fried chicken and bisquits. The boys wanted to swim afterwards so we went back to Dinkey Dock and took a cold swim. A fine day indeed!