123. Dugong, Dugong

There's a really catchy song complete with silly video about the majestic dugong, also known as the manatee. And that was one of the first things I thought about when I saw a... herd? group? of sea cows. But let's back this up. Warning: Tons of media content! :D

Yesterday, a dear friend called me in the morning and asked if I wanted to accompany her on an emergency errand. Groggy me readily agreed. Not too often an adventure fails in your lap! Or jumps on you in bed and screams in your ear to wake up- Yes, cell phone. I am referring to you. :P Within an hour, she picked me up and we headed towards Cape Canaveral. The same one that launches cruise ships and space shuttles. Well, it used to do the latter. :(

Just before we left, my brother came home from McDonald's where they started a sale on grabbing 50 pc. chicken mcnuggets for $10.99 or something. He also snagged two large fries and two large drinks. We stole one of each of the latter items to tide us over since we wanted to make the trip in one go. So here are a few pictures I took while we were trucking along to share with you and my non/former Floridian friends!

 Baby calves!

Mmm... traffic. My favorite. :(

That horizon doesn't look too friendly up ahead...

Not too long after we left and thought that we would make pretty good time until:

Ta da! A video that is remotely better than my last one with the scorpion. I really tried to keep in mind this time that I wanted to post the footage on my blog. Yes, that's my voice narrating. And yes, you can mute it because the subtitles I put on pretty much sum up what we're saying, lol. My friend told me that what I saw through my camera was much better visibility than what she was actually seeing! If that gives you any indication of our weather here. I'm kinda proud of myself this time. You know, minus feeling a little shy about having my voice and talking and such. Even though I have posted songs when that MySpace karaoke came out. I got mixed reviews which is more than understandable. I'm nothing special or talented by any means, but I think I can manage to hold most of a tune in a bucket from time to time. ... Where was I?

Right! Rain.

 Grand speed on the highway isn't it? There were two accidents right after the storms.

 A sample of old burned trees that still keep going. Lots of fires are started by lit cigarette butts, lightning, and prescribed burning.

Finally we're next to real water. We're almost there!

This bridge is pretty much as high as we typically get in elevation here. :P

Those tall white pack of buildings contain our destination.

Delayed up quite a bit but we finally got there and were shown my friend's parents' new property right on the Banana River that I found to be absolutely amazing! They are super wonderful, welcoming, and nice folks. Hilarious too. It's the perfect place for them to be now with tons of fun stuff to do just a walk or bike ride away! Here are some of their views right from the living room:

Yes, they're right on the shore!

Little tiny island in the middle of the river.

Before I knew it, I was folding up the pant legs of my jeans and hauling an inflated kayak to the river side. Ha ha! I have only done some canoeing in the lake in my folks' backyard a few years back. Before I lament about my lack of upper body strength, I want to say that there was a very specific reason why we chose to kayak after a morning of driving:

The bait fish and friends were playful and mellow today according to my friend and her family.

MANATEES! This is as good as the pictures are going to get. Sorry!

Tail! Lead the way!

Alright, after that little tease, I'm going to confess that I'm dead on my feet/ tush right now so I'm going to go crash. There is going to be a Part 2 tomorrow! How fancy! See you then! <3