We got the kids rolling at about 8:00 a.m., packed up essentials like water and food, and set out for Shell Key. I drew some lines to show our path on the map below and will reference them throughout this post.  It took us about 45 minutes to cross the bayou (red line).  During this part, there were some choppy waves but we made it without incident to Shell Key. Then we walked up and back on “Beach 1” (white) looking for shells.

We got back in the kayaks and went further up Shell Key (yellow line) and crossed the key on foot to “Beach 2” (white).  We ate our lunch there, found some pretty shells and snorkeled.

We packed up our picnic and reloaded everything into the kayaks and set off to find the elusive mangrove trails (green line shows our journey to the trail, blue shows the trail) .  We found one that was too shallow for our three-person but the boys made it through.  Then we found another one where the tour guides take their groups through and followed them in.  Esme and I especially enjoyed the mangrove trail.

We saw dolphins a few times.  Our friends, the cormorants, visited a bunch and entertained us too.  Nova named them Dinosaur, Sharky, and Lizard.  One cormorant had a fishing line sticking out of its mouth.  I learned that cormorants regurgitate the bones of their prey like owls do so hopefully he was able to spit that up.  We also saw white pelicans, many egrets and herons, and other shore birds.  A lot of our way was in very clear, very shallow water (about 2-3 feet deep) and we could see lots of crabs and “sea pork” on the sea floor.

We got back to our campsite around 2:00 p.m (purple line shows our path back to the campsite).  All told we kayaked about 5 miles.  I used a tool on Google maps to estimate the distance. 

For the rest of the afternoon, we showered, rested, and packed up what we could. 

After dinner we flew kites at the beach.  The guys also checked out the old fort.

We decided to leave here tomorrow, a day early, to break our travel home into three days.  The long drive down was a bit grueling and the boys have school on Monday so they need to get home on Sunday. The girls and I will be continuing our spring break in Ohio with the Yatzecks!