Sunday: I tested negative for COVID this morning. Yay!!! I am so relieved. Now I can go to church and worship with David and Carol AND I can board my plane tomorrow evening without feeling guilty that I am infecting a whole bunch of people (I would have masked if I was still positive, and I would have kept VERY quiet). I looked into switching my flight, but it was quite complicated and very expensive. I asked the Lord to please heal my body of this nasty virus and I believe He did just that (with the help of Ivermectin and the good care I received while sick).
David and Carol are in the process of looking for a church where they can worship regularly. There is a small community church (consisting perhaps of 100 people) about 5 minutes from where they live. They had visited it in the weeks prior to my coming and that is where we worshiped Sunday morning. Attendance was fewer than usual due to several illnesses and other circumstances. The pastor finished teaching the book of Hosea this week. David and Carol are looking for a church that teaches the Bible (rather than random topics every week) and this little church seems very committed to God's Word.
We had already planned a boating adventure for the afternoon with a special purpose--to find us some alligators OUT IN THE WILD, not in a zoo or a fenced-in enclosure, but out and about doing what alligators do! Afterall, Florida is known as the "Gator State" isn't it?! It was decided we would boat in Lake Tarpon up in Tarpon Springs, which is a fresh water lake KNOWN for alligators. Last year, we drove up to Tarpon and walked around the beautiful park there and on the boardwalks with the purpose of finding alligators, but we came up with ZERO. Surely today would yield alligators!!
We didn't take the boat out here last year ... Lake Tarpon is a beautiful place, but it doesn't have the same allure as the Bay or the Gulf ... it just doesn't! However, when one is hunting for alligators, being on a boat offers much more opportunity to get in close to the shoreline and SEE those critters first hand ... or so we hoped.
Sunday afternoon was an absolutely perfectly gorgeous day ...
Another beautiful egret!
Here's the thing: I am very used to beautiful waterways living in Michigan my whole life and loving the Great Lakes. But here in Florida, at least to me, there are very exotic places to visit that offer trees and vegetation that doesn't grow up north in Michigan, so I find it extra interesting.
We tried to get the boat in closer to these tall reeds along the shore, but the boat's depth-finder alarm kept sounding, so we couldn't get much closer than this ...
David drove the boat around to a docking area where we had actually searched last year (without the boat), and we tied up and decided to go on foot back to the inland ponds to see what we could see. Carol stayed with the boat and actually spotted an alligator a distance out from where we were docked ... but it was gone by the time David and I returned. She used her cell phone to snap a picture and showed it as proof to us. Sigh ...
Isn't it exotically pretty here? It's SO unlike Michigan ... I almost feel like I am in a different country altogether walking through this park.
See all of the Beware of Alligator signs? !!! Did we actually SEE one single alligator? ZERO. ZIP. NADA!!
David pointed out these two turtles relaxing along the bank of this pond ... and I was glad to see them and take their picture ... but they are NOT alligators ...
We finally gave up looking inland and walked back to the boat ...
David, who has excellent vision, stopped me on the boardwalk very near to the boat and pointed out this very real and much alive out-in-the-wild ALLIGATOR!!!! Can you see him? He is by the branch that is floating ... see his head?
I zoomed in with my camera, never really convinced that I was truly going to catch him on film ... but I did!
We stood there watching him for a long time. David went to find something to throw into the water to perhaps nudge him into showing more of his body, but all he could find was some small branches that he tossed in the direction of the alligator--but he never even twitched a scale!
We got back into the boat and David suggested we drive down the canal and see if any alligators were hanging out there. It's truly a beautiful place to be. We did see ducks and a few other birds ...
And once, Carol (who was avidly searching and has great eyes and wanted so badly to find an alligator for me) thought sure there was an alligator's nose peeking up along the reeds, but we got as close as possible only to find out it was just a ... stick ... ! There is a dam at the end of the canal (below)--isn't the calm water and reflection so pretty?
David had put the "roof" up on the boat while we were out this afternoon. The sun was crazy hot out there and it really helped to shield us. This is such a nice boat ... hopefully they will not sell it--but it is none of my business if they do--it's just that David NEEDS to have a boat--that's all there is to it! It's in his blood.
We left Tarpon Springs behind, a little disappointed at our negative alligator hunt (I hadn't yet realized that I DID indeed get a picture of one) and drove back home in anticipation of having dinner tonight with Andrew and Alison--so thankful my COVID test is negative; otherwise, we would have had to cancel seeing these two sweeties (next post).
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