Florida - Hillsborough River

The sun came out this morning so in the afternoon we did a round-trip paddle on the Hillsborough River, to make up for the aborted one yesterday. We paddled 8 miles round trip from Morris Bridge to Sargeants Park and back again.The river was high due to all the rain so we saw just a few wading birds. But we saw a roseate spoonbill, which was great since we hadn't seen any up to this point. There were quite a few alligators enjoying the sun. And we saw a young raccoon climbing a tree next to the river. It was just as curious about us as we were about it and watched intently as we floated by.

We drove down to Pass-a-Grille for dinner at the Brass Monkey before returning to the hotel. Since we were that far south we drove by the Island's End cottages to see what they were like. We had considered staying there except they had a very strict cancellation policy. We saw dolphins playing in the bay and stopped to watch them. While we were there we met a couple who were staying at Island's End and strongly recommended it. So if we ever come back to St Pete Beach, maybe we'll try it.