I remember my last trip as if it was only yesterday, especially my close encounter whilst absorbing one of Central Florida’s natural attractions, the swamps.
Although we were staying in an Orlando vacation rental home which are mainly filled with out-of-state tourists, I bumped into a local called Carl who was working for www.wireitright.com who suggested that our families meet up one Sunday afternoon at a country park about 30 miles North West of Orlando. Eager to see more of Florida’s natural beauty, sure enough one week later we found ourselves heading up to Wekiva. We met with our new friends and decided to rent some canoes and head north upriver.
The shallow river was fairly dense with fallen trees and navigating them was difficult. Whilst rowing with one ore and two you kids was hard-work heading up-stream, the current made it fairly easy to control the canoe and navigate the tight corners. As we passed one particularly hairy tight spot, a 7ft alligator was clearly visible. The kids, aged 4 and 5, were already on the lookout for alligators and they fell very silent as we passed.
Eventually we found a sand island in the middle of the river and stopped for refreshment. My 4 year old picked up a stick that was floating down-stream. When he asked me why the stick was moving I shouted to him to drop it, fortunately it looked like it was just a water snake.
I need some excitement in my life again, time to fins another Florida vacation villa for rent on www.fabvillas.com. If I can, I’ll try to stay at Emerald Retreat again as it was a wonderful villa with everything that I could have dreamed of, details can be found at www.emeraldislandflorida.com