A Deeper Life: Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

Yesterday, Jamie and I went on a little rendezvous to a state park for a canoe trip.

By the way...

I had to look up how to spell the word, "canoe". I wanted to spell it canoue at first, but after I figured it out, it reminded me how frustrating words are sometimes. "Canoe" should be spelled this way: canoo or canu. Looks much better, no?

Anyway!!! Jamie and I went on a canoe trip to Lake Fausse Point State Park because we both had the day off and wanted to do something new and adventurous.

I was BEYOND excited to get to spend the day with Jamie, not worrying about work or anything! It was relaxing and perfect.

Here, Jamie is mapping out our quest:

We took the green to the blue to the orange back to the green. There were different trails and the one we ended up taking took us around three hours to complete. It was perfect.

So excited for our little day trip:

Not sure if you can see that tall white bird, but we saw a ton of those!

They flew really low to the water and squawked every now and then.

I was super nervous about tipping. There were alligators in the water, you know!

Little did you know that I was flexing every muscle in my body as to not move this boat in the slightest as I turned around for this picture:

One false move and we're gator bait, baby!

Doesn't he look absolutely thrilled?!

The boy sure does love getting his picture taken.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. It was around 82*, sun shining, a slight breath of air moving and pure silence on the water.

We were pretty much alone except for the random fisherman that would pass us by on his boat.

I just loved being out there, just the two of us.

I had a few troubles though. I kept hitting the side of the boat with my paddle. Jamie told me that loud noises like that attract alligators. I'm fairly gullible and very afraid of gators, so I tried my best to stop.

I thought my form was quite lovely, thanks to my very intense training at Kanakuk Kamps in my younger years. I remembered the "J" stroke and the "C" stroke. And trust me when I say that I back paddled like crazy when we saw this guy:

Oh yeah, that was not a zoomed in picture!!

Here's a pic farther away. If you look closely, he's on the right, on the log. Several turtles were on the log with him, sunbathing:

Hey little guy.

He was probably 4-5 feet long....and didn't move a muscle.

These little guys may look harmless, but according to the Swamp People, they're far from harmless! They could break your arm in one snap of the jaw!

My pictures don't do it justice, but it was absolutely beautiful outside yesterday.

Here was a picture of me smiling, relieved that we survived our first gator sighting:

Jamie, our wilderness guide, keeping watch for hungry alligators:

(Don't mind my finger that's in the way)

Look at how cute this turtle is:

All of the turtles were sun bathing like this, with their back feet totally stretched out. Isn't it precious? I just learned that they stretch out like that because they like to stretch and they like to soak up the sun. Too cute!

Towards the beginning of our trip, we saw a fisherman on a boat and he said, "Did you guys see that monster sitting back there on the log? Man he was prolly 14 feet or so!" Jamie of course egged him on and I just figured he was being a typical cajun, telling stories.

Well, a few minutes later, we see him again and he showed us a picture that he took on his phone of the "monster" that we thankfully passed without spotting. This thing was HUGE!!! He was at LEAST 12 feet long and fat as a tree trunk! Lo and behold, Mr. Cajun Fisherman wasn't telling an old wives tale. That gator was a "ru-ba-ru" as Troy would say from Swamp People.

So glad we weren't lunch for that gator yesterday.

Some more beautiful scenery from our trip:

As we were paddling along, we heard a LOUD splash and saw a big gator tail dive into the water. That was a big gator! It was alligator number 4 for the day, I believe, but I didn't want to get close to that thing at all. This was the only time on our whole trip that Jamie and I had a little tiff. My nerves kicked in so fast and Jamie's adrenaline was at a high. He was ready to get up close and personal with a giant gator, and I wanted to live long enough to become a mommy one day and fit into my skinny jeans again. Yet again, Jamie paddled closer to the predator while I back paddled.

As we got closer, we noticed that Mr. Gator wasn't alone. He had a buddy with him. Another big buddy. Another big buddy, hungry for blood! In the above picture, you can hardly tell, but that thing skimming the water is an alligator.

I won the battle and we got out of there before getting too close.

Here's another little alligator:

I got his picture right as he was jumping into the water.

Here's where the water opens up to Lake Fausse Pointe:

The water we were on was The Atchafalaya Basin. Don't ask me how to pronounce that because I say it different every time.

Here, we stopped for a potty break. I stayed in my canoe because I wasn't about to tee-tee in the woods without a real potty and toilet paper. I'd rather be uncomfortable than expose myself to nature.

After about a 3 hour trip, we made it back safely and were thrilled with our day. I'd definitely do it again soon! I figure that this was a good time to go, because September is Alligator Season and I assumed most of the alligators were all hunted and dead since it was November, right? All this to say, you won't find me in gator waters in July or August when the water is filled with them! I'll wait for Junior and Willie and Troy to catch 'em all before I get my big tush in a boat again!