Smoldering in Florida

We've had brush fires in the forest all week at Pine Jog. They started naturally last weekend when we got a bad storm with several lightening strikes on the property. Several staff members found the fire while hiking one of the trails. Fortunately, it only burned a little over one acre in an area away from any houses or office buildings. The Fire Dept. and Dept. of Forestry made regular checks all week and cut a furrow/break around the burning area. You can see the furrow in the picture to the right. The fire finally burned itself out yesterday. Below are some more pictures of the area.

No one was hurt and no property was damaged. Fire is actually a good thing in the pine flatwoods. Pine Jog had been avoiding burning for various reasons and this was a much needed burn. One staff member said "The forest has spoken." How true?!?

Kayak Expo

The first weekend in March was the Adventure Times Kayak Expo at Okeeheelee Park near Pine Jog. It is 3 days of paddling, trying out different kayaks, and mini skills classes. Jonathan works as safety patrol on the water and Emily teaches basic paddling classes all day.

On the right is all the gear that we have to load up from the Riveria Beach Marina outpost and haul to the park. The guys always joke that it looks like we are supplying a third world navy.

Kayak companies send reps with a demo of each kayak they sell for people to try in hopes that they will like it so much they'll want to buy it. At past expos Adventure Times has sold over 70 kayaks in one weekend. It is a pretty lucrative weekend for the business.

Jonathan took the following series of pictures of Emily and Chris Hill (another kayak instructor) teaching a basic paddling course. Below we demonstrate how to perform a T-rescue when you flip over in a cockpitted kayak:

That was some pretty quick photography work by Jonathan....well done!

Emily was soaking wet, but happy to be back in her kayak after a day of teaching and demonstrating various kayak skills.

Adventure Times also does trade-in on used kayaks. Someone traded in this Tarpon 160 earlier in the season. Jonathan bought it used at the expo. It is the perfect sit-on-top for him, complete with rudder system and built-in fishing rod holder. As you can see in the picture on the right he brought his rod along on Sunday....not sure anything was bitting that day.....too many kayaks (and paddlers) in the lake.

Hanza, Jonathan's housemate, was also working safety patrol that weekend. It was fun to kayak with so many familiar faces.

Speaking of fun, we all got a little silly one morning after set-up. We decided to take some of the rental bikes for a spin.

This is Chris (the biggest guy on staff) pulling Paul (the littlest guy on staff) around the parking lot.

Paul thought this purple bike was pretty neat. Those training wheels were smoking by the time he parked it.

Jonathan and Emily took the bicycle built for two for a spin.

Then Jonathan and Chris decided to give it a try.......another fun weekend in the sun!

Everglades National Park

Tis the season to come down to The Sunshine State and escape the cold up north.

Emily's friend Lauren Hughes was down in Miami for a medical conference last weekend.


We decided to spend a couple hours on Sunday at Everglades National Park. We got rained on during our hike on the famous Anhinga Trail. It is the best place to see wildlife.

This is shot of Lauren taking a close up of cardinal air plants growing on one of the trees along the trail.

This is an Anhinga (the trail's namesake) drying its wings after diving into the water to spear and eat a fish with its pointed beak.

This big beautiful water bird is

the Great Blue Heron.

This alligator had a big smile.

He was one of 27 we saw along the trail that day.

Alligators weren't the only thing out and about. There were many other photographers there capturing the wildlife on film. This guy had a camera lense as big as my left leg!

Another fun adventure logged on the blog!

Biscayne National Underwater Park

Jonathan's parents George and Pam Klein were down for a visit all last week. We had many fun adventures together. On Friday we drove down to Homestead, FL and went snorkeling in Biscayne National Underwater Park. It was a beautiful day!



Our digital camera is shock and waterproof (a.k.a. Jonathan and Emily proof). This was our first time taking underwater shots with it. We were really impressed and hope you are too. Enjoy!

George and Pam helped each other suit up. The water was around 72 degrees so we all wore wetsuits to stay warm during our hour in the water.

Pam and George both got in the water.

I think they had a great time!

Here is a shot of some of the fish and coral we saw. The deepest spot was about 10-12 ft at our dive site.

Emily did several free dives where she held her breath and swam deeper underwater. Deep down she is truely a SCUBA diver at heart.

On one of her deeper dives Emily managed to capture this shot of a Spotted Ray. It was swimming along the bottom looking for a snack.

Here is a shot of Jonathan under the water.

And coming up to see how far we have to swim to get back to our boat.

Pam and Jonathan were having fun back on the boat. We had fresh cut pinapple waiting for us in our cooler. It sure did taste good and helped get the salt water out of our mouths.

The Captain took this shot for us. What fun in the sun!