~Dolphins and Canoeing!!~

We had another AMAZING, FABULOUS, EXCITING day!   2nd best after Tim Hawkins.   We decided to go to Tomoka State Park and rent some canoes for a couple of hours.   The scenery in the park is so beautiful with palm trees, live oaks with moss etc....  We decided to rent 2 canoes to travel down the Halifax River.   There are so many wonderful birds in this area and we were excited to see them.

The kids were so excited to go canoeing and the river was SO calm.

Jessie ready for paddling........

the boys ready for "the ride"......

What a beautiful setting.

After about 15 minutes of paddling we saw something in the distance.   As we got closer we noticed that there were around 12 dolphins!   We were all SO excited.  We paddled as close as we could without scaring them away.   We basically followed them around for about an hour - it was INCREDIBLE.   Sometimes they were only about 30 ft away from our canoes.  They were swimming and playing all around us - W    O     W   !!!!!!!!!

Is that "Jaws"??

The dolphins playing in the shallow waters next to the shore.  It was an amazing sight to see.

We then paddled the other direction and saw some lovely birds - herons, pelicans etc....

After our "ride" we enjoyed our lunch in the park..............

and then went for a lovely hike through the trees.

This is us driving under the "canopy" of trees - so beautiful!

We stopped off at Ormond Beach on the way back to the park - also beautiful!

Sorry the video and photos aren't the best as it was hard to keep the camera still while in a moving canoe and    the dolphins kept coming up in different spots that I would keep missing them - you will have to just imagine how great it was !!!