Relaxing on the Ichetucknee River

Today was such a blessing! We woke up before sunrise and headed out to meet Scarlett, Mark and Rachel for a wonderful lazy adventure down the Ichetucknee River. We had been looking forward to it all week and had been watching the weather and praying that the rain would clear by the weekend. It has also been very busy but we were able to move some sessions around to arrange for a free Sunday to relax.
When Scarlett mentioned tubing the Ichetucknee the first thought that entered my mind was- YES! that is so much fun...the next Ohhhh, it is COLD!!!! But my excitement won over and the thoughts of the cold quickly faded (though we did consider renting the boat instead of the tube to stay dry and out of the cold water...but once again the excitement won out).


It was absolutely beautiful and was sooo worth getting up early for. We arrived at the river and pretty much were the only tubers in the parking lot. We essentially had the entire river to ourselves and that made the experience so much better! We saw so much wildlife and could hear the flowing water, singing birds and all the sounds of nature- lovely!)

The flying fish were all around us- one almost even hopped right over us. As a matter of fact when we got down to the dock to get into the river a fish soared right in front of us- jumping several times as if showing off! Within 5 minutes of entering the river, Rachel saw a snake swim right in front of her (lol!- so you can guess what she was on the lookout for the entire remaining hour and a half!) As we drifted we were at the complete mercy of the current and entrenched in the breathtaking canopy of the forest. Along the way we saw several groups of turtles hanging out on the logs, tons of dragon flies, a wild boar (yes, really!!!) and the highlight of the day was definitely the manatee that swam beside us for several minutes- is was absolutely beautiful and soooo big! It actually moved very fast and was so elegant when it swam! Of course we did not have our cameras to capture all of these amazing sights, but I will ALWAYS remember them and the precious time spent with great friends!

PS- more pictures coming soon and next time we will take our cameras along for the ride...if you have not ever been or it has been a while since you have gone- do yourself a favor and go!