A Hayseed's dream trip (personal account)

[mooman]

So I went down to meet my fiancé’s grandmother in Ft.Lauderdale this weekend. I was expecting it to be rather dull, since we were staying with her aunt and uncle, but boy was I wrong. Aside from her aunt and uncle being good people, their house sits at the end of one of the canals. As soon as I got some spare time, I went right to Target and bought a cheap fishing pole, and then to the grocery for some shrimp.

So there I am sitting on the seawall, enjoying the atmosphere and watching the countless anoles and other small lizards scamper around me, when I realize that I am sharing my view with a three foot iguana (in itself, a thrill for an exotic animal lover such as myself). Then my pole dips, and I reel in a 7inch puffer fish. As I'm removing the hook (I swear this is the truth) a BABY MANATEE surfaces about five feet out from where I was sitting :soda: . My fiancé practically had to tie a rope to me for the rest of the trip to keep me from getting a pair of goggles and mounting an impromptu snorkeling excursion into what most locals would consider little more than a drainage ditch. :dive:

Anyway, i just wanted to tell everyone who lives near the ocean: DO NOT TAKE YOUR SITUATION FOR GRANTED!! A lot of us would kill to visit the life you live every day. :bowing:

Pictures to follow (couldn't get one of the manatee

 

[greendeltatke]

Iguanas live wild around Fort Lauderdale? Wow, it must be yet another introduced species spreading in the wild. Would you believe my Illinois college had a small flock of feral parakeets?

It is funny how people who actually live next to nature don't always appreciate it in the same way that visiting city folks do. I'm from a small farm town myself. What Chicago calls "woods" in the forest preserves we would call "brush." Their "streams" are our "ditches" or "creeks". My kids really love visiting my brother on his farm. They are thrilled over stuff that we took for granted.

 

[FishSeller]

Moo,
I'll share one of many Manatee stories with you, which happened over the winter. I live on Tampa Bay near a power plant. The plant uses raw seawater to cool the innards of the plant and subsequent hot water is pumped back into the bay. It's not exactly the most evnironmentally friendly setup. However, many fish and mammals congregate around the hot water outflows during the winter for warmth. This scenario provides for some excellent fishing, namely for a fish called a Cobia. Cobia often stay near the surface of the water and it's easiest to find them by cruising the shorelines and channels in a boat equipped with a tower. Well, we were both in the tower of the boat when we spotted what we both believed was an EPIRB (emergency response beacon for sunken or distressed boats). Emergency response beacons are usually bright-colored cylinders or boxes with either a light or reflective tape on the end and shouldn't be left in the water if spotted. This certainly looked like an EPIRB and being the responsible boaters that we were, I climbed down from the tower and prepared to gaff the beacon by the rope loop hanging from the bottom of the cylinder. After gently running the hook of the gaff through the exposed loop and giving it a tug, all he** broke loose! My EPIRB was a Manatee tracking device that was tethered to what became a very, VERY upset Manatee! Anyone that tells you Manatees are slow-moving creatures has never been tied to one with the crap scared out of it! Those suckers haul a**! Within seconds I was out of the boat and bouncing along the bottom of the bay while this animal flailed me around with his tail! The gaff was looped around my wrist and I became pretty nervous that I wasn't going to be able to get away from him before I drowned. Eventually, the hook on the gaff came loose and I was able to reach the surface about 75 yards from the boat.
The moral of the story is this: No matter how much you're on the water, you can be seconds from being pulled straight down and straight out by Florida's "friendly" giants.

 

[Ashes]

Wow, FishSeller, since you survived that, I gotta tell you...


Pretty funny story.

 

[flyfly]

hahahahahaha....haha!

 

[TorturedSOUL]

The city I live in has a flock of about 20 parrots that fly around.

IF you ever go to San Francisco, go to the Coit tower, walk down one of the paths towards the embarcadero and there are breeding parrot populations in all the trees...total trip.