chass river adventure

Oh Valentine’s Day…

There shouldn’t be a single day for love, they say.

This holiday is all about Hallmark making money, they say.

I hate Valentine’s Day, they say.

Well, maybe it’s because I teach first graders and we spend the day doing things like uncovering mystery Valentine’s with watercolors and making a Friendship Salad out of fruit and marshmallows…but I love Valentine’s Day!  I love any holiday, in fact.  I just love celebrating stuff.  I really do.

When Dustin and I were baby teenagers we used to do Valentines Day like this:  get each other presents and wait forever to eat at a crowded restaurant.  Kinda lame, right?

When we grew up a little bit, we would cook a meal together instead of wasting time waiting to eat. That honestly was pretty cool.  We enjoyed finding a fancy recipe and Gordon-Ramseying it up in the kitchen together.

These past few Heart Days, we’ve started a new tradition.  Using the day as an excuse to go on an adventure.  Even if it was as simple as finding a new trail to explore.  So we continued the tradition this year by camping at the Chassahowitzka River.

The Chass River is on the west coast of Florida. And it is SO CLEAR.  I am used to kayaking in the dark and ominous waters of Central Florida, so let me tell you how cool it was to see to the bottom of a deep river.  SO COOL.  I loved it!

There were also parts of the river that had underwater caves.  Underwater caves filled with the clearest water ever and also some fish.  SO COOL.

Dustin was brave enough to swim through one.  Given my lame lung capacity (thank you scoliosis), I decided that swimming through an underwater cave just wasn’t in the cards for me.  But hey, he took the GoPro so I could see what it was like.

It was Maeble’s first time kayaking.  Carter is a complete pro and literally just snuggles while I row.  Maeble had a bit of a rough start, but I think she figured it out after a little…Until Dustin felt a slight slither on his toes.  When he pulled over and slowly started getting out of the kayak, this was the conversation:

Amanda: “You going swimmin’ babe?”

Dustin: “Yeah, I’m getting out.”

Amanda: *senses weird look on husband’s face.  “Is there a spider or something?”

Dustin: “Not exactly…”

Amanda: *now has a weird look on her face.  “Ew. Don’t tell me. Cockroach?” (scariest thing alive.)

Dustin: “Not exactly…”  *uses shirt to pull a wiggling snake out of kayak

So yeah, he’d been chilling with us for about an hour and a half by Dustin’s toes.  Glad that friendly fellow didn’t bite my main squeeze!

While camping at the Chassahowitzka River Campground, we met some cool peeps, heated up some homemade beef stew (cooked in the crockpot the before hand), and listened to Mumford and Sons-ish music while hangin’ by the fire.  We were also able to drive a few minutes away to the Withlacoochee State Forest for some hiking.  The trails there were pretty different than what we’re used to.  Really wide with open fields here and there.  There were a few good climbing trees too (:

This was also the first adventure for our new Toyota FJ Cruiser (lovingly named Yoda…get it? Toyota…Yoda..hehe).  And let me tell you how cool our new Adventure-Mobile is. SO COOL.  No really, this truck is perfect for what we need.  It hauled the kayaks beautifully, the interior floor is all super-durable plastic which is perfect for our wet and dirty fur-babies, and it’s got red leather seats.  RED. LEATHER. SEATS….SO COOL.

 

We had a blast exploring the Chass River area…

There was just something about sleeping in the trees in our Jungle Hammock on a brisk winter night.  It was simply the very best way to spend Valentine’s weekend 2016.  Watch the adventure below!