Kim and I surprised her parents with a Christmas present of a kayak trip to see the manatees, also known as sea cows. We drove up to Crystal Springs and rented four kayaks. They didn’t have all their kayaks in so I ended up with a crocodile kayak. How cool is that?!
We paddled around in the calm waters of the bay for a while, watching the pelicans that dominated a little island. Then we decided to head out to find manatees! The open water was a little choppy and it was hard going. Fortunately, the series of canals where the manatees could be found wasn’t far away.
The manatees move out of the cold ocean waters and into areas with warmer spring water for the winter. 
They have zones surrounded by boueys that they can go in without being bothered by humans. They’re curious and social animals though and come out to see what people in the water are doing.
We passed the first spring and didn’t see any manatees so we paddled on to the second, and there they were. I immediately jumped in with mask and snorkel. There were three manatees in the area, a mother, her baby, and a grey one that did it’s own thing. The baby was especially curious and would come up to everyone who got in the water. The mother would always be just a step behind it. I rubbed the baby’s back and it rolled over so that I could rub it’s belly. By this time, Kim and her dad had had enough of watching and also jumped in. Kim’s mom stayed with the kayaks.
Kim 
swam with the manatees about a year ago, but they intimidated her at the time so she didn’t touch them. Manatees are harmless, with no teeth, but they’re very large and obviously more agile in the water than people, making them seem a little threatening. However, this time Kim worked up the courage to get close to them and touch them.
The water from three natural springs was pouring out of a stream nearby, so we waded up the stream to see the area. It was a beautiful, peaceful, secluded area with crystal clear water. After splashing around for a while we ate and headed back out to the open bay.
We were headed to another manatee spot, but the wind was making it choppy and hard to get anywhere to we turned around and went back to the springs. Kim’s mom decided to jump in at this point. She touched the nose of the baby as it came up to her and yelled and swam away. The baby started chasing Kim’s toes since she had painted them with sparkles.
The tide had changed enough so that we could get our kayaks into the stream where the springs were so we paddled back into the area to see the other sections. Finally, we decided to head back since we had already been out almost 4 hours and needed to return the kayaks.
We saw some more birds on the way back and got some fun pictures. We returned the kayaks, changed clothes and headed back to Tampa, hungry and a little tired, but having enjoyed the day greatly.