Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Social Distancing Journal, Day 97

And now we've come to Thursday of anniversary week. I think this might be the day cases skyrocketed to 4,000. Or maybe that was Friday. I don't remember the number, but it came out while we were on our way to Dunedin, and I audibly gasped when I saw it on Twitter. It gave us pause- like, should we really be going out. (It wasn't just more testing, either. The positivity rate was back above 10 percent).  But we decided the worst that would happen is we would pull up, see a crowded beach and turn around. But again, due the fact it was like 11:30 on a Thursday, people were very socially distant. 

We had decided to finally try renting a kayak and paddling out to Caladesi Island, a beach only accessible by boat. I've always wanted to do it- it's been on my Florida bucket list for years. 


We figured now was as good of time as anyway. The only contact we had was the guy renting the kayaks at an outdoor booth. So, we signed our waivers and paddled from the Dunedin causeway, across hurricane pass and over to Caladesi Island. 


It's not a long paddle. You can see the island from the causeway, and just across is Honeymoon Island, where we often go to the beach. That beach looked a little more crowded than I would have gone to, but Caladesi was pretty empty. 


We brought along our cooler backpack for water and PB & Js


And the great thing about Caladesi, is you can paddle along it, and stop on the little strips of beaches whenever you get tired. It's very easy to find a deserted strip of beach too. 


There's also a tiny little island you can have basically all to yourself. Perfect for social distancing. 


So, we sat in the water for awhile, pulled up some little snails and crabs, and watched the fish. We think we caught the shadow of a stingray while paddling too. The water out here is crystal clear and pretty undisturbed. 


When we decided to start paddling back, we realized the water on the other side of the tiny island was very, very shallow. 

We beached, so Asa decided to pull the kayak to deeper water. Now, the only really deep part of the paddle is across hurricane pass. But, I kept my life jacket on most of the time. I probably looked ridiculous with my life jacket on in ankle deep water. But, there weren't too many people around to laugh at me. 








On our way out of Dunedin, we decided to get an order of crab fries from Frenchies. But, obviously, we'd be getting that to-go. You can't pay me enough to eat inside anywhere. So we got our take out fries and headed to the Spashpad Park to eat. 


Now, I reapplied sunscreen on us constantly. But, I forgot my ankles. I now have quite the water shoe tan line now. But, the good news is the top of my feet didn't burn. 


Since it was a day out on the water, we decided for dinner we would finally order from our local seafood restaurant, The Great Catch. We had a $30 off promo code from Uber Eats, so the whole dinner was like $20 bucks after tip and delivery. It was also delicious. We got a bunch of stuff and split it- a lobster roll, shrimp scampi and soup. So good. 


That evening we worked more on our Chicago puzzle... 


...and our picture wall. 



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