Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

It’s easy to forget you live in Florida when you’re safe beside the air conditioner, absorbed inside your day, oblivious to the humid weather & hot headed conservatism that lurks on the outside.
Last weekend was a girl friends weekend at the beach, living up the finer things about life in Florida. We went to Honeymoon Island State Park, a little over an hour from Tampa. From Honeymoon Island, we planned to take a ferry to Caladesi Island State park and kayak the trails, but a water main break closed the island. But girls know how to improvise. A cafe on Honeymoon rented us kayaks for the day and we were off. Kinda. Did I mention I’m a Sagittarius with a paralyzing fear of the water? And large sea creatures that want to ingest me. But I’m inspired by the water as much as I fear it, so I life vested up and set off.

We attempted to go over to Caladesi, supposedly just 15 minutes from the Honeymoon beach by kayak. But I had an anxiety attack or twelve and headed back inland by myself. Bonnie, the George Hamilton-tanned boathouse lady who rented us the boats talked me back to my senses and back into the water. But before I set out to meet back up with my friends, I had to get something out of my system (no, I didn’t pee in the ocean). I pushed the kayak into the water and practiced falling out and climbing back in again until the thought of falling out in deeper water seemed less frightful. I knew if I didn’t try again, I’d lay in bed awake all night wishing I hadn’t been so scared to try again.

We traced part of the coast line, seeing dolphins and yellow fish flying in pairs up out of the water. My knees got sunburned. Nothing with gills attacked me. And I didn’t drown (obviously).

When we returned to the beach for food, Bonnie told us how in the 70’s, Honeymoon Island was supposed to be a resort town full of condos, but the planner had run out of money. The beach is littered with rocks (on top of the seashells) because limestone had been brought in for extending the beaches. The land went back to the feds peice by peice and became the lovely sanctuary it is today.

When I was out in the kayak, looking around in every direction, condos littered the view southwest of Caladesi. But they were far off and in every other direction was nothing but sky, ocean and sand. You know, Floridian type things are available to us all. If we want it.

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