Monday, April 22, 2013

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - Day One: The House Cup


Hi all!

I'm so excited to be a part of this year's Knitting and Crochet Blog Week initiated by Mimi over at Eskimimi Makes.  For day 1 we are to choose our "House", like my favorite wizarding school!  How could I not love that idea?  Mimi came up with 4 great houses but I have to say that as soon as I saw them I knew EXACTLY which one I would sort myself into; even before reading what the mascot symbolized.  After reading all the attributes of the house I still think the one I first saw is perfect for me.  This is my crochet house:

4KCBWDAY1

Don'tcha love it! A manatee!!  ha ha ha ...  This is the house for me! 

In July of 2010 me, my hubby and daughter rented a condo in Titusville, Florida that was right on the Indian River Lagoon (Intracoastal Waterway).  We planned to stay a week and catch one of the last Space Shuttle launches.  Sadly, it was postponed and we didn't get to see the launch! Although while we were there we rented 3 kayak's and were able to launch them from the private dock.  We were told there were manatee in the waterway and not to be afraid of them but they are very curious creatures and may actually bump the side of your boat if they are near.

Intracoastal Waterway Sign Florida

Daughter and Husband - Manatee Area
We laughed and said OK we'd watch for them.  The first day we went out we could see the large manatee's a few hundred yards away and we kept our distance.  How totally cool!!!  We watched them float around and see their noses dive up and down.  The second day my hubby and I decided we wanted to get a little closer.  Our daughter was tired and went back to the house but let me keep her camera.  Mike and I were in separate kayaks and floated away from each other, getting closer to the manatees swimming around.  I was so excited I got out the camera and tried to get photos of their noses out of the water.  I noticed 1 manatee saw me and started swimming closer.  Well the closer it got the more I realized how huge these animals really are and my heart started beating a bit faster.  I tried to get Mike's attention to ask what I should do.  Do I sit there and try not to scare it?  Do I start to paddle away?  Mike had drifted some 50 - 60 yards away.  Well, I decided to sit there and try not to scare the animal. Closer, closer, closer.... Wait there is another one coming towards me now too.... And another nose!  Now I count 3 noses in the air swimming closer and a faster.  My heart is now banging away in my chest. I told myself "they won't hurt you, they are just curious, they may just bump the boat".  BUMP! oh my gosh, oh my gosh, OHMYGOSH!  The kayak is wobbling back and forth and back and forth.  And there are 3 huge animals swimming around me.  BUMP!!! again. "I'm ok, I'm ok" I'm telling myself just as BUMP PUSH! one animal bumps my kayak so hard that SPLASH!  I scream and up in the air and over, I go.  At this point I know I'm not in too deep of water (about 4.5 feet) and that I should be able to find the bottom and stand up but.... there are 3 HUGE animals freaking out too and I'm terrified that I'm going to squished between them.  I found the bottom of the river, found my feet and stood up quickly scrambling to get back in the kayak.  My heart is thumping out of my chest, the adrenaline shooting through me has me shaking all over!  I look over and see my husband paddling faster than anything towards me.  He tells me that all he heard and saw was me screaming and a great big area of swirling white water that reminded him of a scene from Jaws.  I couldn't believe what had just happened.  I had inadvertently gone swimming with the manatees!
Now you know why I just had to be in the manatee house!  I feel that manatees and me have a kinship.  We both were curious of each other and the scared the bejeezus out of each other.  ha ha ha

Happy 4KCBWDAY1 everyone and enjoy the knitting and crochet blog love this week!

9 comments:

  1. Love this story, a great reason for your choice

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great adventure and story! Looking forward to the rest of the week's postings as you are now the first manatee I came across, straight after I found the firs Peacock. We are all surrounded by buzzing bees!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for dropping by. Read that your a Monkey! Cute photos

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL who knew that manatees could be so exciting ? Great story :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh my gosh I think I would have scared too.
    I have never seen a manatee up close but I imagine they are huge.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're very lucky !
    (I'm a manatee too for the challenge Knitting blog week)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my goodness! Exciting and scary at the same time!

    ReplyDelete

Hi! I love to read comments and hope you will drop me a line.

I am Human and I Crochet

This morning while perusing my FB feed I came across a video from the Craft Yarn Council called "Humans That Yarn".  Not sure abou...