A Kayaking Sunday



Chuck and Charlie





The three of us, taken by Charlie Seifried

Three years ago, when we first moved up here ( before we had water and electricity) we had gone to a book signing of the author and photographer of our beautiful Alabama Canyons book.  We ended up staying and talking to Charlie and Jim for over two hours that day.  We became fast friends with Charlie.  We have been to Charlie and Brenda's house for dinner and we are always running into Charlie about town.  A couple of weeks ago, we ran into him at Publix and he invited Chuck to go hiking with him and some of his friends.  Then, he invited us to go kayaking with him the next day.  We jumped at the chance since he knows the area really well and we're always trying to find new places to go.  This adventure was to track down a bunch of white pelicans.  I know...you would never think there would be pelicans in Alabama.  Well, there are and Charlie has wonderful pictures of them....hundreds of pelicans on the water and in the air.  As we came to Lake Wheeler there in Decatur, there they were!  Must of been over a hundred of them, floating on the water.  Then, there was a huge flock of them in the air too.  It was amazing.  I was so excited!  ...but by the time we got the kayaks in the water and got to where they were, they were gone.  (sigh)  We continued to paddle down the bayous of the lake and saw tons of cranes and other water birds.  We had to make ourselves turn back because it was going to be dark before we returned to the trucks if we hadn't.  It was a really fun day on the water with Charlie and his stories and camera.