Last weekend, I was able to head out to Lake Monroe (Indiana’s largest lake) to help teach a Coastal Kayaking Class. We went to the easternmost part of the lake, near Crooked Creek, where few motorboats venture and where the lake, apart from a few channels, is less a lake and more a large, swampy marsh, full of eagles, herons, ducks, geese, fish, snakes and sucking mud.

It was a beautiful weekend, and getting outdoors and on the water was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of grad school. I’ll just share a few photos…

We made pizza on the fire – it was amazing.

This last picture is of the largest caterpillar I’ve ever seen in my life (“like a pickle,” as one person put it — just much, much hairier. And probably less tasty). I looked it up when I got home — turns out it’s an imperial moth: not overly rare (but large, with about a 5′6″ wingspan), but rare to see as a caterpillar.Lake

I’m on a real blogging kick here this past week… anyway, just wanted to post a couple more of my favorite photos from Florida:

This is the sandbar off of an island we stopped at for lunch one day. It was totally bird-infested. Or at least it was until we went running into their midst.

More of the birds.

There were a ton of Osprey. I thought this one was going to attack me for getting too close to its nest (the sign says “Manatee Zone, No Wake”).

Plenty of sting rays, too. This was the biggest one I saw:

And lastly, might as well put one in of us actually kayaking, huh?