Love at First Sighting

I'm originally from Texas (still have a townhouse in downtown Dallas), but I've lived in or had a second home in South Florida for years now. In Florida, I live about a half a mile from the Intracoastal waterway, with another half mile to the oceanfront.

I walk or jog this trek for exercise a few days a week when I'm here. Beautiful, refreshing route past the marina and down to the ocean. And after all these years of going to and from, back and forth over that Intracoastal Waterway bridge, today I finally saw them for the very first time -- manatees!

I looked down from the bridge today, and there were 3 manatees surfacing. Breathtaking! They were like giant ghosts in the water, quiet behemoths as gentle as they were large. One was considerably smaller than the other two, so perhaps it was a family, out for a Sunday swim and up to the surface of the water, because it was such a warm, beautiful, sunny day out today.

What a sudden, breathtaking view of nature, there and gone in a flash. Fabulous.