Kayaking the Prairie

One of the highlights of the trip home to Florida this year was kayaking on Paynes Prairie. When I lived in Gainesville in the 1980s, Paynes Prairie really was a prairie. But over the last several years, Gainesville has gotten enough rain to turn it back into a wetland, which is apparently its more natural state. Paynes Prairie is the only park I know of where you have a chance of seeing both alligators and bison in one place -- though I've never seen them both on the same day.