2/28/19 pics

Took a long walk around the neighborhood and found a few more nesting sites.  Here are a couple of my feathered friends. It was cool to see the one standing at the edge of his hole - he has quite long legs for his body.  It is amazing how many sites there are in just this neighborhood.  

2/28/19 Thursday

We went to dinner at Rum Runners last night.  Dave had red snapper and shrimp on a bed of broccolini and I had seafood pot pie - both were very yummy.  It looked for a while like it was going to rain again, but it never did.

We were rudely awakened at 4 AM - the smoke detector was blaring!  We got up and looked all around, but not seeing or smelling anything decided there was no immediate danger.  We did notice that the detector was blinking red so I suspect that the batteries need changing, but having nothing to stand on to reach it, I texted the host and she will be here this afternoon to take a look. 

We tried to find another park for our walk this morning, but even with two GPS systems (the car and the phone) were unable to find it.  We did stop to ask someone and he thought it was on the other side of the canal.  We did find a lovely marina there, but no park.  We had a lovely chat with him and then gave up on our search.  We went to the grocery store to stock up on some supplies that we were running out of and came back to sit on the patio for a bit before lunch.  Dave has just gotten up from his nap and I hope the host comes soon as I would like to take another walk to check out our owls again.  But for the moment, no new pics.  Tonight we will stay in and have leftovers - not much of a sacrifice when the leftovers are so tasty.

Happy birthday to our friend John, who has a choice of celebrating today or tomorrow since he is a leap year baby.  Enjoy the celebration, John!

2/27/19 fun pics

Success at last!  We saw a pair of burrowing owls.  The first shot is of an empty burrow.  The last two are of neat things we saw on our neighborhood walk: a date palm and a manatee mailbox.

2/27/19 Wednesday

No owl hunting last night as the clouds came in and it poured!  We will have to try again tonight.  This morning we found the local beach - small, but a nice fishing pier to walk down.  We met a couple from Cornwall, England on the pier.  They were here fishing with their daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.  The little girl, aged 3, caught a small fish.  It was a toad fish and she laughed as Dave took the hook out as it was croaking at her - she thought she had caught a frog!  Today is a bit cooler than yesterday - 80's rather than 90's.  We sat out on the back patio for a bit after lunch and visited with Molly, the 85 year old next door, and Rosie the dog.  It got a bit warm though so didn't stay out too long. 

The top photo is one of the strawberries we cut up for dessert last night.  Look how huge it is compared to a quarter!  The next is a view from the pier looking at Fort Myers, looking down the pier and a small bungalow on a side canal.  We are going for a walk soon to hunt for owls so will repost if we find any.

2/26/19 photos

Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

2/26/19 Tuesday

We went for a walk in the neighborhood late yesterday afternoon and found the burrowing owl holes.  Unfortunately, no one was popping out to greet us.  I think we need to check early in the morning or at dusk.  We did walk over to the canal and saw a flying fish.  He jumped 2-3 feet out of the water several times - great fun!  We ate at Twisted Lobster last night.  Dave had shrimp and I had a lovely piece of haddock.  The meals were served with mashed potatoes, a half ear of corn, and a lovely coleslaw that was made with pineapple.  I will have the other half of my meal for dinner tonight.

This morning we woke up early and did some wash before heading out for the day.  We went to Sanibel Island and headed for the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  We took a hike on the Indigo trail where we saw roseate spoonbills in a tree off in the distance, a green heron, and a small black racer snake.  We then walked back to get the car and took the wildlife loop through the park.  We saw lots of white pelicans, a few smaller brown pelicans, an osprey on her nest, egrets, some ibis, a small blue heron (we spent a lot of time watching him as he was running through the water to stir up the mud and then picking off whatever edible came into his view).  He was very funny to watch.  We then headed over to Captiva Island and had lunch at the Bubble Room.  This is a crazy restaurant that has been in existence since 1979.  Inside, it is Christmas all year long.  There is a train that runs along a narrow shelf through every room.  Funky atmosphere, but the food is good.  Dave had grouper with a tomato and cucumber salsa and refried black beans on the side (he saved half for his dinner tonight) and I had a Mango Tango sandwich - grilled chicken with lettuce and tomato with slices of avocado and mango.  It was delicious.  I brought back the other half for tomorrow's lunch.  The waitress came around with the dessert choices and I had to take a picture of the wonderful and huge choices.  We stopped at Bowman's Beach to pick a few shells (It is un-American not to pick up shells on Sanibel's beaches).  I spotted a tortoise munching on green vegetation on the side of the path.  We then headed back to Cape Coral and will stay in to have leftovers for dinner.  Hopefully we will spot an owl this evening.

2/25/19 Monday

It was partial sun and clouds today and a bit windy, but since the temps were in the mid 70's, no problem-o.  We took a lovely long walk at the Four Mile Ecological Preserve.  Although we didn't see much wildlife, the walk was great.  It was almost entirely on a boardwalk through a mangrove forest.  There were white, red and black mangroves - the white grow furthest from the water, then the red, with the black being at the water's edge.  The burls you see on the trees are caused by an insect that lays its eggs inside the tree.  It does not hurt the tree but it does cause those strange growths that you see.  The boardwalk meandered over small tidal rivers and ended up twice on the bay between Cape Coral and Fort Myers.  We did see a Muscovy duck and two red-bellied woodpeckers (they were too fast for me to get a pic).  We ended up at a Veteran's Memorial "park-ette".  The Iwo Jima memorial was made by the sculptor who made the larger one in Washington D.C.  We stopped at the store for a few lunch items and after lunch went next door to meet our neighbors (this is a duplex ranch).  He is a retired policeman from Minnesota.  He worked at the Minnesota/St. Paul airport for his entire career.  He is retired from that job and now is a guide to an iron mine in his area that is now a state park.  He takes folks down an elevator 850 feet and then they ride a train through tunnels to the last part of the mine when it was operational.  He is here for three

months with his mom and a springer spaniel puppy named Rosie.  I will have to hook him up with Russ next week as he is a marathoner.  Dave just got up from his nap and we are going for a walk soon as Mike (the neighbor) said there were burrowing owls in the area. 

2/24/19 More photos

Here are two shots of a Small Blue Heron - one of him posing and the other after he had gotten a small lizard for this brunch, an Ibis, the roots of a banyan tree, and Dave hugging his ancestor.

2/24/19 Photos

A few of the beautiful flowers at the botanical garden, koi in the pond.  Kelly and her tall friend and a willow leaf bonsai that has been in training since 1975.

2/24/19 Sunday

We drove to Sarasota this morning to meet Kelly (our friend Lana's daughter who lives in Tampa) at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.  They were having an exhibition series call Gauguin: Voyage to Paradise.  The mansion held biographical material as well as copies of woodcuts that the artist made while in Tahiti.  There were also postcards - most from the late 1800's showing the peoples and landscape of Tahiti.  The botanical gardens had displays of tropical plants in the conservatory and throughout the gardens.  The setting here is spectacular.  It is set on Sarasota Bay and does a lovely job displaying the plants in many different habitats.  Sprinkled through the gardens were many masks and tikis.

We had a lovely morning wandering through the various gardens.  We listened to a musical group as they were warming up for a later concert and then had lunch at the museum cafe. 

We had a good ride back to Cape Coral and Dave went for his nap.  I had a good read and when I checked my phone discovered a message that poor Kelly had had a flat tire on the way home.  Fortunately she was able to pull to the side of the highway to wait for AAA.  Whatever she hit, she didn't feel it, but it shredded her tire.  What an unfortunate end to a lovely day.

We haven't decided yet what we will do tomorrow.  It looks like it will be another lovely day.  I will empty the cameras and put a few pics up here shortly.

2/23/19 Photos

As promised, here are a few photos of the house we will be in for the next two weeks.  It has two full baths and three bedrooms.  Isn't the rug in the living room wild?  We ended up eating dinner at a funky place called Ford's Garage.  There were full-sized Model A's hanging over the bar.  The napkin was a clean "rag" that someone would have wiped the dipstick on in the old days while checking the oil in the car.  The napkin ring was a hose clamp.  It is a burger place mostly - any and all kinds of burgers, chicken, fish and chips, etc.  We of course had to try a burger.  Dave had a bison burger while I had a Swiss and mushroom burger.  Both were on pretzel rolls.  I could only eat half of mine - they were huge so we ordered another bison burger to go so that we can have my leftovers and Dave's new burger for dinner tomorrow night.