2/9/23 Everglades

 So today we finished up our walks in the Everglades.  We started at Pinelands (.4 miles) where we heard lots of small song birds, but we not able to catch and pictures of them.  I did take a shot of a flowering white cypress vine, white lichen that covered many of the tree trunks (at first I thought it was paint, but then realized it was a lichen), the towering pines and a close-up of the pine cones.  We then stopped at Royal Palm where we walked the Anhinga trail (.8 miles). There we spotted a white ibis, cormorants sitting on the rail next to the path (they weren't bothered by us walking by at all), an American egret, a great blue heron with close-up of his head.  We spotted what we thought was a coot walking on the lily pads, but when I downloaded to the laptop, I am not sure what it is (help, Russ?).   I took a close-up of a flowering airplant very close to the path.  We spotted a yellow-eared slider (turtle) swimming below the path and a morning glory growing next to the path.  The last shot is of the Royal Palms.  We also walked the Gumbo Limbo trail, but did not see anything new to capture with the camera.  On the way back, we stopped at The Gator Grill where Dave bought some gator bites for his lunch.  He said they weren't that great.  We are now trying to decide where we will go tomorrow as it looks like it will be another nice day.

2/8/23 Everglades

 After breakfast, we drove back to the southern Everglades to continue walking the trails.  Our first stop was Mrazek Pond.  There were lots of egrets nesting in a tree near the shore, but of course when we pulled up in the pull-through, they all flew away!  I did manage to catch one across the way.  We did see brown and white pelicans and lots of wood storks both in the trees and feeding in the water.  It was not until I looked at the pictures on my laptop that I noticed a roseate spoonbill in the background - our first spotting this trip!  What a nice surprise!  We then stopped at West Lake - another pull off with a lovely little .4 mile walk on a boardwalk.  There we spotted a black vulture sitting in a dead tree.  We then moved on to Paurotis Pond - a beauiful view, but no birds.  Note the very healthy stand of cattails on the far shore.  We drove up to Mahogany Hammock with another .4 mile boardwalk.  This is where I took a picture of periphyton.  This is a soft spongy mat of algae that blankets the the water of the Everglades.  In the rainy season it floats on the surface and is eaten by small fish and tadpoles.  In the dry season snails, crayfish, and insect larvae burrow into the moist interior to survive.  On our way to our next stop, I took a picture of the high point of the park (note sign).  Our last stop of the was Pa-hay-okee Overlook with a .2 boardwalk trail.  When we arrived to the parking lot, there was a turkey vulture sitting on the ground with his wings outspread soaking up the sun.  I just took a few pictures here:  Queen Anne's lace, a dragonfly perched at the end of a piece of grass, and pickerelweed (the purple flower).  We stopped at Publix on our way back to the hotel to replenish our lunch items.  We will have leftovers tonight.

2/7/23 Shark Valley

So the winner of yesterday's trivia question about the strange prickly pods that I took a picture of was my brother, Russ.   They are called nicker nuts.  The pod contains the seeds of the warri tree.  The seeds are smooth and shiny and the name is derived from the Dutch word knikker meaning marble.  In the Caribbean, nicker nutsd are used to play the game mancala

This morning we drove up to Shark Valley and got there just in time to join the two hour tram ride around the park.  The guide explained that Shark Valley got its name because although their is not much elevation in Florida, Miami sits about 20 feet above sea level and the western area near Naples is also on a small ridge - ergo valley.  The shark apparently comes from when Ponce de Leon was exploring southern Florida and discovered a shark nursery in the mouth of a river.  Apparently the Everglades flows into this river.  We saw some alligators, Great Blue herons, black and turkey vultures and American egrets.  I took a picture from the top of the tower, the half-way point of the trip.  The best find of the day however happened just as we started back from the tower.  There was a 10 foot crocodile sitting and sunning by the side of the road!  She was very photogenic and posed for us with her toothy grin.  On the return trip we saw purple gallinules, anhingas sunning to dry their wings, a small blue heron, a tri-colored heron and a night heron.  When the ride ended we walked back along the road for about a quarter of a mile.  We were so happy we did as we were able to spot a group of baby alligators.  Mom was across the water keeping a close eye on us the whole time we stood there.  We also got a pic of a swamp lily and a group of gars near the surface of the water.  The funny looking structure on the yellow background is actually a scute (the bony structure from the alligator's back).  It helps the animal with temperature regulation acting as a solar panel to warm the blood that runs through it.  We had a lovely day - 70 and clear this morning and 81 this afternoon.  I think we will go back to the Farmer's Market restaurant for dinner again tonight.  Dave is hoping for grouper.

2/6/23 Everglades

It was 67 and cloudy when we woke up this morning.  After breakfast we headed back to the park where it was a beautiful sunny day.  We decided we would take the trails each day up from Flamingo (the end of the road except for the campground and Eco Pond).  The village of Flamingo was named in 1895 for large flocks of flamingos that visited the area at that time.  The early pioneers here made their living by fishing, raising crops, and producing buttonwood  charcoal for fuel.  

Our hike for the day was Bear Lake.  We had to travel on an unpaved (very bumpy) road for two miles before reaching the trailhead.  The trail to the lake was through a dense hardwood hammock mixed with mangroves for 1.6 miles.  The trail follows the Old Homestead Canal built in 1922.  In the 1920's railroad tycoon Henry Flagler acquired much of the land in the Flamingo area.  His company dredged miles of canals in an ill-fated effort to drain the Everglades.  Along the way we saw many Gumbo Limbo trees.  They are also known as the tourist nose tree for their peeling reddish bark.  We also saw several air plants.  The picture below shows one over the trail that was 2-3 feet in height.  I took a pic of an interesting prickly seed pod on a tree that I cannot identify.  If anyone knows what it is I would be delighted to hear from you.  When we reached the end of the trail, we took pictures of beautiful Bear Lake.  We saw a few Great Blue herons flying overhead a some brown pelicans in the distance, but were disappointed (again) to see so few birds.  We also didn't see any alligators or crocodiles.  On the way back we could hear limpets and a pileated woodpecker, but the mangroves lining the trail were too dense to see through to spot them.  When we got back to the car, the temperature was 82 degrees and it was time to head back for lunch.  We both put our feet up for a bit and are now doing laundry.  Tonight's dinner will be leftovers.  We may head up to Shark Valley tomorrow at the northern part of the park to see the alligators for a change of pace.

2/5/23 Everglades National Park

We were soooo tired last night, we went to sleep at 8!  We only had one meal yesterday, but it was a late one so served us well.  This morning it was raining (71 degrees) and apparently had rained hard in the night.  The carpet was damp near the a c unit so we told the desk.  They sent up a maintenance person with a large fan to dry the carpet.  They thought it might not be a leak in the unit but because of the torrential rain.  We will see.

We ate breakfast and then headed to the Everglades.  We stopped at the first ranger station to get maps, but decided to head all the way down to Flamingo and Eco Pond at the end of the road hoping that it would be better weather down there (38 miles away).  The good news was that it was sunny at that end of the park.  The bad news was that there were very few birds there.  The last time we were here (about 20 years ago) there were tons of roseate spoonbills at the pond.  We walked all around the perimeter and saw two great blue herons who took off before I could take their picture, a few turkey vultures, and a red-shouldered hawk.  This guy was really interesting to watch as he was eating a snake.  

We went back to the ranger station and walked around the marina for a bit.  We saw several needlefish swimming near the surface of the water and several mullet jumped right out of the water in front of us.  We also spotted a huge osprey nest built on a structure near the bridge and some pelicans in the distance at a sand bar.  At this point, it was 81 degrees and we decided to head back so we could have lunch and Dave could have his nap.  We stopped on the way and bought some strawberries at a fruit stand.   After nap, we took a ride out to a park that I found online.  Unfortunately, the park was a tourist spot and charged to enter (Fruit and Spice Park) so we headed back and stopped at Publix for some rye bread for Dave to toast for breakfast.  They have bread at the breakfast buffet, but we don't know if it is lactose free so wanted to buy our own to be on the safe side. We walked across the street to The Farmer's Market Restaurant.  It was very good - everything homemade.  I had turkey and dumplings with grilled veggies and Dave had a seafood platter.  He was hoping for grouper, but they were out.  We asked and they said they would probably have some by Tuesday.  I don't have very many pics today.  Hoping that tomorrow will be better.

2/4/23 Florida City, Florida

 Wow!  What a day!  We drove to Warwick, RI last night after dinner to stay at a park and fly hotel.  We had intended to get up at 3:15 and take the 4 o'clock shuttle to the airport.  Instead, we woke up at 2:20 and were at the airport a little after 3 AM.  It was bitter cold!!  -8 (feels like -41 with the wind chill).  Unfortunately, TSA checkpoints don't open until 4 so we had a bit of a wait.  We each had a Kind bar for breakfast and shared a bottle of water.  The great news of the day is that were were giving a complimentary upgrade to first class!  Yay!  The flight to Miami was only 3 1/2 hours, but a bit bumpy in spots.  When we arrived at the airport, it was raining, but probably in the 60's so we weren't complaining . . .yet.  The horror show came at the off-site car rental place that we had booked through Expedia.  The first problem was that I had made the booking using the name Sandie, which matches my credit card, but not my driver's license.  I have rented cars in many places and have never run into that problem before.  They would not honor the reservation because of the name difference so I had to call Expedia to cancel the reservation and then tried to book using Dave's license and credit card which do match.  They were having a computer issue where the screen would freeze so were unable to process any reservations.  After 2 hours of that nonsense - the long line, the mix-up with the reservation, the computer issues etc., we hopped back on the shuttle and returned to the airport.  We found a gem of an agent at Avis who took wonderful care of us - upgraded to a small SUV and threw in a GPS for free.  We couldn't thank her enough and . . . it was cheaper than the original reservation!  The next problem came when we turned the GPS on and everything was in Spanish!  I tried to guess how to change it, but was unable to do so.  I finally found a young girl who was able to change the language for me and we were on our way.  (Always ask a young person for any computer or gadget help!). We finally got to the hotel in Florida City at 3PM and as soon as we got our suitcases to the room, we walked across the parking lot to Cracker Barrel - not usually my first choice, but we were quite famished by this point.  We had a very late lunch or early dinner and felt so much better.  Dave went back to the hotel for a nap while I found a Publix grocery store a few miles away and got some supplies.  I will wake him up in a few minutes so he won't wake up in the middle of the night thinking it is morning.  Hopefully the weather will have cleared up by morning and we can make our way to Everglades National Park.  I will sleep like a rock tonight!