Sunny South Florida

Our travels south in Florida included a visit in Venice with brother Steve and wife Barbara, the beaches of Sanibel Island and Marco Island, Everglades National Park, Largo and Grassy Keys, and a visit with Aunt Fran and Uncle Chuck Dorman in Stuart.

Each evening we played a few very competitive games of Mexican Train Dominoes ending with a tied score of Dorman’s 3 Canfield’s 3.

On April 8, 2019 Uncle Chuck will be 98 years old and on December 22, 2019 Aunt Fran will be 96.

In August 2018 they celebrated their 75^th anniversary.

 

The Gulf of Mexico Islands

On Sanibel and Marco Islands countless seashells are swept ashore by each tide due to the east-west orientation of the islands. When you are collecting shells you must be sure that no living creature is inside. Tigertail Beach on Marco Island is a shell-gather’s paradise for scallop, whelk and conch shells.
  
Shells brought by the tide                                                              Shell art

         On the beach in Venice                                    Our collection of conch shells

 

Everglades National Park

 This park of 1.5 million acres of natural habitat, half of which is water, is fed by Lake Okeechobee. The wetlands of sawgrass and mangroves with forested hammocks and salt prairies are home to alligators, crocodiles, manatees, herons, ospreys, brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills, owls, and white ibis. On a narrated boat tour from Flamingo we traveled through the mangrove estuary into huge Coot Bay and Whitewater Lake looking for crocodiles.

   Baby alligators                                                                     Great Blue Heron

 

From the Anhinga Trail along an elevated boardwalk we had an unrestricted view of many swimming alligators, feeding anhinga’s and turtles, as well as a great variety of fish.

   Alligator on the move                                    Anhinga drying its feathers
This is a video. Double click to play                                                                      
    Scarlet bromeliad air plant                                              Diving anhinga

Barred owl protecting its nesting baby
 

On the guided tram tour in Shark Valley we traveled through the sawgrass wilderness to a 360 degree view of the park from the observation tower.

The park was hard hit in September 2017 by category 4 hurricane Irma. Some visitor services closures remain but all areas of the park are now open.

    

Mangrove swamp                                                            Crocodile

 

The Florida Keys

John Pennykamp Coral Reef Park on Key Largo encompasses 70 square miles of coral reefs, mangrove islands and shallow waters. The park saltwater aquarium displays a variety of reef fishes and coral. The glass bottom boat tour took us 6 miles off the coast to Molasses Reef to view fish, turtles and living coral.

 

Coral reef

 

Dolphin Research Center

Located on Grassy Key, the Dolphin Research Center is home for Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and California sea lions who have been rescued when injured or who would not be able to survive in the wild. At the center trainers work and play each day with their dolfriends.

    
Dolphins at work and play
These are both videos. Double click to play

   

Playing with the dolphins                                            Training the dolphins

Swimming with the dolphins

 

The Birdhouse Designer

Our Uncle Chuck devotes his creative energies to building upscale homes for sophisticated birds.

    

School house for birds                                              The birdhouse builder

In a few days we will continue moving slowly north through Florida with stops along the coast.

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