Hot Hot Hot!!

Well, we are finally getting our warm temperatures! Every day is sunny and around eighty. We have been kayaking in the Atlantic and exploring Marathon. Tom and Evey got in last night after fighting traffic to get out of Miami. Today we did some grocery shopping and are going to go out in the kayaks again this afternoon.
We received very bad news this week about Mr. Bolling. He gave up his fight on Tuesday night. Our prayers are with Jan and the family as they go through this very difficult time. Rick and Jan have been part of our family since 1978 and we will miss him dearly.

Greetings to the north!!

We spent two nights at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo and had a marvelous time. There was a lot to do with kayaking and two nice beaches with beautiful swimming areas. The water is so nice and the temps in the high seventies. The park is the gateway to the coral reefs off shore and a lot of people take ferries from here for snorkeling and glass bottom boat tours of the reefs and a submerged statue of Jesus on the ocean floor.
We are now settled in at Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon. We will be here for two weeks in the same campsite. This will be the first time we have ever been in one spot for this length of time! We have a lot of exploring to do from here as we are half way down in the Keys. We are about forty miles from Key West and plan to do at least one day trip there. There are also numerous keys near us that we want to explore. Tom and Evey are due to arrive on Thursday evening and we are looking forward to spending three days with them before they drive back to Orlando to take in Disney World.
I will be posting some pictures from the past week as soon as I can get to a good WI FI signal. I hope everyone is doing well.

Frigid Florida

We are in the midst of an artic blast even way down here at Flamingo in the Everglades. The temperature went into the thirties last night. BRRRRRRR!!
Tomorrow we are supposed to be in the seventies again. I can hardly wait. The only plus is that after a rainy Wednesday it has been bright and sunny. (The stars at night are awesome!)

Rainy Florida!!

Last night the rains moved in. We had a thunderstorm overnight and pretty steady rain. This morning we are making a shopping and laundry day of it since it is supposed to rain on and off. We have had a string of sunny weather since last week with warm temperatures and we have done a lot of kayaking and hiking. We kayaked on Florida bay and the canoe trail at West Lake. We biked a couple of trails yesterday' one to Snake Bight, a mudflat that gets exposed during low tide and attracts wading birds. The other trail went to Bear Lake which is one of the bigger lakes near Flamingo.
We will be here at Flamingo through the end of the week and the forecast is for cooler weather. On Sunday we move to Key Largo in the Florida Keys. We will be at John Pennekamp State Park for two nights and then move further south to Marathon and Curry Hammock State Park for two weeks. We are excited to have an extended period in the Keys to explore and play.
Here are some pictures from the past few days...

Kayaking on Florida Bay. The bay is fairly shallow and big open water. We paddled into the wind on the way out and on the way back got further from shore and the wind blew us back to the marina.

This boat made me think of Mike.

The marina at Flamingo. Lots of fisherman were going in and out to the waters of the bay.

A zebra long wing butterfly (according to the ranger program we attended one night).

A green heron on one of the ponds

Kayaking the grasslands at the West Lake canoe trail.

Heading into one of the mangrover tunnels on the trail. The white poles marked the trail and without them we would have been lost.

This was another of the colorful butterflies, but I don't know what it is.

Nancy on the board walk at Snake Bight. These are the mudflats near Florida Bay.

On the bike ride we took to Bear Lake. This was a seven mile round trip trail along the canals to the lake..

Me at Bear Lake

The clean up crew in the campground.

Sunny Florida

Kayaking today we did five miles through the mangroves and flooded grasslands. We followed a marked canoe trail and went deep into the flooded wilderness. It was an amazing experience to see how big this marshland is.
Our days are sunny and warm and the nights are cool with star filled skies.
Hope everyone is well in the north country!

Living the Dream!!

We are set up at Flamingo on the southern most tip of Florida's mainland. We have been doing the walking, biking and kayaking we came here for and enjoying our rest and relaxation.
The weather has taken a turn for the colder with night time temperatures in the forties, but the days still manage to get into the mid seventies. As soon as the sun gets low it starts to cool off fast1
We went for a ranger program on Thursday and the mosquitos were worse than I have ever seen them, even with the cool temperatures. Last night though, they were gone, probably because the wind was blowing pretty strong.
The kids are supposed to be spending some time at the house in Maple City, I hope they don't freeze! I saw the forecast for the next ten days and it looks like old man winter is really digging in.
Happy Valentines day to everyone and a special birthday wish for Elizabeth!!

Back in the Everglades

We are back in camping mode now and have been camped at Long Pine Key Campground in Everglades National Park for the past three days. This is dry camping without electricity or water, but we have been doing fine and the camper has been treating us well. Also a lot less bugs here.
We have been on the bikes a lot and have been putting on the miles. We visited the Royal Palm visitors center and were viewing the wildlife during the day and then went back for a night walk and saw tons of alligators by shining the flashlights on them and seeing the red eyes reflecting back from the marsh. pretty neat!
Today we are in town doing laundry and getting groceries and then move back south to Flamingo. We will be challenged for Wi-Fi coverage there so blog posts will be few and far in between for the next week.
Hope everyone is well.

The boardwalk at Royal Palm where we walked to see all of the everglades wildlife

Gators cruise the marsh here in search of food

Air plants in bloom in the hardwoods

\Anhinga sunning itself to dry its wings

Alligator alley? You could almost walk across these guys James Bond style

A white heron in the marsh grass

A view across the Everglades

We walked at Pinelands and saw numerous tree snails in different colors

We took a  tour of the Nike Missile base that was our country's first line of defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were 290 Nike bases across the country during the cold war years.

On the move!!

We are sitting at Metropolitan Airport in Detroit waiting for our flight to Miami. We are scheduled to land in Florida at 8:30 this evening and then will drive back to Everglades National Park to resume our winter vacation.
Our trip back to Michigan was well worth the effort as we had excellent time with Rick and Jan Bolling on Friday and again on Sunday. They have been such wonderful friends over the past 37  years they are like our brother and sister.
We also had a wonderful visit with some of the kids and grandkids and talked to all of them in person or over the phone while we were here. God love them all!!
We are looking forward to getting back to sunny Florida and continuing with our adventures, but we will miss everyone back home dearly. We are looking forward to visits from the kids in Florida over the next two months and later returning to Michigan to see friends and family that we are away from.
We hope all is well with everyone.

Last full day in Michigan

We celebrated for Tom and Nancy's birthdays today at Becky and Dave's condo in Ann Arbor. Tom and Evey and Sean and Nolan joined us. Laura flew to New Jersey with Kara to attend a baby shower. Jenny was resting after a long week at work, and Mike and Amy and the girls had a full day already planned. We missed them.
Yesterday we had a nice visit with Rick and Jan Bolling. It was so good to see Rick and it made the whole trip back to Michigan worth while. We will visit with them again in the morning before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Miami.
We did quite well in the cool weather even though we didn't have all of our full blown winter wear with us. It was great seeing the kids and grandkids!
Here are a few more pictures from Florida before we came back this week.

We were back at Flamingo Florida at the southern most tip of the Florida main land

An osprey at the marina

Red capped woodpecker at the campground

 

A hawk in the mangroves along the river

We took a day trip to Key Largo for Nancy's birthday dinner

Posing with the pirate

                                        
                                                                                

Nancy with her birthday fish! The wait staff at the restaurant brought it out and sang happy birthday!

Kayaking at Everglades Park

Three fourths of our kayak group on coot bay.

This is Kate at her ice skating lesson today.

Unexpected Changes

We decided to make a quick trip back to Michigan to see the Bollings since getting the news about  Rick and his health. This is the second dose of bad news we've had this winter after hearing that my aunt passed away in Detroit last week.
We felt that we had to get back and see our dear old friends and get a chance to visit the kids as well. We will be in Michigan until Sunday and then fly back to Miami to get back to the camper which is still at Flamingo in the Florida everglades.
We are staying with Becky and Dave in Ann Arbor and getting re-acquainted with Old Man Winter! Sixteen degrees when we landed in Detroit.
I am taking advantage of Becky's wi-fi to post some pictures of our cruise last week.

Our cabin aboard the ship. We had a beautiful balcony overlooking the back of the ship.

San Juan Puerto Rico, our port of departure

St Thomas, the first stop

Our ship in port at St Thomas

Our formal dining night. Shows and dinners aboard the ship were awesome.

A scene from the beach at Antigua

Boats in the in St Croix 

The old fort protecting British Harbor on St Croix

This guy showed up in our cabin one night.

Beaches on St Lucia

Beach at Sandals resort, St Lucia

The harbor in Grenada

I booked our next cruise on this fine old vessel

Spice plantation on Grenada

Divers jumping at the falls

Street vendors on Grenada

Downtown in Grenada

The state house in San Juan. Our return to Puerto Rico

 

The state house was built entirely of imported marble.

The front of the state building.

                                                       The cemetery at the old fort in San Juan

The old town center in San Juan