Catching up the pictures!!

It's been a while since I was able to post any pictures, but now sitting in the Monroe County Library in Marathon I have an excellent signal so I can load pictures from the last couple of days at Flamingo in the Everglades to John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo to Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon where we are now.
Tom and Evey spent the weekend with us and they are now on their way to Orlando and Disney World. We had a great visit with them and drove to Key West in Tom's mustang convertible on Saturday.

Pictures:

Coots at Coot Bay Pond in the Everglades. We estimated we were looking at about 2500 on the pond that afternoon.

A pelican walked up to watch the coots with us. (maybe he was looking for handouts?)

Nancy enjoying the afternoon at the Coot Bay Pond boardwalk.

 

A Roseate Spoonbill at Echo Pond in the Everglades. We had been hoping to see them this trip.

A red shouldered hawk near the campground.

One of the few woodstorks we saw this year.

Roseate spoonbills and egrets at Echo Pond.

Kayaking at John Pennekamp State Park. This ferry takes visitors out to the coral reefs for scuba diving and snorkeling.

Sunrise at Curry Hammock State Parke and low tide.

We have been seeing a lot of green iguanas at Curry Hammock. This is another invasive species in Florida.

Kayaking on a very calm morning on the Atlantic.

A Bahamas starfish at Curry Hammock. I saw six that morning.

Tom and Evey joined us for the weekend.

Kayaking we saw this four foot iguana and a heron in the mangroves.

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!!