A Full-time Life

TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS

 

Four couples of us towed our boats to Everglades City last week for our Spring overnight boating excursion.   We docked our boats and then used two of them to explore the waters.  (EC is only a little over an hour away by road, but it would have  been at least one overnight stop before we arrived at our destination if we had traveled all the way by boat.)  

Everglades City is at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, a chain of mangrove islets off the SW Florida coast.   And exploring at least part of this area was the goal for this trip.  We were grateful for good GPS and charts.  There are so many islets and they look so much alike it would be very easy to get turned around.   

 

 

I am pretty sure I'm right this time about these being terns.  (Again, thank you to all who corrected my bad-pun mistake last week when I mis-named a laughing gull.)   I think these are Royal Terns, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.  This is a highly cropped picture of a sandbar islet we passed.

 

There were Ospreys on most of the markers we passed.  Many with babies at various stages.  This part of the Ten Thousand Islands is  part of Everglades National Park.  

 

 

 

We beached our boat on this small sandbar.  It was the first time we've anchored our boat.   (But we couldn't get off because none of us wanted to jump off the front.  The water in back (where our boarding platform is) was about 7 feet deep -- we didn't want to swim or wade either!)

 

The largest of the Islands is Chokoloskee, which is connected to Everglades City by a causeway.   It is the only one that is currently inhabited (by about 400 hardy souls).  We had  an early dinner one day at the Havana Cafe there.  Tables on the screened porch were surrounded by orchids and other tropical plants.

 

We stayed at an RV Resort that has dock space available for boaters.   The picture on the top left is our boat and one of the others from our group taken from the restaurant across the channel and the other picture is vice-versa (the restaurant taken from our dock.)    We walked to this restaurant on one day of our stay.

 

 

Companionable friends, birds, good food,  and beautiful scenery (some that we could only see from the water)  ... the recipe for another good boating excursion. 

 

LINKING this week to the following:   Thank you to the hosts.   (Last week the new INLinx tool did not work for me for the first couple of days.   On Wednesday when I tried for the fourth time, it suddenly worked again.  Fingers crossed that it decides this week to let me in from the first of the week!)

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MOSAIC MONDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  SAY CHEESE;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SIGNS SIGNS;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

 

 

 

TWEEN WATERS

 

Last week we traveled by boat to Tween Waters Marina Resort on beautiful Captiva Island.    There were four boats  and one couple who traveled by car and met us at the resort.   It was another great middle-of-the-week long weekend.

 

 

 

We arrived at the Marina on Tuesday and had a little bit of rain and wind on that day -- but the rest of the "weekend" the weather was blue sky beautiful,  although a little cooler than usual for April here.     (Our friend took this picture as we left the Marina going home on Thursday.)

Bill and I didn't mind the slightly  cooler weather at all because we don't yet have an air conditioner on our boat.  The weather was perfect for us ... we slept well with the light wave action rocking us to sleep both nights.  (Bill said he had to get up in the middle of the first night to re-tie the lines because the boat was bouncing.  I barely noticed!)

  

 

 

Tween Waters is a lovely resort -- marina, hotel, cottages, three different restaurants, a large swimming pool -- and as seen above, beautiful landscaping.   The sign is a little wobbly though -- and that's the way it looks, not the fault of the photographer.

   

 

 Great white Egret

This was not specifically a birding trip -- but we saw a lot of lovely ones anyway.   I always try to take advantage of every  accidental birding opportunity.

 

 

A couple pictures of the Marina dock and the 'crow's nest' which is a great place to sit with morning coffee or evening wine and look over the Bay.

 

 

 Great Blue Heron 

Another frequent visitor to the marina area.

 

 

The whole group at lunch at the Green Flash Restaurant.  This is not one of the restaurants at the resort, but about a mile and a half down the road.  The couple who drove ferried us to and from (a couple of trips each way) because the road between the two is narrow and busy -- definitely not walkable.    (Thanks to our waiter and our friend on whose phone he took the picture.)

 

  

 Brown Pelicans

 

 

 

The beach  at Tween Waters.

Beach-combing by day, sunset watching by evening, eating in between, and all with great company!   

 

Life is good.

   

Osprey with prey 

 

 

I think we actually saw the Green Flash -- (or at least my camera did)!!

 

 

 

Linking this week to OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY;  WEDNESDAY AROUND THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FLORAL FRIDAY FOTOS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.  

Thank you to all the hosts.

 

PALM ISLAND FLORIDA by boat

 I'm posting about a boat-trip again -- but this week closer to real time, in a (much) smaller boat, and (much) closer to home than the cruise ship trip I posted about last week (and earlier).   We traveled to Cape Haze/Palm Island toward the end of February. 

 

 

 

 

This is   Palm Island Marina where we spent a mid-week long weekend recently.  (And if you know what a mid-week long weekend is, you are probably just as retired as we are.)   We were a flotilla of three  from our RV Park, cruising down the Caloosahatchee River and then across Charlotte Bay to Cape Haze -- about a 60-mile boat trip.    It is a beautiful Marina facility with a good restaurant, outdoor kitchen/coffee facilities, swimming pool and hot tub.    And a water taxi that ferries you across to a private island where the only form of land transportation allowed is golf cart.   There's a good restaurant there too and a few of the requisite beach shops (souvenirs = nah  .....   ice cream = oh yes).

 

This is how we collect shells these days.

 

On docking overnight at the Marina, we received a guest pass that allowed us to use the private beach over on the island -- we beach-walked first and then rented a golf cart to access some of the more remote corners.  (And enjoyed looking at the private vacation homes and condos as we tooled along.)   

    

Ibis Tree

The  more remote private area that we golf-carted to is called 'Shark's Tooth Beach' and we found a few of those teeth (I did keep a couple of those -- they are small.)   That is also where I spotted a dead tree that, from a distance, looked like it had white flowers growing on it.   This is the view as I got closer.    The Ibis were not disturbed at all.

 

 

 

A little while after I walked past the tree, I looked up from my shell collecting and saw that the time for resting in the tree was over -- now it was time to eat.

 

 

 

We saw several of these big old guys -- the Gopher Tortoise is on the endangered list in Florida, but they appear to be doing well on this island.  And that is undoubtedly because there are no cars, which are definitely not a friend to these slow-movers.

 

 

 

I think that these are Willets in winter plumage.  But shore-bird ID is always hard for me.   In any case, like all shorebirds, they were fun to watch as they raced up and down the tide edge looking for things to eat. 

 

 

A long-shot across from Shark's Tooth  to where some people were enjoying the sand and waves.  I include it mostly because I love the way it shows the colors of the water.   The river where we live is usually muddy looking (the tourist brochures call it 'tea' or 'coffee-colored'.)  It's from tannin and polluted discharge from Lake Okechobee.   So it is nice to see water that is actually the "color of water" as it should be. 

 

 

Grateful for good friends, beautiful scenery, warm weather --

and for the time to enjoy all of that.

 

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   THANK YOU to all of the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.   

 

 

 

AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

  

Almost in real time for a change, today's pictures are from a couple of days out and about last week -- right here in SW Florida.      

 

 

The beautiful evening skies along the river were an unexpected bonus when we went for a boat ride one day last week.    It was meant to be an afternoon trip to enjoy the O!Zone and  late lunch at this river-front tiki bar    ...  but  service was really slow.    ('Tis the height of the snowbird season.)     We got fed before I starved to death though and  sunset on the way home was super.

 

 

 

 

 

On another morning we drove to Six Mile Cypress Slough where the sky view was a little different.      We were glad to visit one of our favorite  nature walks for the first time this season.  This park sustained some damages from Hurricane Irma and was closed for a couple of months after.  It looks just great now, thanks to the Park District and volunteers.

 

 

 

 Red-bellied woodpecker before, during, and after lunch.

 

   

 

 

It was a little cool that morning and the song birds were flitting around like crazy -- not many photo ops.   But sometimes it's good just to see the old familiars.  At the viewing platform, we heard a lady exclaim about the beautiful big bird with the huge feet.  She meant the Great Blue Heron. 

And we realized that our old familiars are exotic and wonderful and different for some visitors ... and that we are fortunate to see these beauties often ... and shouldn't take them for granted. 

 

 Happy to see  cypress knees again too.  This group looks like a little swamp family.

 

 

Thank you to the hosts of each of the following sharing opportunities ... and hello and thank you to the lovely lady who spoke to us just before we stepped on to the board walk.  She and her husband are snowbirds from Germany .... she reads the blog and somehow recognized us!   We talked a little bit about Costa Rica (the last FT-Life blog post at the time)  and about how lucky we all were to be here in beautiful (and warm) SW Florida.    They were, I think, returning from their walk while we were just starting and we didn't see them again,  but wow ...  I was completely flabbergasted to be recognized -- and pleased to know they enjoyed the blog.

 

 

LINKING this week to:  ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY;  Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

 

 

TRAVELING, CLOSER TO HOME

   

Today's pictures are from two recent overnight trips... one by boat, one by car.      We are fortunate to have so many interesting destinations near our winter home.         

  

 

I'm convinced that  Southwest Florida is blessed with some of the most beautiful skies in the world.  The above pictures were taken on our New Year's Eve boat trip.  We stayed two nights (on the boat) at Salty Sam's Marina on  Estero Island. There were fireworks on the beach at midnight  ... but honestly, they couldn't rival the earlier sunset.

  

 

Earlier in the month we traveled by car to the Crystal River and visited Homasassa State Park.   A large population of flamingos calls  the Park home. 

 

 

Amazing to observe these beautiful birds from the boardwalk ...  Wonderful whether they were awake or asleep -- and whether standing on one leg or two!  It really was usually on one,  just like picture books and cartoons always show them.    

 

 

Skipping back  to the start of this post (or ahead in time) to our New Year's boat trip.  We had a pleasant boat ride getting there and a lovely time while docked at the Marina.    This picture (above)  is the OH! Zone -- our boat -- across from a somewhat larger one.  The boat behind ours belongs to friends  from our RV resort ... we traveled with two other couples.  It was great to spend the Holiday  with our boating friends in this beautiful location  ... and definitely a time to give thanks for our mild winter weather.

 

 

Pictures from the Marina --  in the center is a sailboat mast decorated for the Christmas Holidays ... it must have been quite a feat to climb up that high with those lights!   The third boat on this trip is in the lower right photo.      

 

I've been posting for a couple of months about our recent longer trip on a bigger boat to get home this season -- and  here in blog-land we haven't even made it through the Panama Canal yet, so there will be more cruise posts to come.  But in real time we're happily at home in our corner of the world collecting more memories.  And we're more than grateful that we can do that.

 

 

Thank you to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:     OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.