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| Belted Kingfisher |
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| Capsized cargo ship being passed by sister ship
Once the holidays were over, we headed south, with Jekyll
Island, GA being the first place where we spent a few days. A good place to bicycle
and walk the beach. A cargo ship full of new cars heading for Baltimore
overturned last September and remains in the channel between Jekyll Island and
Brunswick, GA. It is scheduled to be cut up and removed before Hurricane
season, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
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| Paddling at Salt Springs Rec. Area |
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| Manatees at Blue Springs SP
We
headed over to north central FL and canoed Ichetucknee Springs and Rainbow Springs.
We spent a day at the Florida RV Supershow in Tampa, just to see the newest stuff
available. We spent a week in the Ocala NF, canoeing and hiking. The Manatee
Festival was happening when we arrived at Blue Springs SP. They were delicious
grilled. (Just kidding!) There were over 300 manatees between the warm spring
and the cooler St John’s River.
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| Roseate Spoonbill and friends |
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Purple Gallinule
The Juniper Spring canoe run is usually packed on the
weekend, so we waited until Monday and had a true wilderness experience there. We
spent a week in the Titusville area, saw a rocket launch, and enjoyed hiking
and bird watching around Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Dinner is served |
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| Black Crowned Night Heron
Back
to the west side of central FL, we went to Sargent’s Park, where many birds
gather, and canoed the Hillsborough River. We also met up with my cousin from
Newfoundland, George and his wife Pam. They arrived, after experiencing a Snowmageddon,
30 inches of snow with Hurricane force winds, in St John’s NFLD. Fortunately,
Newfoundlanders are hardy and used to extreme weather conditions. They took us
out to dinner for my 70th birthday.
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| Paddling into the Green Swamp |
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| Black Vultures drying their wings |
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| Green Heron |
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| Black bellied Whistling Ducks |
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| Spear fishing |
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| Barred Owl |
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| Figure it out |
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| Corn Snake
Circle Bar B Reserve never disappoints when it comes to
birds, and we saw plenty this year. We enjoyed the biking and reptile watching
at Highland Hammock SP. After canoeing the Little Manatee and Peace Rivers we
headed over to Sarasota to visit with Jean and Gordon. Jean retired last year as
a Travel Agent. Good timing Jean! We have a big oversees trip planned to start
on March 20 and we are bit concerned considering everything going on with the coronavirus.
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| Canoeing in the mangroves of Hell's Bay
Pat’s Aunt Ann came down to visit Jean, a former neighbor. Coincidently, we had been staying at the same campground as Jean. We all got together for a nice dinner.
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| Southern Blue Flag Iris
The
Everglades were our next stop. We managed several canoe trips through the
mangrove maze. We were surprised at the lack of birds in the park. Luckily, we
found birds in other areas of FL.
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| Morikami Japanese Gardens |
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| Green Iguana
We started up the east coast and learned 16 ways to play BINGO with my cousin Mary. Even with 12 cards/game we never got to yell BINGO. The Morikami Japanese Gardens proved to be beautiful and interesting with an unexpected variety of wildlife.
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| Dinner with Mary |
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| Alba's selfie with Randy, Lady and Shelton.
At
Lake Worth, we enjoyed a “Taste of Lake Worth” with Randy and Alba. Later we played
trivia and attended an Agathe Christi play, Witness for the Prosecution.
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| Bad day at Jupiter Reef Club
Our last week in FL was at our timeshare in Jupiter. It was
very windy for the first four days of our stay and the ocean pounded against our
new sea wall, which is still under construction. Ocean spray soared 20 above
the wall and flooded out the lower patio. Constant pumping kept the water level
contained in the depressed area. The was no danger of our unit being flooded
out. With less that a week before our flight from IAD to Tanzania, we packed up
the RV and headed up I-95.
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