Monday, March 31st – Our Last Day in Florida.

 

We awoke to cloudy skies this morning and it remained so for the entire day.

 

 

We have seen a lot of different sights on, across and over our lake while we have been here. One time, it was the MetLife Blimp. When the wind is coming from a certain direction we see more airplanes taking off from the airport. We saw the resident alligator several times and there are always are various birds and ducks. But, today we saw something totally different. We heard a loud noise and thought there must be some excavation going on in the neighborhood. Upon further investigation, we were surprised to see an air boat that had launched right beside our yard. We couldn’t figure out what it was doing in this lake and then we saw it spraying something on the island. We were glad that they had not come to remove the alligator.

 

 

Having little sunshine today made it easier for me to pack up everything and think about leaving this beautiful warm area. It has been a wonderful three months and I am glad that we decided to stay longer this year—especially since there has been so much snow at home.

 

 

We watched the Orioles home opener game on television and were remembering when we went to their spring training home opening game in Sarasota. We were happy that they beat Boston today.

 

We went back to my favorite restaurant, Skip One, for dinner tonight. I sure will miss this delicious gulf shrimp, but it will give me something to look forward to for next year. We are physically ready to leave bright and early tomorrow morning and head back to Maryland.

 

We were blessed with another pretty sunset tonight. It reminded me that God is in His glory and all is right.

 

 

This was our last Sunday to go to Hope Lutheran Church until next year. We have enjoyed their casual style of worship that is offered at their contemporary service. It seemed to me that many of the snow birds who attend this service have already flown back north.

 

 

 

One of the trees on the church property is in full beautiful bloom.

 

 

 

This afternoon, we went to Estero Bay Preserve State Park which has several geocaches hidden within its boundaries. This 10,000 acre preserve serves as a land buffer protecting Estero Bay.

 

There are 4 scrub trails throughout all the preserve which took us over varied terrain. 

 

 

 

 

We saw areas that had been burned some time ago, but they still reminded me of a forest graveyard.

 

 

 

 

There were several types of wildflowers blooming, too.

 

 

 

 

The ground in some areas consisted of what is known as “sugar sand” and it is well named because it is as fine as powdered sugar.

 

 

People have seen gopher tortoises and armadillos along with various kinds of birds, but we didn’t seen any of those today. However, Cordell did see a large snake skin at one of the cache sites.

 

 

We had a video call with our son, Tim, who lives in Mt. Airy, MD. It was snowing again at his home and he showed us that the ground was already covered. He was expecting 2” to 4” total accumulation. We showed him a view of the preserve and us hiking in shorts.

 

 

We hiked a total of about 4.5 miles and our 70 year old legs were extremely tired when we finished.

 

We stopped and got carryout Chinese food for our dinner tonight. We were almost too tired to eat.

 

 

***OUT TAKE

Not only am I having trouble remembering what day it is, but now I sometimes get confused as to where I am!

 

 

 

 

Saturday, March 29th - Rainy Saturday.

I sure felt sorry for the people who are on vacation this week in Southwest Florida because we had rain the entire day. I have never experienced a full day of rain in Florida during the past three years that we have been wintering here.

 

There were some powerful thunder storms with lightning that at times seemed to strike right on the lake outside our lanai. I cannot imagine what it must be like when a hurricane comes through here.

 

 

We just stayed in the condo and got some good rest today.

 

 

When the rain finally stopped, the humidity was much lower and the air felt very refreshing. We did get time to take a short walk between the storms. Somehow, we had a very pretty sunset.

 

 

 

Friday, March 28th - Sanibel Island all day!

It must be difficult to accurately predict the weather here or else our app is not a particularly good one. Very often, we have found that forecasted rain does not materialize. That was pleasantly the case today. We had an 80% chance of rain by 2:00 p.m. So, we decided to make hay while the Florida sun shines. It turned out to be a fabulous day and one that I will remember all year long. It couldn’t have been much better for us.

 

 

 

We loaded up our bicycles and headed back to Sanibel Island. It is approximately the same size as Manhattan Island, NY - 7 miles by 2 miles. However, Sanibel has 6,000 residents and Manhattan has that many in one building. This is a very beautiful place and I wonder if anyone ever tires of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed that we had good timing because when we arrived at the parking lot at 10:00 a.m., the empty parking spaces were filling up quickly. We chose the lot next to the beach at the lighthouse. We unloaded our bikes and took off for a geocaching excursion which took us to parts of the island we hadn’t seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the residents have personalized their mailboxes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are accustomed to seeing signs warning motorists to watch for panthers and bears--also signs telling us not to feed the alligators. But it is only on Sanibel that I have seen signs cautioning us about the gopher tortoise. I wonder how long it would take for one to actually cross a road!

 

 

We saw several properties for sale, but one in particular caught my eye. I sent a photo of it to my son, Andy, and told him if he wanted to invest in it, we would be happy to take care of it for him during the winter months

 

 

 

 

One geocache was placed on a red mangrove root at the site of a small pier along a canal at a location we would never have otherwise seen. People evidently fish here because there is a fish cleaning station set up on one end of the boardwalk. I found it very peaceful and restful to sit there under a canopy of trees while tucked back off the road and the busy bicycle trail.

 

 

At midday, we rode back to the parking lot, retrieved our picnic supplies and ate our lunch at a table placed in the nearby woods.

 

 

People were now idling their cars in the full parking lot while waiting for someone to leave. I felt sorry to disappoint those who asked us if we were leaving when we walked to and from our car.

 

By this time, our cell phone batteries were low, so we left them charging in our car and spent a couple of hours on the beach recharging our batteries, too.

 

 

 

 

 

After spending about 2 hours on the beach, we were sufficiently rested so we took off on our bikes for more geocaching. The last cache we found was named Welcome to Paradise and was located on undeveloped land near the causeway bridge.

 

 

 

If Adam and Eve had lived in this paradise, they would have had no trouble covering their naked bodies. We went through some leaves that stuck to our shoes and socks so badly that we couldn't even remove them. We threw our socks away. We have never seen leaves like these and I haven’t found out what they are.

 

 

We were having such a good time and I never wanted to give up this day. Suddenly, we noticed that our parking meter was going to expire in about 15 minutes. I knew that I could never bike fast enough to reach the parking lot that quickly. So, Cordell jumped on his bike and left me in the dust, or I should say the sand, while he raced his bike back to the parking lot. I followed at a relaxing pace which was just about all the pedal power I had left in me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I so wanted to stay and see the sun set, but it wasn’t going to happen until 7:45 p.m. Some clouds had started to gather and we weren’t sure if there would be anything to see. We were hot, sweaty, tired and thirsty, so we decided to call it a day came on back to the condo.