Manatee Park

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Bill went to the air park in the morning and we went to Manatee Park this afternoon. Since it has been cold, the manatees headed to the park and the warm water from the electric plant. There were hundreds of manatees there!

In this picture you can see about a dozen manatees swimming in the warm shallow water. Since they are mammals, they come to the surface for air about every 4 or 5 minutes. Sometimes they blow water out their nostrils like whales.

This is a cow (female) and her calf (baby). Sometimes they have twins.

Look at the scars on the manatee's back. They get them from boaters who come too close. Sad.

Look closely and you can see fish with this manatee. He was injured and the fish were cleaning his wounds.

You can see how crowded the park was. Last year they had no manatees since the weather remained warn all winter.

The people on the island were preparing to go into the water with a net to try and catch the injured manatee. They were unsuccessful.

He couldn't have been too sick because he swam away as soon as the gal from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation agency went into the water.

Here I am at the entrance to the park with an especially cute manatee.

Along the path I spotted some other critters.

This one startled Bill. He didn't see it at first and when he looked over, he jumped! He looks menacing but really wasn't. Little kids were posing with this plastic model.

After our visit to the park, we went to see a house in Cape Coral. The neighborhood was absolutely fabulous - and just a block from the river and across the street from a deep water canal. The yard was beautifully landscaped and the neighboring homes were expensive and beautiful. (Location, location, location) The price seemed right until we saw the inside. The house was built in the 70's and would need too much work ($$$) to bring it up to today's (MY) standards. Someone with more money than we have will buy it for the land, tear down the house and build a new one.

Miscellaneous

As my sister pointed out on FaceBook, I have not done a blog entry in several days and need to catch up. I've also been lax in my mission to get acquainted with the dogs here in Parker Lakes. I have lots of excuses: first we had company; second, I had bad experiences with the last two dogs I encountered; and third, Bill has decided he wants to look for a house in Cape Coral so we have been on the road.

This is an especially cute picture of Gabriel playing on the beach at Bowditch Point. It was not as warm as it had been, but he was still able to play in the water, go out to the sand bar with his father and collect shells with me.

Back at the house, Orlando helped Gabriel look up the shells he collected. Orlando is a wonderful father and spends a lot of time with his boys. Gabriel is a very busy child and can wear you out quickly. Mom and dad both have amazing patience. I am very proud of the woman my beautiful daughter has become.

On their last full day here, Bill and I watched Sebastian while Pamela, Orlando and Gabriel headed to the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel. It was a beautiful warm day and they had a wonderful time - and boy did we enjoy having Sebastian all to ourselves!

They left on Tuesday - back to Baltimore. They were in the air when our 44th President, Barack Obama, was sworn in (the first time). I watched it on a television in a bar on Siesta Key.

It's not that we needed to head to a bar immediately after their departure - we drove to Sarasota to meet Bill's cousin, Becky for lunch. Becky lives in Maine so we do not see much of her.

This is Fritz. Bill and I stopped at a garage sale here in Parker Lakes and Fritz came bounding out to greet me - much to my horror. Now he probably just wanted to lick me to death - but I wasn't having any part of it and sat in the car until his owners held him.

Fritz is a Labra-Poodle, one of the designer breeds that the first family is considering getting. Apparently they have the mild temperament of a Lab and the non-shedding coat of a Poodle.

The other breed the Obamas are considering is a Portuguese Water Hound. (See my blog entry 11/6/2008) They have wonderful dispositions, do not shed and are hypo-allergenic.

This is a Glossy Ibis. Most of the Ibis we see are white and I was excited to see this one with several of his friends in front of the coffee shop.

While we were touring Cape Coral I spotted this Turkey Vulture. Turkey Vultures are everywhere - but not usually on the ground or this close so I was pleased that Bill humored me by turning the car around so I could get this shot.

Further up the road near Punta Gorda, I spotted a couple of larger birds that I did not recognize - and, once again, Bill had to turn around. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the pictures close up that I was able to identify this as a juvenile Wood Stork.

Cape Coral is having a really hard time in this depressed economy. There are over 8,000 homes on the market at fire-sale prices. Many are short sales or bank owned properties.

Houses were cropping up like daises in a pasture on Cape Coral during the real estate boom just a few years ago. Now the area has entire neighborhoods with abondoned brand new cookie-cutter homes.

Bill misses having a yard to plant, a garage to putter in and an outdoor grill to cook on - so he is exploring the option of buying a single-family home. I'm trying to be supportive and keep an open mind - but I sure do love this community - the people, the privacy and the pool.

Maybe we can find a nice place that needs some TLC in an established part of town near water. Maybe we'll win the Florida Lottery.

B-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-

Yesterday was COLD. The wind blew and it did not even reach 60 degrees - but Gabriel had his heart set on going to the beach - so we headed to Lovers Key to collect shells. We bundled up but Gabriel insisted on wearing his bathing suit and the new flip-flops his mom just bought him.

We collected for about 45 minutes before Pamela turned blue and Gabriel decided he had had enough. Since he had gone in the water he was cold, wet, tired and, I think, a little disappointed. After all this is Florida and we had promised him warm and sunny.

This is Pamela having fun at the beach.

Fortunately, today was another story. It was sunny and beautiful - still only in the low 70's but after yesterday, we thought it was wonderful!

Gabriel wanted to go to another beach (can you blame him?) so we went to Bowditch Point. He went in the water with his Daddy, collected shells and played in the sand. Life was good again!

Pamela has a beautiful family!

Here is Sebastian enjoying his day at the beach. What a happy baby he is!

Tomorrow, the boys are heading to the airpark to see the military planes fly. If it's nice - maybe Pamela and I will head to the pool.

Colder Weather Arrives!

OK - so maybe not that cold. This beautiful picture was sent to us by our friends in Alamosa, Colorado. It is pretty, but it sure looks cold.

Pamela and family arrive in about an hour for a weeks stay. Unfortunately, we may not get into the 70's for the entire week. The good news is that the sun is shinning, the humidity is low and it feels wonderful!

I can't wait to see my grandsons!

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

After Bill returned from the flying field on Cape Coral, we headed to Six Mile Cypress Slough to walk the boardwalk through this wonderful nature preserve. Today is overcast and we weren't sure if we would see anything special - we were just going for a nice walk.

This Little Blue Heron was shopping for lunch at the lake. Little Blues are pure white for their first year of life so this must be a full grown adult.

Look at this fabulous Red Shouldered Hawk! He was sitting close to the boardwalk and I was able to get some great shots!

Further along we spotted this cute little baby turtle. There are lots of adult turtles that we see basking in the sun right along side of birds and even alligators - but this is the first baby I've spotted.

And my favorite - the Great Blue Heron. I really like taking pictures of them in a natural environ-ment like this.

It is so relaxing walking through this preserve and watching the wildlife. We met a volunteer guide and talked to him for awhile. He told us there is a 14 foot alligator named "grandaddy" who lives in the Slough. He is usually spotted at the 2nd observation point at the first lake. At 14 feet he should be "Grandaddy-SIR."

This is a Great Egret - a beautiful tall, stately bird. At one time it was hunted to near extinction for its long white plumage. The name "Egret" means "ornamental tufts of plumes."

This Anhinga just caught a fish and we watched it for sometime while he shook it and banged it on the log - I guess to kill it before he ate it.

It was a great day at the Slough! We saw more interesting birds and critters today than we have ever seen - and it wasn't crowded!

Bill is making ribs for dinner and the beer is cold - gotta go!