Sanibel – part 2

My sister and her family arrived 2 weeks into my 3 week stay.  They are from Wisconsin, so of course the first sand sculpture they made was a snowman!  Below is Parker and Summer and their snowman, I mean sandman -

Below is work on their Sanibel Holiday greetings and the final results -

  My sister, Amy, and 2 of her daughters, Chelsea and Morgan putting the finishing touches to the Holiday greeting!.

Above are my nieces and nephews around the snowman – Gavin, Morgan, Parker, Chelsea and Summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan asked her mom to take a few pictures and I snapped some while Amy was taking “official” pictures.

I visited the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp sanctuary twice while in South West Florida.  It’s a beautiful place.  I didn’t see as many birds this time as I did in March, but it was still a great place to visit!

If you look closely at this swamp lily, you will see in the lower right and corner a small tree frog.  Below is a close-up of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also went to Shark’s Valley in the Everglades twice.  The first time, I went by myself and rode my bike around the 15 mile trail.  The second time I went with my Mom, brother-in-law (Tom) and my nephew (Gavin).  Tom and I rode bikes around the trail, while my mom and Gavin took the tram.  Unfortunately this day was a cold and we didn’t see as much as I did the previous week.

Part of the welcoming committee.  He is guarding the bike path that you can see at the bottom of the picture.

Even the birds like the bike/tram path!

My mom and I rode our bikes to the campground that I was supposed to stay at.  They have a mini-zoo in the campground.  Below is a picture of my mom getting to know a campground resident -

Other sand and shell sculptures by my sister’s family are below.  They joked that they should put out a tip jar because so many people took pictures of them.  The picture below is a fish that they did created using pen shells as the scales. 

The starfish above is made out of urchins.  There were thousands of these urchins on the beach this trip.  I’ve been to Sanibel many times and never seen this many urchins.

They also made a large sandcastle.  Below is a picture of the castle and then a close-up of the center part to show the detail.

A few pictures of folks just goofing around -

Morgan and Summer, Summer is the one upside down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parker found a coconut and decided to see what it tasted like!

 

Parker, Chelsea and Summer out for a run on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

Chelsea showing us her fish face--

 

 

 

 

 

This isn’t something we made, but I found it on one of my walks on the beach.  Somebody had made a Christmas tree out of shells and seaweed.  Notice the starfish on top of the tree.

I’ll end with a couple more pictures of the beach -

 

Sanibel – part 1

My original plans for Sanibel Island, FL were to be in a condo for the first 2 weeks and in the campground the last week.  But after my first week on the island, I decided to check to see if my condo was available for the last week and it was.  So I ended up staying in the gulf front condo for all 3 weeks!   It was rather funny.  If most people left something at home, they would do without or have to go buy it.  But for me, I could just go to the parking lot and get it out of the RV.  I was fortunate that the condominium complex let me park it at the complex.

My mom was there for a week and so was my sister’s family.  I have so many pictures I want to post that I am going to do this in 2 parts.  Note, these are not in date order.

I have to start off with a sunrise picture -

and a sunset picture -

Here is a picture of the crowded beaches -

OK, one of the reasons I love this beach – the real crowds -

It did start getting busier the closer it got to Christmas.  But nothing like the crowds at many beaches.  Another favorite activity is shelling.  Sanibel Island is considered one of the top shelling locations.  I’ve collected so many shells over the years that I didn’t collect many this trip, but I still find them (along with other beach/ocean life) very interesting.   Don’t forget you can click (or double click) on a picture to enlarge it.

Above is a picture of my mom and sister shelling on a chilly morning.  My sister was collecting shell’s for one of her kid’s classmates

The weather was interesting.  For the first couple of weeks it was warmer than average.  It was in the high 80’s for a couple of days, we even had a tornado watch one day (with a warning in the next county).  Then the temperature dropped.  For the last weeks it was colder than normal.  Several days in the low 60’s.  But for the most part we still did the normal beach activities.  Below is a picture of my nieces trying to get a suntan!!

 

Below is a picture following the Tornado watch.  The path led from our condo complex to the beach.   We were under a high tide advisory for a couple of days and because of the storm the next several days brought about some interesting shelling.

  Above is a live Florida Horse Conch (no collecting of live shells!).  This is Florida’s state shell.  This particular one was probably 12 inches long. The day after the storm, there were many (100 or so) large live shells like this within a mile of our condo.  If you’ve never seen a live shell, the animal in this shell is the orange part.  In some cases the animal is black, like the live tulip shell below, this shell is 3 or 4 inches long. 

Above is a picture of a small starfish on an urchin under water. 

One day on the way to the pool, I stepped on an iguana’s tail.  He was on the sidewalk to the pool and I didn’t notice him.  I learned that they have become a problem.  They are not native and have no predators on the island.  He didn’t seem to upset at my stepping on his tail as a few seconds later he posed for the picture!

I also like to watch birds. I don’t know the names of many, but I enjoy watching them.   Some of their behaviors are very interesting, such as the Spoonbills dancing below.   I really don’t know if this was a mating dance, or a way to bathe or what – but it was interesting. 

I watched the Night Heron below go after a crab.  He got the crab and turned his back to me so I have no picture of him with the crab. 

The  bird pictures above were taken at Ding Darling Wildlife refuge.  This is a great place to bird watch.  I rode my bike there several times and drove through a couple of time.  Riding a bike is the best way as you get to see more.

Below is another picture of a Rosetta Spoonbill. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of Sanibel!

End of October and November

It seems like I’m always behind in posting to the blog, but I’m still here!

I went to the Smokies in Tennessee for a week in October.  I have camped a good bit in the Great Smokey Mountain National park over the last 15 years or so.  This time I stayed in Walland, TN.  I had hoped to see some fall color, but saw some color that I didn’t expect -

 

Yep, I went to see the colorful leaves and saw snow instead.  Actually the snow was only at the higher elevations.  I missed the peak season for leaves, but a few days later I went to Chattanooga, TN and drove to Cloudland Canyon for the day.

It was beautiful!!  While in Chattanooga, I also went to the Tennessee Aquarium.  I enjoy aquariums.  One of my favorites is the Leafy Sea Dragon.   I’m also a fan of the Jellyfish.

After this, I finally made my way back to Georgia.  My plan was to stay fairly close to Athens so I could visit some friends and go to a few appointments.  I stayed at Watson Mill Bridge State Park, but unfortunately the second day I was there I got the stomach virus that was going around and didn’t do much for a few days.  A great advantage of being sick in the RV is it is only a few steps from the sofa to the toilet!  Towards the end of the week, I did get out and do some hiking and saw a few friends.  The picture below is of the covered bridge in the park. 

 

After Watson Mill, I headed up to the mountains.  I stayed in Dillard, GA, which is about 15 minutes from where my mom lives.  I had planned on doing some of the RV maintenance that I had gotten to, but I didn’t do much.  I am going to have to figure out a plan to get everything done.  Maybe just plan on spending one day a month doing maintenance?? 

I am now on Sanibel Island in Florida.  I will post about this later.