Sanibel Island

March 1-4-I had gone to Sanibel Island (known

for some of The best shelling in the world)as a child
and had such fond memories, that I had wanted Janae and
Stefan to experience it.  It was so fun driving the bridge over to the island at sunset.  We only had two and 1/2 days and the time flew.  Wished we could  have stayedlonger.  We were on a quest for shells and were a bit discouraged the first day because they weren’t on thebeach as I remembered.  We were told we would have to get up at 4 in the morning if we wanted to find some good ones.
We met a Professional jazz/folk singer at the marina our first morning named Shannon Battle who
allowed Janae to try her guitar and sing with
her.  As luck would have it, I didn’t have my
camera but it was a special connection and
she gave Janae a necklace and CD.  Had
hoped we could connect again, but it didn’t work out.

The bike trails are great on the island and we rode to the shellfair/show where           

people come from all over the world and

then  we rode to the beach.  Our campsite
neighbors, from Wisconsin welcomed
us and gave Stefan a ride on his boat.


The highlight of our weekend was on Saturday morning when we drove to the point again near Captiva Island and we hit the jackpot.  The waves were crashing in with shells faster than we could catch them.  Janae and I used nets as we grabbed beautiful conch and whelk shells.  It was exhilerating to say the least.  We didn't have long to stay because we wanted to go to a bird show back at the campground.  We promised Janae we would come back.

We made it to the bird show in time and Stefan loved it.  He got to see and hold many parrots. Afterwards we had some lunch and went back to our morning shelling spot but they were all gone.  All the shells were buried in sand and Janae was greatly disappointed.  I had to point out how lucky we were to be there this morning.

The cove by lighthouse beach that looked like something out of the Caribean

Our wonderful Wisconsin neighbors who made us feel so welcome.  They surprised Janae with a Mahogoney nut flower and Stefan with a pirate coin before we left. 

We visited another beach before landing at the lighthouse beach.  We enjoyed finding smaller more unique shells here.  I even got to see a dolphin.

We had a special treat tonight as we stopped at dairy queen and had supper and sundaes before driving to Captiva to see the sunset and see the town.  Very nice place.  A little more upscale than Sanibel.

Sunday, we had to check out at noon and parked Miss JimB at a park and went and visited the shell museum.  It's wonderful and wanted take advantage of the free passes that we were given.  Enjoyed learning that the perfect little holes we had been finding in our shells were actually from murexes who are carnivore mollusks and they drill into shells to eat their prey.

Myakka River State Park

Feb. 26-29-We spent 4 nights and 31/2 days at Myakka River State Park and loved it.  Our first day was one of our favorites. We enjoyed waking up to the sounds of birds and then biking on the tree canopied roads.  We loved seeing the alligators under the bridge and continued our ride to a beautiful hike along the river.  The vegetation was so beautiful and we loved spying the alligators and turtles sunning themselves. A walk on the canopy trail in the hammock (name for forest) was so awesome and we loved hiking the tower so much that Janae and Stefan each hiked up a couple more times during our stay.  The comfortable warm breeze with soft sand underfoot while walking under the canopy of trees with Spanish moss was such a gift.  We learned the difference between palm trees and palmettos.  Palm tree leaves come to a point in the center whereas palmettos leaves fan out equally from the center.  Since we were staying in the park, it was a short bike ride home for lunch and then we took a much needed nap.  Something we rarely do but were rewarded with a gentle rain the whole time we rested.  Heavenly. 

When we awoke, we drove up to the concession area and took a walk out to the spillway behind one of the gift shops.  The late afternoon lighting was so beautiful and we saw lots of birds.  My  favorite were the roseate spoonbills.  They are light pink and we saw a whole group resting.  We went out to the bird overlook and saw tons of wildlife through high powered binoculars while we watched the sunset.   Wild hogs, a huge turtle, white pelicans (on their way to Granby Colorado), coots, herons, egrits, ibis’s.  Totally awesome! On the boardwalk back to the car, Stefan said, thanks for bringing us here, I liked this.

Other highlights included an alligator walk with the ranger, a nice dinner with our friends Lori and Todd and hunting for shark teeth.  We learned many interesting  gator facts like the inches between the nose and eyes is equal in feet to the size of the gator.  The largest gator in this park is around 15 feet.  The record size for a gator is around 19 feet. Also, the sex of a gator is determined by the temperature of the nest.  All girls come from a nest of 85 degrees whereas all boys come from a 92 degree nest.  A mixture of temperatures = a  mixture of sexes.  The only place in the world for alligators (which live in fresh water only) are southeastern U.S. and the Yangtzee River in China.  Lori and Todd joined us one evening for dinner at our campsite and they brought the best salad with figs.  They did a good job copying the wonderful salad we had at dinner on Sunday.  We had wonderful fellowship and conversation.  Wish we could see them more.  Janae and I took off one late afternoon and drove to Casperson Beach near Venice beach in search of shark teeth.  We had a lot of fun dragging the silver basket along the rocks and searching for our little black treasures.  We were delighted to find 25.

netting shark teeth

On the peer at Venice Beach

Not all was enjoyable though as one morning we took a hike by permit only into a nature reserve in search of more gators.  It was like hiking in Africa.  Hot, wild and we didn’t see another human for three hours.  However we did see 50 gators but Mark and I disagreed about which trail to take back which made for a very  unpleasant experience.  Ah, I guess we have to have some bad memories, kind of gives dimension to the journey.

We counted 50 alligators in this hole

Our final morning was special as we rode our bikes up to the concession area.  Another glorious, perfect weather day.  As Mark took Janae and Stefan individually out in the canoe in search of tilapia fish, I took the other souvenir shopping.  Stefan is very proud of his gator tooth necklace.  We completed our Myakka stay with a gator stew lunch.  Very yummy.

Camp site #72 was the best in the park and we got to stay in it our last night.  Enjoyed practicing out by the campfire under the stars after everyone went to bed.

Gator Stew

In closing would like to quote some advice from an alligator.

Take a bite out of life.  Keep a low profile.  Bask in the  sun. Have a healthy appetite.  Keep an eye on opportunities. Be thick skinned and don’t be afraid to open your mouth.

Sarasota, Florida

Saturday, Feb. 25th-We spent the night in the driveway

of our good friends Lori and Todd.  Lori is a trombonist

with the Sarasota Symphony and both she and Todd played

at our wedding.  It was fun to see their lives in Sarasota.

After we parked Miss Jim B, we immediately took off

for a brief trip to the beach.  Siesta Key is voted the number 1

beach in the US.  Janae and Stefan were thrilled with the

white, powdery sand and expanse of the the beach.  Unfortu

nately, my camera was out of juice and I didn’t get very

good pictures.  I got to go hear Lori play with the symphony.

She sounded great on principal playing the overture to Nabucco.

Sunday morning, was a special treat as they took us to Siesta Key

Presbyterian Church.  It was an awesome service.  The church

Is wooden and sits high up in the trees-kind of like a tree

House.  They foyer is outside and every Sunday congregates

From a different state bring the food.  Michigan brought

The food this week and it was quite a spread, complete

With rootbear floats.  What made the service special was

The wonderful serman on wilderness.  She made a

Wonderful point that in landscape, it would be boring if

All we saw were rivers and ocean.  We need forests and

wilderness for the beauty of the landscape and so it is

with the Christian walk.  We need the wildernesses

to add beauty and depth to our lives.  It’s a serman, I’m

going to  try and get a copy so I can listen to it again.

Especially enjoyed the music.  Great  hymns with folks

singing out of the hymnbook.  NO SCREENS!! Awesome!

After church, we went out to eat at a great lunch spot in Siesta

Key and then spent a couple hours at Siesta Key Beach.

best beach for walking

"Mom this is the best sand, This is even bigger than Tinytown"

Patrick Air Force Base

Feb. 17-Feb. 25th-We so enjoyed staying here.  The campground at this base is packed with snowbirds and the campers are about 4 feet from each other.  However, we were fortunate to get an end unit with a redwood deck that even had a water view.  We had a nice week of doing school and practicing in the morning and then boogie boarding in the afternoons.  The base is right across the street from a stretch of cocoa beach that has no hotels or businesses.  Stefan and Janae loved the boogie boarding so much that even when it was cold and windy at the beginning of the week, and they were shivering to the bone, they would not want to stop.

Great practice room

Stefan was immediately made his own reading hut

One of Stefan's lizard pets.  He got these from the trash cans

Janae with Courtney-One of our  new friends.  We spent a lot of time with her and her parents this week.  They may be moving to Colorado in the future.

Mom, just one more time!

The Dial family-They have five children and have been full timing it for two years
We enjoyed getting to know them.  Lori had lot's of good advice and recipes

Lori and Marshall-Great people

Mom and Dad were wimps and didn't want to get cold so we waited until it was good and hot before we tried boarding

Ron Jon's Surf Shop is the largest surf shopin the world and is an experience to visit
Janae and Stefan each got a Ron Jon Boogie board

Yes, these are lizards.  Lori is a much cooler mom than me.  She allows aquariums with these creatures in her motorhome

We met these great folks at church and they invited us to watch the rocket launch with them at Karrs Park.  This launch had been scraped 4 times but we finally got to see it.  It is a Navy communication rocket that will orbit for 15 years.

Our new friends shared their alligator jerky with us.  Yum, Yum

The white ball in the distance is the rocket.  Not quite as eventful as we thought it would be but we were glad to get to see it.  It was a beautiful evening, calm, sunny and perfect temperture.  A special treat was giving the manatees a drink of water