Florida bound, and round and round

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, late afternoon, Feb. 17, ready to enjoy the sun and to spend a few days of weather-acclimating before boarding our cruise ship to the Caribbean.  Our first order of business was some real food after nothing but snacks all day.  The second order of business was sleeping.

On Thursday morning, we got up and headed to the airport to pick up our rental car.  Long lines awaited us.  But we did it … ending up with a powder-blue Volkswagen rather than the SUV that had been requested.  But the blue VW is quite easy to spot in a parking lot, making it an advantage in the oceans of vehicles that are white, black or some other variety of dark. 

After the vehicle pick up we headed to the Flamingo Gardens, a 60-acre wildlife sanctuary and gardens, and home to more than 3,000 species of plants and the largest tree in Florida.

A Peacock with its brilliant colors is always a joy to see.

Wood Storks are actually pretty even if they are bald.  Bald is beautiful.

This guy had a feather in his beak and fought his way through birds that tried to snatch it from him until he reached the tree where his mate was sitting on a nest.  He flew up and gave her the feather ever so sweetly.

Silly Ibis.

 

The sanctuary did not disappoint us, as the birds here are injured and non-releasable and therefore, used to educate the public as well as provide a way to spend time seeing some beautiful birds, and some other animals, too.  This was a great way to spend a day.

A Roseate Spoonbill ... this has to be one of the most silly-looking but beautiful birds I've ever seen.

Flamingoes added the brilliant oranges that you associate with warm weather and tropical birds.

The birds flocked to us as they were used to receiving handouts.

Believe it or not, these big-beaked birds took the kibble from my hand so gently I could hardly feel it.

They were never aggressive at all.

The goal of Flamingo Gardens is to provide a refuge for the animals, including those that are a threatened or endangered species, and to hopefully release some of the young back into the wild.  It was a great day spent doing what we enjoy doing … photographing … and a lot of birds made it even better.

I'd never heard of a mute swan that can be identified by the orange bill.  They are not mute although are thought to be quieter than others.  It's one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and can weigh more than 33 pounds.  That's a big bird, and I'm sure if flying there's a lot of other stuff flying around, too.  Ugh!  But I've never seen a more beautiful swan with its wings curled up into the perfect photo opportunity. 

We were there for the otter feeding.  I believe this was chicken.

This lizard was stealing food from the tortoises.  He got away with it and was whipping his head back and forth to get a chunk to fall off for him to eat.  Then he'd grab it again and repeat.

On Friday we decided to get an earlier start and head to the Everglades, with our destination being Flamingo Station, that's a 38-mile drive in to the end of the park.  It was a town a long time ago, but is now just a park station. 

Lines, lines and more lines of cars, and roads and Interstates that were not much better than slow-moving parking lots.  It took us three hours to go the 70-some miles to the park entrance.  Traffic was awful, and that’s an understatement.  We drove to the end of the road and wandered around the Flamingo Station area.  There weren’t many birds but we did spot an Osprey sitting in a nest.  A gentleman sitting on top of his motor home told us there had been four birds, two pairs, who were duking it out to claim the nest.  The one there was parked and not leaving as she decided it was HER nest. 

This was another pair of Osprey we saw in the Everglades.

We headed back and stopped at a few other areas, one of which we’d visited a couple of years ago.  This time there weren’t many birds and only a couple of alligators. 

This one was laying across from where we saw one last year.  Could it be the same one who hasn't moved very far?

Perhaps he doesn't need to move far.  "Come closer, baby.  I know you taste like chicken.  And I love chicken."

We did see a manatee at one of the small harbors, but it never came up enough to get a great look at it.  Guess that’s why they call it wild life; it’s not dependable nor on a schedule.

Whatever this plant was, it was very cool, and looked kind of furry.

Like an iceberg, only a part of him is visible at the top of the water.

A Laughing Gull ... he was outnumbered by others, but was a very nice and clean-looking little guy.

The traffic on the return trip was no better than when we’d headed down.  The car dealers must be making a fortune based on how many vehicles are here.  How do people live with this and get anywhere?  We’d spent the better part of a day in the car.  That wasn’t our favorite part at all.

Saturday morning, Feb. 20, we decided to stay closer to home and just go to Olas Avenue, a shopping area and not too far from the beach.  More lines.  This time it was road closures due to a bicycle race.  We’ve not had very good luck getting around, and mostly seem to go in a lot of circles.

 

We did finally get there and walked a few miles toward the beach. 



There were some cool sculptures to see.



This area is considered the Venice of Florida.  You can get on river taxis or there are even gondolas.

There are little boats everywhere and it's fun to see all of them.

There are beautiful buildings all along the canal.

This colorful building was one of my favorites.

We didn’t have enough time on our parking meter to get to the beach and headed back to get the car and drive to it.  We got to the beach and drove along for a few miles.  Talk about crowds.  Wow!!

The city is beautiful in the distance and we'd driven through some of it.  Yep.  Traffic.

It was beautiful although the weather has not been the most cooperative since we’ve been here, with some clouds and even a few sprinkles.  But it’s nothing we Alaskan girls can’t handle.

Feb. 21, Sunday, is our last day on land.  Woo hoo.  But we must first be the good tourist for another day. 

Today we thought we’d try to get to the beach and walk on them for a while.  We got sidetracked when we saw a sign for a birding trail.  We wandered to the Anne Kolb Nature Center.  There was a little boat ride through canals and around a man-made lake and some trails that we walked. 

We saw a Black-crowned night heron on the boat ride.  He was tucked back into the trees and our boat captain spotted him.  He looked a little sleepy, so maybe we woke him.

 

Red mangrove are one of the species and this one was in the lake.

Years ago developers wanted to take the area and develop it.  But others foresaw the need for the park and it’s beautiful.  Developed in 1996 it’s a 1,500-acre coastal mangrove wetland. 

It was a perfect day to be at the beach, with some cloud cover and some sun.

After visiting the park we finally made it to the beach and walked along it.  I was wearing my sneakers and ended up getting them wet … the water felt so good on my feet. 

Yep.  We're enjoying the weather and the beach.

This beautiful little guy is a Tufted Tern.

Someone had been playing in the sand.

And they were quite talented, apparently using a planter to build this.

Our friends, Mike and Vangie, from California arrived today and we met them for dinner.  We met them on the cruise last year and they decided to do part of this cruise with us.  We will be off the round and round and will have a blast.