Florida Day 4 - continued

On our way to the Silver River we saw this funky shop that we just had to stop at on the way back to the hotel.


It was full of all manner of "yard art."


Very full.


There were LOTS of pottery figures and we bought a frog, smaller than this one.


We thought this bench was a bit weird.

Silver River continued

Anhinga

Bald Eagle


Great Blue Heron - and turtles


Great Egret


Green Heron


Ibis


Yellow-crowned Night Heron


Alligators

Florida Day 4 - Silver River

We did one of our all-time favorite paddles today.  We put in at the Ray Wayside on Route 40, and paddled onto the Silver River.


At the head of the river is the springs that puts out millions of gallons a day, making paddling upstream a challenge.  But the scenery and wildlife make it very worthwhile.  It is five miles one way but at least the ride back downstream is fast.






Here is the probably incomplete list of all the birds and animals we saw.  Some photos follow in the next post.

• Manatee
• Alligator
• Turtle
• Rhesus Monkey - yes, we saw several even though we had heard they were being rounded up and taken out of the park.
• Anhinga
• Double-crested cormorant
• Ibis
• Great white egret
• Great blue heron
• Green heron
• Tri-colored heron
• Little blue heron
• Yellow-crowned night heron
• Black-crowned night heron
• Kingfisher
• Limpet
• Bald eagle
• Pied-billed grebe
• Pileated woodpecker
• Black vulture
• Common gallinule

Florida Day 3

We started our drive to Florida two days ago on January 22nd.  We put the boats on the car and headed for the DelMarVa peninsula and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  We then made our way to Route 95 at Emporia, VA.  We drove into North Carolina and spent the night in Wilson.  The only traffic we encountered was in downtown Norfolk.  Yesterday we continued the drive down 95 to New Smyrna Beach, FL.  The traffic was light but there were lots of trucks which we tried to avoid since driving behind a truck really causes the boats to bounce around.  We arrived at Ocean Trillium Suites in New Smyrna Beach last evening where we will spend a week.  We woke to thunder storms which dissipated mid-morning.  We had lunch at Boston Fish House then went grocery shopping.  The sun came out and we had a nice walk on the beach this afternoon.  We photographed several birds, including these royal terns.

There were lots of these jellyfish on the beach.  We looked them up when we got back to the room and found they are called cannonball jellyfish.

Quilts 56, 57, 58, 59

I have been remiss in posting quilt photos.  Here are the latest four.
This is a shimmering triangles that I did last summer.


Another one I did over the summer to use up some fabric from my stash.


This one is called "Ring Around the Four Patch" and is from a class at quilt camp last summer.


And I just finished this one in flannel for my daughter.

Kings Singers

It's been a while since I posted anything.  We've been busy as usual but nothing particularly blog-worthy.  I've stopped posting information on all the concerts we have attended.  But I did want to note the following:  Kings Singers are MUCH MUCH better than Chanticleer.  We saw Chanticleer first and were disappointed at the quality of some of the singers, though one of the countertenors was a standout.  Then last night we went to Princeton to hear the Kings Singers.  They were absolutely fantastic.  I'm sure we've seen them before but it has been a while.  We will now be sure to attend their concerts whenever they are in the area.

SNOW!!!

Three inches of snow in mid-November!?!?

A Great New Jersey Day

We went to Island Beach State Park with the hiking club.  We drove to the end of the road then walked on the beach down to the inlet and back.  A bright sunny day with temps in the mid 50's.

Afterwards we went to lunch at Klee's Bar and Grill in Seaside Heights.

This evening we went to Princeton to hear a concert of Abigail Washburn on the banjo and Wu Fei on the guzheng.   It was a fascinating combination of sounds.

Hiking in Wharton State Forest

We had a nice hike along the Mullica River Trail.  We started at Atsion and headed towards Batsto.  The well-marked hike is 9.5 miles long so we only did a small portion of it, walking 2.25 miles before turning around.

More NJ Hiking

We have been taking advantage of the good weather in NJ - today was in the low 70's.  So after a great talk at 55+ in Princeton, we took a walk on the towpath along the Delaware and Raritan Canal.