Happenings

A lot has happened since we left Florida in a hurry last month.  We are lucky that the only thing we lost in the flood was the hardwood floors.  They also took out the sheetrock around the bottom foot of the walls, so the reconstruction has included repainting the entire downstairs.  We are hoping construction will mostly be done in the next couple of weeks.  We have been living upstairs, with sporadic access to the kitchen, and occasionally going to motels when needed.  We will be in a motel again at the beginning of next week while they are putting down the hardwood floors, since the mastic they have to use on our damp slab is really stinky.

While all that has been going on, I had my right knee replaced two weeks ago.  That surgery was scheduled long ago and I decided to go ahead and have it done.  The condition of my knee before surgery meant I couldn't help carry all the things we moved upstairs in preparation for construction, and I won't be healed enough to help move things back either.  Fortunately, we have family members who can help.

I'll try to post again once our life has finally returned to normal, whatever that is.

Vacation Aborted

After we got home from the Sanibel farmer's market, we got word that our house in NJ was flooded.  Turns out it was a frozen then burst pipe.  We quickly loaded up the car and started the 2 1/2 day drive home.  I never even got to walk on the beach at Sanibel.

Florida Day 13 - Sanibel Farmers Market

A very popular place - with good reason.  We got there just a little after 8:00 AM and the close parking spots were already full.

Florida Day 12 - On our way to Sanibel

We had an interesting day today.  We had to check out of our place in Everglades City and check into the one in Sanibel - we are staying at Sandy Bend again - with several hours to spend in between.  We discovered that Corkscrew Swamp is roughly along the way to Sanibel and remembered enjoying walking there last year.  But before going there, we needed a place to eat lunch.  According to Google, the little town of Ave Maria has some good-looking restaurants and we would be nearby at lunch time.  What a strange place.  It is brand new - founded in 2007 - and is the current home of Ave Maria University, founded originally as Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan by the founder of Domino's Pizza.  The college only lasted from 1998 to 2007 and then somehow was reincarnated as Ave Maria University in the namesake town in Florida.  The centerpiece of the town is the Catholic church.


It is very modern inside and I didn't care for it.


We did have a very nice lunch at the Pub and Grill in Ave Maria.  Then on to walk the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  I walked with my cane and managed to make the whole 2 1/4 mile circuit.  We can no longer complain about the cool temperatures - it was about 80 degrees while we were walking.






This is one of the huge bald cypress trees the area is famous for.


And a great example of a strangler fig.

Florida Day 11

We are still in Everglades City.  This afternoon we took a National Park boat tour out into the area we paddled yesterday, and beyond.  As luck would have it the winds were much less today.


But the boat trip was very worthwhile.  We saw LOTS of dolphins and W got great videos of their playing in the wake of the boat.  I gave up trying to get a photo since you never knew where they would pop up, but it was great fun watching them.

Then we headed for a huge flock of while pelicans.   We have seen them before, including at Sanibel, but never in these numbers.  There was a small group on a sandbar.


And a much larger group nearby.

Florida Day 10 - Paddling Chokoloskee Bay

We headed across the bay from the visitors center in fairly high winds.  There seemed to be a cormorant on every post.

We paddled around Sandfly Island and explored among many of the small mangrove islands and oyster beds.






We only paddled about 6.5 miles, but the tough paddling against the wind on the return trip across the bay gave us plenty of exercise.

This is probably our last trip to Everglades City.  The paddling isn't nearly as interesting as other places we have been and there isn't much else to do here.

Florida Day 9

Today was a driving day, from New Smyrna Beach to Everglades City, a total of about five hours.  But we had a wonderful break along the way, stopping for lunch and a nice visit with our friends J and C from the Adirondacks.  They are renting a place in Lake Placid, FL for a couple of weeks.  We are staying at Ivey House as usual in Everglades City.

Florida Day 8

Today did not go as planned.  The weather has greatly improved and we had hoped to drive to Deland and paddle around Hontoon Island on the St John River and associated creeks.  But W ended up with what we call "photographer's elbow."  He has been spending a lot of time taking photos with his new camera and apparently keeping his elbow bent tightly for an extended period of time has caused irritation of the ulnar nerve.  It is quite painful and it seemed like a bad idea to irritate it further by paddling, so yet another relaxing day indoors.  He had a nice walk on the beach.  My bum knee still hurt from too much walking yesterday, so I took it easy.  We did have a nice lunch at Norwood's Restaurant.

Florida Day 7

We are still in New Smyrna Beach.  The winds are still very high but the rain has stopped and there is even some sun.  We went to Smyrna Dunes Park at the end of the peninsula to walk on the boardwalk and the beach.  Then we went to Flagler Tavern for a yummy lunch.  The final stop was at the house that used to belong to W's grandparents.  It is now a realtor's office so we were able to go inside and look around a bit.  It is great that the house, dating from the beginning of the 1900's, is still in use.

Florida Day 6

Today's weather is really bad - 30 mile an hour winds and driving rain.  We went to brunch at a neat restaurant on Flagler called the Third Wave Cafe, then drove around a bit.  Then back to the room for the rest of the day.