Franklin Institute

We went to the Franklin Institute today, mainly to see the Body Worlds exhibit of the full-body palatinates.  It is so easy to go to Philly by train, and the parking at Wawa is still free on weekends.

Back Home

We packed up Monday, drove to Sanford for the train yesterday (which took less than an hour), and are finally home after the 2 1/2 hour drive from Lorton, VA.  The train was on time and service was fine.  We even got to eat in the dining car at 5:00 pm since we checked in early enough.  The only complaint is still the hard mattress, which made sleeping difficult.  And I'm having some vertigo issues again today, presumably just needing to get my land legs back after the motion of the train.

We are still trying to assess the success of the vacation.  Our paddling trips were great but we did too much driving.  It would have been so much better if we had been able to stop at Sanibel for a while on our way south.  This was probably our last trip to the Everglades.

Cape Canaveral National Seashore

 The crowds on the beach this weekend are quite impressive.

So we decided to drive to the southern end of the barrier island to Cape Canaveral National Seashore.  We assumed there would be fewer people there, and we were right.  Most of the folks we saw were fishermen.  And for a good reason.  We had forgotten that the beach there is very different.  Instead of the beautiful flat expanse here, it is a steep beach with coarse soft sand which was difficult to walk on.  We walked for about an hour and that will be our exercise for the day.  We were hot and exhausted by the time we got back to the car.

Another Paddle in the Indian River

We did another paddle with the Marine Discovery Center this morning.  This time we started from the Center north of the northern causeway.  We paddled a lot farther this time so we really got a workout.  This pelican swam nearby and we saw lots more at a rookery with pelicans, great egrets and snowy egrets.  I saw another yellow crowned night heron and we saw a couple more dolphins.

Paddling the Indian River Lagoon

This morning we took a guided paddle with Marine Discovery tours.  We put into the Indian River at the Indian River Lagoon Park just a mile from Ocean Trillium and took a slow paddle around the lagoon.  It was too slow for my liking but it was a very nice paddle.  The tide was out so the water was very low some places, with neat oyster beds sticking out.

This one has both red and black mangroves growing out of it.

I finally saw a yellow-crowned night heron, but didn’t get a good photo.  We also saw brown pelicans,

 

a little blue heron, and a tricolor heron walking in the shallow water.

 

And then on the way back to the dock we saw two dolphins that swam near us for quite a way.

Relaxing at New Smyrna Beach

 Today we did laundry, walked on the beach and relaxed.

Drive to New Smyrna Beach

Today was the 5 hour drive to New Smyrna Beach where we will stay in unit 504 at Ocean Trillium Suites.

The beach is as nice as we remembered.  But I had forgotten about the speed limit signs they put up on the wide beach for the cars that drive along it.

Anhinga Trail

Today we head for our last stop - New Smyrna Beach.  On the way we stopped to walk on the Anhinga Trail.  We saw the usual alligators

Cormorants, and of course anhingas which I didn’t bother photographing

A nice cardinal bromeliad

Some great blue herons

And this black skimmer that sat on the sidewalk the whole time we were there.  I figured it must be injured but we couldn’t find anyone to ask about it.

 A nice 

Paddling Buttonwood Canal

We kayaked Buttonwood Canal this morning - paddling a tandem sit-a-top kayak for about 1 1/2 hours.  The only wildlife we saw were a few tri-colored herons flying by.  But it was a neat explore among the mangroves.

Eco Pond and the Coastal Prairie Trail

This morning we drove to the trail around Eco Pond and did the 1/2 mile walk.  We were surprised at our surroundings.  We had been there before hurricane Irma hit in 2017.  Now it looks totally different.

After walking around the pond, we drove through the campground to the Coastal Prairie Trail and walked a bit on it. There is a lot of land known as the coastal prairie, formed when storm surge from the hurricane killed the mangroves.  Now the land is covered with low plants that can grow in the salty soil that was left.

This afternoon we took the backcountry boat tour.  It was much more interesting than the bay tour.  We saw a 14’ crocodile swim in front of the boat.  It headed for the docks and we saw it again after the boat ride. 

The most interesting part of the ride was the canal into Coot Bay.  We saw a young night heron and a couple more crocodiles.

Taking a walk

This morning we walked west on the Guy Bradley Trail toward the campground.  We were going to walk around Eco Pond but it was hot and we didn’t bring water, so we headed back to the lodge instead.

On the trail was this amazing tree - it is a palm tree completely surrounded by a strangler fig.

Florida Bay

We took the boat ride into Florida Bay this afternoon.  We saw pelicans, a reddish egret, caspian terns, and ospreys.  Mostly we just rode around the bay, which wasn’t very exciting.  The caspian tern is a new one for me.  It is similar to a royal tern but its bill is heavier and redder than the royal terns and have a dark tip on the bill.