Sunday, January 18th
This was a fairly quiet day for us. We worshipped at Hope
Lutheran Church in Bonita Springs again. Even though they have removed the
Christmas decoration in their sanctuary, the Christmas scenes painted on the
doors remain. I would like to see my home church paint their doors like this during
Christmas and Easter.
After lunch, we took a walk through our neighborhood and
found it amusing to see how some of the people sunbathe. I wonder why they don’t
go to the swimming pool.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching
to NFL championship games and wishing that the Ravens or Redskins were playing.
Monday, January 19th
This was another glorious day and we spent most all of it
on Sanibel Island. It was probably not the best idea to go to Sanibel since it
was a holiday and a lot of people had the same idea!
There had been a lot of new geocaches placed on the
island since we were here last year. We decided to leave our bikes at the condo
so we could get in some walking exercise.
We parked at the visitor’s center and I couldn’t resist
texting my granddaughter a sign that was placed at front door. She replied, “Hahahaha.
What are they…dumb people? THERE IS NO SNOW IN FLORIDA!!!!”
From the visitor’s center, we hiked 1.6 miles on a loop
trail which meanders through a pond apple slough, wetland marsh and West Indian
hardwood hammock within a 40 acre wildlife preserve. The park is home to
several rare and endangered species including bald eagles, wood storks,
alligators, otters and bobcats.
When we saw a sign prohibiting the feeding of the alligators,
Cordell wondered again as he did last year that should an alligator bite off
his leg, would he be fined the $500.00?
Another sign very politely asked us to keep out of the
alligator’s habitat. They surely didn’t have to worry about me going in that
water!
A ways down the trail, we saw a sign advising us to
proceed with caution and I found it interesting that it was erected about 30
feet away from a picnic table. Despite all these signs, we did not see any
alligators this morning.
We had a lot of fun finding one of the four caches placed
in this park. It is named aaarrrRRRRR!! The description was a map with a puzzle
that Jim Hauser solved for us when he was here in Fort Myers with us last year.
After we found the actual cache container, we were asked to post our log in
pirate speak with a picture of ourselves making the meanest swashbuckler face.
This is what we wrote in our log:
“Th' Duo solved 'tis puzzle last year wit' our mateys
while sojournin' in these parts before returnin' back north. We have returned
to look fer more lovely booty 'n was able to grab 'tis one. We gunna share it
wit' our mateys when they finally sail into 'tis port.”
…and this is the photo we posted:
We ate our lunch today at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar and Grille.
We both had very tasty food, but it cost us $50.00. I suppose we were paying
for the atmosphere. Seating was offered outside as well as inside, but we chose
to eat inside because there was no wait to be seated.
After lunch, we went to the J. N. "Ding"
Darling National Wildlife Refuge and drove along the Wildlife Drive which is an
8 mile loop. There was no admission charge today, so there were many people
driving, biking or walking the loop. We have taken the tram tour on the loop the
past two years, but we never drove it in our car. QR codes are posted throughout
the drive which can be scanned with a smart phone. Each one has a YouTube video
where a park ranger presents various kinds of information.
It was really hard to give up being outside this day, but
we did get tired and we finally got back “home” around 5:30. We ate a quick
dinner and enjoyed a beautiful end to another beautiful day.
Cordell remarked that
the problem with being retired is one never gets a day off!
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