March 22-24, 2015

Sunday, March 22^nd

 

The first part of this day was another relaxing time for us. After church, we dashed into the grocery store for a couple of items before we came back to the condo.

 

We had a light lunch and then both of us took a good rest which may or may not have included a nap.

 

We invited our upstairs and next door neighbors to have dinner with us tonight. Al and Michelle are year round residents who are not fully retired yet. Michelle is lucky or unlucky because she manages an upscale jewelry store on Sanibel Island. This is a stressful time of the year for her because her drive each day involves much heavier and slower traffic. Al teaches three classes each day at a nearby private high school. He also teaches Sunday school classes at his church.

 

Webster and Bernice are older than us and they are from Illinois. Even though they rent the condo next door all year round, they only stay here in Florida for four months. Webster tries to walk a half a mile two times each day and I admire him for that because he does not let having to use a walker deter him.

 

Webster and Michelle both brought a bottle of wine with them. We had a very enjoyable evening and I wished I had organized this dinner earlier in our stay.

 

We finished our evening with another beautiful sunset.

 

 

 

Monday, March 23^rd

 

The weather forecast for today did not include any Florida sunshine. It was cloudy and very windy when we woke up and conditions deteriorated as the day passed. We stayed in and spent a lot of time catching up on our blog posts.

 

 

By afternoon, a good rain set in which encouraged us to take naps. But, by early evening the sky cleared and the sun made a late appearance.

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 24^th

 

The first thing we planned to do today was go to a bicycle shop and buy a strap for our bike rack to replace one that broke last week. We were disappointed when the clerk told us that the last set in stock had been sold just a couple of days ago. However, we did see a nice mural painted on the shop’s wall.

 

 

It was a beautiful, warm morning and with our time here in Florida drawing to a close, we decided to spend the rest of this day outside.  There are still lots and lots of geocaches for us to find so we looked for more of them that are placed on Cape Coral.

 

 

 

One cache took us to an area where the cache owner and her mother used to spend weekends camping and swimming. Back then, it had been accessible by car. Now the road is blocked with  natural materials.

 

 

 

We hiked in and on our way we heard some beautiful bird songs and encountered some very pretty yellow plants that were blooming.

 

 

 

Once at the cache site, we saw a stand of airplants.

 

 

We also saw Brazilian Pepper trees which are sometimes called Florida Holly, even though they are not a holly. This native of Brazil has been widely planted and has now spread deeply into the wild areas. Due to its aggressive nature, it has crowded out much of the existing vegetation and is considered invasive. The sale or planting of these trees is prohibited by law in some areas.

 

 

We took a walk on a boardwalk at Prairie Pine Preserve. Horseback riding is allowed on some of the trails, but we did not hike on any of those today.

 

 

 

 

The rules sign that is posted also cautions people to take plenty of water while using the trails. I found it interesting when I saw a bowl for dogs to drink from placed near the water fountains for humans.

 

 

 

 

We saw a lot of butterflies during part of our walk and they seemed to be accompanying us along the trail.

 

 

Skink lizards can be found just about anywhere and everywhere in this part of Florida and they are one of the popular foods of several predators. I saw one today that didn’t run away like most of them do. Perhaps, he thought I couldn’t see him.

 

 

My favorite cache that we found today was handcrafted to look like a birdhouse. It was actually a metal tube suspended inside the birdhouse and after we had pulled it out from the bottom, it retracted back inside.

 

 

 

 

Reflections Park, where we found the birdhouse cache was a bit unlike any park I have seen before. Many parks also contain dog parks, but this one had what was called Disney Land for Dogs. There were lots and lots of obstacles and other things for the dogs to use. I think this would be a popular addition to our parks back at home

 

 

The lake at the park had a duck with ducklings swimming on it today. Some of these cute ducklings were colored differently.

 

 

 

 

We called it a day around 4:00 p.m. and on our drive back to the condo, I noticed that the temperature was 85°. When I checked my weather app on my phone, I found out that it was 41° at home at that same time. While my heart and mind are ready to come back to Maryland, I don’t think it is true for my body just yet!