Left-Leaning Birds

Is there a rule, that these birds must face left, just before sunset? Or do they just lean left, politically?

And sunset in the Everglades. But returning to shore meant massive mosquitoes. Little, but abundant. . . . and biting! (And how did they manage to fill our car?. . . . but at least they were not the vultures Dianna read about. Vultures that would eat the rubber off our tires while we drifted along, lulled by the little birdies. . . . . )

First Ever! I am Special!

It's only fair play; if I'm going to post photos of my loved ones hither and yon, then sometimes I should let them take photos of me and post them too.

So here's some terrible shots of me in a swim suit!!!!! at Vero Beach, in the pool, taken by the lovely Dianna. It's not her fault, but note the incredibly wrinkly nose look of me and terrible hair. The crinkly nose laughter is because the water was freakin' cold and Dianna was the smart one who Would Not Get In!

And note the intense, almost neon, paleness of North Dakotans in the Florida sunshine. By the way, the water bubbles are ONLY DOUG'S EFFORTS TO MOVE HIS ARMS TO KEEP WARM! But then he did his wonderful husbandly duty of lending me some of his body heat. What a guy!

And this last shot is MY VERY FIRST EVER SENIOR DISCOUNT MOVIE TICKET! Now THAT makes me REALLY like Florida! They start movie discounts at 55 (a number long-gone for me). But I'll let you in on a little secret. In Grand Forks, regular movies in the evening are only $6.

This movie was excellent, by the way. Totally creepy, prepare for nightmares, but it's also extremely funny. Creepy and funny makes for a good recipe. As I mentioned before, all 3 of us had nightmares that night. One could not remember their nightmare; one dreamed about being eaten by vampires, and the other dreamed she/she was the perpetrator of murders, passed off as an art project. Names are not revealed to protect her/her reputation.

Birds, and Birds, and Some More Birds

My apologies to the real birders among you. This is like pearls before swine; I'm not sure what these birds are. Do you know?

Spoonbills and Sandpipers

Don't you sometimes feel that the little ones are just underfoot, when you are trying to get something done?

But we have it made, compared to these Spoonbills in the Florida Everglades!

Look at all these Sandpipers, crowding around!

I don't know how these Spoonbills keep from stepping on all the little Sandpipers.

They were noisy, too! And somehow, I imagine that none of these creatures have body space issues!

And they were surprisingly calm about our boat edging its way very close to them.

Birds, Hard at Work in the Everglades

These birds were not on vacation.

This one was busy keeping a close watch on us.

This one was on nest duty:

And this bird plucked dinner out of the waters. . .

. . . and then sat and considered how to prepare dinner. Saute or baked? Or just gobble it down whole?

Everglades Photography Birding Tour

On Saturday, after "evacuating" Disney's Vero Beach, we headed down to Miami, and found a delicious Cuban restaurant. I wish I remembered the names of this food (of course, I know "rice" and "black beans"), but most certainly I remember that it was delicious!

In the morning, we explored a little, particularly this Cuban open-air market, El Palacio del Jugos.

I love the colors of such markets! I could photograph there all day, but. . . well. . . . I get a little self-conscious, particularly as my family flees in horror from me. I always see foods that I'd like to just sort of discretely nibble on to see what they taste like, but I'd probably get thrown in jail or have dogs sigged on me. . . .

This next photo was NOT in the market! By noon, we started heading west from Miami, driving along and through the Everglades. We stopped along the roadside to look down into a creek and saw these little cutie-pies (in a matter of speaking!). Doug says they are alligators, but I am still not clear on the difference between alligators and crocodiles. We were told that this part of Florida is the only place in the world, however, that has both.

We walked along a trail a bit, and I was delighted to see these air plants on the trees. And they don't look like they'd bite.

Next, we started our Birding/Photography boat tour. A guide took Doug, Dianna, and me out into the everglades. We discovered that we were actually in the coastal Everglades rather than inland Everglades, which meant we would be seeing sea water flora and fauna.

And we did see birds!

Doug is more interested in birding than I am, but I like any chance I can get to photograph something. Doug things this first bird is a heron. (He said herring, but I think that's a fish!) And these next two are photos of White Ibis.

Tomorrow, I'll show you Spoonbills. They were my favorite!

Disney Vero Beach Resort: retirement "home" & evacuation

Dianna, Doug and I had a wonderful adventure slipping away out of North Dakota on an early morning Allegiant flight to Florida. I've never flown on Allegiant before, and I was ecstatic about the good extra inch of leg room between my knee and the seat in front of me. Such joy! Such bliss! Almost made me forget that the seats don't recline and you have to pay extra for a drink of water. And now, you also pay extra for carry-on luggage. (Hint* You can fit lots of stuff in the 15 or so pockets of a photographer's vest. And fill your water bottle from the fountain after passing through security.) Speaking of security, you can score a nice little head-pat ("good girl! good girl!") if you leave a bobby pin in your hair.

The beach was perfect! And for further lazy, pleasant, diversion, at the Disney Resort at Vero Beach, we watched someone create giant bubbles:

Or stared at the palm trees. . .

Or just watched the Atlantic Ocean do its little ocean things. . . .

We thought about hanging out in one of these cabanas on the beach, until we found out that Disney charges for use of it's cabanas and lounge chairs.  Bummer! We decided to save the $30 or so by just sitting on a towel.

. . . or wandering back to the pool, where the chairs were free.

We only spent one night at the resort, and even managed to head into the city of Vero Beach after dinner to catch a movie, Cabin in the Woods.

The movie gave all three of us nightmares! I'll not tell you who had which nightmare, but one of us dreamed about eating zombies, one of us dreamed that she/he was a murderer who got away with it by passing off the murders as an art project, and one of us could not remember his/her dream.

The next morning, after checking out of our room, we spent a few more hours relaxing at the resort. As Dianna pointed out, Vero Beach, as a Disney resort, is totally unlike other Disney resorts.  The average age of the population seems to be around 65 years old. It all has the feel of a very expensive retirement community, rather than the usual lively Disney atmosphere.

We even got to play shuffle board!

One "activity" that we did not expect was the evacuation.  I myself got hustled out of the shower room next to the pool where I was drying my hair.  I thought it was strange, the loud shrill noise and the blinking lights; I thought maybe, once again, I was managing to blow out a hotel's electrical system with a hair dryer. But then some guy pounded on the door, asking if anyone was in there, that this was not a drill, and I needed to evacuate.

Disney employees take evacuation very seriously! They moved everyone rapidly through a tunnel and across the street because of a fire in their kitchen.

The fire was apparently resolved fairly quickly, we managed to be reunited with each other and our "stuff" and head on down to our next stop on our trip:  Miami.