birding, canoeing and camping

Sat Jan 30, 2015:  We left early for the Naples area to walk and bird.  As usual we got 49 species of birds on our walk.  For some reason we can not get 50!  There are plenty of birds we should be able to add to our list.. keeps us going back.

A lunch stop

the ribs and mac and cheese were OK, the brisket was good, the pork, beans and cole slaw were all very good.

we stopped at

to walk a bit but there was a Diamondback Rattlesnake that was being aggressive, they had to close down the trails..  so we headed to Walmart

we have been looking for this pie since October!!  hope it lives up to the hype

we also found

When we got back to camp the entire place was jamb packed!  there was at least 15 tents in the 10 tent sites along with a few van campers..  We have never seen it so crowded.

Sun Jan 31: We went canoeing with the park, this is the trip that had been canceled 2 weeks ago.  Today's weather was perfect mid 70's, mostly sunny with little wind. The trip lasted about 5 hours.  Because of all of the rain recently the Turner River was pretty high.

We were not sure if we could get under the bridge:

we had to actually lay down in the canoes to get under, it was pretty scary!  Once we got going the scenery was beautiful

we had to duck a lot and go hand over hand to get through the mango tunnel

lunch time:

It was a fun day, a bit too long, about 5 hours.  We had 6 canoes and 3 kayaks.  2 of the couples had never canoed before, needless to say they did very bad.  It was painful being behind them as they got stuck about every 4 yards...   We actually expected at least one couple to end in the water but everyone made it out without flipping.

As I was doing laundry, Eric found this Wilson's Snipe

January bird count:  526 lifetime that is 2 new birds this year, 114 birds for January.

Mon Feb 1:  Well is it very obvious that we headed to Miami today as it rained the whole day!  It seems like every time we go to Miami it rains..  We made the best of the day, found a new bird, walked in a new park between the rain drops.

We ended up at

It is not the Waldorf but it is cute and comfortable!

Eric was in charge of dinner

beautiful night in the park.  we had to put the A/C on as it was very humid.  fun day all in all.  someday we will come to Miami and it will not rain...

Tues Feb 2:  Beautiful morning in Miami!  A great day to spend on the beach

Eric in the water...

Kathy in the water...

a great day to paddle board

We spent the entire day hanging at the beach, relaxing, reading and a bit of swimming.

We stopped at the casino on the way back for the buffet dinner.  We had a coupon so the price was $11.95 for the two of us!!  It was actually pretty good food.  Eric walked out with $20 more than he came into the casino, I lost $10...

tomorrow is back to work...