Tampa and Fort Myers Adventure, Day 6

[Composed 11/26/2021]

Today was supposed to be a simple travel day: head from Fort Myers to the Tampa Airport where we would grab our flight back home. Shira had a clever suggestion, however. She asked my Sister-in-law if she and the fam wanted to join us at the close-to-the-airport Cypress Point Park for one more quick get together. They were in!

Cypress Point Park was the perfect place to meet. As promised, it was close to the airport. It was also in the landing path for one of the runways, so we got to enjoy watching the planes fly overhead. Shira and the girls played on the playground while D and I headed off to do a bit of park bird watching. We saw a hawk, a song bird and a red-bellied woodpecker. All a big win from my perspective.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. We made the short drive to the airport rental car return, where we learned that Tampa has a nifty feature: you can check your bags at the offsite rental car center. Alas, to use this service you need to arrive 90 minutes before your flight is scheduled to leave. We showed up with 86 minutes remaining, so we couldn't use the service. Still, it's good to know for the future.

Our flight back to DC was uneventful and landing in the chilly DC temps made us miss Florida already!

The pics on this last day were almost not meant to be. In my haste to clean up files I deleted the files off the SD Card before uploading them to Google Photos. Thankfully, Disk Drill made recovering the files a snap. I suppose I'm glad I had a chance to do a practice recovery before I found myself in a desperate spot. Hurray for Disk Drill!

Tampa and Fort Myers Adventure, Day 5

[Composed 11/25/2021]

Happy Thanksgiving! We planned for a chill, outdoor day, assuming that most businesses would be closed for the holiday.

We started our day with a delightful hike through the aptly named Lovers Key. We started our hike with some fun wildlife sightings: butterflies and a manatee. We come across a large number of interesting plants, including this mysterious guy that had red cones at its base, filled with what appeared to be pepper-like fruit:

Turns out, this is a Zamia integrifolia, also known as Zamia Floridana, Coontie or Florida Arrowroot. This specimen belongs to the ancient group of plants known as Cycads, which can be considered a living fossil (or maybe not).

While the red fruit in the dark-orange-red cones looked tasty, like the rest of the plant, it's poisonous. That is, until it's properly proccessed. Once that's been done, you end up with a flour-like substitute which was used by indigenous people and ultimately turned into an early Florida cash crop.

As we neared the end of the first loop we planned to hike that day, we came across a Gopher tortoise, an animal we'd seen mentioned in signs and brochures. He was a solid  creature, snugly tucked into a borough he'd no doubt dug himself. I snapped many pics and was pleased we could see one of these guys in the wild.

As we continued hiking throughout Lovers Key, we came across three more tortoises, including one slowly plodding along the shoulder of the road on the way out of the park. The slow, deliberate movements of these guys is almost animatronic like, and one can't help but wonder how these sluggish creatures have survived on the planet so long. That shell armor must be strong.

After exploring the trails at Lovers Key, we decided to pass on the beach and head back to our hotel.

On the way back to our hotel, I convinced Shira to stop at the Matanzas Pass Preserve so we could do a bit more exploring. While we did see some other-worldly looking spinybacked orbweaver spiders, and came across some deadly rosary peas, mostly this hiked offered us access to mud and mosquitoes. Yeah, Shira was not pleased. I couldn't blame her, given the hike we just came from and our explorations the previous day, this was pretty much redundant. Given the chance to replay the day, I'd skip the preserve. On the other hand, if we'd had been at the beach and shopping all day, the preserve would have been the perfect place to hike.

As we left the preserve, I couldn't help but notice all the life around Time Square, a touristy hot spot in Fort Myers. I suggested we stop for ice cream and explore the area. Shira was pretty sure this spot would skip the mud and mosquitoes, so she was in.

Looking at my ice cream shop choices, I opted for Kilwins. I was glad to avoid, say Cold Stone Creamery, because it was a chain. I definitely wanted to taste something local. Once we finished ordering an Kilwins, I realized that it too was a chain. Oh well, the ice cream still tasted quite good.

We strolled out to the pier and enjoyed the sights and sounds of all the tourists visiting Fort Myers. This turned out to be a delightful place to stop, and was absolutely a highlight of the day.

Finally, we returned to our room to enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving feast. We had hot dogs, buns, sauerkraut, sweet potato, and two, count 'em two, kinds of pickles. This was all courtesy of the nearby Publix and the microwave in our hotel.

After a week of visiting family, exploring amazing ecosystems, and enjoying the simple pleasures of travel, we had much to be thankful for. And again, I want to emphasize, we had two kinds of pickles at dinner. Life is good!

Tampa and Fort Myers Adventure, Day 4

[Composed 11/23/2021]

Today's plan was to explore nearby Sanibel Island. We figured we'd start our day at the large green space, the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge and explore from there. The 'Ding' Refuge website didn't give the impression that there was much in the way of trails in the area, so I figured we'd knock it out quickly and then move on.

Technically, my impression was correct. While the refuge is relatively large, there's only a 2 mile trail to walk and 4 mile section of road to drive. What I didn't appreciate from the website and map was just how glorious these short sections are. 3/10 of a mile into the Indigo Trail is a side trail and tower, which allowed us to view a hefty size gator and countless exotic (to me) birds. With my DSLR snapping pics, I was like a kid in candy store.

And that was basically our experience in the refuge: we were both thoroughly impressed with the birds and other wildlife we saw. After walking the length of the Indigo trail, including arriving at a dead end where we were met with a (harmless) Black Racer Snake, we made our way to Wildlife Drive. We walked against the traffic until we completed the loop and were back at our car.

The ecosystem was impressive at every level. From the large flocks of birds on display in the wetlands, to the single duck trying to catch lunch. As he swam through the relatively shallow creek next to us, small fish jumped out of the water to avoid becoming part of his meal. The perfect line of fish jumping was like a choreographed dance.

As we were walking along Wildlife Drive I noticed a group of folks snapping pics of the nearby canopy. I approached and ask what they were looking at. They pointed out the bird they were photographing and explained that it was a Mangrove Cuckoo. I snapped my own pics, as they explained that what I was looking at was a 'Lifer' bird. One of the folks in the group has been searching for this bird for 10 years, the other had been on the hunt for this species for 20 years. And just like that, I'd gotten to witness this amazing find.

After making it back to our car, we slowly drove Wildlife Drive, getting out to take more pics and explore as often as I could convince Shira to stop the car. Ultimately, we were both blown away by what we saw at the J. N. "Ding" Darling Refuge.

After the refuge, we made our way to one of the nearby beaches. Sanibel Island has a reputation for being a shell collector's paradise, and I have to admit, I had high hopes. What we found was a nice beach and all, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Of course, we went in the afternoon well after the beach had been picked over, and we didn't really come prepared for a day of playing at the beach. We sat and enjoyed the sun and surf for a bit, but after the amazing spectacle we'd seen at the refuge, the beach couldn't help but be underwhelming.

Because I'm always trying to squeeze in one more thing to do, I convinced Shira to stop at the lighthouse on Sanibel Island so we could do one burst of exploration. We again found ourselves on a beach without much interest in doing beachy activities, and now the wind had picked up so we were getting pummeled by wind and sand. This was looking like a fairly blah way to close out the day.

Fortunately, we kept walking and rounded the Eastern point of the island. I snapped a few pics of the lighthouse and we eventually made our way to the Northern side of the island, near Sanibel City Pier. Not only was this sheltered from the wind, but we managed to catch a beautiful sunset and even find a section of beach that had a heaping pile of shells to sift through. We left the island on a high note.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd have done the refuge, then taken in the National Shell Museum, and then taken our new found knowledge of shells and searched unnamed North beach for interesting specimens. Of course going to a crowded beach in the afternoon wasn't going to yield a romantic ambience or stretches of untouched heaps of shells. But I just couldn't resist the call of the sea!

Once back on the mainland we made our way to Dixie Fish Company at Fishermans Wharf. While my fish sandwich was OK, what really made the evening was the covid friendly open air digs, the delish Keylime Pie and the live music. Good times!