April 9, 2006 - Lovers Key - 2

Saturday morning was our canoe tour and Saturday afternoon was a tour of Florida State's Natural Museum of History located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville.  By this time I was warm and dry....so I slept most of the bus ride to the museum!

The museum is dedicated to Florida, and it was a surprise to Barb and me to learn that these big guys used to wander around here.  One of the special things about these particular big skeletons is that they're 85% original.  That means that rather than taking some bones from one carcass and some from another and some fiberglass to build a complete animal, these were mostly in one place and belonging to the same animal.  Here we had a mastodon and a wooly mammoth.

Can you tell where the plantings end and the painting starts?  The entire museum was this good.

Big section of the museum dedicated to the Calusa people and their interesting history.  Woman was their chief for a while.  Not all the old critters were big, but there were a few, for sure.

You may recognize the critter above left as an armadillo; on the right is a giant sloth.

One major part of the museum which we didn't enter was the butterfly garden.  Though it's a $7 fee to enter, we were told its well worth the price.  Next to the one in England, it's the largest and most complete in the world.  They expect to be THE largest in the not-too-distant future.  We were restricted in the amount of time we had, so we opted not to do this part of the museum at this time.  It's one on those things we'll look forward to doing in the future.

Each table (and there were lots of them) had two decorations depicting different Calusa scenes made by a basket weaving club.  Very clever, very time consuming to make, and very well done.  They were sold for $10 each, and if we'd had room, we'd have had one at least as a memento of the weekend. 

The entertainment Saturday night was provided by a professional bluegrass band, but we didn't stay for the entire show.  Too cold and, frankly, we were worn out from all the fun.

After a bit of a break to get some work done at home, we took a run to Marco Island where Barb added to her mailbox collection.  It won't be long before I'll be adding another page to this site exclusively for her love of whimsy.  What better use of a snow blower, eh?  And that dolphin is perhaps the most popular mailbox here in southwest Florida.

Some beautiful homes on the island with nice landscaping.  That century plant on the right is about to bloom, and they sure are pretty when they do.

The bridge to the island is tall enough for shipping, and the entrance to the island is spectacular with these purple flowering bushes to welcome us.

Yeah, the order of these pictures is kind of messed up, but so was our day in some respects.  We'd gone to the Chamber of Commerce as we often do, and they gave us a self-guided trip to take of the noteworthy places on the island.  Only it was phony.  We gave up trying to find anything on the map after about 3 or 4 false listings.  The Harbormaster was most kind, made some phone calls for Barb, and discovered that the accuracy of the "map" left a lot to be desired.  We still found interesting things to see, like this dolphin waiter outside a restaurant.

We stopped at the ships store by a marina because I wanted to see if they had anything "real" or just tourist clothes like so many of these places have.  Turned out to be a good mix of both.  We know Exofficio from Seattle (their home) and it was fun to see the sign here.  Have you ever tried insect-repellent clothing?

I got to chatting with the fellow behind the fishing tackle counter and discovered he knew one of the girls working here at Lovers Key in the concession stand.  And he knew his stuff about fishing besides.  Good visit.

We can see the entrance to this park from the road we take whenever we leave the park, but we've never been there.  Today we rectified that.  On weekends the parking lot is virtually FULL of dogs and owners; there weren't near so many today--which was probably a good thing. 

Last Friday on my way home from my men's breakfast meeting, I followed a SUV of some kind, that had a dog in the back.  I started following them about 6 miles from the dog beach.  The dog was a short haired retriever of some kind and obviously fairly young.  Well, let me tell you, that dog knew exactly where it was going was excited about it.  The tail was wagging at a furious rate.  The dog would look out one side (the windows were up) and then lunge over to the other side and look out that window, and then lunge back to the other side.  Back and forth it went non-stop.  Well, almost non-stop.  Every once in a while it would look between the front seats, but not for long, and it was back to the side windows again, back and forth non-stop.  I was grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the fact that dogs show emotions so clearly and unabashedly.  It was so much fun for me, I had to follow the SUV into the parking lot so I could meet the dog and its owner.  The dog came over to the side of the car and gave my hand a quick lick, and then was pulling at the leash heading to the beach.  When I told the owner what fun I'd had, he admitted the dog drove him crazy every time they came out here, but enjoyed watching the dog have fun anyway.

And after watching the dogs having a ball running around without leashes, and people enjoying their pets, and finding shells, starfish, and worm castings, we went home and I went fishing.  Caught a sheepshead that was too small and called Barb to come see why it's called that and to take a picture.

See those teeth?  It's a barnacle eater, and there are rough ridges along both the upper part and lower jaw inside its mouth.  If it had been a keeper (they're reported to be delicious), we'd have more pictures, but I wanted to get this guy back in the water as quickly as possible.

What?  Us "work" on a Saturday?  Well, OK, if you ask like that....and it's to man a booth at the Bonita Springs Day, celebrating the city's 7th birthday, and includes a free lunch.  We're easy, actually, just don't tell anybody, OK?

Our "boss" Maria was helping me or I was helping her arrange some chairs for the official ribbon cutting ceremonies for the newly renovated old building.  Barb brought a few of her shells so we could help promote the park.  Sure attracted a lot of people, too.

One little guy kept coming back because he liked to play with those tiny blue crab pincers.  Lots of compliments about Barb's shells too.  We were also promoting the Friends Of Lovers Key, a Citizens Support Organization.  They donate time and money to the park, and are a valuable resource.  Most the state parks have a CSO as they're known.

Before any event that includes politicians and dignitaries from the city, you've got to have a parade, and today was no exception.  The Dixieland band did an excellent job, and those two wives with their parasols danced up a storm besides.  You can see a little of the blue ribbon that got cut tied between those porch posts.

Then I took a walk around and enjoyed the hot-rod/classic car show.  In the distance you can see the amphitheater where several high school bands played for the occasion.  There was a huge craft show/flea market as well.  Really a big blowout for such a small town.  You can see by the lines on the lawn that the park has just been improved and the sod recently laid.

These young men were 12, 11, and 9 and did an excellent job!  This couple couldn't just stand and listen, they had to dance to the music and we couldn't blame them.  Our booth was positioned so we had ringside seats for all the entertainment in this part of the park.  The 12-year-old on the left was practically professional--he could really play; the one on the right did the vocals and well as play and he did well too.  Center guy accompanied them; together it was great music.

Seeing young people taking an interest, even if for just a short time, in their past culture and sharing it with us, makes us feel good.  And these young people were very good besides.  They'd done a show over at the main amphitheater, and this was their second show for the day.

We're suckers for "free" stuff and even more so when it's a canoe tour!  This is at Barefoot Beach, a Collier County park near us.  Marcello from Nicaragua first  gave us about a 20-minute lecture on the local lore before we took off.  He  then cautioned us that if we got rambunctious and tipped the canoe over, to not try and swim to shore.  Just stand up and walk!  Sure enough, most the time I could touch bottom with the paddle.  At least we didn't have to wade to get the canoe to water deep enough to float it!

This dad was patient with his very young son, and the little guy did a great job of behaving himself.  We were on the water for maybe an hour and a half and saw osprey nests, among other things.

We'd never seen an osprey nest this close to the ground/water before.  It was only about 15 or 20 feet high.  Once we got to open water, a dolphin came to say hello but, of course, all I could get was his dorsal fin.  As usual.  Howard Payne catching that one nailing a fish in mid-air is really outstanding photography.

Marcello was a great guide.  He'd let us go wherever we wanted, and was always available for questions.  It was hard to get lost, as the trail is clearly marked with those numbered signs you see by him.

After the canoe adventure, Barb brought me back home and then she went back to do some shelling....and since there were shorebirds there, she "had" to shoot them.  Along with a gopher tortoise.  Barefoot Beach is full of those guys, and they never fail to fascinate us.

Back at home, our neighbor Ron is working on his canoe.  It was even more badly dented than the one we bought, and he's been working on it for some time.  We just "finished" it yesterday.

Barb and I "stole" that bench from the Black Island Nature Trail.  The bank of the canal had eroded so much that there was hardly any room for your feet if you sat on it.  We couldn't move it further inland because of the trail, so we got permission to plant it at Ron's place.  That way, when Elmer wants to come visit while we're fishing, he'll have someplace to sit!

Now, Ron and I fish together a lot.  And I'll be sitting there daydreaming, watching my line, and suddenly Ron will say, "Gee, I really like green."  And I'll say something brilliant like, "Huh?" and he'll say, "The scenery has improved, Dummy," and I'll look up and have to agree.  Green can be quite nice indeed.  Is this a great lifestyle or what???

Ron's quite the fisherman.  He managed to capture this fish cleaning station from somewhere, and then he caught this "Bubble head" fish.  It's a Gafftopsail Catfish with an anomaly on its head.  Looks like a Klingon fish, doesn't it?  The state biologist I talked to said it was unusual, but not particularly rare.  The bumps weren't tumors and the fish would be OK to eat.  The "Thrill a day" continues...........