Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Got the bikes out this morning and rode down to the Loxahatchee River.  There are a lot of bike paths, bike trails, and hiking trails in this park.  And you bike through what Florida was like back in the day.  Slash pines, palmettos, and wild flowers. Really pretty and smells wonderful.  A nice day for biking—mostly cloudy and hardly any wind—at first, anyway.  Had a snack and something to drink down by the river and then biked back.  Winds had picked up by now and it was a little hard slogging here and there.  Back to our site.  I was all sweaty and gritty, so took another shower and washed my hair.  Think we’ll go see a movie this afternoon.  Low 80s today. 

Bikerchic

Mike spotted this gopher tortoise.

What a beautiful biking trail!

Cacti are blooming in the park right now.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Cloudy this morning, but finally the wind stopped.  Off to a spring training game between the Cardinal’s and the Marlin’s at Roger Dean Stadium.  A perfect day, since it was mostly cloudy.  Otherwise, we would have fried out there.  Had our fill of stadium food for lunch and then took our seats to watch the game.  We won—5-4.  A good game.  Back home and stopped to check out one of the boat tours we want to take.  Not sure what the weather is for the next two days.  Whether we go or not will depend on that.  We have been plagued by ants since we got here.  Big ones too.  They start to appear in the evening.  Maybe vampire ants?  Put out some traps.  Hope they work.  83 today.

Pitcher warming up.

Cards at bat.

We won!

Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Another really windy day today.  Spent the morning slogging through e-mails, balancing check book, credit card statements, etc.  Other than that, we pretty much hung out mostly inside because of the wind.  It’s starting to rain and we’re supposed to get quite a bit of rain.  They need it here though.  Hopefully it won’t rain tomorrow, since we have tickets to the Cardinal’s game against the Marlins tomorrow afternoon.  Upper 70s today.

Beautiful sunset last night.

Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL, to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Left the Everglades this morning at 10:00 after stopping at the dump station.  Took Florida’s Turnpike north past the urban sprawl that is greater Miami and after a little more than two hours of driving we stopped at the West Palm Service Center for something to eat.  We’ve been looking forward to this stop for a year now, since the last time we stopped here we had sandwiches at the “Earl of Sandwich” which were excellent.  Imagine our dismay when we discovered the whole place is shut down for renovations.  Go figure.  The only other eating establishment there was Nathan’s.  So, I had a hot dog and Mike had a burger.  Back on the road with Mike behind the wheel and it was only about 20 miles to Jupiter.  Got there and were set up by 3:00.  Then off to Hobe Sound to do the laundry and grocery shopping.  Now we’re good to go for the rest of the week.  Pretty cloudy here and VERY windy. Left-over pork chops for dinner tonight.  81 today.

Pretty wild flowers in bloom--Pine Land Trail, Everglades.

Sat, 3/16/13:

Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL:  Not quite so cold this morning and it warmed up quickly. Made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, biscuits, and juice.  Tasted pretty good.  Can’t remember the last time I cooked breakfast in here. We drove over to the gumbo limbo trail and walked it since we’d heard there were owls there also.  Sure enough, there was one adult owl.  No sign of any owlets though.  Drove back to Mahogany Hammock one last time to see if we could find any owlets.  Got there and a bunch of people were gathered around with cameras, tripods, and spotting scopes.  There were two owls.  One had just brought the other a snake to eat.  So, it appears we couldn’t find any owlets because they had already fledged, but the mother was still feeding them.  You could tell the owl receiving the snake didn’t quite know what to do with it.  He finally dropped part of it.  They were way back in the canopy so it was hard to get a picture.  They weren’t cute and fuzzy any more. Watched them for a while and continued on.  On the way back to our campground, we stopped at Pine Land and walked the trail.  We always see a lot of tree snails on this trail, but this year we found only one.  They’re getting very rare, and most of them have been exterminated—humanoids again.  During the winter season they affix themselves to a tree and basically sleep the winter away—in sort of a state of hibernation.  If you remove them from the tree in this state they die.  Back to our site and relaxed outside enjoying this beautiful day.  Made a chocolate cream pie and warmed up some lasagna for dinner.  81 today.  Tomorrow we leave for Jupiter, FL.

Adult Owl--Gumbo Limbo Trail

Tree Snail on Pine Land Trail

Fledgling owl trying to eat a snake brought by the adult.
Picture by Mike

Fri, 3/15/13:

Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL:  Cool this morning but warmed up quicker.  Had to go back to Walgreen’s to pick up Mike’s script, so we had breakfast again at Cracker Barrel.  Topped off the gas tank and then headed back to the park.  Drove directly to Poirotus Pond to check out the rookery there.  Both the wood storks and the roseate spoon bills are nesting right now.  The rookery isn’t that big this year.  Talked with the ranger for a while and watched a cormorant that had caught a huge fish and couldn’t quite figure out what to do with it.  He finally gave up and let it go.  A guy there with a 600 mm lens got a great photo of the ordeal.  Left there and headed back to Mahogany Hammock to see if we could spot the owlets.  No luck again.  Mahogany Hammock is pretty unique, I think.  In some areas it’s a tropical jungle and in others it’s a hardwood forest.  Pretty amazing.  And there are two strangler figs in there which are amazing. Back to our site, topped off the water, and sat around reading for a while.  Pork chops, mashed potatoes and a vegetable for dinner.  85 today.

Eastern King Bird--Poirotus Pond

Thu, 3/14/13

Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL:  Cool again this morning.  Headed out early to drop off a prescription at Walgreen’s for Mike. Did that and went next door to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  Feeling a bit warmer, but headed up the Florida’s Turnpike a couple of exits to check out the movie theater there.  Noted the times for future reference and then we headed to a remote eastern entrance of the Everglades NP to check it out.  This hammock, Chekika, was inhabited for thousands of years.  Most recently it was a resort, but the park bought the land because of its importance to the Shark River Slough that is the Everglades.  This remote hammock was accessible only by canoe at one time.  The original Everglades was a river of grass 40 miles wide and 5 inches deep.  It’s now a mere shadow of its former self.   It actually got up to 75 today.  On the way back we stopped at the Anhinga Trail and walked around a little.  Lots of Europeans and Asians in the mix.  Back home and had sandwiches for dinner.

Anhinga chicks--Anhinga Trail

Mike pointing out a gator on a little pond at Chekika Hammock

These grasses on Chekika are over 7 feet tall.

Water lily--Anhinga Trail