January 29,  Sarasota and Sebring

Two weeks sure goes by fast. We spent 8 nights at Oscar Scherer State Park, south of Sarasota and north of Venice. We really liked the park and the area. We hadn’t spent a lot of time in this area before and we enjoyed the park with hiking, geocaching and biking. There is a 21 mile bike trail that goes through the park and runs from Sarasota to Venice. We rode 10.7 miles on it from the park to Venice and back. Unlike many Oregon bike trails, it was totally flat except when it went over roads. Mark went kayaking on South Creek in the park and sailed his RC sailboat on the lake. One morning we went on a birding walk with a naturalist and saw the endangered Florida Scrub Jays, a pair of bald eagles and their babies on their nest.

On two different days, we drove over to Myakka State Park about 1/2 hour east. We stayed there in the past and really liked all the wildlife so we took a tram ride through remote sections of the park and took a pontoon boat tour on Myakka Lake. The rather large lake’s depth fluctuates from season to season depending on rainfall, but right now its deepest point is two and a half feet. We saw lots of alligators and birds including roseate spoonbills. We saw a huge alligator surrounded by vultures. It seems that alligators have a hard time digesting bird feathers so they pretty much leave them alone! We went to the birding boardwalk, the canopy walkway (25 feet up in the air) and the nature trail. It is a really nice park.

We also went to Selby Gardens both at their downtown Sarasota site and their Historic Spanish Point site. The downtown gardens are magnificent. We roamed all over seeing greenhouses  full of amazing orchids. The Spanish Point site is more wild, but equally nice. There were also some historic homes from early settlers in the area. Another interesting indoor display was of a thousand+ year old Indian midden. The display noted what was going on all over other parts of the world when the native people lived there.

We found out that the RIngling Museum of Art has free admission on Mondays so we decided to go. What an amazing place!  Ringling (of circus fame) decided to collect art and then build what looks like a Italian palazzo to house them in. The 21 galleries are full of amazing art, mostly early European, including five huge paintings by Ruben. When wealthy NY homes were going to be demolished in the thirties for skyscapers, he bought 2 fabulous rooms, had them dismantled, moved and reconstructed in the museum. The outside courtyard and formal gardens were equally beautiful we also saw the Ringling home Ca D Zan. It was a very enjoyable visit.

Another day we went to Caspersen Beach near Venice. This beach is famous for fossilized sharks teeth. There were hundreds of people on the beach looking for them - what you do is get sand and gravel in a sifter or screen box and then go through it when it is out of the water. We were not too well prepared (we had a spaghetti colander) but we managed to find a few. Afterwards we went to the Venice City beach. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach and later walked out on the Venice Fishing Pier.

Our next camping stop was at Highlands Hammock State Park two hours east of the coast and four miles from the town of Sebring. The park was built by the CCC back in the 30’s and we visited the CCC museum that was housed in the old activities buildings they built.  We also took a tram tour to  get the lay of the land. Our guide was very good and pointed out lots of birds, turtles and alligators and he pointed out interesting plants like Bladder Wort which eats mosquito larvae, and crimson and cardinal bromeliads which  bloom only once in their lifetime. The park has lots of trails which go through different habitats. Our favorite was the Cypress Swamp Trail. It was a boardwalk originally built by the CCC and is really cool. I think that we hiked all but one of the trails. They had a cool paved loop road that all the trails came off and it was really great for bike riding also. There was also a fire road that circled the park for bike riding that we rode many times and one day we found seven geocaches along it. 

One day we took an excursion to Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. It is a beautiful garden and we walked all around it and enjoyed the beautiful gardens. At 1pm we enjoyed a very nice carillon concert from the  beautiful Bok Tower. After a nice lunch on the patio of the garden restaurant, we went to a few places in the garden that we missed. At one place, there was a bird feeder and we were surprised and amazed to see about a half dozen painted buntings. Mark was so thrilled!

Now we have moved on to Lake Louisa State Park near Clermont Florida and west of Orlando.

The weather forecast is for the coldest weather this area has seen in 4 years and it is all over the news. We will have to wait and see what happens. More later!

 JANUARY 16, The Everglades and Southern Gulf coast

After we left Key West, our next stop was a week long stay at Long Pine Campground at Everglades National Park.

This whole period had above average temperatures even for Florida (highs in the mid 80’s and humid). The campground is only 6 miles into the park, so we used it as a base to see the Everglades and a few places in the Miami area. One thing we were aware of quite quickly was how much more water there seemed to be in the Everglades than in  previous winters when we were here. There seem to be a couple of reasons for this; a wet autumn and the fact that they are raising the Tamiami Trail (rt 41) to return the Everglades to its historic flow. I think this is in general, was why we saw less wildlife than other times, because the birds and animals are more dispersed because of more water. Our first day there, we drove to the Shark Valley area of the park on the northern edge and rode our bikes on the 15 mile tram trail.

We saw alligators, herons, egret, anhingas, turtles and more. We climbed the observation tour and saw the vastness of the Everglades. 

We drove the 34 miles to the Southern edge of the park a couple of times and saw manatees, crocodiles, and a red shouldered hawk.  We took all the nature trails along the road and learned about the different habitats within the park.

One day we rode our bikes 14 miles on the Long Pine Key nature trail and saw a 3 foot long diamond back rattlesnake crossing the road. He was quite beautiful.  We took a ranger led tour of a Nike Missile site within the park.

The site was built during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and was there to protect Southern Florida. The ranger was very good and gave you an idea of the tensions during that time period. Our last evening there, we took a ranger led moonlight hike on the Anhinga trail. This was on boardwalks and raised levees above the marshes and with our flashlights we could occasionally see glowing eyes in the water!

Outside of the park, we went to to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables. It is especially well known for its collection of different palm trees and cycads. Cycads look a lot like palm trees but reproduce a different way. We took a very informative tram tour around the park and learned a whole lot. We also walked all over the park. They also had a tropical butterfly house that was amazing. The garden was really beautiful.

Another day we went to the Coral Castle in Homestead. This place got a star in my tour book, but I don’t agree. This love lorn Lithuanian built this “castle” for a lost love. It has massive tables and chairs and monuments built out of limestone. He did this all by himself and to this day, no one knows how he did it. I think the mystery is why the place is so well known.

I must also mention “Robert is here” - a very touristy fruit stand outside of the Everglades. It is probably most well known for its milk shakes - we had a key lime shake-, but we were also able to get huge red tomatoes and juice oranges!

 

We spent the next seven nights at Collier Seminole State Park near Marco Island and the western edge of the Everglades. While there we spent time taking walks in Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve, Ten Thousand Islands National wildlife Refuge, Corkscew Swamp Sanctuary and our state park.

All of these different areas are working to preserve the Everglades habitat.  We also took a boat tour from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center of Everglades National Park into the Ten Thousand Island area.( It only takes one mangrove on a piece of sand to make it an island! ) Our best sightings were of dolphins flipping out of the water and playing and lots of white pelicans. It was a very nice boat ride.

We also stopped at Havanna Cafe in Chokoloskee where we had a great Cuban meal. We also enjoyed walking the beach on Marco Island.

Mark kayaked on a canal  in the state park until it became clogged with mangrove seeds. He did see 3 alligators. We also attended a fun big band concert at a park in Marco Island. It was fun listening to the music and watching people dance.

We spent one night at Koreshan State Historic Park south of Fort Myers. We did a lot in one day. We walked the trails in the park and visited the historic area. We also visited the very interesting Edison and Ford Winter Estates. It is very interesting visiting the homes of these two famous men, learning about their lives and work and visiting the beautiful estates.

We finished the day by visiting the Lee County Manatee Park. We saw 3 manatees. The manatees like this area because there is a power plant nearby which discharges warm water, which the manatees like, into the river. 

Now we are at Oscar Scherer State Park south of Sarasota. More later…