FLORIDA - Part TWO

After the Florida Keys, we headed north and then west across the Everglades Park. LOTS of construction and one-way guided vehicles.

This is the start of the road going west...before construction.

All of us going west got escorted with a pilot vehicle at many times during the 50 miles.

This is pretty much the view looking north or south as we travelled across the Everglades.

...and a bunch of these places.

They held more than just a couple of people. We did not stop.

We passed quite a few visitor centers and, once we got to the last visitor's center, we thought, "Well, we ought to stop to visit at least one". We walked up to the building and, over nearby was a walkway with a guard rail so....I said, "Kim, let me go over to see what's over there"....and here's what we found...

We counted over 25 of these guys in the side lagoon area we overlooked! This was the best we've seen in our travels of the gators. They're amazingly fascinating to watch....even though they hardly move.

After all of that excitement, we pulled into Ft. Myers for a couple of days. This is our spot...right next to the inland islands.

...one of our neighbors had a visitor on top !

Heading over the bridge to Ft Myers Beach. That's the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. It was spring break and the beaches were mobbed. We ate inside and just watched.

Local street views...typical of this beach tourist town.

Some of the local scenery

Local street views...typical of this beach tourist town.

They have these HUGE outdoor linai-type rooms that enclose the entire backyard and pool....

...to keep out the bugs, gators, etc. Nice little "cottage" huh?

The Fish Monger restaurant....great food !

We stayed at Ft. Myers so that we could go to one of our favorite shell beaches - Sanibel Island. We've been twice before and collected quite a number of shells which Kim put in frames that we hung in our hallway at home.

She even put some out so people could pick them up and handle them.

These are from our home in Dixon....they're all in storage now.

Anyway....here are some photos from Sanibel Beach....

The bridge heading west over the Sanibel Island.

This is why we came....check out all the shells.

Kim LOVES looking for sea shells.

Here's a find....no, not me...the sea shell.



These pelicans became our favorite birds.
They look so gangly in the water but when they are so graceful when they are flying.

This is a disease many people get when collecting...it's called The Sanibel Stoop.

Of course, FrogMan had to go looking out further....notice the convergence of man, bird and water craft all at once.

One happy hubby

Well, we are off to Nokomis....about 100 miles north for a couple of months. We'll post those next time.

Kim and Steve