pics from monday night dinner

 we got back on monday and went for a walk to faicco's for marinara sauce and meatballs for dinner . . it's nice catching up with chanda and seeing little  pluto.

i've been cleaning out the photo files on my computer and on my phone, and it's been very time consuming! i finally unpacked yesterday, but now am heading out to see my sister.

out on the bay

it's 2021 and i perused my tags to check on the day greg and i volunteered with adam at everglades national park and helped him on his water base rounds. he checks for rain levels and water salinity and ph. well, it wasn't there and i realized i hadn't finished posting about our october 2019 florida trip . . so now i'll see how much i can do.

 

we were up early to make sandwiches for ourselves and to pack the car for a day out on the water with adam.

 

we first drove in his little car from key largo to homestead and the entrance to the park, which took about an hour. after passing the visitor center, we stopped at the park personnel lot to switch to a truck that had the gear he needed for the day's work. we then drove another hour to the boat launch at the flamingo visitor center, where we loaded up and coasted over to the canal.

i honestly felt like i was on the disney jungle cruise . . 

once you pass the visitor center where you can gas up or buy food supplies, the canal opens up a little more . .

until you come out to whitewater bay . . 

it's incredibly beautiful and we passed many egrets, ibis, great blue heron birds and orchid plants high up on bare tree branches.

i loved sitting in the bow as we sped along . .

this was the most beautiful part of the entire trip for me . . when we came out of the snake river (where whitewater bay had led us) into the gulf of mexico . . actually this little part is know as ponce de leon bay, but the entire gulf spreads before you.

the horizon was barely visible . . sky and water were so similar in color. adam said he had never seen it so monochromatic before.

 

  we were headed to the little shark river for one of the water checkpoints . .

we had to take the tarp down in order to squeeze past several large low lying branches . . i felt like i was in the movie the african queen . .
 

 

 

this section is very muddy so we had to make sure to leave before the tide went out  . .
 

i loved how the birds flew up from the underbrush as the boat sped past them . . 

and this is where we saw dolphins! i didn't get a photo but we did see them jumping and it was incredibly exciting. adam brought the boat around in a circle but they must have had an agenda as they didn't come back up again, but sped away into the distance.

 

we had one last checkpoint which i got to do . .

after securing the boat . . 

i climbed up and checked the rain water level and then climbed back down. i actually don't remember it being very easy. the rungs were skinny and it was hot and sticky and all new to me, but definitely fun.

we then had an hour long ride back to flamingo center. 

the sky and clouds felt overwhelming beautiful (florida has the fluffiest clouds).

 

back in the canal . . 

we docked and  adam picked up supplies and gassed up . . 

while greg and i walked around and found a manatee family to say hello to. if you don't want to watch the full video, jump to 2.0 to see the family all together. there was a boat wanting to back down into the water, but its owner had to wait for the manatees to move (they were feeding on the grasses).

 

 

it was such a fun day.

heading back to the work dock . .

a blue heron . .

unloading . . 

we took the truck to adam's office . . 

to drop off a few items . . 

and to input some data . . 

admiring adam's badges from the national parks.

there's actually a few parks he hasn't been to, such as hawaii - he hasn't visited hawaii yet.

showing us on the map where we were today.

we had an hour and a half ride back to key largo and we were all very hungry (though we went home and cleaned up first). we ate at the buzzard's roost, which was lovely being right on the pier, surrounded by boats and quaint houses. i persuaded them to eat outside and they acquiesced as long as we sat in the shade (even the setting sun feels hot in florida).

fried clams (adam), blackened shrimp (greg) and crab cakes (me). everything was so good.

we took a walk to the end of the pier and looked out over garden cove.

the beach behind me is not very sandy. i think it was coral, but not very healthy looking coral. wikipedia says it's a fossilized remnant of a coral reef which formed during a period of higher sea level and then eroded during a subsequent ice age.

what an amazing day . .

everglades national park

 the beautiful florida sky and clouds in everglades national park . . greg and i were up early to catch a ranger walk at 10 am (after coffee and tea at winn dixie).

our guide, ted, explained how the water current has changed over the years. the everglades is, or was, a beautiful river of grass whose watershed began north of orlando. today, it is confined to the southern tip of florida. in the 1800's and early 1900's, settlers in the area viewed the wetland as a worthless swamp, and drained much of it for agriculture and communities that built up around it. dams, levees, canals and roads were built throughout the vast river, completely changing the landscape. lake okeechobee, whose water once flowed freely south into the wetland, now has a vast dyke surrounding it. two main canals branch off of the lake, leading east and west, where water is controlled so as to irrigate sugar fields and provide for miami and the other towns west and south of it. the diagram on the far left of ted's poster, shows how the water used to flow. the middle diagram, with the green parkland only at the tip, shows how the situation is now. the far right diagram, is what the park aspires to. i don't quite understand how they will arrive at that place as the everglades is fraught with political obstacles. there is even a book written about the situation: the swamp, the everglades, florida, and the politics of paradise, by michael grunwald, which i would like to read.

following our guide along the royal palm, anhinga trail . .

 bushy bluestem grass . . 

 lilies in the marsh pond with sawgrass extending beyond . . 

our guide was surprised that no alligators were resting in the grasses in the shade. usually at this time of year they are prevalent along this trail and at this shaded rest area . .

but not today! perhaps, it was just too hot. even the local people were saying that it was much to hot for october 19th . . i think it went up to 96 degrees fahrenheit, and i'm sure the humidity was also in the 90's. autumn through spring is considered the dry season, and the water level is low, allowing for many low-lying birds to nest.

 morning glories are very hardy and thrive in the park . .

greg looking out over the waterlilies with the florida red bellied turtle swimming about, along with the florida gar fish . . those are the two we saw.

 

 pond apple . .

 i guess this could be a giant reed or type of lovegrass . . 

 the grasses along the path . . 

this is either a shortleaf florida fig tree (ficus citrifolia) or a florida strangler fig (having a coarser leaf - ficus aurea), both are banyan species.

 the vast marsh . . called a slough . . this is the paradise key hammock:

"an island of hardwood (trees) surrounded by the slow-moving river of taylor slough . . "

greg looking out at the view and the sawgrass . . 

a small green florida lizard, i often see these at greg's mom's house . . 

 

 

a white egret we saw along the road on the way to the mahogany hammock.

admiring the sabal palms and the mahogany trees . . 

and the air plants . . 

a fallen "nurse" log, feeding many plants and insects . . 

a beautiful mahogany tree, which serves as a support for plants and animals, acts as a windbreak and prevents soil erosion.

periphyton, a spongy freshwater algae that serves as food for fish and tadpoles . . 

giant sabal palms almost blocking the path . . 

greg, listening to the blue jays and mockingbird (the florida state bird) that we heard . . 

the giant green fly that landed in my hat, and, thankfully, not on me. the people we met on the trail mentioned how their bite is very painful. considering the bites their smaller cousins of the north create, i was glad it finally left me alone, unharmed. we struck up a conversation with the two men you see in the above movie. one was the resident folk singer, and knew my nephew. he also had heard of greg's ancestor, laura up the grove and the ashley gang, notorious gangsters of the south. you can read a little bit about her here. 

heading back to key largo . . 

we had delicious fish tacos with my nephew at one of his favorite restaurants in town, where another man at the bar heard us talking about the ashley gang, and chimed in with his opinion of their history. maybe i shouldn't have been so surprised and amused at how everyone in the area knows this story, but i was! greg has regaled us with tales of his seemingly obscure distant relation for years, that i find it funny seeing how well known she really is.

back in my nephew's neighborhood, we were in time for the sunset across florida bay.