From Cheryl: This was a trip down memory lane for me. It had been 40+ years since walking the university towns of UNC and Duke. I spent a few years in this part of the South attending radiology school and getting to know the beauty of North Carolina. Studying, going to theater and music …
The cool winds of the north have started to meet us in SC. Cool 60s and beautiful blue skies, plenty of flowers budding all over the beach and grasslands. Colin wakes up early each morning before sunrise and goes out scouting for sunrise shots, while I’m still in dreamland. Myrtle Beach State Park, where we …
Charleston is a fascinating city, surrounded on three sides by water, lots of history, full of activity, a surprise around every corner. The weather didn’t cooperate with us and 50,000 runners descended on the city for the last day or two for the annual ‘bridge run’. However we greatly appreciated the ground floor of the …
Tybee Island Tybee Island, Savannah’s ‘Beach Town’ is the site from which Fort Pulaski was bombarded and defeated by Union soldiers in April 1862 whose superior ‘rifled’ guns were too much for the Fort Pulaski walls. We toured the lighthouse but the beach was under reconstruction. Fort Pulaski After taking over the fort, Major General Hunter …
We quickly came through Savannah earlier in our trip, but this time we came with the purpose of seeing spring. Green pollen everywhere so we got our wish. The Azaleas were magnificent and the bees active. We attended a concert during the Savannah Music Festival which featured Marc Broussard, a blues artist who was introduced to Cheryl …
Continue reading “Savannah revisited: Tours, Music, and Photo-Walkabout”
We parked at Clearwater Lake in Ocala National Forest as a center from which to tour the Harris Lakes area. This fresh water lake is circled by a trail which we took by foot; then hopped over to Mt. Dora for some “cute town” time; took a canal boat ride through the Mt. Dora Canal; and …
Continue reading “Mt. Dora & Clearwater by Foot, Canal Boat, & Seaplane”
On our way South through Florida we happened on a beautiful Art Museum by the lake at Eustis with a mural of Sandhill Cranes by Kace Montgomery. We loved their elegance, their red caps and hoped we would see some live versions on our trip. While in Clearwater Lake in the Ocala National Forest, …
Flamingo Gardens Wildlife Sanctuary Hundreds of thousands of American Flamingos used to visit the coastal areas of Florida in the 1800s. They were eradicated completely from the area due to egg and feather hunting over the last century. However, they were sighted again a few years ago in the Everglades National Park at a stormwater …
I’ve been trying to get a decent Pileated Woodpecker photo for over 10 years. One visits us regularly at home, poses while I get my camera, then flies off singing the haha ha Ha ha woody woodpecker song just when I’m ready to shoot. Very frustrating. I’ve been stalking one at the campground in Long Pine Key, Everglades NP for …
The Everglades The Everglades is a vast tropical wetlands area stretching from Orlando in the North to the Southern tip of mainland Florida. The National Park covers only the lower third of the area. We visited at the end of Florida’s ‘Winter’ which is the dry season when a lot of the wetlands dries up …
It was high on my to-do list, to understand how rescued turtles are treated and returned to the wild when possible. At this turtle hospital, the veterinarians have a full surgery suite, research area, and patient recovery system that is very impressive. Previous to being a hospital, the building was a motel. Each of the …
Continue reading “The Turtle Hospital at Marathon Key, Florida”
The route west from the Florida mainland over the Keys to Key West is an amazing one. Last minute reservations were difficult so we only had three nights booked on Sunshine Key (close to Bahia Honda Key State Park). Warned of traffic problems, we left Ft. Lauderdale in the middle of the night, saw …
We spent a day at Butterfly World, well actually 6 hours and 600 photographs! I think Colin took 300 of them in the first 10 minutes. We walked our feet off, but now we can visualize what Eden looked like (if it existed, this is the way we’d have wanted it to look!) What a …
Continue reading “Butterfly World, Fort Lauderdale, Florida”
Big Cypress National Preserve was created in 1974 from 720,000 acres of wet cypress forest and grassland. It is not a National Park, the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes of Florida still live here, Off Road Vehicles are allowed and hunting is permitted in some areas. However, it has the feel of a National Park and has several …
Audubon Sanctuary Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, located about 30 minutes east of Naples, features a 2.5 mile long boardwalk through pine flatwoods, wet prairie, around a marsh, and finally into the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. The unusually high water levels for the time of year resulted in the bird …
Sanibel Island We made our way to Fort Myers to see our friends from long ago, Elaine Keeler and Sid Rheuban. I worked for Elaine in MRI Education and Testing for Picker International starting in 1986 through 1989. So it had been quite a while since we last saw each other, only keeping up with …
Alternative Routes As usual, unless we are short of time, we ask our trusty German GPS to give us some alternative routes to our next destination. This often results in new discoveries and fun mini-adventures. So instead of heading for I75 down the West Coast of Florida we went down the middle and discovered …
Greenway or Canal? We spent a night by the edge of the Cross Florida Barge Canal (click for more info) at Rodman Dam Campground. This canal was never completed and after many legal battles has (along with adjoining land) become the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. Despite the warning of alligators, we found …
Anastasia Island is another Barrier Island with beautiful deserted and unspoiled beaches, dunes and marshland separating the town of St. Augustine from the Ocean. The State Park there has many secluded campsites in the palmetto and palm forest. We always had a view of the St. Augustine lighthouse no matter where we were and …
February 2 – 8: This city has much to offer the tourist and longtime snowbird. Thankfully we had two local guests who dictated a big list of things to do and see. Wendy and Chick Opel, friends from Annapolis, who have purchased a house here and had many ideas on how Colin and I …
I awoke to the Beatles playing, Today is Your Birthday and indeed it was, and then When I’m Sixty-Four (also true). Colin brought me chocolate coffee in bed, we went out to eat dinner at our favorite style of food, Indian, and then off to a movie. In years past I always wanted to see …
Little Talbot Island Like Edisto Beach and Skidaway Island, Little Talbot Island State Park is situated between a beautiful sandy beach and extensive salt marshes inland. The Island is about 6 miles long and the beach area is one of the few undeveloped beaches left in Florida. The scenery is not dramatic but the …
Continue reading “Talbot Island and Fernandina Beach, Florida”
A walking tour and trolley tour is a great way to spend a day in Savannah. Just some of the images in Savannah, from Colin’s photography. Cheryl was most amazed at the Krispies on a Stick, in so many gorgeous colors. But we resisted and didn’t buy even one. We will be back in Savannah in the …
Skidaway Island National Park is surrounded by more ‘low country’ salt marshes, similar to the Edisto Beach area. The highlights for us were watching the sun rise and moon set over the marshes, walking through the stands of Palm Trees and Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss, and watching four pelicans fishing on the incoming tide. (Click on …
Avoiding the big storm Managed to escape the ice and snow (just) by traveling South to South Carolina. Palm trees through the rain while the storm drops snow over our home state. Edisto Beach is a typical East Coast beach community, all houses built on stilts, well-kept, affluent surrounded by poor ‘low country’ communities …