Still "cooling" it.

Thursday, January 28^th

Well, we still have been taking it easy for the past week. The temperature has been a bit cool and we have had several days of rain, but it is still nothing like what our folks at home have been dealing with.

 

Even temps in the 60’s are not bad when there is blue sky like what we had when we took a short walk around the neighborhood on Sunday.

 

 

 

One resident keeps a stuffed creature hanging in the shrubbery and it has different decorations with it. Today, there was an American flag.

 

 

On Monday, the crews were out mowing the grass in the community. We thought that it was a big contrast when compared to our friends and family back home who were beginning to dig out from the record snow fall over the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

I had a sonogram in the morning and I have been greatly impressed with the two medical care providers that I have seen here in Florida. The waiting time was surprisingly short and the care was very personal. I wonder why all facilities and offices can’t be run with this same efficiency.

 

 

 

The local alligator made another appearance on Tuesday. We have not seen him this often in the three previous years we have been here. Thankfully, I have not seen him or heard him catch any prey.

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday afternoon, we did a little geocaching on Cape Coral. We stopped at Lake Saratoga Park which had interesting activities.

 

 

I was especially interested in the health trail which had various stations that could be used for exercising. I really would like to see something similar built in Dunkirk Park at home.

 

 

 

There were also places and equipment to use to play bocce ball.

 

 

Eight horseshoe pits were also available. It looked like there might be some league play here.

 

Cape Coral is a lot like Lehigh Acres in that there are a lot of homes built beside canals. So instead of seeing people walking streets in their neighborhood, we often see them riding their boats.

 

 

 

I’m not sure what kind of tree this is that is blooming, but I enjoy seeing flowers in January!

 

 

 

One of the geocache sited led us to an old water fountain that unfortunately is in disrepair. I can imagine how beautiful it must have been in past years and so wish that it could be functioning again.

 

 

On Wednesday, we had some more “liquid Florida sunshine”.

 

 

Later, the alligator came by to visit again.

 

 

 

 

We had another rainy and gloomy day on Thursday. The water in the lake is the highest we have ever seen. We can’t imagine what it must be like during the rainy season.

 

 

 

However, the American Coots didn’t let rain bother them!

 

 

Sidelined

Saturday, January 23, 2016

 

I have been dealing with some health issues for the past week and haven’t felt like doing much of anything other than taking it easy around the condo.

 

On Monday, we ventured out for a little while to revisit a geocache that we couldn’t find earlier in the month. It aggravates Cordell when other cachers came behind us and found what we couldn’t. This time, I spied it in a place where we both had previously searched and actually had our hands on it.

 

 

 

 

Near the cache site, we saw this unique mailbox that made us think of our sons who liked dragons.

 

 

Just off the edge of a side walk, we saw this tree with fruit on it. Not sure if it is a grapefruit or an orange.

 

 

On Thursday, Cordell took a walk through our neighborhood. While it is not spring, it certainly looks spring like to us.

 

 

 

 

 

We have been staying in close contact with our family and friends back north and are monitoring the weather reports. While we regret that they have to endure such a monstrous snowstorm, this is one of the reasons we are so very grateful that we can spend the winter months here in Southwest Florida. The temperatures have been in the 60’s during the days and sometimes reach 70 by the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, we awoke to rain, thunder and lightning again, but thankfully no tornado watches. By late afternoon the sky cleared and we were able to see another pretty sunset.

 

 

 

High winds arrived last the night with gusts up to 29 mph. They are expected to blow throughout the day and again tomorrow. We did see a pretty rainbow over the lake this morning.

 

 

This will be another good day to laze around, watch some basketball games and read.

 

Geocaching in Napes

January 16, 2016

 

It was such a warm day today that even the old ladies came out in their shorts.

 

 

We took off south towards Naples where there are lots of geocaches just waiting to be found by us.

 

 

There was a nice water falls in one of the parks surrounded by plants that attract butterflies. We didn’t see any butterflies there today, but we did see two men sleeping on a couple of the benches.

 

 

This is the tallest fire ant hill I have ever seen. When I stopped to take this photo, a small snake raced away.

 

 

One cache was located in the middle of a business complex. It had a difficult rating and we had a lengthy search—especially because the coordinates were not accurate as had been noted by previous cachers. Hardly any offices were open on this Saturday except for one near the geocache site. One of the ladies who was working inside came out and told us that she knew what we were looking for and we were close, but she was not going to tell us where to find it. When I found it, I glanced in the office window and saw her and her coworker standing, pumping their fists in the air and applauding for us.

 

 

While we were out, we stopped in a super Walmart and I was especially interested in the number and variety of paintings that are available.

 

 

We ate lunch at Rib City Grill. It was amusing at how the Beans and Franks were described on the menu.

 

 

I enjoyed some of the signs that were decorating the dining room.

 

 

 

 

 

Cordell took this photo in the men’s room.

 

 

We never know just what we are going to see while out on our adventures, but we are constantly blessed with beautiful views from our lanai and especially pretty sunsets.

 

 

 

 

Good and not so good weather—but it’s not snow!!

January 15, 2016

 

On Wednesday, we spent time at a 578-acre preserve known as Harns Marsh which is one of the area’s major stormwater retention/detention facilities. It is well known for the variety of birds that can be seen there.

 

 

  

 

Lots of beautiful scenery here, including trees with Spanish Moss hanging on them.

 

 

 

We are not “birders” and we went there specifically to look for 8 geocaches that were placed in the marsh. We hiked along the water and did see several types of birds.

 

 

 

We found 7 turtle themed geocaches. I was impressed with the amount of work the cache owner put into making the containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one of the caches, the owner asked us to log comments about friendship. I knew I had to share this with our good geocaching buddy, Melli, so we made a FaceTime call to her from the site and shared the experience with her.

 

 

 

 

We came across an empty tortoise shell and I thought that it would make a really good geocache container.

 

 

After hiking 3+ miles, we worked up a good appetite. We stopped at 5 Guys which is becoming one of my favorite burger restaurants. I counted 6 guys and 1 gal working there today. I sure wish they had one of these in Dunkirk.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, we went to downtown Old Fort Myers to get some information about a walking tour to view 24 sculptures that are on exhibit in several locations until the end of March. This one is placed outside the Chamber of Commerce. We will wait to take the tour with either our family when they visit or with friends.

 

 

 

While we were driving around, Cordell noticed this huge stop sign. He thought it must have to be this large so all the old people will be sure to see it.

 

 

And, we couldn’t come back to the condo without finding at least one geocache.

 

 

 

Today, Friday, we woke up to rainfall and very stormy weather predicted for several hours. We decided that it would be a good day to stay in bed for a while. One of us was able to go back to sleep while the other spent a few hours reading.

 

 

 

Breakfast time was missed, so Cordell suggested we eat brunch instead. The strawberries we get here come from Plant City and they are fantastic. I had these in the refrigerator for over a week and today they were fresher than the ones I buy from the stores at home.

 

 

 

 

The weather deteriorated as the time passed and while we were eating we got a tornado warning on our phones.

 

 

We turned on the local television station where we learned that not only was there a tornado warning, but also a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch. Today’s storm concerned me more than the one a few days ago because it was daylight and we could see the effects much better.

 

 

 

 A look at the weather map showed us that rain was falling in the southern states while Maryland seemed to be clear.

 

 

 

 

The local alligator was on the prowl again and we watched him slowly creep up on some fowl that were fishing along the edge of the lake. I pleaded with Cordell to go outside and scare the fowl away, but he wouldn’t do it. Thankfully, the gator didn’t take any of the fowl while we were watching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 By late afternoon, the storms had passed, the sky was somewhat clear and there was hardly any wind at all. It was such a big change in just a few hours.