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.