Our Last Week in Florida

 

On Saturday, we spent the day geocaching with our local friend, Brian. He is an awesome geocacher and an even better cache owner. We have learned a lot while spending time with him.

 

 

                    

The terrain here in Southwest Florida is very different from what we encounter in most of the other states while searching for caches. I have learned to constantly be aware of fire ants which are just about everywhere. But, I still forget to exercise care when I am around Saw Palms and today I got a painful reminder when one cut me on my shin,

 

 

One cache that we couldn’t resist looking for was located about 500’ feet from the road. We were not able to find a place where we could step across the water that was lying beside the road. I learned that peer pressure is still present in really old adults when Brian offered to go and get the cache for us. He took off his sandals and waded across while telling us that it was a sandy bottom. It was a very warm day, so Cordell and I decided we just had to make this trek also.

 

 

 

 

 

As I was drying off my feet, it was amusing that the towel I was using had a snowman on it.

 

 

I walked by a shrub that had very fragrant flowers blooming. It reminded me of some type of honeysuckle.

 

 

 

There weren’t many choices of places to get lunch in the area where we were caching. We decided to try the pizza at Hungry Harry’s. I was a bit disappointed in the whole experience. Even though there were booths for customers to sit at, they did not have any kind of plates, forks or knives. It was a bit sloppy, but we managed to eat all of our pizza.

 

 

On Sunday, we returned to Zion Lutheran Church for the second time. There were lots of quilts displayed that the women of the church had made and were donating. During the service, the minister gave a blessing over the quilts.

 

 

 

Last week, I thought some child had left a teddy bear in the pew. But, today I noticed that teddy bears were scattered on pews throughout the church.

 

 

 

On Monday, we did some geocaching in the North Fort Myers area. We hiked a bit at Pop Ash Preserve and as is with most preserves, we saw some beautiful scenery.

 

 

I don’t know what kind of berries these are, but I bet they are a good source of food for some creature.

 

 

I learned something else at one of the caches placed outside a pasture. I saw a horse eating the Spanish Moss that was hanging down from a tree. I wondered if the horse considered it to be a special snack.

 

 

We saw some cattle egrets in one of the fields. They are a species of heron and they often accompany cattle or other large mammals, catching insect and small vertebrate prey disturbed by these animals.

 

 

At another cache site, we saw rip rap along the roadside that is very different from what we have in Maryland. There were several types of large seashells and even some fossils.

 

 

We stopped at a Sonics for lunch and we ate our food outside just because we could!

 

 

We made our last trip to the grocery store to buy just a few more things.

 

 

On Tuesday, we spent our last day with Brian. He had received recommendations to eat at a restaurant in Cape Coral that was near a missing geocache. So we decided to kill two birds with one stone by replacing that cache and eating lunch together. Brian and Cordell fashioned a new container and placed it.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we ate lunch at Jill’s Joint, which is a café built into the front of a large warehouse. Jill does the cooking and when the waitress is delivering food to other offices, Jill also serves the food. It was very tasty home cooking and she seems to have plenty of customers.

 

 

 

 

One of the other cache sites we visited required climbing a tree and Brian easily retrieved it. This will make our sons happy because they get nervous when they see photos of Cordell climbing trees.

 

 

 

Even the weeds here are pretty this time of the year.

 

 

We were disappointed to spend way, way too much time looking for a cache that we couldn’t find. When we got back to the condo, Cordell discovered that the cache owner archived it after we posted our Did Not Find Log. But, at least I got to spend time out in the beautiful weather.

 

 

We spent Wednesday and today packing up and getting ready to start our trip back home.

 

 

Two years ago I placed a cache here and named it I Left My Heart In Fort Myers. Even though Brian maintains it for me, I went by to check it out and leave some more heart shaped trinkets for trading. And so, again this year I will be leaving a part of my heart here until we hopefully return again next January.

 

 

 

 

I went to the swimming pool both afternoons trying to soak up enough sunshine and warmth to carry me through until the weather heats up in Maryland.

 

 

Cordell spent some of his time napping.

 

 

 

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning and enjoyed one more sunset as viewed from our lanai.