Sunday, April 19, 2015

Aloha

Hi All,

The Four Fabulously Fortunate Friends (4Fs) AKA the Greenbaums and Schultzs, arrived safely on the Garden Isle of Kaua'i.
Roberta and Elliot flew Miami-Phoenix-LA-Kaua'i. Sandy & Carl flew Orlando-Seattle-Kaua'i with a six hour layover in Seattle. They spent a wonderful time in Seattle visiting with the Mattinglys.

The Cascades snowpack is pretty thin but the mountains are still beautiful.


We arrived in Kaua'i after dark. Not 'til this morning did we see the stunning view from our condo porch.

Stay tuned for more adventures.
Love,

Roberta & Elliot
Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 13, 2015

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Hi All,

Sunday we drove from Sugarloaf Key lback up to Tutusville after a lunch stop in Delray Beach with Roberta & Elliot. We met up with friends Trudy & Marv Horkin and spent today exploring The Merritt Island Refuge with them.

Refuge water levels were low as were bird sightings. After the wildlife drive we headed to the Haulover Canal manatee viewing area and were rewarded with about a dozen manatee! These two were feeding in the shallows.


while this one surfaced for a breath as it swam by.

As we were leaving we spotted this young gopher tortoise.
Life is good!

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Exploring the Lower Keys

Hi All,

First stop today was the Key Deer Wildlife Refuge on Big Pine Key. We hiked a couple of nature trails and ultimately spotted two of the cute little critters. They are the smallest cousin to the white tail deer standing only 24" at the shoulders.

For lunch we returned to the No Name Pub. Great pizza and walls covered with money (it's a long story, Google it if you like). Latest estimate is $130,000 stapled to the walls!


Full of pizza, we drove back to Key West and Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. This is another coastal defense fort built in the mid 1800's. Times have changed though. The ships that invade now do not get shot at and they disgorge thousands of tourists. See cruise ship in distance.

Still within the state park is one of the nicest beaches in the area. Cute signpost.

Beautiful beach

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, April 10, 2015

Dry Tortugas

Hi All,

Today we took the 2 1/2 hour ferry to Fort Jefferson  in the Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles west of Key West.

Here our Captain maneuvers us to the park dock. 


Welcome to Fort Jefferson.

The fort is huge. The perimeter moat is over a half mile long. Eight foot thick walls, 16 million bricks!

The enclosed parade ground is immense. The fort was used as a civil war prison. The most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd who treated James Wilkes Booth.

How about firing a 450 pound projectile over two miles. That's what this 15" smoothbore cannon could do. When the Army abandoned the fort they sold all of the metal for scrap. Lucky for us, these 49,000 pound cannons were too much trouble to move.

The lagoon area is a thousand shades of blue. In the distant center is Bush Key with 80,000 nesting sooty terns and 4,000 brown noddys.

There are also hundreds of these magnificent frigate birds. Not our adjective, magnificent is part of their name.

The birding, history and scenery made for a very full day but soon we were headed back to Key West.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
Posted by at No comments:

Shark Valley

Hi All,

Along US41, the Tamiami Trail, there is a small access to the northern section of Everglades National Park. 

We took a tram ride out to the observation tower.



Along the way we saw numerous alligators

Quite the view from the tower with sawgrass prairie stretching to the horizon.

Not too many birds but this great blue heron posed by the roadside.

A couple of weeks ago this gator was found dead about 50 yards from the road. The carcass and skeleton was a big hit with the young boys!

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 6, 2015

Chihuly Glass Sculptures

Hi All,

Sunday afternoon we drove to Coral Gables, south of Miami, to visit the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden with Roberta & Elliot. In addition to magnificent trees and plants, the gardens are displaying extraordinary glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly.

We arrived about 3PM and stayed until after dark.

This boat full of spikey glass spears was our favorite.


The Yellow Sun was neat.

So was this!

and this!

In addition to the outdoor sculptures, there is an indoor gallery with stuff like this

Not everything is glass. These orchids were stunning.

especially backlit by the sun.

The Amethyst Icicle
A wonderful day at a beautiful garden.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, April 3, 2015

Waiting for Windows

Hi All,

When the seals on the dual pane windows fail, moisture and dust get between the panes, fogging the window. Suncoast Designs in Hudson, FL removes the windows, cleans and reseals them. They are so busy that their parking lot (with water & electric hookups) has more RVs than some campgrounds we have been in.

When they remove the window, they tape a big piece of cardboard in place to keep the bugs and rain out. 

They obviously reuse the cardboard since many RVers have shared their sentiment on the cardboard.



Looks like they will finish our job later this afternoon!

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)