Happy Chanukah

Hi All,
Happy Chanukah to all of our Jewish family and friends

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Big Cat Rescue

Hi All,

On the way back to Ocala National Forest, we stopped at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. This non-profit facility cares for over 100 exotic cats, most of which were abused or raised as pets until it became clear to their owners that 100 pounds of wild cat no longer made a good pet.

The 90 minute guided tour was excellent and we enjoyed it a lot.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Amazing Picture

Hi All,

Tonight Carl pointed his iPhone at the sky and got this fantastic photo. 

Of course, it didn't come from the camera but from an Internet site called Astronomy Photo of the Day. Images like these are also available with an app called "APOD"- enjoy

Love,

Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Siesta Key Beach

Hi All,
This beach goes on for miles, all talcum powder sand. In spite of the crowds, we found lots of birds as we hiked along the shoreline. New birds for the trip include black slimmer and snowy plover.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Miles of Talcum Powder Sand

Sandy at "Work"

Willet at "Work"

Mixed Flock on the Beach

Sent from my iPhone

Selby Gardens

Hi All,

After breakfast with the Chai group we rode our bikes around this huge RV resort (1,800 sites) and did some birding at a local park. The highlight was seeing 7 limpkin standing together, usually we see one or two.

After lunch we went to Selby Gardens. They specialize in epiphytic plants like bromeliads but the orchids were more photogenic.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Selby Gardens on Sarasota Bay

Each flower was more beautiful than the previous one

Sent from my iPhone

Chai Rally in Sarasota

Hi All,

We left Shanty Pond this morning for a few days at the gathering of the Jewish motorhome group, Chai, in Sarasota, 175 miles away.

Last year we had about 10 rigs, this year there are 23. It was wonderful to see all these folks. We will eat too much in the next few days ;-).

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Another Day Off

Hi All,

Carl started the day with a 9 mile bike ride. After breakfast we went for a 5 mile hike along the Florida Scenic Trail at Hopkins Prairie with our friends Jim & Evalyn. They drove down from Jacksonville last night in their new RV, a Winnebago Era built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis. It is beautiful and much roomier than the regular van in which they traveled to Alaska and across the US.

Tomorrow we drive the coach to Sarasota for the Chai Rally of our Jewish motor homing friends.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Check this Out

Hi All,

We've all heard the expression, "There's an app for that" but my most recent deposit of a check into our Fidelity account still has me shaking my head. 

From the Fidelity app on my iPhone I photographed both sides of the check and the images were sent to Fidelity as a deposit. Once the amounts show up in our account, I throw away the check!

Love
Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Back to Work

Hi All,

Quiet day at the Visitor Center. Just thought we'd send along the river otter track from yesterday.

Love
Sandy & Carl

BTW: all of these emails are in a blog at livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

River Otter Track

Sent from my iPhone

Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge

Hi All,

Another beautiful day found us at nearby Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped in the visitor center and had a nice chat with the volunteer, Anne Snyder. In addition to talking about places we've volunteered, Anne and Carl reminisced about working for Grumman on the Lunar Module program in the 60's . Small world indeed.

We hiked almost 5 miles around the refuge ponds. The big flocks of waterfowl have not yet arrived but we saw bald eagle, osprey, red shouldered hawk and an assortment of wading birds as well as a huge flock of robins. 

The best sighting was a pair of black vultures that let us get very close before flying off.

Our spotting scope has been repaired and Carl is getting good photos on his iPhone through the scope(see below).

We saw some interesting tracks which turned out to be river otter.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Essex House 2, the great seafood restaurant operated by a woman who moved down from Essex, MA. It was as good as we remembered it.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge 

Red Shouldered Hawk

Great Blue Heron Stretching

Little Blue Heron

Black Vulture Portrait

Black Vulture Buddies

Sent from my iPhone

St Francis Trail

Hi All,

Another glorious, sunny day brought us to the St Francis trail. This 7 mile loop leads to the site of an 1850's community along the St Johns River where riverboats delivered supplies. When trains replaced ships as the main commercial transport, St Francis withered away.

The trail is gorgeous, a hardwood hammock of tall oaks with cabbage palm and saw palmetto growing close. The setting is so tropical, we might have been tempted to greet another hiker with, "Dr Livingston I presume"! However, in 4 hours on the trail we never saw another hiker.

We did see lots of birds including white eyed vireo, black and white warbler and red bellied woodpecker. The star attraction was a barred owl that swooped in to perch right above the trail. He stayed for a few minutes then flew off as silently as he arrived.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Trailhead Sign

Beautiful riverside spot for lunch

Glad we didn't walk into this spider web!

Sent from my iPhone

Yearling Trail

Hi All,
After two days of rain that got us caught up with chores and shopping, we were back in the forest. The Yearling Trail goes through a sand scrub habitat to an area that was settled in 1872. In 1933 author Marjorie Rawlings visited the Long family and heard stories of their lives that provided material for her mover, "the Yearling".

We hiked a four mile loop where we spotted Florida Scrub Jays, Red Headed Woodpecker and Eastern Bluebird. We caught a brief glimpse of whitetail deer and lots if deer tracks along with lots of bear tracks.

After our hike we visited nearby Silver Glen Springs.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

A Day out of the Forest

Hi All,

We love our life in the forest but once in a while it's good to go to the big city. Today we drove to Town Center, a huge shopping area in south Jacksonville. 

Sandy shopped while Carl took a class at the Apple Store. We then both had a wonderful iPad training session ( oh, did we mention we got an iPad;-).

Cheesecake Factory, Costco and 2 new tires for the car rounded out out day.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Happy Shopper

Sandy learning about her new iPad from Steve, a great Apple trainer

Sent from my iPhone

Exploring Ocala

Hi All,

After a Safety meeting in the morning we reacquainted ourselves with the SE corner of the Ocala.

We drove to a spot overlooking Echo Lake where the view was great. When we returned to the car we were greeted by a Sandhill crane walking across our path. Exploring further along we encountered this sign which we decided not to drive past. 

Our last stop was at Alexander Springs where we hiked the Timicuan Trail.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Ocala National Forest

Hi All,

Thurs - Dec 1, 2011- Exploring the Forest

We hiked three forest trails to reacquaint ourselves with the things people ask about at the Visitor Center, Salt Springs and Lake Eaton.

Back at Shanty Pond we met the camp host Hornsby's and got to share thier DSL line.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sandy among the Spanish Moss

Fungi growing from a rotting log

View across Lake Eaton

Sent from my iPhone

Garrett & Wyatt

Hi All,

Some photos Tara sent showing the boys with Santa and at the Firing Range AKA "Navy Seal Training"

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Salt Springs Visitor Center

Hi All,

Here's where we will be working through the winter. Typically 50 - 75 visitors each day.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: Shanty Pond Sunset

Hi All,

Beautiful sunset at our campground. Finished our second day in the Visitor Center. Life is good

Love
Sandy & Carl

Sent from my iPhone

A New Blog Stream

Carl is still experimenting with different ways to record and capture our experiences. This blog is linked to our email system so it creates a running record of our travel journals.