To the island of Sanibel for beach combing before going to church. Mixing the two created a classic fashion cocktail reminiscent of the early 80's and 90's when you would see professional women traveling to and from the office in similar combos. Now ballet flats have mostly taken away this fashion move akin to the mullet (business in front, party in the back).
The lesson of the day was about how being precious is directly linked (perhaps not rightfully) to being rare. On most beaches a little beauty like this:
would be a find, but when you have this:
here it is tossed aside. When they say that Sanibel is THE place to go for beach-combing, they weren't kidding. The Girl was very focused and intent on finding a sand dollar. While we found many pieces, we were apparently there too late in the morning to find any whole ones (she was also focused on seeing a manatee as we crossed little bridges to get to the beach).
The Boy found three enormous still-attached somethings. He wants to use them to do his animal research paper -- he named them Gill, Mill, and Jill.
It really was a lovely morning on the beach.
The church building was surrounded with flowering trees. It will be hard to go back to the city's dormancy.
Lunch was a dismal affair. On the map Everglade City seemed like a good place to find somewhere. It's a fine balance sometimes between not being a snob and protecting your life.
After the napkin issue we probably should have left, after what was found in the chips we definitely should have left. Instead we ate and then paid over $60. The only good thing was this poster by the restrooms…
The children started their Junior Ranger program for South Florida's National Parks. It's a packet with three parts: Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne National Park. They had to do programs, hikes, movies, and activity sheets and have things passed off at each visitor's center. After completing all three they earn their patch.
Big Cypress. We walked out on the boardwalk to see some manatees. Which we saw, and we also got our first glimpses of gators. It's quite thrilling. They were just gliding along. We watched our manatees very protectively, but the alligators didn't seem one bit interested.
We drove to an overlook at H P Williams Roadside Park where we met with Educator Kim. Standing across the canal from a 10-foot alligator sunning himself/digesting she taught us a lot about gators. They have an additional eyelid that works like a windshield wiper, they have blood that kills bacteria, they have sound slits so their hearing is as acute at their sight and sense of smell. They can see above and under water, they can hear above and under water. They see well at night, and the color of their eye reflection is orange. She recommended we watch a YouTube video on the mating ritual when the bellows and the vibrations make the water drops dance. We also learned that some can go a month between feedings. I found the fact that they weren't constantly hunting somewhat comforting. We asked her our question about manatees -- do the alligators ever bother them? Never, not even the babies. Sharks also don't ever bother them or the calfs. Our faces were question marks under the broiling sun. She said, "It needs to be studied, doesn't it?" And then she looked into my kids' squinty eyes and sweaty faces and said, "Will you do that maybe? Perhaps one or both of you will grow up and study manatees for us." My kids smiled.
Winter time is the top birding season. We are stunned at the quantity of huge, beautiful, interesting birds. My favorites are: the Wood Storks -- with beautiful bodies and ugly prehistoric heads -- and enormous, the Anhinga's cool way of sitting in the tree with its wings extended, the herons -- always elegant in form, if somewhat raspy in voice, the pelicans that seem like they should be in a movie or a zoo, and on and on… It is fun to see these huge birds sitting up on branches that don't seem capable of supporting the weight.
Passing a Skunk Ape surveillance headquarters The Boy convinced us to pull over, but after getting out and looking around he determined that there wasn't much to see. The Dad commented that the man running the show has perhaps run into the Skunk Ape a few times too many.
We went to Kirby Storter Roadside Park and saw the cypress trees and worked on some Junior Rangers activity pages under the shade of a thatched roof tiki-hut.
On to the Oasis Visitor's Center where the kids passed off the first part of the Junior Ranger program. It's cute to see how the different rangers handle it. In this case everybody in the visitor's center clapped for them. My kids hate that, but they understand that everybody is just being nice. I would like to point out that in awkward moments like that they did the shifty eye-contact and shrinking in on themselves BEFORE they were homeschooled.
In car we found some free samples that we got at the Peep's store.
"They taste like feet." The Sister
"With a kick." I added with a burning throat and watering eyes.
Feet with a kick? Buh-dah-ba.
We then went to Shark Valley Visitor's Center in Everglades and saw a billion alligators. They just drape around along the side of the road and main path. I kind of liked it, but also felt a bit vulnerable. We went on the Bobcat Trail and the kids signed off the second part of the Junior Ranger program. This ranger was big into setting and requested that we all go outside for the swearing in.
It was time for dinner. Robert is Here is crazy cool. Really it's a glorified fruit stand with farm animals in the back to look at (guess who liked that part?) and amazing fresh fruit milkshakes. The Girl ordered mango pineapple and the rest of us got key lime. We also got some chips, salsa and guacamole and some fresh banana bread. We ate outside by the man playing his guitar and singing Beatles songs and other classics like, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." It was a content, golden moment.
Back into the park system to the Anhinga Trail where we met up with a ranger-led "starlight" tour. The Ranger was so, so nice. An older gentleman that could probably be retired, but continues on as a ranger. He was thrilled that we were raising children in NYC. He lives in Yellowstone during the summer and in Florida during the winter. He told us how he takes his motorhome to Liberty RV park in NJ, walks 8 blocks to the PATH and is in NYC -- all for $65/night. He was a character. The Boy mentioned that we are homeschooling and the ranger couldn't tell us enough how great he thought that was. He saw the patches on their sweatshirts and chatted about the other parks. All this while we strolled along under the moonlight along the water.
The flashlights that we brought weren't bright enough to contribute much, but our group saw the tell-tale orange reflections of gators patrolling the water and we saw quite a few along the edges "resting." A man who had crazy powerful flashlights that could see everything came up and offered them to my kids. We used them for a while -- it was amazing. We tried several times to return his flashlights, so that he could participate, but he told me that he had seen enough and he was enjoying watching my kids being able to use them. He told me that he overhead that we are homeschooling and wanted to let me know that his family home schools. They have six children ranging from 4-20-years old. He is so confident with the people that his older kids have become that he has no doubt that they've missed out on nothing and will continue with their younger children. He mentioned how people always ask him about proper socializing, but he hasn't noticed that his kids are any less socially aware. I thought about this man who came up to us in the dark and handed my children tools to illuminate the darkness. I think I can trust that he knows what it means to have good social skills.
It's one thing to see orange eyes reflecting from a distance, but it feels different to stand above on the bridge and shine the light down and see them right below. It was impressive how fast The Dad backed up (and clattered his flip-flops and stumbled about in a most dramatic fashion) when a gator directly below us suddenly thrashed. When they say that their movements are startling in their quickness they aren't kidding. It really got my heart rate up. In fact, walking back, when we saw a large one on level with us I envisioned how it would be if this guy made a sudden movement like the one we had seen below us in the water… I felt very vulnerable. Some mosquitoes were buzzing around; surprisingly we didn't get eaten.
