On the Water

Well, I'm sorry I didn't get yesterday's activities posted.  I couldn't get on the internet last night for some reason.

Anyway, we had a great day on the water!  Our day began at 7:30 to get ready for our 3-hour Dreamland Tour that included shelling and dolphins.  It actually lasted a little longer because the dolphins were in hiding.  :D  Here are some photos from the trip:

 These are pictures Captain Mitch took of us during the trip and then e-mailed them to us.

 

 

Isn't she beautiful?!  For whatever reason, ospreys love nesting on these posts!

Loving my new camera!  The zoom is WONDERFUL!!!

Captain Mitch.  Just a kid, LOL!  Kept this cowl-type thing pulled up over his face during speedy runs.

That way to the gulf, I believe.

Another beautiful osprey

Dome homes someone built these a long time ago with solar panels to be off the grid, but we forget the whole story Captain Mitch gave us.  I'll have to google it and see what I can find out.

As close as I could zoom in on these birds.  They are probably pelicans and/or seagulls.

One lonely dolphin was spotted early in the trip.  So, we watched it for a few minutes and then continued on to do some shelling.

Love watching these little birds 

These horseshoe crab shells were all over the place.

And these

You can see how the tide washed over these as it went back out

Yes, this is a baby octopus.  When Tim touched it, it moved, so he found a big clam shell, scooped it up and flung it back into the water.  I hope it revived.

White pelicans.  Captain Mitch said they are much larger than the brown pelicans.  This is as close as I could zoom in.

Imagine having a room in that hotel?!  Not sure I would want to be in it during a storm, however!

Captain Mitch and Tim talking.  The anchor he used was interesting how he stuck it into the sand.

The last dolphin we spotted. Captain Mitch finally got it active by revving the engine and causing it to run along with the wake.  He said they love the bubbles and playing in them.

It finally tired of us and stopped playing.

We were told the ones with a yellow head were the females.

So, that was our 3-hour trip.  Lots of fun!  We stopped on the way back to our villa to eat lunch.

Had a GREAT corned beef Reuben!  The corned beef was not chipped, but thick sliced!

Time to read while Tim napped.  The sun felt good!

We made reservations for a sunset dinner cruise.  We arrived to wait in line to board at about 3:48.  We left the dock at 5:00.  Here are the pictures.

Our boat, the Marco Island Princess, and the sign-in/payment hut.

Looking towards the front of the boat.

We ate a delicious dinner and headed out to get some pictures of the sunset.  It certainly was bright!

Selfies with the new camera

One of the waiters took these 2 photos for us.

I handed the camera to one of the dining guests we were talking to who was from Ohio.  But, I forgot to remove the zoom, so these photos were too close.

Going, going, gone.

Back inside with about another hour of the trip left to go.  They started passing out more napkins and forks for the Key Lime Pie!  Boy, was it good!

Waiting for the pie to be served.

This picture of the lighted Christmas tree is a little better than the one I took previously with my phone.

OK, so that was our Thursday.  Friday (today) was the airboat ride!  So fun!  Here are those pictures.

We woke up to a heavy fog this morning.  It was still somewhat foggy when we first got to Captain Jack's Airboat Rides in the Everglades.

Our ride was scheduled for 10:30 with Captain Travis, another kid, LOL!

Well, she's not on top of a sign in the water, but.......

......way up in the air on a crane or something there in the middle of the picture.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new camera?  !!!  :D

Captain Travis and the other guests.

The light at the end of.............

.............this tunnel of mangrove

mangrove roots

Most of this trip was captured in video, which I have not view yet.  It was an hour long trip, so there is quite a bit of footage and, unfortunately, the file size is too big for me to upload here for you to watch.

When we came to several of these clearings, Captain Travis really opened it up and let it rip!  WOOHOO!

Yes, we found an alligator.  And the whole reason he was here was for..............

........these adorable raccoons.  Captain Travis was feeding them miniature marshmallows.

Out of a family of  8 or so, there are only 5 left.

The Captain of the other ship was giving them water.

We all had to wear ear muffs because the noise was so loud!  I had my hood tied snuggly on my head, too, and kept pretty warm except for my toes in flip flops.  Didn't think that through very well!

 

This was a trap that one man has set to capture blue crab.  It's hard to see them through the wire.

Coming back to the dock, a mommy and baby dolphin were feeding in the channel.  You can barely see a fin about middle of the picture.

They are on the very right of this picture, but it is hard to see them.  And that's the best picture I got of them, unfortunately.

We stopped along the road on the way back to get a picture of this crane.  But it was camera shy and never would face the camera.

We stopped at the Ten Thousand Islands Nature Reserve.  I think someone called these Sand Storks.  I thought they looked kinda creepy up in this tree.

I don't think of a stork being up in a tree, so it was just weird to see them in the tree.  Reminded me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "The Birds" for some reason!

These birds sounded like a duck/goose when they went down into the water to catch fish.  It was a funny sound to me.

FOOD!

We watched this little guy diving and chasing fish for awhile.  You never knew where he would pop up.  And before you knew it he was gone again.  I had a hard time getting a picture of him.

The walkway back to the Reserve

I think I had the camera set up wrong for this picture.  I couldn't zoom in as close as I wanted to.

Same for this picture

Well, that was it for the day.  When we got back to the villa, I needed to walk over to the Wynn Dixie to get batteries for my computer mouse.  Tim's stomach was upset, so he stayed behind.  When I got back, he was in bed and was chilling and running a fever (felt like, anyway).  So, I gave him some tylenol to knock the fever, hopefully.  I was just hoping it stayed down to help!  It did and he had a nap, too.  I had bowel problems, too, so I am wondering if it was something we ate for lunch?  But, at least he felt better in a couple of hours, and so did I.  He ate left over pizza for supper while I ate the leftover ear of corn.

We packed up as much as we could tonight because we have to leave by 10 a.m. tomorrow.  Is it really over already?  I'm so sad!  Seems like we just got started and we have to leave already!  But, we have had a great time (once I started feeling well enough to do some things).  Thank You, Lord, for the time we were able to spend here!

Tomorrow, we head for my sister's house in Palm Bay, FL.