Marco - Everglades Tour Post 2

Since this is continued from yesterday, you might want to check it first if you didn't catch it.  When we talked with the ranger at the Big Cypress visitors center, she suggested an alternate back county loop road to the one I had wanted to take but was closed and off we went. As is often the case in south Florida, roads are built by scooping up the sand along the road and using it to make a raised roadbed. As a result there is frequently a little creek like body of water along the road and such was the case for this back-country, unpaved road – a total trip of 16 miles.

In talking to the ranger, she said that as they enter the dry season, the gators begin heading for the deeper pools of water, which helped explain why the population at the visitors center pool had more than doubled in the past week.

As we drove and talked, we wondered how many gators there were in the glades and we thought they might have been endangered at some point. All I can say is there must be a lot as we saw a couple of dozen in the small parts of the creek we could see, one of which was right along the road.  Needless to say, we took these shots out the car window.

 
The ranger had told us about this bird that swam with it's body submerged and only it's head out of the water and it was sometimes submerged as well.  We'd seen several birds sitting on logs drying their wings and assumed it was these birds, when we saw what apperared to be a big snake sticking up from the water - on closer inspection it was one of these birds.
 

 
Perhaps the most interesting event was seeing three turtles sunning on some rocks and upon stopping and backing up for photos, they headed into the water.  Of course we thought we scared them, but as we discussed it, a gator came out of the trees and stopped on the rocks the turtles had just left - wish we'd gotten a video of the whole thing.
 
When I think of wilderness, I think of forested mountains, but I believe this is pretty serious wilderness and with so few landmarks I could imagine being lost forever.
 

As a preserve rather than a park, there is some private land ownership with a few homes along this road, but I thought this was really funny.  Here is a mailbox with no evidence of access to a house anywhere around.

 
And this is across the road, so I can't imagine where they live.
 

After our big Hoot's brunch, for supper, we opted for the beef filet remaining from Oct 14, pan fried in butter and olive oil and served over salad.

It was about as good as a day can be with good food and a great trip, and seeing places and things that were new to us - especially live gators in the wild.  We'd considered an airboat ride, but having done one years ago, we knew they wouldn't show us any more than we'd just seen from the car.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Marco - The Everglades

'The rain has moved on and today was a perfect day here – sunny, high 60’s to start the day and mid 80’s for a high. Since we didn’t make it to Key West, we decided on a little trip over into the Everglades, with a stop off at Hoot’s for brunch. This time I had corned beef hash and my girls had a reuben and a burger (Bev needed her fix). Here’s mine – hash served with hash browns was a definite first.

We saw so much on the trip and I took lots of shots so I’ll have to make two posts to cover it. I’d planned to drive about half way over to Miami and take a back-country road, but discovered it was closed, so we stayed on US-41 and took some scenery and bird shots.

Bev kept saying let’s go a little farther and fortunately, we just ran into the visitors center for the Big Cypress National Preserve. We first walked along their boardwalk and took these shots – the fish are Florida gars and the alligators are free to come and go from the pond.  I didn't realize the gators were black - these are in the 6'-8' range.

As non Florida bird watchers, the only one we could name was the white egrets and they were everywhere.

After walking the boardwalk, we went inside the visitors center and got lot’s of good info from the young lady ranger. So I’ll end the tour here and pick it up with a second post tomorrow.

As an aside, I really enjoyed the ocean breezes through the Florida condo, but now that I'm home the little breeze through the opened up house on a 75* day is awfully nice as well.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Marco – An Island Tour

On this day we definitely felt the effects of Hurricane Paula as it was rainy on and off all day. Even though we’ve been coming here for about 8 years, we’ve never really toured the island and this seemed like a good event for a light drizzly day - I caught a brief sunny period for the shots. On Sunday, I showed shots of where we stayed and it's pretty basic and on the other end of the scale is the entrance to the Marriott a few buildings up.

Nearly all of the homes here are nice with some nicer than others, but we finally discovered where the big money lives – very large lots, iron gates and all.  Here are a few shots starting with average nice homes and moving up to really nice - some even have names - the sign of a really nice place, like Monticello or Mount Vernon.

Then there is this place which is a multi-building compound requiring two shots to cover it.

And for those who's life stlye or bank account doesn't work for Marco, it's about 5 miles down to Goodland - more my style.

But the bougainvillas are pretty every where.

Yesterday, I'd mentioned Bev seeing the dolphins feeding and this afternoons event was almost as neat.  There was a group of around a dozen (most I've seen) swimming up the beach anywhere from 30 to 100 yards off shore and we saw what we thought was their dinner jumping out of the water.  But based upon what we were told by the dolphin tour guy and closer looking we decided we were really looking at a couple of young dolphins - a first for us.  I wish we had the equipment and luck to get a picture of them.

Didn't take any photos, but we headed down to the Sandbar for some fried oysters and great fries for an early dinner.

As the rain moved out we were left with a nice sunset - progressive shots.

I hate I got the balconies in the third one, but it was too pretty not to use.  I especially like how the water turns red as well as the sky.

I actually flew home yesterday to relieve the house sitter, leaving the girls to drive home Saturday or whenever they get here.  There are still a few more Marco posts coming including the Everglades tomorrow.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Marco Island on Saturday

Since we’ve only stayed here for one week in the past, always arriving after dark on Saturday and leaving early the next Saturday, this is the first time we’ve spent this day here. With most people coming and going as we’ve done, I didn’t realize how dead it could be around here in the morning until new folks began arriving. Here’s a shot of the pool area with Bev and Pat and the lower left corner.

While they sunned, I blogged and sipped my morning Bloody Mary. There may be as many recipes for a Bloody Mary as there are people who drink them and when home I add some celery salt, horseradish, and olives to mine, but I always begin with a pre-made Bloody Mary mix. When on vacation I just settle for the basics, which for me are still very tasty. First make a mix of 50/50 Mrs. T’s mix and Clamato juice. For the drink, add ice to a tall glass, then vodka and Tabasco to suit your taste, squeeze in a wedge of lemon, fill with the juice mix, stir and enjoy.  It's also pretty tasty without the vodka.

I was sitting her minding my own business when I got a request from the ladies to run across the street for fish sandwiches. So I phoned in an order for three grouper sandwiches, picked them up, and we ate them poolside under the shade of some palm trees. This is a rough life for them, but as you know, I take good care of my women (the truth is, my woman takes exceptionally good care of me).

One thing I learned today is that laying around watching college football is pretty much the same here as at home, except for the ocean breeze blowing thru the condo and the fact that when I look away from the TV, I look out on the beach and the water.

We'd discussed several go-out and stay at home dinner options and finally settled on quick and easy - pulled pork BBQ.  Just a slice of bread, some Big Dude's Que and store bought slaw, but the delicious pork even made the slaw taste good.

I posted this out of order because it didn't make sense to post about Saturday the end of this week, but tune in the next three days for tours of Marco and the Everglades. 

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Marco - A Little Hurricane Impact

One of the planned highlights for this Florida trip was to be a couple of days in Key West, where we’d never been, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. We were going to go down Wednesday and come back Friday but decided to wait a day to see what impact Paula would have. In the meantime, they were getting rain and while it looked like the Keys would not take a direct hit, it was predicted be very rainy. Since we come down here each year and didn’t want to risk spending our time in the Keys in the rain, we aborted – oh well. Fortunately there are a few other things we’d like to do.

Bev, who walks further than Pat and I, came in and said she was running late because she’d stopped to watch the dolphins feed and both them and their prey were jumping out of the water. The dolphins can be seen several times a day cruising past the beach about 50 yards off shore, but this is only the second time any of us have seen them feeding. Marco has a big wide beach and looked like this this morning - lots more is exposed at low tide.

Then the sun came out and things looked a little better.  This resort is not at all fancy especially for Marco, but the grounds are beautifully maintained and include this pretty little flowering shrub.

But upon closer inspection, I would not want to fall into them.

After the sun came out, the beach looked more inviting.  These umbrellas and a small fleet of sailing catamarans are for resort guests.

The resort has two buildings with one out near the beach and the other with the pool between it and the beach.  We prefer the latter as we can watch the goings on both places.  Here's a shot from the beach.

I'd taken some shots down from our balcony, so here are some from ground level of the little pond and back across the pool to the building we're in - we're on the 4th floor, 2nd from left.  Bev and Pat are in the chairs in front of the tallest palm tree in the center of the shot.

Meals today were real easy – breakfast was our leftovers from yesterdays visit to Hoot’s, lunch was sandwich and chips provided by the resort for a fashion show and supper was some reheated ribs we brought with us sided with some taters, peppers, & onions, and a salad - no one was motivated to go out.  I reheated the ribs by adding some water and putting them on the grill over medium heat for 30 minutes.  I then removed them from the foil, added some sauce to each side and cooked each side for a couple of minutes to set the sauce.  They were just the way Bev and Pat like them - falling off the bone tender.

We ate on the balcony to this view.

And if we had eaten dessert, it would have been while looking at this sky.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Hodgepodge From The Marco Condo Balcony On Day 3

When we come to Florida, the girl’s favorite thing to do is sit around the pool, read novels, and go for the occasional cool dip in the pool. Since I usually have had my fill of the sun by this time of year, I prefer sitting on the balcony is the shade and breeze to do my reading. The condos and hotels are pretty much all located on the west side of Marco Island and ours is nearly at the southern end. I’ve posted some shots straight out from the condo and here is one looking up the beach – the jut of land you see is about a mile away.

And here's a shot down on the little pond next to the pool.

I was sitting in my usual chair, reading, and sipping a Bloody Mary when this fella landed on the table beside my knee and of course the camera was somewhere else. I eased out of the chair, sure he’d bolt, and slipped inside to get it. When I returned, he was still there and posed for this shot, where I had the camera really close to him, and as I sat back down off he flew.

This was by far the largest dragon fly I’d ever seen – the table top is about an inch and a quarter thick to put it in perspective.

My reading for the day was “Smoke & Spice”, a BBQ book by Cheryl and Bill Jamison and I came across this quote “Real barbecue is bragging food. Maybe it’s the great smoky flavor or maybe it’s the adulation of the eaters, but somehow all pitmasters develop into natural boasters, cocky enough to milk a bull. They learn to tell tall tales, wear old clothes, act in wacky ways, and otherwise promote their aura as magicians of meat.”  Glad I haven't turned into that :-).

Then I read this in the paper:

“The McRib Going National In November?

The internet is abuzz today after a Wall Street Journal article revealed that McDonald’s elusive, and quite possibly magical, McRib sandwich will be available nationwide for the first time in 16 years starting Nov. 2. If anything can get me excited for a trip to McDonald’s, it’s the combination of tangy BBQ sauce, onions, pickles and a nondescript, amorphous protein.”

I can hardly wait. I guess I’m just becoming cynical in my old age, but I agree with the last three words.

Since I'm getting no help with my recipe saving addiction (LOL) - I added three more yesterday - guess I'll just have to cook them faster.

And finally, we are here just a couple of weeks before election day and I can only imagine how much money is being spent on political ads - hardly any room for the normal stuff.  I'll say one thing for the Florida politicans, they have taken mud slinging to a level I've never before seen.

That's all from Florida for today, thanks for stopping by.
 
Larry