Catching Up

Hey Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well. Our multi-part Tucson posts put us a bit behind in the blogging, so I have some catching up to do.

After we returned from Tucson, Glenn and I flew to Ft. Lauderdale to attend an ACS gala in West Palm Beach. As the gala was only on Saturday evening, the rest of the time was ours to just relax and be tourists.

We spent most of one day just lying by the hotel pool and reading our books. Not too shabby!

We also went to a fun place that was kind of a cross between a botanical garden, aviary and a zoo, called the Flamingo Gardens. We took a little tram ride through the park, and since we were there during the day on a Friday, we didn't have to deal with any crowds. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun. Most of the pics are pretty self-explanatory, so here we go.

Awww!

There were peacocks roaming freely everywhere ...in the trees, under bushes, everywhere. They have a very distinctive (loud!) cry. We were told they were very aggressive and not to get too close. (Thanks, superzoom!) More peacocks to come...

This is one of my favorite pics of the day.

Crested something.

Storks

BABY DUCK!

Anhinga

Me stalking ducks

Night herons

Bobcat

Glenncat

The otters seem very territorial over their house.

This made us laugh. Looked like the Night Heron was standing guard while the Ibis ate out of a bucket of bird food.

Soft-shelled turtle. I recognize them now because they have little pig noses.

"Get off my lawn, you damn whippersnappers!"

BOOM!

So that Saturday night we went to the gala, which was held at a very ritzy yacht club in West Palm Beach. It was fun, but we did not get a lot of pictures - it was mostly standing around and schmoozing with strangers. My feet hurt. But Glenn managed to get a few pics from the harbor.

We got to tour a $5 million yacht, which was probably among the smallest ones there. Sunday, on the way back to the airport, we stopped at the actual beach at West Palm Beach, but it was a cold, grey day and our visit was brief. Said hi to these fellows and left.

So from here, I'll skip ahead and quickly update you on last weekend. Last Saturday, we met up with Chad and Lisha and went to the Gasparilla Arts Festival. We had a great time walking around with them and had lunch, and then met up with a friend of theirs named Christian. We took a long walk and ended up at the patio of a cool restaurant called Ulele. Here we are.

Last Sunday was another gorgeous day and Glenn and I decided to go fishing off the Dunedin Causeway. We caught 9 fish - about half of them were those damn grunts, but the other half was an interesting mix.

Sea trout

Sheepshead. It has like human teeth - really weird looking fish.

Glenn also caught a small sea trout, and then, this weird fish. Not sure what it is. It's fins are like wings, but it also had little legs. (eeek!)

Ok - its not quite as big as it looks in that first pic.

Glenn was away from Wednesday through late last night. This Saturday, I set out on a quest. For three days in a row last week, I saw two bald eagles flying around over Safety Harbor on my drive to work. Apparently, they have moved in somewhere near Bayshore.

So Saturday, I grabbed my camera and went down there. I walked for 2 HOURS and saw every form of wildlife known to man, except for those bald eagles. (Glenn and I walked another hour down there this morning and still nothing.)

Anyway, I did see two old friends at Cooper's Hawk Park. This guy (who today we decided to name Merlin):

And Gary the Gator:

I think Gary would really like this pic, because it makes him look big and ferocious, but he's actually a little fella - probably only 3 feet long.

So anyway, that about gets us all caught up. Hope you are all doing well. Glenn sent me this picture of himself one day when he was working from home, and I think it's a good sign off.

Love you!!