Tampa Bay Rays & More!

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying the springtime and that you are doing well.

I recently got a Fitbit, which has given us a little more motivation to be a little more active, although we normally take a lot of walks anyway.

I recently told Glenn that I was curious as to whether it was possible for me to ride my bike to work. I discovered that the Courtney Campbell Trail goes the whole way to Cypress Point Park, which is next door to my office. (That is the park I walk at during lunch every day.)

I wanted to do a test ride on a weekend, but I didn't want to ride both ways. Glenn kindly agreed to accompany me on another madcap adventure. So we drove both cars to the one end of the bridge, locked up our bikes, drove both cars to Cypress Point and parked the truck, and then drove the car back to our bikes to cycle across the Causeway.

Here we are at the start of our journey.

As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day to ride across the bridge.

At about the 4-mile mark, the bridge rises high up over the bay -- a man-made version of a hill. Glenn and I switched bikes because his has gears and mine doesn't. Even though I thought it might kill me, I made it to the top.

Once at the highest point of the bridge, we were rewarded with an amazing site. Thousands and thousands of rays swimming in the bay below.

These people in the fishing boat had no idea this huge school of rays was coming right towards them.

I did some research and these were Cow-Nosed Rays. If you look at the first pic, you'll see they have a square nose in front instead of just being round like a dinner plate. They were probably about 2 or 3 feet wide.

Pretty cool, right?

So that was worth the ride. We took some other pics along the way,

And here we are after completing our 10 mile trip! Hooray! (I will probably NEVER ride to work, but it can be done.)

We've also taken some nice walks and recently caught a nice sunrise.

The birds came out to see the sun.

We actually saw two different woodpeckers on the same morning. This dude on a palm tree...

And this dude on a telephone pole.

And let's see...what else?  How about a BABY MANATEE!

You can see the big momma underneath, pushing the baby up to the surface.

How about a BABY ALLIGATOR?

Aren't I cute?

How about a BEAGLE ON THE SOFA?

This Saturday, we walked the dogs on the Causeway and I got a few more bird pics.

Oystercatchers!

So anyway, guys - that's about it. Oh wait. One more...

Life is tough.

Love you all! Happy May!

Springtime in Paradise

Hi Everyone -

I hope you are all doing well and that things are starting to warm up in the burgh. It's been really nice here except for a couple weeks ago when we woke up to our phones giving us a tornado warning at 6:30 am. We took the dogs and hid out in the laundry room for a bit, but all was good. Still, no one likes to see the radar look like this:

A tornado did touch down a couple miles from us, but fortunately landed in a ball field, and didn't do too much damage except for knocking over some fences.

Some other important updates from the past few weeks. The most important one is that I finally got a pic of the bald eagle that has been taunting me all over Safety Harbor. Glenn and I were driving the dogs back from a walk, and we went past the tower where I had seen what I thought were adolescent bald eagles in a giant nest. As we drove past, I saw the distinctive white head sticking out of the nest.

We pulled over to get a picture only to discover that my camera's batteries were charging at home. Argh! So we drove the dogs home, got the batteries, and went back. Sure enough, our friend was nice enough to stay put.

Boom! #eaglequest2016 comes to a successful conclusion!

We also went fishing a couple weeks ago underneath the Dunedin causeway. It was a perfectly gorgeous day, but the fish were not hungry.

I took this shot of a guy paddleboarding with his dog.

And this one of Glenn being watched by a hungry egret.

Fortunately, right before we gave up, Glenn caught a nice ladyfish.

Last weekend, we went to Caddie's on the Beach in Treasure Island for a mediocre dinner. But it was a nice sunny day, we listened to a band for a while and took a walk on the beach afterwards.

Yeah, you are right. My hair is a little blonder...

Back at the homestead, everything was pretty much the usual. Deuce was being bad.

What?!

Glenn was traveling to Relays in Naples and Ft. Meyers (although the rental car company has upgraded him, much to his joy).

Yep, that's a 2016 Camaro.

And the orchids continued to love Florida.

This is our newest. When Glenn bought it for me, it had no blooms on it.

Today we went to our favorite park for a walk--without the dogs--and took some pictures. Gorgeous day here.

This was a big mama.

She's probably about 6 - 7 feet long. A woman there told us there were about 7 baby gators nearby, but we didn't see them.

This is a pond, not a meadow. Totally covered in lilypads and purple flowers.

Same pond.

Anyway, so that's about it for today - a beautiful day here in Florida. Hope you are all doing well. Later, gators!