The weather is TURNING OUR WAY! March 18, 2010

Well another great day in South Florida and although we are still a bit on the cool and windy side, things are looking up!

Today I had a great dolphin show on the 3:00 and sunset tour! Although I dressed for the cool weather on the sunset tour I did NOT have to put on my gloves and stocking cap. YAY! A small, but important win for me.

As most of you know, SHOES are an issue for me on a boat, much less jeans, boots, socks, 6 layers of shirts, a vest, a jacket, a pair of gloves and a stocking cap! Talk about claustrophobic! OH MY! At some point during the winter (my guests had no clue!) I was clawing to get out of that garb!

Oh well, spring is almost here and warm weather is on the horizon! Next week we will see several 80 degree days! YES!

Well, enjoy the pics and videos from my journeys yesterday. I want to thank all my dolphin friends for your cooperation and I will make sure there is a little something extra in your paycheck this week!

How do I get this thing to work? I don't see the little red light!

Osprey on the nest, the little one is growing up!

Dolphins, dolphins everywhere!

My friends in the "Egg Crate"!

Ah, the smell of the salt and sea! Makes you young again! Right Jeremy? OH, you ARE YOUNG!

Here is one of our friends trying to fly! YOU GO GIRL!

Too many dolphins to see. They are all around! They love seeing us humans run from side to side!

Everyone got some good looks at those wonderful dolphins!

Yes Jeremy WE KNOW! Jeremy was pointing them out! Thanks!

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed your trip and I hope you come back to see us here in the Islands of the Gulf again!

Another day in paradise has closed and now on to another South Florida Adventure tomorrow! Goodnight all!

Gator D!

P.S. Remember as John Wayne put it, "Talk Low, Talk Slow and Don't Talk Too Much!". I'm wondering why my daughter got ME a coffee cup with that saying on it?

Walking on the Beach!

My day started with me preparing to head to the Everglades with a couple of folks on a half-day tour. I put new wiper blades on the van and gassed it up before heading to the first pick-up (we pick folks up at their hotel or prearranged locations and haul them to the Everglades for an airboat ride on our half day adventure or a full day of fun and adventure on the full day tour).

I arrived at the point of pickup about 10 minutes early, which is normal for me, where I set up my iPhone to play some good music to get us in the mood for the day's journey. Today I selected James Taylor. So I waited. And I waited. I made a phone call to the phone number on the info sheet that Cristina gives me, and no one answered. So I waited again. About 25 minutes after the pickup time passed I received a call from the owner and we discussed the situation and decided to cancel. We never would have made our 10:30am airboat ride anyway. Later I found out that one of our guests had a medical issue at the last minute and they had to cancel. Although it is always nice to get advanced warning on stuff like this so that time and resources are not wasted, it certainly is understandable and it made my time seem unimportant in the scheme of things.

Since I now had some free time on my hands, seeing that 4 hours of my day had just been freed up, I headed home, switched into a pair of zip -off Columbia fishing pants (the kind that the lower legs zip off to make shorts if you so desire), of which I elected to turn into shorts, and took off, camera in hand, for a walk on the beach. You see, our home on Estero Island is right on the Gulf of Mexico, so a walk on the beach starts in my back yard.

It was a little cool but before my 4 mile hike was over I had my shirt off and was soaking in some rays. I had plenty of photo ops today. The "wrack line" was full of good stuff. For those of you who do not know the terminology of beach living, the wrack line is that line of "junk" along a beach that is where the high water mark of high tide washes up all kinds of stuff on the beach. In general its mostly natural things. However, it is also where you will find man trash. You know what I mean by "man trash". Bottles, cans, six-pack plastic thingies, and all kinds of discarded items that man (the monster) throws out in nature. Anyway, the wrack line is actually a little eco-system, full of things that attract all kinds of birds, crabs, raccoons, and other wildlife that feed on things that float in with the "junk". In addition to these visible predators, there are tons of microscopic things that feed on the junk too. So, it is really a wonderful environment teaming with life.

I completed my walk, satisfied that I had absorbed enough sun, sand, and seashells for now (its like coffee you can get enough NOW but tomorrow you will need more!). Sonja texted me and said she was headed to Subway to get lunch and so I walked across the street and joined her for tuna fish sandwiches. OK, so tuna, after seeing and smelling all the treasures in the wrack line may give you the impression that fish, especially tuna, would not be my first choice for food today, but R-O-N-G, WRONG! I actually LOVE tuna and it will take a little more than rotting tube-worms, dead and decaying sponges and coral, putrid smelling dead fish, nasty, slimy, dead horseshoe crabs, and stinky feet to keep me from eating tuna. Well, OK, maybe stinky feet would.

The afternoon was filled with two boat tours including a 3:00pm Dolphin Watch and a 5:15pm Sunset Cruise. I am including many different photos tonight. Hope there are not to many, but I had a lot of good things from my adventures today that I thought you may want to see.

All in all, dolphins treated me right today and the sunset was absolutely MARVELOUS! I love living here on this beach and feel certain that there is not anyone in the world with a better job than I have. Enjoy the photos, tell me how you like them.