Fort Lauderdale area

Ahhhhhhh, perfect weather in south Florida.

Saint Patrick's Festival in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Good fun in a great old downtown.

  We returned one evening for a dinner out at the Briny Pub,

 an Irish/Key's Seafood restaurant.

A pint is a requisite for the day.

And it is not even green!

Judy tasted the pint and posed for the picture,

but the beer was not to her liking.

Lots of Irish entertainment.

More.

And more.

And more.

Then we were "forced" to help in the entertainment.

Judy first!

Now Dennis.

Of course there were several beach days.

  This one is Deerfield Beach.

Lots of spring break folks in town.

This one is in Boca Raton. 

 A great place for an evening stroll.

 

We are back in the Thousand Trails system for several weeks.

  This is our home for a while.

The Florida Keys

What is your life expectancy?

  Try the Life Clock above.

We stayed at Sunshine Key Encore RV Park for a week.

It is just past the seven mile bridge at mile marker 39.

This is the swimming hole in Florida Bay.

 

Looking for treasures on the beach near our campground.

Here is one treasure.

Here is another treasure hiding in the mangrove roots.

Sombrero Beach in Marathon.

Sombrero Beach in Marathon.

Sunset on Little Duck Key.

Veterans park on the south side of the seven mile bridge. It's in the background.

Judy is "petting" a Portuguese Man of War.

Closer view!

We found this burrowing owl nest in an upscale neighborhood.

Our Key West outing. 

Heartbreak Hotel off Duval Street at the end of Lonely Street.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

The monument for the southern most point.

  It is just a good place to have the monument,

as the real point is in nearby Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.

The southern most point in the USA is a little harder to get to in Hawaii.

Southern most beach.

I don't know why, except that it was there.  And after taking pictures for other folks,

how could we resist?

Ice cream break.

Tourist stuff at the shell/sponge museum area.

The original Sponge Bob.

I think there are two business here. 

 One for nudists and the other offers viewing!

They charge  for both.

The nightly entertainment on Mallory Square in preparation for sunset.

From Mallory Square.

Another day at the beach, this time its Bahia Honda State Park.

The entrance was just two miles from our campground.

"Fall" colors on the sea grape plants.

Bahia Honda State Park.

A 12 mile trip up the keys for snacks.

Another board with holes for heads. 

 Perhaps holes in our heads would explain!

Snacks of stone crab claws--YUM!!!

We ate out a lot this week--three times at the Keys Fisheries.

Back to Bahia Honda State Park for sunset.

Morning ride of 4 miles to Pigeon Key on the original seven mile bridge.

We practically coasted downwind on the way to Pigeon Key,

but it was all upwind on the way back. 

Pigeon Key is two miles into the seven mile bridge.

 It was used for housing nearly 400 construction workers

 in the 30's while the railroad was being built.

Endangered key deer.

There were 11 deer feeding in this area.

Last year 108 deer were killed by auto. So far this year's toll is 22.



Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park

Since we live in and have toured Florida a lot, you would think that we would have visited here before.

Nope, this is our 335th National Park visit.

Monument Lake in Big Cypress.

A beautiful campground.

Monument Lake campground in Big Cypress.

 We are camped just 20 ft. from where Judy is standing.

Big Cypress Visitor Center.

  We were looking for real panthers, but no luck.

There were places for them to cross the road.

A Miccosukee Indian business was as close as

 we came to seeing a panther.

  Each male panther needs 200 square miles of territory.

Females require 75.

Official US Post Office of Ochopee--the country's smallest.

This building was an irrigation pipe shed when the original P.O. burnt in 1953.

Bromeliad

White ibis in a bromeliad-laden cypress tree.

American alligator.  We saw PLENTY of these creatures, up close and personal.

This water moccasin is very shy, but is standing his ground.

On our short hike through a cypress strand swamp.

We did not find a ghost orchid, but this grass flower looks

 a little like the pictures seen in the Visitor's Center.

In the Everglades National Park.  

On the walkway.

This is a beautiful specimen.

Male anhinga.

Mom and babies.

At the observation tower.

  This structure was an oil drilling platform in the 1940s.

The oil was full of impurties and deemed too costly to refine.

Purple gallinule.

Endangered wood stork.