Marco Island/Out and about in SW Florida - Part 2

Our friends Rosie and Betty came to stay with us for 3 days.  Most of the photos were taken while we were out showing them SW Florida.  Besides Marco Island, the photos were taken in: Collier-Seminole State Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Everglades National Park (Shark Valley section), the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Fakahatchee Stand Preserve State Park.
About 2/3's of the way down in the photos are a couple of the Marco Island regulars.  We saw them last time we were here, so I'm sure they are residents.  The guy is in his late 50's, early 60's, and has a different outfit on each time he walks the beach: swim suit and head band.  The two are always color coordinated.  The gal is from another planet.  She is late 30's, early 40's. She struts (similar to a runway model) up and down the beach  just slowly waving and moving her arms up and down.  This year though, she is doing it with weights.  The 2nd photo of her tells all.
And, of course, more flowers and Marco Island sunsets and a moon rise and moon set.

Dinner and margaritas at Nacho Mamas on Marco Island.

The next 4 photos.

A walking dredge. This was used in the 1920's to make US 41 (or locally known as the Tamiami Trail). It goes from Tampa to Miami).

A salt marsh.

A mangrove taken from a boat dock.

Lunch in the Park. We decided to take a walk on one of the trails when we were done. We got about 200' down the path when the mosquitoes began their aerial attack.  Both of us were covered with them.  Caroline said I had 50 - 60 of them on by back alone.  Actually, it was the only time in the 2 weeks that any bugs bothered us.

It does rain hard in paradise.  This is looking east.  You cansee this view rain-free in my last post (2nd to last photo).

Can't see very far. I got soaked the few seconds it took to take this.

The storm is passing.

By noon you would have never known how nasty it was in the morning.  It kicked the water up enough that the kids could actually surf the Gulf.

The next evening, Naples got this thunderstorm (it's about 12 miles north of Marco).

A soft shell turtle making a nest along side a road in the Everglades NP (and next 4 photos). It was about a foot long.

A family of Sandhill Cranes. The male is just over 3' from head to tail and has a wingspan of just over 5'.

A Limpkin.  It is just over 2' from head to tail and has a wingspan of just over3'. Is it a crane, an ibis, aspoonbill ?  From what I have read ,they don't seem to know for sure.

If you look in the water between the lily pads and the tall grass, you will see about 10 baby alligators.

You lookin' at me ??

Frank Mackle Community Park.  A small (maybe 75' wide by 300' long) tribute to one the the 3 brothers who were instrumental in developing Marco Island back in the early 60's.

An Eastern Lubber grasshopper.  This is a youngster.

This is an adult.  The youngster is about 1 1/2" long and the adult about 2".

A Five-lined Skink.  It was about 5" long.

Here's our man !  I just realized that the way I took the photo makes it look like he is wearing a short skirt. Be assured that it is a man's bathing suit.

Another 'outfit.'

Here's my girl !! It drives Caroline crazy when I say that. Yes, we believe there has been a little plastic surgery done on top...

One day we took a walk to the end of the beach... and there she was.  At first we couldn't tell what she had in her hand.  Then, when she raised her arm, we realized it was a crystal about the size of a tennis ball. As shewas raising it, she would look up to the sky as if to say - 'Hear me, oh Sungod....

Don't know what this is.  I found a website that had 134 photos of Florida wildflowers.  Was this one in it - of course not ! It was about a foot tall (I got an e-mail on July 18th from a friend of mine, Anne, who found out what this flower is: Bushy Seaside Oxeye).,

Another airplant.  This one is a Tillandsia, a relative of Spanish Moss.

A close-up. You can just see blue flowers emerging from the tips.

A passion flower.  This was not in the wild, but in abutterfly garden at Rookery Bay. It's about 3" across.

A Southern Elderberry bush.  It grows to about 10' to 12' feet.  This flower is about 5' wide.

Full moon rising.

A moon set.

A cloudless sunset.  Clouds usually make sunsets more interesting, but there is something very peaceful about this one.

The sun has not set yet.  It is just about to sink down below the cloud bank.  The small orange line on the horizon is the reflection from the sun.