An Historic Odyssey

This past week was one of historic activities and visits.  Monday we spent much of the day watching the various inaugural activities in Washington D.C. as our 44^th president was sworn in for his second term of office.  It was an historic event of monumental proportions.  While we enjoyed the day and the activities, spending that much time in front of the boob tube left us feeling groggy, so we planned several excursions by bicycle for the remainder of the week.

The Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, located at the Truman Waterfront, was our first destination on Tuesday.  It is operated by NOAA, Mote Marine Laboratory, and other alphabet soup agencies.  They have exhibits of the “living reef” in small aquariums and live video from the reef.  There is a superb movie chronicling the adventures of a young woman in the waters around the Keys.  One of the highlights for us was a 3D video of the ocean depicting a tremendous variety of sea life…it was just like being there.

Porthole in an Under Water Live Aboard Research Pod

Aquarium @ ECO-Discovery Center

Invasive Lion Fish

For three weeks we have regularly passed a Mexican restaurant on Stock Island called Chico’s Cantina.  There has always been a crowd there, so we vowed to stop someday.  Well, on our way home from the Eco-Discovery Center, we decided that it was the day.  We were pleasantly surprised.  As anyone following this blog regularly knows, we are aficionados of Mexican food…good Mexican food.  Anyway, Chico’s did not disappoint.  They even had a green chili sauce that approximated that found in New Mexico--our favorite.  Our only complaint is that like every restaurant in Florida, a couple of enchiladas for lunch will set you back about $50.

The Key West Historic Armory has been taken over by an arts group and offers exhibits and events in the venue.  The art on display this week is that of artist Andreas Franke.  He created fascinating underwater images of people doing ordinary things, like hanging out the laundry, and then he displayed them on the sunken ship “Vandenberg” where thy could only be viewed by scuba divers  The art became encrusted with the kind of goo one would expect to find on the bottom of a boat, but perhaps not as thick.  This created an amazing effect that enhanced the power of the pieces.  The armory also had a display of sculpture that was interesting.

Sculpture in Armory's Garden

Historic Key West Armory

One of Franke's Vandenberg Pieces

For lunch the day of our bike trip to the Armory, we stopped off at Paseo, a restaurant we had wanted to try to with our friends Tom and Lore, but it was closed the day we were there with them.  The food was delightful…a Caribbean/Island style of food leaning heavily on pork, chook, rice and beans.  It was delicious.  We sat with a Canadian couple in the limited outdoor seating area.  They were on a bus trip from their winter home in St. Petersburg and had selected Paseo from an online restaurant rating site.  He was a retired dentist and she was a retired school teacher.  Interesting folk.  They (he) lamented the fact that Canada was now a white minority country and even their small town in Ontario had become that way, too.

Classic Key West Architecture

Key West has a living population of some 25,000 full time residents.  This time of year that jumps significantly with the influx of winter tourists and cruise ship escapees.  However, it is interesting to note that there are actually more dead people residing in Key West than there are living ones.  A quick visit to the historic Key West Cemetery will show that there are some 75,000 folks interred here since it was established in 1847.  The Historic Florida Keys Foundation offers a free brochure and map highlighting 58 sites worthy of one’s attention.  That was about 50 too many for us, but we did manage to see the plot set aside for the victims of the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898, the event that ignited the Spanish-American War.  We also saw B. P. Roberts’s headstone which reads, “I told you I was sick.”  The Foundation likes to point out that the “…twenty acre park-like setting…(has) Bahamian mariners, Cuban cigar makers, Spanish-American War veterans, soldiers & civilians, millionaires & paupers, whites & blacks, Catholics, Protestants, & Jews rest(ing) side-by-side, echoing the island city’s diverse heritage.”

I Told You I Was Sick

Some in the Ground, Some Vaults

On the literature front, we just completed reading Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain of Dallas, Texas.  This is a fascinating fictional look at a squad of soldiers from the Iraq war being feted by the Dallas Cowboys at one of their home games in the old Texas Stadium in Irving.  The depiction of the major personalities in the Cowboy’s organization, while fictional, is dramatically accurate and quite disturbing.  We won’t spoil the plot line for you, but suffice it to say you will have your eyes opened by this book.

A quote from the book fits right into what we have experienced here (and other places) and which has found footing in the letters to the editor of the local newspaper.  Fountain writes at one juncture, “Retail dominates the land.  Somewhere along the way, America became a giant mall with a country attached.”  The talk here in KW is about the volume of disgorged cruise ship passengers who are changing the commercial landscape.  There are even a couple of lonely voices calling for a big box store to be built up the Keys because one can’t buy necessities in Key West any more, just tourista crappola.

South Florida and the Keys have become a retail/vacation haven for Europeans and South Americans.  Everything here is cheaper for them than at home and elsewhere (no matter how expensive we think it is).  That’s why the dominate language on the streets is not English, it is a conglomeration of other languages.  American cruise ships are most numerous here to be sure, but European ships also call in here regularly.

Which Vessel Would You Rather Be On?

If you have ever owned an RV you have probably had a string break on one of your day/night shades rendering it inoperable.  We had one break two years ago, and we hired someone to restring it.  However, when another one broke last week, we decided to do it ourselves.  Actually, the decision was easy as there is no one here in the Keys that does that kind of work.  Anyway, we ordered a restringing kit and it arrived on Monday.  We set Wednesday aside to complete the task.  My old British Columbian friend, Brad, had assured me that this was a piece of cake.  Well, we completed it successfully, but we aren’t ready to hire ourselves out as shade restringers.  UHG!

A number of years ago we were traveling near Marfa in far West Texas and came upon an Air Force blimp/balloon that was being used to electronically monitor the border for drugs and human traffic.  Well, there is an identical blimp/balloon here above Cudjoe Key called “Fat Albert” by the locals, and it is also operated by the Air Force.  It monitors refugees from Cuba, drug traffic, and sends propaganda via radio Marti to Cuba for the brainwashing of Castro’s minions.  According to the local paper, Fat Albert has served its purpose and will be decommissioned.  Wonder who or what will be doing its job.

Ray & Kathleen: Someone Down Here Agrees With Us!

Out The Front Window of our Motorhome

Key Deer, Old Friends, & Chooks

Our last week has been a whirlwind of activity.  For the most part, this trip has been just the two of us doing things together without other people, especially after we left Sarasota in December.  However, this week we caught up with friends from Texas and another set of RVing friends from British Columbia.  So we have been busy, busy, busy.

Prior to the whirlwind, we ventured up to Big Pine Key on Friday a week ago to see if we could spot any of the infamous Key Deer.  These diminutive critters, found only in the lower Keys, were almost completely wiped out by mankind, but they are now protected and have their very own preserve on Big Pine Key where they are making a satisfactory recovery.  We did manage to spot a few deer during our outing.  They look like any other deer you have seen except they aren’t much bigger than a golden retriever.  Hiking on some of the trails in the refuge, we came across an occupied osprey nest.  We could only see his/her head, but it was pretty neat.  We had a pretty good lunch at Mangrove Mama’s to cap off the field trip.

Alligator at Key Deer Refuge

Key Deer

Key Deer

Mangrove Mama's

 On Monday we took our bikes down to Duval ostensibly to have lunch out (which we did), but shopping was also on the agenda.  Susan met a new friend next to one of the ubiquitous cigar stores, and we spotted a guy painting his bicycle...fascinating.

Susan and Smokin' Joe

Street Vendor Painting His Bike

We mentioned friends Tom and Lore in our last post.  On the same evening of our Key Deer adventure, we met up with them at Sears and were escorted onto the Navy base where they were staying in their RV.  On Tuesday, we had lunch with them down in the historic harbor.  At Schooner’s Wharf Bar, we had an excellent meal and enjoyed the view of the yachts.  It was our third choice of restaurant.  Our first choice was closed; our second choice turned out to be just a street vendor with an aluminum trailer, and, alas, no place to sit.  Tom and Lore have subsequently left the Keys and are working their way up the east coast seeking new adventures.

Historic Harbor with Tom & Lore

Our BC buddies arrived on Wednesday.  They are going to take a cruise from Fort Lauderdale on Sunday that will be 15 days in length, will pass through the Panama Canal (the whole object of the cruise), and will disembark in Los Angeles.  Bill and Ali are fun-loving folks.  We manage to engage in conversation upon meeting just as though we were together yesterday, even if it’s been many months.  Over their three-day visit, we drank too much, ate too much, crawled Duval too much, and wound up their stay with a visit to La Te Da to see drag queen extraordinaire Christopher Peterson.  It was their first (well, it was the first that they admit to) and only our second time seeing a female impersonator’s show.  Our first experience was also here in KW, but that was eight years ago.  It’s more expensive now, but the quality of the talent is still very high.  They left on Saturday morning so they could catch their ship tomorrow.  They only thing they missed was a KW sunset; it was cloudy the whole time they were here.  Bummer.

Hog Fish Bar & Grill with Bill & Ali

Southern most point in US with Bill & Ali

Mile Marker 0 U.S.1

La Te Da Drag Queen Chris Peterson

For Bill & Ali

Duval Street Scene

In an earlier blog, we mentioned the Navy’s jet fighters tearing up the blue skies here in KW.  The local paper ran a story this week shedding some light on the matter.  It turns out that a Virginia-based squadron, the Gladiators, trains Navy and Marine Corps pilots at NAS Key West to fly the F/A 18 Super Hornet, one of the Navy’s carrier-based super jets, in preparation for war.  These multi-million dollar machines require pilots who are finely tuned to fly them effectively.  FYI.

F/A 18 Super Hornet

Have we mentioned the chooks?  They are everywhere, these feral chooks in KW.  You find them all over the streets, in restaurants & bars, subjects of art work of every kind.  The darn roosters wake us each morning when they greet the rising sun, sometimes long before sunrise.  Usually not a problem, but it can be painful when you’ve partied too much the night before.  Of course, they will crow any old darn time they feel like it, so KW often sounds like a barnyard with tourist scooters running amok.

Quote of the week:  “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war….  The billions being spent on war overseas would be better spent on overcoming poverty in America.”

                --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Don’t Park Under a Pelican Perch

We’re in a funk over Denver’s loss to Baltimore in the AFC playoffs on Saturday.  Need to vent, so offer some tidbits from the local newspaper and some personal observations.

Interview with Thomas Sanchez (author of American Tropic, to be released January 15)

·         In the 1980’s, Key West “seemed cut off from mainland mores, a rough and tumble place, dangerous.  It was like Dodge City in the Gulf Stream, where a piratical code held sway.  Now, a generation later, the island has lost much of its swagger, it’s become a place where cruise ships disgorge multitudes, where humble cigar-makers’ shacks have been tarted up and sold for millions, where down-on-their-luck writers and artists can never afford a sliver of paradise.  The real outlaws remaining today are those fighting to save the natural habitat of the Keys, those who stand up against polluting degradation and corrosive consumerism.” 

·         “We not only have the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of righteous hacks, religious fanatics and  racist quacks, we have profiteer-polluters and destroyers of the natural world whacking off what precious little is left of earth’s pure air, water and soil.” 

Pearl Basin, a “pool of deeper blue water within the emerald-green shallows located in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge…where bottlenose dolphins love to romp,” is being leased to Fury Water Adventures (owned by Scott Saunders) to permanently moor a floating platform for 10 jet skis, 10 kayaks, and inflatable water toys such as a floating rock-climbing wall and a giant slide.  Administrative Law Judge Bram Carter ruled that the state Department of Environmental Protection should grant the lease because, “the proposed project is not contrary to the public interest and it meets all applicable criteria for authorization to lease sovereignty submerged lands.”  Last Stand, an environmental group, unsuccessfully argued that the lease should not be granted.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that this year’s State of the Union address falls on Groundhog Day.

 Naval Air Station Key West has F/A (7)18 Super Hornet fighter jets roaring overhead every day for the past week disrupting any semblance to peace and quiet in “paradise.”  The right-wing cheerleaders call this the “sound of freedom;” the left-wing cynics call it an obnoxious racket.

 Monroe County Tourist Development Council reported 99% occupancy for Key West lodging establishments on December 30 and 31.  Average daily room rates increased in Key West on December 31 and January 1 from an average of $228 to $648.

 Cayo Hueso is the name the Spaniards gave to Key West when they landed and discovered an island covered with bones.  Not surprisingly Cayo Hueso in Spanish is Bone Island.  The tone-deaf Brits bastardized it to Key West.  If you think in cockney, you can almost come up with Key West from Cayo Hueso, as Hueso is pronounced “weso.”

 South Florida and the Keys are experiencing one of the warmest Januarys in history.  Almost every day the high temps in Miami have been only one degree lower than high temperature records for the date.  We have had a run of 82° plus days and lows around 72° with forecasts predicting the same for the foreseeable future.  Locals are actually bitching about how hot it is for this time of year.  Of course, the issue isn’t the temps, it is the humidity.  The wind came up the last couple of days so that has reduced he humidity, but it has been running in the 90% range, leaving everything soggy left out overnight.

 Our friends, Tom and Lore from Denton, caught up with us on Friday and we joined them for happy hour at the Navy base here.  They have just moved into a spot offering full hookups and, hence, air conditioning, something they have been without for several weeks.  They attest to the fact that it has been oppressive trying to stay cool without the benefit of artificial cooling.  We joined them for lunch on Tuesday at our favorite Conch Republic bar, the Schooner Wharf Bar & Grill.  Saw romping giant tarpon and a manatee graced us with a cruise by.

 One of the more interesting things about our stay here in Key West this time compared to eight years ago is that we are unable for whatever reason to look past the real shoddiness of the place.  In Thomas Sanchez’ interview, he describes the tarting up of Cuban cigar-makers’ shacks and turning them into million dollar dwellings.  From our point of view, he has captured it splendidly.  He only hints at the ramshackle housing available for the 99% who happen to be here for employment, etc.  While we never say never, this may be our last trip to Key West for some time as the blush is off the melon for us.

Rookery Bay & Key West

A few days before we left Naples for the Keys, we finished up our excursions with a kayak trip in Rookery Bay.  We have been on kayaks many times in the past, and we have always enjoyed them; this was no exception.  The primary difference was that we were with a group of about 9-10 including our naturalists guides.  They both worked for the Rookery Bay research center.  Two hours out on the water paddling through mangrove tunnels in the estuary was fascinating.  Again, we didn’t see the numbers of birds and other wildlife that we have grown accustomed to here in past years, but it was still a satisfactory adventure.

On New Year’s Day we left Naples for Key West.  The 225-mile trip went quickly because the drive is so interesting.  We took US 41, the old Tamiami Trail, to Miami and then south on US 1, the so called Overseas Highway.  Most of the road follows the original roadbed of the first passage through the Keys, a railroad.  Other parts of the track bed are visible from and parallel to US 1.  Initially, the most striking thing about the Keys is the color of the water.  It would be difficult for a gifted artist to capture that unique blue-green that tints the waters here.  Part of the reason it would be hard to capture is because it is constantly changing.  Photographs catch it a specific time, but then the light shifts and that color no longer exists.  Anyway, we find it interesting.

Key West is as shabby and as glorious as we remember from out last stay down here almost 8 years ago.  At the outset, we are always put off by the seediness of the place along with streets jam-packed with cars, scooters, and pedestrians hell-bent on getting themselves killed by on-coming traffic at all hours of the day.  The juxtaposition of rundown trailers and shacks mixed in with houses the real estate magazines tell you are selling for more than a million dollars is enough to give you a migrane.  Like most high-end resort spots, Key West, and most of the other Keys, suffers from an acute shortage of affordable housing where the service/tourist industry folks can dwell (those are also the bulk of the jobs).  And, typically, they don’t handle it well.  But soon, “conch time” kicks in and we are copacetic with it all.  Our first trip down Duval, the city’s quintessential tourist drag, was a harrowing experience.  It was the day after New Year’s Day, and the place was still crawling with people who haven’t gone back to school or work yet, but that will happen soon and it will quiet down, at least by Key West standards.

We took our bikes out the next day to go to the local botanical gardens, a place we had passed by, but never stopped at previously.  While not up to the standards of Fort Worth or other big city botanical gardens, Key West’s entry into the genre is pretty nice and certainly represents the foliage of the South Florida Keys.  Considering that the spot where the gardens are located was nothing but a retched sand bar in the 1930s, the denizens of KW have certainly grown an impressive, lush topical area where there would certainly be piles of condos otherwise.  Among the most interesting things at the Gardens (in addition to the director pictured below) is an exhibit of Cuban Chugs.  Chugs are the usually home-made refugee boats that Cubans used (still use) to get from Cuba, about 90 miles south of KW, to the USA.  There is an Immigration & Customs Enforcement policy that says that Cuban refugees can stay in the US if they get on dry land, if not they go back to Cuba.  Anyway, this exhibit of Chugs at the Botanic Gardens is fascinating.

Amid the seedy trailers, shacks, and fishing boat marinas on Stock Island we found the Hog Fish Bar & Grill.  This open air affair right on the shrimp boat docks offered up some excellent food, even though one never quite escapes the faint odor of leaking sewer common to areas like this.  However, we were able to have a nice lunch and skip dinner for a change of pace.

“39 Steps” is a play being staged by the Waterfront Playhouse and it looked like the best of several choices for some real culture.  We obtained tickets for Saturday night and made our way to Mallory Square for our big night out.  Parking was a challenge and it wound up costing us $12, but that’s cheaper than a ticket where they treat parking violations like they were felonies.  Well, the play was absolutely hilarious.  It is a farce, but a well done one.  The play has only four cast members, but lots of parts.  All of the cast, save the leading man, play several roles throughout the play.  It was two hours well spent; we recommend it highly.

Having over dosed on NFL football playoffs on Sunday, we decided to do the Duval Crawl in beautiful downtown Key West on Monday.  There were two cruise ships in port to add to the merriment, but much of the Christmas & New Year’s crowd had departed for points north, so all of the oxygen wasn’t being completely sucked out of the air.  Parking is a challenge here, well free parking is a challenge here; there are plenty of opportunities to pay $2-$4  an hour to stash your car while the locals try to separate you from the rest of your cash.  We soon grew weary of seeing the same old merchandise in look-alike shops that had obnoxious music blaring at decibel levels that would be illegal in a Harley dealership.  We did spend some money on souvenirs and a few items of clothing that we couldn’t live without.  We returned to a favorite haunt in the Bahamas Village for lunch.  They’ve changed their menu (well, it’s only been 8 years) and we had to settle for something other than what we were looking forward to having.  However, it was a good lunch and they still had a dozen or so chooks running around in the al fresco dining area, which adds a certain barnyard charm to the place.  We’re pretty sure they aren’t the same chooks, but then they don’t have jerked chicken on the menu any longer, so who knows.

Too Much $$$, Rookery Bay, 10,000 Islands, Fakahatchee Strand, & Big Cypress

After finishing a couple of really fun weeks in Sanibel, we moved down to Naples for the remainder of December.  We’ve been in Naples several times in the last 10 years or so, therefore, it is not a place we are unfamiliar with.  The question becomes: “What can you learn from a place in which you have spent a fair amount of time?”  The answer, of course, is complicated.  You can learn a great deal more from a place with which you are familiar, but it usually isn’t profound.  The same is true for us in Naples.

As a starter, we took the trolley to rediscover the lay of the land.  This place, like much of America, has had the audacity to change significantly while we were away, but some things remain the same.  Naples is a playground for the superrich and, hence, abounds with up-scale shopping areas; which has gown almost as fast as the mega-mansions.  Most towns have one or two high end shopping areas; Naples is lousy with them.  Needless to say we worshiped them from afar.  The automobile de jure is the Bentley—a nice little set of wheels running in the mid to high six figure range.  We did splurge by attending a film (Lincoln) at Silverspot, a movie theater that pretty well defies the name.  It has a restaurant, a bar, popcorn that requires a second mortgage to acquire, and wide, leather seats reminiscent of a La-Z-Boy showroom.  The price of the flick was pretty amazing, too.  Fortunately, the movie was really outstanding. 



City Dock from our luncheon restaurant





Naples Pier



Rookery Bay Reserve Natural Estuarine Research Reserve is an 110,000 acre reserve abutting the Everglades National Park on the south and the City of Naples on the north, excluding Marco Island.  The curious can learn all they care to about the estuary (the zone where fresh water and salt water collide).  Mangrove forests, birds, alligators, and too much vegetation to attempt to describe reside in this region and participates in a symbiotic dance that, when functioning properly, assures the survival of all of the fauna and flora.  We spent a productive several hours in the education center, took a hike along a trail through the grounds and signed up for kayak tour late next week.  Other than a few Black Vultures we saw no wildlife outside the education center where we did paw around in a touch tank full of fascinating critters.  Perhaps the kayak outing will yield more observations.

You've been "mooned" by a conk in the Rookery Bay touch tank

"Right Hand" & "Left Hand" shells



They grow 'skeeters big in Florida



Supplies ran low and we were forced to make a Costco run on Sunday.  Wow!  We live in a world largely devoid of shopping mania, so we were stunned to find the place crawling with thousands of people (all of the shopping centers we passed on the way over there---some 15 miles—were also totally packed).  There was grid-lock in most of the aisles and the little old ladies handing out food samples were swamped by greedy, shoving old people.  The range of language made us feel like we were trapped on the upper floors of the tower of Babel…and very little of it was English.  Since we were stocking up for our next leg of travel that will include two months in the Keys, we stocked up on staples and spent a fortune—we felt like we fit right into the massive hoards.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary owned and operated by the Audubon Society is another of those natural gems that foresight helped preserve.  In the dawn of the Twentieth Century, ladies' hats were the rage and those hats were bedecked with the plumes of wild birds.  Many of those birds made Florida their home.  Like a lot of things in this country that will yield a profit, profiteers set about to get rich and to decimate the bird population all in one fell swoop.  Appalled by this behavior, Audubon and others set out to right this egregious wrong.  They did it by pushing the government to pass laws forbidding the harvesting of bird plumes and then set up wardens that supervised the nesting grounds to keep the scofflaws at bay since the government couldn’t be bothered.  Later in the 1950s loggers decided to continue their relentless pursuit of old growth Bald Cypress trees in Southwest Florida.   Alarmed by the further decimation of wildlife habitat and the clear-cutting of trees in this region, the Audubon Society set about to purchase some 2,800 acres of land northeast of Naples to keep it pristine; thus we have Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  Thinking that Christmas Day would be a good time to have the place to ourselves, we packed a lunch and headed out for a field trip.  Two thirds of the human population of Southwest Florida thought it was a good idea.  The Sanctuary set a daily attendance record on Christmas Day.

Is that a 'gator back there?

Corkscrew Swamp

We spotted this one on the roof of a car as we
went through Macdonald's drive thru
 

While it was a pleasant outing and we enjoyed our stroll around the 2.25-mile boardwalk, there was little wildlife and lots of humankind afoot in the refuge.  We saw a few birds (and not a single Wood Stork, who have historically made this area its primary nesting area), but not much better than one can find in almost any area of standing water anywhere in the state.  Apparently global warming is contributing to the movement of Wood Stork further north into Georgia for nesting in huge numbers leaving the historic areas bereft.  There are those who claim that this no such thing as global warming, but apparently, they forgot to tell the birds.  There are also those who will allow that things are warming but that it is simply a matter of natural cycles…except that natural cycles take thousands of years, not  short decades, to accomplish much.  These folks don’t want to concede that humankind’s activities have any hand in all of this fairly rapid change because then they would have to question their economic model or change behavior.

Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Fakahatchee  Strand Preserve State Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve are just three set-asides along with Everglades National Park and the aforementioned Rookery Bay RNERR that strive to preserve the natural area that comprises all of South Florida.  Immortalized as the “River of Grass,” the Everglades region is an amazing area that historically supported a vast variety of wildlife quite unlike any other place in the country.  It has had its ups and downs over the years and the developers, hunters, and agriculturists almost succeeded in completely drying up the entire region and killing off the fauna that, at one time, comprised much of the southern third of the state.  Fortunately, saner folk prevailed and much of the region is being reclaimed, although it will never be like it once was.  All of the current mitigation efforts cannot undo decades of pillage, and climate change is adding to the further degradation of the “Glades.”

10,000 Islands

Bald Eagle in Fakahatchee Strand













A few 'gators in Big Cypress Preserve





 We spent a day this week exploring pieces of each of these set-asides.  A short nature trail in 10,000 Islands yielded a few shots of egrets, ibises, and wood storks.  The 22-mile gravel (pot-holed) track through the Fakahatchee Strand showed us lots of swamp land and a few birds and a couple ‘gators.  Big Cypress had lots of viewing areas for alligators, and the bird population (egrets, wood storks, herons, anhingas, ibises, bald eagles, ospreys, king fishers, and cormorants) was fairly abundant.  Like other outings here in Naples, the places we went were very crowded with the exception of the Fakahatchee Strand fairly primitive road; otherwise it was packed.  English is not the language heard most frequently on these outings.  Many varieties of European tongues are present, along with mucho Español.
 


The view outside our front window in Naples