Ten Thousand Islands Preserve

This morning was Knit and Nibble at Knitting with Nancy, the wonderful knit shop that is right next door to our RV park. From 8:30-10:00, I sat with a great group of gals and we yakked and shared and knitted up a storm. (Yeah, but did you BUY anything? Eldo wants to know.) Nope! I was a good girl, Christmas is coming! (But we don't exchange presents, remember? reminds E.)  Oh, I know, I just threw that out there.... :-)   Something extra cool today happened.  A lady, whom I had not seen before at the shop, was talking about some suburbs of Chicago. I was listening with half an ear, counting stitches, when I heard, "Winnetka and Kenilworth". Those were my childhood neighborhoods, where I grew up and went to school! We started talking and remembering the area---it was really neat to meet her and find someone to connect memories with, going back to the first 18 years of my life. She was a retired teacher, too.

The world can be a VERY small place when you are a full time RVer. There was another time when we were on a Pictured Rocks tour boat in the upper peninsula of Michigan, and a lady was on our boat from Wilmette, IL, where my mother lived for quite a few years! Small world, indeed!

Spoonbills seen in January, 2010

Back to the Ten Thousand Islands national wildlife refuge preserve-a part of the Florida Everglades. We love going there because it has a boardwalk, a hiking trail, and an observation tower. It's free to stop off there and take a leisurely hike. Last year we saw beautiful roseate spoonbills in January, when we made our visit, along with a couple of alligators. Today, we checked out the marsh and observation tower and saw very little...no alligators, no spoonbills, just lots of egrets, herons, and little ducks. The refuge boardwalk is just a very small part of a much larger ecosystem.....If you travel a little farther east, you can enter the Everglades National Park at the Everglades City entrance and take a catamaran boat ride through the Ten Thousand Islands Preserve. We're thinking about doing that later today......

The refuge pull out along highway 41 is a beautiful, relaxing place....you can sit at the observation tower under shade and look out over nature's beauty and just enjoy....We did just that......

We decided to drive further down to Everglades City and revisit the Everglades National Park services there....We weren't planning on taking the boat tour, but then, on a spur of the moment decision, we did! We'll tell you about it tomorrow......