Spring Break Redux

OK, so it's not really spring break; it's still winter. And none of us had off from school (in fact, most of us are not even in school). But still.

Day 1

Before I realized my camera batteries were running low, I took some pictures from the plane. (Contrary to my preference, I had a window seat; so why not take advantage?) I liked the way this one came out:

Day 2:

After dinner, we went for a walk on the beach:

Of course, when small children are involved, there is no such thing as a quiet walk on the beach. Everything becomes a game of "Chase me!" (at nightfall) or "Come see what I found!" (in daylight):

Though the weather was unseasonably cool, with some threat of rain, this resulted in spectacular skies:

Day 3

I went skating solo in the morning, with the chance to listen to the new mix of songs on my new iPod (it's got a lot more memory) and saw two immature ibises and an immature anhinga or cormorant.

Later we went to the pool. C loves the water, but she is still learning to swim. What she was doing in the pool made me think almost of a reverse evolution (rather than a water creature using its fins to learn to walk on land, we have here a land creature using its arms to learn to walk in water):

In the afternoon some of us went for a small bike ride. This bird was just hanging out in the little pond in someone's front yard, near several turtles.

On the bike path behind Rabbit Road, we saw this alligator, though the jury's still out as to whether it's real or not. It was not in the water, but instead at the top of a hill near some houses, and we didn't see it move - and unfortunately could not see its eyes (which might have given the game away).

C found a shell at the library; this one is definitely fake:

Day 4

This morning three of us went bright and early to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. We forked over $1 each to bike through. We were lucky enough to meet up with a USF&W person at the first big viewing point. She was cataloging the red knots who were passing through, but she let us look through her high-powered scope and told us about some of the birds we were seeing. (She had been using the scope to read the green tags on the legs of some red knots who were passing through.) She told us about the tide control in the refuge (they're keeping the water on the left side of the drive at low tide right now for the migrating birds), and mentioned that -- unlike flamingoes -- the coloring of the roseate spoonbills is genetically determined (reflecting age rather than diet). In this area, we saw three roseate spoonbills at different stages of development. I liked this one:

The one on the left is apparently the youngest of the three:

One of my all-time favorite plants, the mangrove:

We again ran into an inter-species gathering of white birds, squawking up a storm and in constant motion. A few still photos may help give a sense of the commotion:

By the cross-dike area, it was a lot more contemplative:

Brown pelican in the tree:

Here, we had the pink and black (more roseates, but perhaps with cormorants among them - I couldn't quite tell what the black birds were):

A fisherman landed this fish as his first catch of the day...

But I found myself asking, who watches the bird-watchers? There were quite a few people -- all men, I believe -- with some pretty serious cameras, waiting for the perfect shot. The hunting instinct never entirely dies, does it? They're just shooting the birds with film or pixels now.

I kept looking for alligators in all the ditches along Wildlife Drive, especially toward the end where we've often seen them before. Didn't see any this time, but I loved this reflection of sun & clouds:

Things only got better when we got to the beach later on. There was a dolphin close to shore, which even rushed at us for a bit, apparently hunting. Plus we saw some stingrays - if you look closely, you may see the tips of the rays' fins sticking up on the left side of this photo:

L and C were enthralled with the rays, the dolphin, the sunshine & the warmth (the hottest day so far) and had a great time:

Afterward, a multi-tasking Yahtzee player is able to accommodate two girls during a fiercely contested game:
Yahtzee was not part of my childhood growing up, but it was part of R's childhood, and L absolutely loves it (especially when she rolls five of a kind!). The game is very individualistic, in the sense that each person depends on his/her own luck and skill, and opponents cannot interfere with one's chosen strategy. But it also seems to be educational, and I see that L is practicing addition and getting a sense of probabilities. It's cool to see that although L is naturally disappointed when she doesn't do well, she is showing good sportsmanship and actively wishing other players well.

Day 5

This turtle was in the bike path. His face made me think of the tin man from Wizard of Oz:

5 a.m. Farewell

Didn't get to take a picture on the spiral staircase, but I snapped two parting shots. Let's just say we were all deeply tired, but alert and watchful:

Still have videos to upload, those will have to await another time. It was so good to be in Florida again; just to be in one another's presence and have time to enjoy skating, biking, and relaxing, to read Narnia stories and the Hobbit out loud (or listen to other grown-ups reading them!), to observe the interactions and see how much the girls have progressed. I'm so proud of everyone. And I just love that C spontaneously counts in French from time to time -- even though L is the one taking lessons.