Wildlife: a bird, a manatee, and three Daves

I was going to write an uneventful post this morning.  We took our 6-mile walk and I did not take the big camera.  Just didn't want to carry it.  Wouldn't you know, we saw two loggerhead turtles, some dolphins, a few eagle rays, and a mess of tarpon.....none of which were captured on camera.  <smacks her palm to forehead> What was I thinking?!?!?!

However, we did have a very pretty visitor on Virginia Dare Thursday morning, a green heron (mistakenly thought it was a tri-color on Thursday, but it is indeed a green heron).

Lovely plumage!  <wink>  It was hiding in the shade (shadow).  I usually don't use a flash, but in order to see the colors, I turned it on for this one.

Hanging out on the stern line

Curious, but not afraid.

The bird flew away when it saw our two friends walking down the dock :)

Friends from northern Michigan came for a visit!

It was pretty hot (very humid and low 80s), so we decided to dinghy around the corner and paddleboard.  However, there were hundreds of jellyfish, so we bagged that idea pretty quickly :(

Fun in the sun -- taking a ride through all the boats in Boot Key Harbor

:)

It was Hooper's birthday, so we celebrated in style with Key Lime Pie.  Happy Birthday, Hooper!!  Thanks for spending your birthday with us!

3 Daves: Hooper, Skrocki, and Cooper

This afternoon, a massive manatee floated past Virginia Dare and stopped to drink fresh water that was dripping off the dock across from us.  We kept referring to it as a "she" because it was so large, we thought she might be pregnant.  Baby manatees have been spotted in the marina, but we haven't seen any yet.

Our first up-close-and-personal manatee

Smile for the camera!

They love fresh water, so we trickled our hose to give her more than the drip, drip, drip she was getting.

VERY odd animal

Very peaceful and slow moving

Corralling water in her lower jaw

We moved the hose to our side of the dock and she came right over.......even rolled onto her back.

Her right arm looks as though it was injured at some point

Rolling.......... 

.......over :)

Now, we're getting ready for Alex's visit this week (can't wait!) and starting to plan our trip to the Bahamas -- exciting!

Pea soup in paradise

And you thought it was cheeseburger in paradise.......silly!  It's not always sunny and warm down here.  Today, it's foggy and muggy.....a good day for laundry and a little cleaning.

Can't see the bridge today!

Here are a few photos from our last couple of busy days.  There will always be boat chores, but we definitely make time for fun in the sun, too.

Duncan's last sunset aboard Virginia Dare.  David is not sprouting a wind generator out of his head, it just looks that way.

Seven Mile Bridge at sunset

We said goodbye to Duncan at Miami International Airport before sunrise on Sunday morning, drove back home, and slept the rest of the morning.  The clouds blew away, so we decided to dinghy over to Sombrero Beach.  We had not yet explored Sisters Creek and were unaware that many people anchor there.  (Although it's too shallow for our boat.)

The dinghy "lot" at the south end of Sombrero Beach where Sisters Creek meets the Atlantic

A sign at the beach warned swimmers of Portuguese Man O Wars.  We didn't see any there, but I think these are young ones (blue) hiding in the mangroves.

LOTS of people have their dogs on board down here.  I will always miss our poochie.

Sunday night we grilled Florida lobster tails and made lobster rolls.  They differ from Maine lobsters as they don't have big, meaty claws.

Rubbed with butter and garlic.....

....and quickly cooked on the grill.

Since we'll be without wheels until Alex and Brooke visit, we kept our rental car an extra day and ran lots of errands yesterday morning.  Ten vacuum-sealed packets for future dinners.....chicken, steak, grouper, yellowtail snapper, and a little bit of sausage for those mornings when we want a hot breakfast :)

We cooked the bag of pink Key shrimp for last night's dinner

Yesterday's temp climbed into the 80s (sorry Duncan!) so we hopped in the dinghy around 3pm and anchored near the little island south of us.  It was a *refreshing* swim (like Grand Traverse Bay in June).  Since it's been so windy for so long, the water was cloudy.  We couldn't see the bottom even though it was only about 7' deep.  There was LOTS of fish activity all around us, so I didn't stay in long!  I like to see what I'm swimming with......  David is already planning his next fishing expedition :)

We discovered that the insulated wine carrier that Alex gave us also works well with four cans of beer!

Leaving the marina behind

Lots of wildlife all around us

Clouds to the south

Cute little dinghy anchor and pretty green (but cloudy) water

Mangroves and two crab trap buoys to our north

Cold beer and a hot afternoon

Crescent moon

Shallow water makes for many wrecks

Sailboat heading out when we were heading in

Turtles, turtles everywhere!

We highly recommend touring The Turtle Hospital in Marathon if you're ever in the area!  Their motto is Rescue. Rehab. Release.

This tells the staff which turtles are at the hospital on any given day (kind of like our "huddle board" at the NMC Foundation :)

Operating room (no surgeries scheduled this morning)

They use laser surgery to remove tumors

MANY turtle photos

They receive medical attention in these containers

Marine biologist caring for a turtle.  You can see where tumors where lasered off the soft tissues on the left shoulder.

Fibropapillomas (if I remember correctly) that will be lasered off

Youngsters!

They are kept for one year after the tumors are removed to be sure there won't be new growths

These turtles are in the large one-year waiting tank that is connected to the Gulf (tides, temperature, etc)

The folks at this hospital do amazing work!