In which an alligator has no-good very bad day ~ Monday

Sunday, March 9, 2025
Lunch at Caroline’s restaurant in the Double Tree Hotel in Carnot-Moon
SWA #4064 leaves PIT 4:10pm à arrives RSW 6: 45pm        Rental car from Herz @7:30pm (L1213025842). Dinner: The Saucy Meatball or the Boulevard Tavern
AirBNB: River Cottage 27610 Big Bend Rd, Bonita Springs; David, HMAX99KQDE
 
Monday, March 10, 2025
Sleep in, go grocery shopping at the Publix                Lunch: fix at home.         Napping, reading, watching wildlife +/- minigolf at Golf Safari 10a-10p, $8 ($2 coupon on phone), Royal Scoop Ice Cream Parlor, 11a-10p                      Check traffic for 6pm dinner at Lake Park Diner (30-60 min) 
7:30-9:45pm Corkscrew Swamp night tour, $40, H6B-RHR-CJ3N

Last year's spring break vacation was a much-anticipated long week in Greece; you can read the short version here, but suffice it to say that after the stress of that trip, Dear Husband and I agreed that the criteria for this year's domestic get away were "somewhere warmer than Pittsburgh in March that has a direct Southwest Airlines flight on a Sunday afternoon." I also wanted to stay in a unique Air BNB. With some research and tips from friends, we chose southwestern Florida, but after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we settled on half of a cabin at an old Girl Scout camp instead of the "tree house" in what looked like a tropical garden paradise but that didn't have a kitchen or an indoor shower.

This year we had plenty of time between church and our flight, so we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a hotel restaurant near the airport before checking in early to work on our laptops. There was some confusion picking up the rental car, and then I had accidentally picked dinner restaurants that were near the airport but not an airport exit, so we scrambled and found a nice grill-brewery chain on the way to our lodgings.

Monday dawned cool and overcast. I ran to the grocery store for provisions while DH slept in. After a low-key morning of putting finishing touches on my book manuscript, we drove over to Golf Safari, which wasn't busy thanks to the weather.

Obligatory couple selfie in front of the waterfall is obligatory.

This goofball.

I guess it takes one to know one.

The putt-putt price was twice what the website had quoted me, so when we were checking out and the employee mentioned our passes were good until they closed, we agreed to come back after a walk on Bonita Springs Beach.

Unfortunately, while we were trying to use up the time on the parking meter, the wind picked up, whipping ocean spray across the beach. We were cold and wet by the time we got back to the car, so we bagged the second round of mini golf and went back to the cabin to warm up and dry off before the evening's outdoor adventure. We ate dinner at a diner that had a bar (this became a recurring theme in eateries--Florida, are you okay?) on our way out to the Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

For once we were early and had the time to look around. By the way, there is nothing more wholesome than grown-ups eagerly peering through a window to find and identify wildlife at a birdfeeder. We had a great group to learn about the four habitats of the Western Everglades from two guides. Because the "night hike" was timed for sunset, I don't have any more photographs (despite the light from the full moon), so I'll try to describe the highlights.

In the early 1990s, environmentalists started protecting birds from being hunted to extinction for their feathers, and in the 1950s the National Audubon Society joined local interests to keep bald cypress forests from being clear-cut for their wood. The sanctuary now protects 13,000 acres and provides partial access via 2.25 miles of elevated boardwalk. Panthers live in the pine flatwoods, and one surprised a woman walking on the boardwalk about a decade ago! From the cellphone video she shared with the local news, you can see it's more scared than she is.

In the marsh, we watched water birds settling down to roost for the night. They scoot out on tree limbs as far as they can go, because if a predator tries to follow them, the limb will bow, waking them up so they can fly away. When the water dries up completely in late spring or summer, with just a couple of divots for the alligators to stay wet, the birds will move somewhere else, because the drier ground makes it easier for panthers to avoid the alligators and get to the trees to climb up and eat them.

We hiked out to an observatory platform to look at constellations, then back into the cypress swamp to look for animals with red-light flashlights. If you hold it up next to your eye so that the light reflects straight back, you can see frogs, alligators, and reportedly even spiders, although I didn't look too hard for those. We saw several alligators, including one that was trying to rest among the lily pads right next to the boardwalk and eventually swam off in a huff, irritated that all these people were shining lights in his eyes!

Day 2: where the rich people are