Kayaking among the mangroves ~ Friday

Friday, March 14, 2025
Brunch: Hoot’s Breakfast & Lunch OR Mango’s Dockside Bistro ARRIVE BY NOON for 12:30pm Rookery Bay kayak tour (Mangroves and Mudflats), $65 + $10 parking
Snack: Mr. Bentley’s Homemade Ice Cream vs Annie’s Ice Cream Parlour
Dinner: leftovers or something easy (Heidi’s German Restaurant, Ft. Myers?)

Friday Dear Husband and I drove back down the SW coast of Florida to have brunch at a local chain in a shopping plaza, where we seemed to hit the tail end of the breakfast rush. This was fine by us, because we wanted to eat up before spending 3 hours out on the water in kayaks.

This appears to be the only photo I took the whole day. It is my crab eggs Benedict with a token fruit cup. After brunch we drove to the launch point, where we were quite early. We applied sunscreen and then just stood around in the hot sun / mild shade waiting for the staff to scarf their lunch and the other participants to arrive. Finally it was time to put our supplies into a borrowed waterproof bag and shove off in our tandem kayak.

Our two guides, one a marine biologist who had grown up in Maryland and called out our Orioles baseball caps--the Chesapeake Bay is the continent's largest estuary--were full of knowledge about the Everglades. They taught us about the three colors of mangrove trees and how lifecycles changed with the tides. We had left our phones in the car to be safe, so luckily, they were also taking photos! 

Parent osprey returning to the nest

WHAT IS THIS FACE I'M MAKING???

Part of the fun was hauling ourselves under low-hanging branches.

Then it was on to the beach! As often as we have visited Florida, we have spent precious little time on the sand and none in the water, because the weather hasn't cooperated. I got a recommendation from our guide to go to Tigertail Beach for the rest of the afternoon, so imagine my dismay when we parked the car, hiked down the wooden walkway, and greeted...a still, inland lagoon. No waves. Squishy mud instead of sand. And it smelled kind of funny. Sitting disconsolately on a covered bench eating my apple, I watched other people wade across the lagoon at a certain point and disappear into the dunes. There were way more cars in the lot than people at the water's edge, so I convinced DH to follow me in that direction.

Sure enough, on the other side of the shallow sandbar was a grove through which a rivulet cut a path just wide enough for one person to walk. After a few minutes, we emerged into the sun on a small rise above an honest-to-God Gulf of Mexico sandy beach. We dropped our stuff and waded out, because all I wanted to do was stand in the breakers. They weren't as big as I wanted, and it wasn't as warm as DH wanted, so after half an hour we trooped back. I had forgotten the beach towels at our AirBnB, so we used our shirts to dry off in the sketchy restroom trailers before getting back in the car.

I had planned to taste-test Marco Island's rival ice cream shops, but we were tired and sunburned, having not re-applied sunscreen often enough, so home we drove for a dinner of leftovers and a movie on Netflix: The Woman in Gold.

Day 6: the trip's tongue-twister

Cincinnati Museum Center

Dear Husband and I recently enjoyed a visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center with his parents. The former Union Terminal--a large art-deco building--is now home to a variety of exhibit spaces, including the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, the Children's Museum, an Omnimax, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. You could spend all day there, but we just did a morning, hoping to beat the crowds. No such luck, as it was a rainy day the week between Christmas and New Year's, so we enjoyed the exhibits--masked--with many families and children. It was almost like the before times.

We explored the Duke Energy Trains at Holiday Junction, which includes train sets for kids as well as a larger set with smaller figures. Both were very inventive. In another space, there were also Lego dioramas. Next we wandered through the Cincy history sections, then the science parts, from hands-on physics demonstrations past dinosaur skeletons to preserved flora and fauna. We ran out of time to look at the displays about outer space or see a documentary. Next time?

View from above the O-gauge train set, at 1/48th actual size, dusted with powdered snow.

Two trains pass each other; the one on the upper track is carrying presents and Christmas decorations. During the holiday season, the trains travel more than 100,000 "miles"! Below, the conductor has popped out of his track-side shack as a train passes by. I caught him before he retreated and the door shut again.

There were "Easter eggs" hidden among the kids' train sets, including butterflies, dinosaurs, and astronauts for a science-themed "I spy" game. 

There was the requisite Thomas the Tank Engine set, where parents and children named the trains to each other. It included a rotating water wheel, a windmill, and a bumpy incline circulating back and forth between two cliffs.

The next picture shows Cincinnati's town hall made entirely out of Legos. Reportedly it is a very beautiful building to tour in person.

So much to look at! Legos celebrating Chinese New Year, Santa Claus and his reindeer, and DH much captivated by everything going on. Below, the Ghostbusters are saving a church.

In the history section, I was of course drawn to the olde-timey pharmacy with its patent medicine bottles.

They have a (replica of a?) paddleboat of the kind that made Cincinnati "Queen of the West" and a gateway for internal migration as well as for products such as pork and Proctor & Gamble's Ivory Soap.

I also noted the food references, such as the boarding house sign advertising "meat served 4 times per week" and this collage of a sausage factory.

The natural history section was interesting, even if the spelunking experience was closed (presumably considered too claustrophobic for COVID). A large selection of nature photography in the four seasons gave way to a display about fireflies (do you call them lightning bugs?). There were cases of butterflies and of a variety of stuffed animals, including bats, a fox, owls, and this red-shouldered hawk. The last photo is of preserved mushrooms.

For lunch we met DH's brother at The Incline Public House for a lunch of burgers, cheesesteaks, and fries out on the heated/covered back deck. Too bad the rain dampened the famous vista of the city of seven hills. Next time!