Valentine's Day, Sea Turtles, And More New Adventure

 We woke up on Valentine's Day with a wonderful surprise!  Someone had pinned several flowers (the pink and yellow ones) to the flap of our tent.  Many others in the campground had the "love" gift as well but we still don't know who the angel was who gave us this thoughtful gift.

The screen house has become our kitchen and dining room...

while the van is our bedroom, and holds the cooler, the food cabinet and the nighttime "potty".

On FEBRUARY 16, we took something off our "bucket list" ...

We went walking on Marathon Bridge - part of the Seven Mile Bridge.  This walkway is a leftover from the Flagler Railroad that was built 100 years ago to connect Miami and Key West.  (Now the Overseas Highway is the connector and was created using much of the old railroad bed. This is the very end of US Route 1, and of course the famous Mile Marker 0 is right in the middle of Key West.)  The walkway is also part of the Greenway - linking cities Florida to Maine, @greenway.org.

 As we walked along, I carried my binoculars, checking for seabirds and any other thing of interest. At the one mile marker point,  I looked off about 100 yards and thought I saw a swimmer coming up for air, but knew in my mind that couldn't be right out in the middle of the Gulf.  I quickly looked with my binoculars and realized a sea turtle had just come up for a breath of air.  Latona was ahead of me, and although I called to her to come and see it, it swam away.



As I walked along I spotted another one covered in sea grass, but swimming more on the surface.  At the same time a man on a bicycle rode by and told us a large turtle was feeding at mile marker 1.5.  We hustled along that half mile hoping to see it,  but sure it would be gone,  BUT  there it was...a Loggerhead feeding in the shallow bed of sea grass right below us.  We watched the gentle creature for about 20 minutes feed and graze.  This had been on our bucket list - to see the giant turtles in their natural environment.  What a glorious sight!

Latona also saw several Spotted Eagle Rays actually "flying" three to four feet above the water and pointed them out to me.  We read in our guide book that if chased they will emit a sound and leap high in the air, so we believe we identified them correctly.

One last, but not least note.  We want to share about our friends, Stan and Alida.  They invited us to join them at Bahia Honda Campground for two nights so we could attend two astronomy programs, and do some birding perhaps.  Friday night we enjoyed some incredible salmon and all the fixing, prepared by Alida and grilled by Stan.  Early Saturday morning, we walked the beach to see the sunrise, cleaned up some washed-up litter, and took some pictures of a Broad-winged Hawk eating a crab.  After the walk, we ate some super pancakes covered with blueberries and strawberries.  Stan then asked us if we would like to go kayaking in the Atlantic.   Needless to say, we agreed to give it a "go", and they taught and guided us, and both Latona and I had a wonderful first adventure kayaking in ocean water.

Needless to say it has been a wonderful week... and now we have the excitement of looking forward to a visit with Carrie and the girls, who will arrive on Wednesday for school vacation week with us.  We look forward to sharing this place with them and only wish we could have all the grandchildren here as well.

Love and hugs, L&L