Mike received a call from home during the night and needed to return home for a family emergency. we were really sad to let him go.
Before Mike left we went to the beach to see the sun rise.
after the good byes Teri and I headed down to Alligator alley. we started at Shark Valley.
again the water was really low and the sun was hot so we didn't see to many alligators and only in the water.
If you look close you can see the babies in this picture.again the water was really low and the sun was hot so we didn't see to many alligators and only in the water.
After we drove down the street and went on an air boat ride.
Friday - road trip to St Augustine. Supposedly the oldest settlement in the United States. (Spanish people lived here before the pilgrims came)
St. Augustine's Light house
entrance
219 stairs each way
Looking up
looking down
on top
the view
oldest school house
Flaggler community college
old grave yard
Dinner at Harry's
Cool street, trees growing across with Spanish moss hanging from the branches
cute house on street
State wild flower
Saturday With Teri
Teri and I started the day off on Conch Bar. we saw the usual conch and star fish but we also so thumb nail size baby conch, lots of them and then we saw a squid we didn't have our camera.
Kent joined us and we went to the beach for some sun.
Teri, Jordyn and I visited the Jupiter light house.Look to the left you can see the moon.
we climbed 34 steps to the light house door then another 105 stairs to the observation deck.
Monday was Teri's last day with us so we filled the day with activities.
first on the list was the Luci Lock. What is a Lock you may ask. Well it is a way to transport boats from one body of water to another while controlling the flow and level of water. The Luci Lock is one of four locks allowing boats to travel from the Atlantic ocean to the Gulf crossing the state rather going around.
this is an empty lock
sail boat waiting to go east through the lock
first one boat is going west. notice the water level in the lock
first one boat is going west. notice the water level in the lock
boat in, east gate closed, west gate opens enough to allow water to fill lock
when water in the lock is the same level as the west side the gate will open and allow the little boat out.
boats now going east can enter the lock
three boats going east. notice the water level now.
the west gate will close and the east gate will open slowly allowing water out. when the water level is again even with the water on the east side the gate will open and allow the boats out.
In the afternoon Teri and I also went to the Johnathan Dickinson park down the road and took the tour boat to Trapper Nelsons. Here are a few of the critters we saw on the way.
TURTLE LAUNCH, LIBBY LAUNCH, OR FREE LIBBY
we stopped by the turtle refuge place mostly to check out the gift shop. I made the mistake of leaving my camera in the car thinking that I have done this place so much there really wasn't any reason to bring it. Wrong. when we were looking at the turtles we were informed that they would be releasing Libby into the ocean. These pictures are from Teri's camera but neither of us were familiar enough with the camera to risk a video. It would have been great but here is the event chronicled in pictures.I was amazed it only took 2 of them to catch and lift Libby out of the tank.
turtles always have to go potty when they leave the tank
They weighed her, 89 lbs. and they measured her in every direction.
They scrubbed al the algae off of her as this is not part of the ocean life
then they strapped her to a wooden gurney board for transport
carried her to the ocean side
and let her find her way
That's it. We'll plan new stuff for the next trip. hope it's soon. We love to have company.
