Just another day at the Beach????? OR WAS IT?

Hah. I have some pictures of our drive today, but I have to say one of the biggest highlights was not the alligators or the pink spoonbills, but the sunburned naked guys on the beach. Hah. What a hoot. We were on the Cape Canaveral National Seashore and everywhere we went out on the beach, there were signs up prohibiting nude bathing. Like they had to worry about us!! But all the way down to parking area 12 at the end of the road, we hiked out to the beach and there in all their glory were several men who were strolling, fishing, sunbathing. . . all in the nude. I guess they couldn't read the signs. Hee hee. I didn't take pictures of them. Sorry. Figured I'd get my camera busted if I did. I was commenting to Terry that I didn't know why they feel a need to do that and he just said. . . "Look at them, Sweetie, they're showing off." I guess that might be it. Hahaha. Oh well, back to the matters at hand.

When Jocelyn and Tom were here at Christmas, they drove up to Merritt Island to the Wildlife Refuge. I had been wanting to go and we had a day free today, so off we went. It is just north of the launch site for the shuttle and the shuttle is actually primed at the gantry and ready to launch. I have a couple pictures, but you cannot get close. With the naked eye, we could see what we believe to be the shape of the shuttle with the solid rocket fuel boosters attached. We are kind of hoping we get to hang around Florida to see the launch, which now has been postponed and no defnite date set.

Once we strolled along the beaches for awhile, we drove back through the wildlife refuge. We saw osprey at the Visitor's Center as well as a few turtles, but the illusive alligators were no where to be found. We did take a primitive road through the wetlands and there they were. We saw at least a half dozen of them and they were busy lounging on the banks of the ponds sunning themselves. We drove on down to where there is a manatee viewing area, but sad to say, didn't see any today. We then traveled back toward the Visitor's Center and took a 7-mile loop through another area of wet lands. We saw several posts which were there to encourage the bald eagles to nest, but we didn't see any nest, nor eagles. So many other birds, however, make this their habitat. I love to watch the water birds. There were white pelicans, which we hadn't seen . . . only brown ones before. Lots of herons, egrets, terns, gulls, etc. Just before exiting the loop, we saw a large group of spoonbills, the pink ones. The color on their feathers is so bright. They all have a dark stripe and then the rest is lighter pink. I find them fascinating and very beautiful.

It was a beautiful day for the drive and it was warm to go out to the beaches. If you get a chance to go there, those beaches do not seem to be widely used. There were people there and families and surf fishermen, but they definitely were not crowded.

Till next time. . .

Dale