Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Tuesday, January 3, 2017 -- Mattie died 381 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. For Christmas that year, we took Mattie to Florida with my parents. As you can see Mattie LOVED to build sand castles! He could spend hours doing this. Mattie and Peter would do the building and then he and I would decorate the castles with sea like items found along the beach such as shells, bottle caps, plastic pieces, and seaweed! Needless to say our sandcastles caught the attention of other children. So it wasn't unusual to have a bunch of kids working with us on a project! 


Quote of the day: If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. ~ Bob Hope

We visited the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton today. The last time we visited this Center Mattie was alive and running all over the place. Ironically we remembered the Center to be big and fun. It is not what we experienced today. The board walk, though newly constructed, provided a most uninteresting walk and the overall exhibits could use help. We watched a fish feeding exhibit and you couldn't hear the speaker nor could you see the fish in the tanks. 

This was the 40 foot observation tower that used to exist at the Nature Center. In fact, my mom and I both remember Mattie climbing up this thing. She wasn't happy about it because back then it seemed unsteady and about to fall apart. Well NOW the tower is gone completely! We looked high and low for this tower today and learned it was demolished years ago. The tower was fun for kids but it was the only structure like this in Boca that gave tourists a 360 degree view of the city. 

This is the boardwalk at the Nature Center. It takes you on a 0.5 mile loop.

While walking we experienced torrential rain. Fortunately we had umbrellas with us. One woman on the board walk asked me if I would consider selling one of our umbrellas. She was being funny, but I could definitely have done some fundraising right on the spot. 

Along the walk, we saw countless mangroves. Mangroves are survivors. With their roots submerged in water, mangrove trees thrive in hot, muddy, salty conditions that would quickly kill most plants. Through a series of impressive adaptations—including a filtration system that keeps out much of the salt and a complex root system that holds the mangrove upright in the shifting sediments where land and water meet. Not only do mangroves manage to survive in challenging conditions, the mangrove ecosystem also supports an incredible diversity of creatures—including some species unique to mangrove forests.

How do you like this big spider we came across on our walk? There were people all around us who were freaked out by this spider. Not that I was in love with it, but Mattie got me used to creepy crawling things since they intrigued him. 

This is a gumbo limbo tree. The Florida state tree. It is nicknames the "tourist tree." Mainly because it looks like sun burnt skin. Something you see a lot of with visitors to Florida. 

A close up of the peeling bark of the Gumbo Limbo. The nature center is named after this tree, most likely because it is surrounded by these trees. 

The nature center monitors more than 800 turtle nests a year within a five mile span of beaches. They rescue injured turtles and release more than 9000 stranded hatchlings each nesting season.

In each of these blue tubs are baskets. There is only ONE turtle per basket. They say this arrangement is necessary because the loggerhead turtles are NOT social and they are confined to their own space to prevent injuries to one another. 

Today was our last day in Florida. We return home tomorrow. We had the opportunity to stroll an outdoor mall called the Mizner Park. It was a lovely walk surrounded by amazing greenery and shops. It is no surprise that Florida is so green, with its day time intermittent rains.