Sunday, February 16, 2014

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. Next to Mattie were several valentine's day cards his classmates created for him and one of his friends even gave him this huge lollipop. Mattie got a kick of out it since it was the same size as his head! 



Quote of the day: To a person in love, the value of the individual is intuitively known. Love needs no logic for its mission.  ~ La Rochefoucauld

We woke up to sunshine this morning! When I opened up our balcony door, this is what I saw. There were three cruise ships in port. You can only see two in this photo. This was our first truly glorious weather day!!!

This is how big our balcony is, I wanted to photograph it so you could see why I am in love with the concierge person who upgraded our room for us at no extra charge.

After eating breakfast outside by the Bay, we rented a car and drove to the Cypress Creek Preserve which is a 7400 acre park whose land was purchased to provide flood protection and a public water supply. The park includes several trails covering 12 miles. Habitats include cypress and hardwood forests as well as slash pine, longleaf pine and palmetto in Florida flatwoods. Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Hillsborough River runs through the property. The park was filled with these eye catching yellow flowers.

I have heard and seen photographs of Spanish Moss, but I have never seen it up close and in person like today. This hanging moss literally covered all the trees and it made them look like they were magical as they blew in the wind. 

Along our walk we saw this tranquil body of water. The funny part is while we were looking at it, a group of bicycle riders passed us by and asked us if we saw "Mr. Gator." Clearly they are locals, and clearly there is a gator which inhabits these waters. If you doubt me, check out the sign below!

Not a sign I am used to seeing in Washington, DC!

Right by where Mr. Gator lives, we found this snake skin. This is not something that intrigues me at all, since I despise snakes, but I know if Mattie were with us today, this skin would have been coming home with us. Most likely it would have landed up in my purse!

Another Mattie find along our journey today was this enormous pinecone. The photo doesn't do it justice, because the pinecone was bigger than a human hand. Again, if Mattie were with us, it too would have landed up in my purse.

Now here's a new sight for me!!! An armadillo in the wild!!! Something caught my eye while we were walking and I told Peter about it. As we got closer to it, Peter informed me it was an armadillo. He had an amazing hard shell and long tail! Armadillo is a Spanish word meaning “little armored one” and refers to the bony plates that cover the back, head, legs, and tail of most of these odd looking creatures. Armadillos are the only living mammals that wear such shells.

A very upsetting sighting for us today was of these emaciated horses. We couldn't tell if these horses were abandoned on the preserve or whether they are wild horses. Either case, I was truly disturbed to see the rib cages of these beautiful animals. 

One of the distinguishing features of our walk today was fields and fields of palmettos (little palm trees). It was like wild brush for as far as the eye could see. 

We ventured on one of the walking trails today. A tree fell along the trail and I had Peter snap this photo of me pretending to hold up the tree. This is definitely something we would have done if Mattie were with us and he would have gotten a big kick out of it. 

I am not sure Peter or I intended to walk six miles today. But on the trail, we ran into the creek! The creek apparently had flooded out the remainder of the trail. So we literally had to walk back the way we came, which doubled our walking distance.

As we parted the preserve we heard the high pitched call of hawks. When we looked up in the air, we saw this incredible broad winged hawk. I have never seen such a hawk before, and neither had Peter. 

Certainly we could have spent the day by the pool or gone to the local museums. But our heads are full with content and we haven't had a chance to walk at all while in the conference for the last three days. So getting out in the fresh air, feeling the sun, and not being surrounded by people was a gift!