Sunday, April 1, 2018

Sunday, April 1, 2018



Tonight's picture was taken on Easter of 2009. This was our last Easter with Mattie. Our friends planned and coordinated an Easter egg hunt for Mattie in the hallway of the hospital. This was a photo taken of Mattie after the hunt. Mattie's friends filled the Easter eggs with little toys rather than candy, since candy was not something Mattie really enjoyed. 











Quote of the day: Here is the amazing thing about Easter; the Resurrection Sunday for Christians is this, that Christ in the dying moments on the cross gives us the greatest illustration of forgiveness possible. ~ T. D. Jakesxx


Today we journeyed into the heart of the Everglades ecosystem, and visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. The sanctuary is part of the Audubon and is famous for its 2.5 mile boardwalk. The boardwalk takes you through pine flatwoods, a wet prairie, around a marsh, and finally into the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. 


Located about 30 minutes east of Naples, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is home to hundreds of alligators, otters, white-tailed deer, and red-bellied turtles. A wide variety of wading birds, songbirds, raptors and the fabulous Painted Bunting. We practically saw everything on the checklist. But it took time.

We began the walk going through cypress trees. Hundreds of them. Though interesting, we saw practically nothing and really thought this was what the rest of our journey would entail.

This was what the boardwalk looked like.

Within the cypress trees we saw brown lizards.

Green Lizards as well!

I would say we walked 3/4 of the boardwalk before we finally entered a wetland. It was in this wetland that we hit the jackpot. There were guides along the way pointing out to all of us what was in the water. This is a Yellow Crested Night Heron.










































Literally the water was filled with all sorts of life from a White heron, Roseate Spoonbill, Ibis, to a Tri-Colored Heron.

We got up close to this female Anhinga. But we saw an Anhinga nest, male Anhingas, and Anhingas interacting with other birds. 

I could have done without this, but the guide pointed out a ribbon snake eating a frog. Do you see it?

We saw about least 8 alligators in the wild. 






















A beautiful white heron. 

A baby alligator.

Carved within a cypress tree, I found a Mattie Moon.





















After our adventure, we went to an ice cream/frozen yogurt store called Subzero. They make the treat right in front of you using liquid nitrogen. It was fun and tasty. Believe it or not, this is chocolate yogurt with mixed in fresh raspberries and coconut.