February 14: Valentine's Day

We are such hopeless romantics (well, at least we are hopeless!). On Valentine's Day we got up at 6 a.m. to break camp and drive to an RV place in North Fort Myers to get some warranty issues reviewed. We were there by 8 and done with the paperwork by 8:30. That left us with all day to fill. We went to a Perkins restaurant for a leisurely breakfast and then visited the Shell Factory, a major tourist attraction.

As we got out of the car, Ron suggested to Joyce that she bring her camera into the store. What a great idea that turned out to be! She merrily took pictures of coral, such as the brown stem shown above.


And pictures of shells such as the ones above and below. She had such a good time, she wants to do it again and has been thinking of techniques to try.

Then we drove around for a while. Ron remembered where some osprey had been nesting so we drove there. The exact place he remembered doesn't have birds right now (probably thanks to hurricanes) but there were others within a block or so.

This pair (mom's head can just be seen on the left) have a nest on a common nesting platform. Ospreys are not genius nest builders and these platforms give them a solid base for their nests.

Just a few hundred yards from the first pair was this second pair, building their nest the old fashioned way -- in a tree.

Then we drove a little more in the area and found a pond with lots of birds around it: Great egrets, lots of ibis, a blue heron or two, and these wood storks.

Wood storks are endangered and a look at this (fuzzy) close-up shows that the animals are not the most handsome around. The warranty issues are proceeding and we will undoubtedly be back for more work on the motorhome and more pictures of shells and osprey.