Thursday - A Beautiful Day for a Hike and Bike Ride!

Thursday was a pickleball morning for me!  I was ready to "tackle" it again and it turned out to be a fun time.  There were fewer players than normal, so I had a lot of opportunity to play.  Some games were better than others, but all in all, I did fine!  Ken made breakfast for himself and read while I was gone.  

While I did some dusting and scouring inside, Ken spent a lot of time soaking, washing and then scrubbing the apple snail shells we had gotten on Tuesday and there were lots of them!  It was a job.

We ate lunch outside (it was in the 70's and very sunny) and then the 4 of us drove to Charlotte County Environmental Park for a 6 mile bike ride and about a 2 mile walk where we enjoyed sitting along Lemon Bay.  It was a beautiful trail that reminded us of what Old Florida probably looked like - great vegetation. 

The trail took us through beautiful vegetation and a pine
needle covered path!

It really was beautiful!

We rode under the road .....

...and over the water!

What a unique tree!

At the end of our hike, we got to enjoy the view of
Lemon Bay!

During the ride and walk, we saw an adult eagle, eaglets in their nest, a turtle, and osprey. 

This isn't very clear for we were far away!

Fortunately Ken's camera lens gave him a rather good
photo of  one of the eaglets!

He allowed us to get fairly close!

Then he gave us a different pose!

We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way back.  I made a dessert for our Small Group when they are here tomorrow and after dinner, we walked over to Ernie and Noela's where we sat inside their screen room around their propane campfire. Then the 4 of us watched a CD in Wilbur that was made about their son and daughter-in-law's organic farm in Canada.  They organized a co-op where local folks, for a fee, come to their farm each week to pick up their box of organically grown veggies.  They also get a bouquet of flowers from their daughter-in-laws garden too - it's a free gift!  They also work closely with a couple on a neighboring farm who raise chickens and sheep that are free range and hormone free.  These folks are such hard workers and have to be so dependent on the weather.  It was a very interesting and informative CD!

The CD was finished at 10:30 and we were all tired.  Ken and I went right to bed.