Saturday - An Unusual Day For Florida - Rain!

Ken had another restless night and was up early.  I got up at 6:45 and it was cloudy with a few light showers.  It had rained rather steadily and heavily during the early morning hours.  Ken left at 7:15 to walk with Ernie but I decided to skip walking.  I had planned to play pickleball at North Port this morning, but was wet and the still "spritzing" every now and then.

Ken, Ernie and Noela had decided 2 days ago that they would to Flatlands Preserve on the other side of Punta Gorda to hike the 1 1/2 mile trail where you see limpkins and lots of apple snail shells.  I thought I would stay here and just do "my own thing", but at the last minute, I decided I could use the exercise despite the questionable weather.  Ken assured me it was done raining!

The 4 of us left around 10 arriving at the preserve at 10:45.  It was cloudy, but warm and a bit humid.  It was a very nice walk -

You walk around a swampy area and.....

it is a very nice trail!

and we saw a woodstork sitting on her ground nest  -

Quite a large nest sitting right on the ground!

Appears that PaPa is nearby keeping watch!

Hey, are you really keeping guard????

Where are you going??  She might need you for protection!!

several limpkins -

Limpkins can be quite camouflaged!

This one is pecking at an apple snail shell which are quite
prevalent in this area.  This is the 1st place we ever saw limpkins
or apple snail shells!

Empty apple snail shells!

and a few other birds as well as flowers and waterlilies -

Tri-colored Heron

Egret

The water lilies were closed when we 1st arrived!

Starting to open!

Beautiful!

It will be so beautiful when all of them bloom!

The thistles were just starting to bud and bloom.  They may
be a weed, but they can be very pretty!

Noela also met up with snake - thank heaven it was her instead of me!!!!  I did enjoy the walk but Ken was very wrong about the rain being done for the day.  We had a few drops now and then, but near the end it really started to rain (raindrops were dripping of the hood of my raincoat - so much for believing his weather predictions!!!!!

Yes, we did get wet!!!!

We were back to the CG around 12:30 after stopping at McDonald's for a Shamrock Shake, only to discover that only a few McDonald's are offering them this year and none in this area - really?????  Ken rested while I did some work on the blog and some reading.  Also got some snacks ready to take to Rick and Joyce's house.

We left at 2:15 and I stopped to give a note and painted rock to Nicole, my friend and pickleball partner from Quebec, who is leaving to head home tomorrow.  I really appreciate her friendship.  Then it was off to Venice for a Pinochle card party at Rick and Joyce's along with Eddie, Lori, Frank, and Barb.  We played double deck pinochle and switched partners every four hands until you had played with everyone during the evening.  We snacked until ordering pizza and enjoying the tossed salad that Joyce and Rick had provided.  Back to card playing until about 10:30 when it was time for dessert - homemade apple crisp and ice cream.  We finished the card playing at 11:30 after such a fun-filled evening hosted by the host and hostess with the "mostess"!  

Ken and I were off to dreamland by 12:30, but what a great day!!!