Florida 2006
Home Siesta Key Beach and Friends Fire on the Beach Ding The Baily Tract Gulfside City Park Lighthouse

 

Updated September 28, 2007. Thanks to Rusty Scalf for identifying the birds.

Shirley and I went to Florida for eight days in early 2006. We flew into Tampa and drove to Siesta Key where we spent our first night. We had dinner with our son-in-law's parents, who live in Venice. The next day we moseyed down the coast toward Sanibel, stopping at the Venice fishing pier on the way.

We arrived on Sanibel, settled into our rented condo, and Shirley took her first swim.

Then we explored the beach and visited our friends and their grandchild. Then it was time for a "cook-out" on the beach. Actually, the meal was served in our friends' condo. We went out to the beach after for "Smores" toasted over the fire.

The next day bright and early we did the first of many trips around Wildlife Drive in the "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge. This is a truly amazing place to watch and photograph birds. We saw many photographers with huge lenses that made my 70-300 mm look pretty puny but I managed to get a few good photos of the birds anyway.

There are other refuge areas on Sanibel other than the main Ding Darling refuge. One is the Baily tract.


Little Blue Heron

Another is Gulfside City Park.

There are interesting things to see out by the Lighthouse, too.

Finally we had to say goodbye to Sanibel and head north to Sarasota where we visited Natalie and Bob.

The next day we stopped at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg on the way to the airport.

I took a few shots through the plane window as we passed over New York, but I just can't hold the camera steady for a one second exposure in a vibrating airplane.


The Verrazano Narrows Bridge?


Manhattan in the middle, I believe.