Floriday Day 2 (the second half)

After our stroll along the beach, it was time for our wildlife refuge tram tour. The whole group went. We had an hour and a half long tram tour through the J. N. "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge. It was great having a tour guide to pass on his wealth of knowledge about the area and the wildlife.

There were a lot of beautiful birds.








We stopped and walked out by the water.







We got to have a close up look at the mangrove trees. These trees are amazing. They defy the laws of nature by growing in salt water (salt kills plants). They have little orange pores that open to take in oxygen when the tide goes down, and then when the water rises, the pores close to keep the salt out. These mangrove trees were everywhere, and I never got tired of looking at them--they are beautiful trees.




Some horseshoe crabs that got stuck when the tide dropped (which, by the way, aren't in the crab family at all, but an ancient relative of the spider family--I was little creeped out by them once I learned they were a spider).


We were lucky enough to spot an alligator on our tour.



A gopher tortoise.


The point they think Ponce de Leon's ship must have come through.

Some of the scenery from out tour.




It really was a great tour. But, while we were out by the water, we were introduced to the little "no-see-um" bug. It's tiny, but it bites like a mosquito. Except their bit hurts so much worse than a mosquito. You'd feel the bite, look down and only see a tiny black dot--thus the name "no-see-um". And you'd think, that little thing can't be the thing that's causing such a painful bite, but it is--it's vicious. And the bite itches so much worse than a mosquito bite. My bites continued to itch clear through this whole week, and now are all scabs from me itching them raw. Seriously an annoying bug. They were the only part of Florida that I didn't love.

After the tour, we headed into town for our group dinner at a restaurant. It was a buffet, and I ate way too much food (mostly too much desserts from the dessert buffet). But it was very good food. After dinner, we headed back to the other end of the island to our resort. We called the kids to say goodnight and tell them about our adventures. Then we went for a late night swim in the pool that was close to our room (trying to work off some of the desserts we ate). It was an amazing day!