Winter Time

This is the time for Holiday Visits and 
warm weather adventures

Period Ending January 2003

We ended 2002 and started 2003 down in Florida.  We went down to visit Marty's folks after Christmas.  We also saw his brother Bob and sister-in-law Vicki.  That is NOT them above.  These are some alligators that we saw on an everglades tour.  Look at the murky water in the picture.  There will be more about that later.

We got to see wildlife on a couple days.  One day we walked through J Ding Darling park on Sanibel Island.  It is a tradition with us.

On the Everglades tour we saw some wildlife that is NOT traditional.  Here is a bear that came out of the swamp looking for a little hand out.  We seem to have scared him away with the flash photography.

We took an airboat tour of the Everglades.  It was pretty cool.  One thing to remember is that 'Captain works for tips'.  Believe me, everybody has their hand out.  But the guy that took this picture was very interesting.  We saw some manatees, or at least he told us we did.  We also saw wild hogs, an ostrich, goats and raccoons.

We had the opportunity to hike around a bit.  The weather was great.

We saw a set of ibis' walking along the beach.  I don't know if the dark ones were dark or they just looked that way on film.  it was pretty cute to see them all lined up.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

This is where the dark and murky water plays a part.  We had run out of tip money, but Kate insisted on handling a gator.  She waded in after one and dragged it out.  The tour guide, who works for tips, made fun of Lars and me.  He said it is always the women that go in for alligator wrestling.  Go figure.

The best part of the trip was seeing how well my mom was doing.  She looked great and had a lot more energy than when we saw her last.  It made the trip a success.

Cindy and Grandpa are enjoying some Florida Exercise.  This was the main activity while we were down there.  If I remember, we were recovering from a big meal as this picture was taken.

That is about all there was.  Visiting with family, walking through nature parks and a quick swim in a very cold Gulf of Mexico.  We will update the news next month.  Take care.