Tropical blue skies, sandy beaches, and orange juice - this place has been terraformed to match our mental image of tropical paradise. Terry and I drove all night and Wednesday morning, met my sister Anita and her Solana at the Jonathan Dickinson State Park where we camped for 2 nights. It was a little piece of heaven, despite the Florida cicadas at the construction site nearby. The thought-provoking thing about the campsite was that the native flora is nothing like the image everyone has of Florida (beaches and orange juice) - it was thick, tough, brambly scrubby vegetation; we imagined Ponce de Leon cursing up a storm as he bushwhacked his way through the brush looking for the Fountain of Youth. But the morning sunlight and bird-filled quiet was idyllic.
Yesterday we canoed along the Loxahatchee to Trapper Nelson's old stomping grounds; about 3 hours round trip. Anita and I started singing "Row Row Row Your Boat," which Solana then demanded we continue singing for the next, I don't know, 35 years? We saw 5 alligators and maybe 8 or 9 turtles sunning themselves in the mangroves, an osprey nest with loud hungry nestlings (louder even than the nestling in the canoe!) and countless other birds and insects.
We're back in West Palm Beach now cleaning up, planning to go out to eat later!
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