Flora and Fauna

When we visit new places, we love to find great restaurants and bars and interesting sights to see.  We loved the St. Patrick's Day parade here on Anna Maria Island, for example.  Of course we like to just veg on the beach, too.  Yesterday was a good day for that!  Although it was cool and cloudy in the morning, the sky suddenly cleared and the temperature rose into the high 70's (yay!) and we took chairs, beach towels, books, and a cooler down to the beach.

The waves were huge!  Several folks were surfing on the large, glassy waves and lots of kids were playing in the shallows.  We had to re-apply sunscreen several times.  I barely read 20 pages because I kept watching all of the people and enjoying the sun.  It was great. 

Today it has been cloudy all day, but we still walked on the beach twice and are going out to sit on the shore for more contemplation of the waves and the people.  I was reflecting on the differences among the various states we have visited.  Sometimes you notice the difference in the road signs.  Florida has "silver alerts" (may I never be the subject); Colorado has "danger falling rocks" signs and caution signs with pictures of moose.  Those signs can indicate the differences in flora and fauna and yesterday I mentioned the advantage of the long growing season here in Florida.  Today I reflected on the different animals we have seen.

We have not yet seen a manatee - they are sequestered inland this year because of the red tide.  We have seen many different birds and we've seen them up close!  The pelicans, which look like pterodactyls, visit the beach in flocks and dive head-first into the water to catch fish.  We've seen cormorants and sea gulls and have chuckled at the little sand pipers scurrying along the beach.  But our most exciting sighting was the manta rays.  We have seen schools of them swimming in the shallows just an arms reach away.  Nancy, who has extremely sharp vision and a sensitivity to animals in their own habitat, suddenly pointed out a manta ray that was leaping out of the water.  I didn't see it and we continued to walk along the beach, with attention withdrawn momentarily.  Then she stopped us and we stood still watching the water.  The manta ray leaped above the waves and then repeated the leap another six times!  It was an awesome sight.

We have loved our visits to the ocean and have seen many "faces" of the ocean.  In Maine the ocean is dark blue and cold with crashing surf and cool winds.  In Florida it is quite different.  The water is green.  It sometimes reminds me of Lake Michigan (but warmer) except for the color.  I love these discoveries and the changing seasons.  If we didn't live in Michigan, I would have to travel to different state just to watch the seasons change.  Now I am reluctant to return to Michigan to re-visit the cold weather!