Island Time

It's hard to believe 2 weeks have come to a close with our time on Pine Island.  We thoroughly enjoyed the hiking, nature preserves, wildlife and solitude of the island as well as time catching up with family and friends.

We enjoyed hikes every morning surrounded by the beauty of nature.

an island surrounded by Mangroves

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owls

Tom has recently revived his hobby of geocaching and so we discovered places on the island we would not have found otherwise.  A few of our hikes came out of finding remote places where a geocache was hidden.

Yes, he's up in a tree to log this geocache register!

We met Neil and Nancy in PA and then saw them again on the island. We had a great time catching up, telling stories about "home" and getting to know their friends (coincidentally from Lititz, PA) Bonnie & Ken.

Neil & Nancy's little girl, Tatum

Enjoying snacks around the fire - Neil, Tom, Ken, Bonnie, Nancy

Bonnie, Tom, Ken, Neil, Nancy

My Aunt Edie and Uncle Randy along with a friend, Mary, drove down for a visit from their winter home in Port Charlotte.  We were able to be the tour guides on this visit.

Aunt Edie, Mary and Uncle Randy

Rita Morgan, who we met out west several years ago, took a side trip on her way from the Keys to Crystal River to stay on the island for a week.  She's an outdoor lover like we are so we had a fun time being adventurous together.  We mountain biked (yes, that's right, in FL), visited Manatee Park, took a ferry to Cabbage Key and Cayo Costa.

the manatees nosed the kayaks and pushed them along

Moxie had a wonderful time on our daily hikes as well as a visit to Great Licks Ice Cream on Matlacha.

If you're reading this in your e-mail, be sure to check out our schedule on the blog on the right-hand side of the page.  If you want to get out of the cold come on down!

Til next time...Happy Trails!