The Sunshine Manatee and Bird Tour
Our first stop on Wednesday was at Finz Waterfront Grille, not for the lunch special which would come later, but to board the Captain Nancy's Sunshine Wildlife Tour boat, and set off for a peek at birds and manatees.
Finz Waterfront Restaurant
Our tour guide, Captain Nancy, it turns out, is quite an outspoken environmentalist and very protective of the Indian River estuary.
Captain Nancy holds forth.
This beautiful boat was here for maintenance, but all the boats maintained at this facility are manufactured in Maine:
The Hinkley Boat repair facility.
One of Captain Nancy's complaints is the huge amount of chemical fertilizers used to keep the lawns of the millionaires' nice and green, and leeches into the estuary, causing rampant algae growth and poisoning the wildlife therein. The home shown below is an exception; its owners have recognized the issue and have a grass-less yard which they celebrate by the name of their boat: DunMowin.
DunMowin, and the yard the owner is done mowin'
Pelicans, pelicans. If you see pier posts in harbors anywhere along our coast from Charleston to Corpus Christie, you'll see pelicans. One of the best-evolved creatures for survival, pelicans' heads change color during their sexual cycle from chick (white) to "available for trysting" (yellow) to "parenting--too busy for that stuff" (white again.)
A passel of pelicans
Still more pelicans
Although this island's official name is something fascinating like Island #2, to the locals, at least our intrepid Captain Nancy, it is Bird Island, the major rookery for herons and storks and frigate birds in southern Florida.
Bird Island
Captain Nancy is a major pain in the hind quarter for the political machine in Florida which for generations has tried to either pave or populate every inch of the state. Carl Hiaasen would, or maybe does, love her. Developers and chemical companies don't. It's not a war she's winning, but there are battles now and then.
Herons and cormorants...
...and pelicans of course.
Here is the humble abode we would like. Alas, look at all the green grass:
Some pretty nice digs
Oh, manatees you ask? Well, we did see one manatee's nose come up for a breath of fresh air just for a second. That was it. "Yesterday we saw lots of them," Captain Nancy said. Well, as long time fishing boat veterans, we've heard many times about how well they were biting yesterday. Anyway, at the end of our voyage we repaired to Finz Waterfront Grille for a very pleasant lunch:
Lunch at Finz
From Finz, we traveled back to Haney Circle for another visit to Hoffmans Chocolate and Ice Cream on Osceola Street. After samples and treats, it was time for our final visit to purveyors of vacation merchandise, specifically, the Shell Bazaar on Federal Highway, AKA Route 1. Mary F. is shown here with one of the proprietors, and I just noticed she has her hand on his leg!
Mary Frances and friend
Kent, meanwhile, expressed his attitude about vacation shopping by his version of the too-damn-much-shopping husband-strike:
Time for a car nap
Our last evening before departing Florida included lots of cleaning by the ladies, eating everything in the refrigerator that wouldn't travel well back to Massachusetts, a couple of rounds of golf, and an early bedtime anticipating tomorrow's long drive north.
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