Part of our reason for coming this far south and staying as long as we do is to spend time with dear friends from home staying in Naples. We dedicate one day to the beach where Ed and I take our traditional plunge into the chilly winter waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the Florida version of the Polar Bear Plunge which takes place in Lake Michigan each winter. We survived again and have convinced ourselves that it was not so cold as in previous years. We were not so good at convincing our respective spouses though who stood on the shore taking pictures and marveling at our idiocy. Tradition with friends is such a wonderful thing as it binds us together with so many fun shared memories. Another tradition we cherish with this couple is the longest running pinochle marathon in history. We began this marathon in March of 2000 on a joint trip to Minneapolis to visit relatives and have been playing every month since. We have taken our game from Minneapolis to the southern edge of Florida and many places in between.
Thanks to Ed's meticulous bookkeeping, we have documented all the unusual places we have played and the results of each individual game. That is why we know for certain that we played our 1000th game in Naples. It took almost 12 years to get there. Which, by the way, the girls won. We celebrated quite appropriately with a good belly laugh the likes of which seems to erupt every time we play. 
Our final Everglades experience was a bike ride through Ten Thousand Islands Bird Sanctuary. Florida has such stupendous birds it will make a birdwatcher out of anyone. Our special treat this year was in experinecing a whole flock of Roseate Spoonbills flying over our heads in an airborne sea of pink.
The butterflies were equally amazing. We even threw in a few more alligator sightings just to balance out the day. What a wonderful and diverse world our God has given to us!
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| We managed to capture a couple of spoonbills still on the ground |
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