Pontooning 10,000 Islands

I'm not going to try to count the number of islands downriver from camp here at Everglades Isle, but they are called The Ten Thousand islands, so let's just go with that. Our hosts at Everglades Isle offered a bunch of us a complimentary tour on the company pontoon boat. Sure! We left the dock on a Sunday afternoon around 2 PM. We were expecting the usual jaunt down river and back and we would have been pleased with that. But instead Captain Mark took us down river, out to the islands for some bird watching, some beach combing, some scenic cruising- and we didn't even get back to the dock until something approaching dinner time. It was a great trip and we had good company and an excellent time. The sun was shining and warm when we left the dock, but that yellow orb disappeared behind the dark clouds pretty soon after we launched. That fact did nothing at all to put a damper on the float, and even though we hit a few patches of sprinkles, the experience was totally delightful.

Worth mentioning, Ospreys, Great Horned Owl on a perch and in flight, an Anhinga (a cormorant-like water bird) eating a fish half his size, beaches loaded not only with shells but lots of sponge material. The passing dark clouds made for some beautiful color variations which hopefully you'll note on the slide show.