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| Central Florida orange grove |
We awoke at 5:45 on our last full day of
vacation and went to breakfast at the hotel. We were on the road by 7:30
making our way to Sebring
to spend the day with our friends, Steve Minor and Marcia Smith. We
enjoyed the drive through citrus groves and cattle farms and lakes dotting the
area of Central Florida. We saw a number of nesting osprey along the
highway on utility poles as well as kingfishers and many wading birds.
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| Steve & Marcia outside their Sebring, FL home |
We arrived at their home a little before 10
am which is a beautifully decorated home in a nice quiet neighborhood that is
just a stone’s throw from Lake Jackson. After
a brief visit, we drove around town a bit then past the Sebring Race Track
to Istokpoga
Park which is operated by Highland County. This park is a
quiet well groomed place with walking paths, picnic areas, piers into Lake
Istokpoga and a boat dock. We spotted a number of hawks and
ospreys. At the lake we saw our first glossy ibis as well as one small
alligator and a couple of large turtles. We chatted with several people
that we met there and enjoyed our time there. The temperature was in the
mid 80s and the sky only had a few scattered clouds. It was a perfect
day.
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| Nesting osprey |
From there we drove to an area where Steve
and Marcia had never been but we all wanted to check out. This area,
Boney Marsh and Bluff Hammock, only had a very short path that was very
overgrown leading to a canoe launch leading to the Kissimmee River. We
walked around the area and followed some game trails but the brush soon became
too thick for us to continue. There were large areas that had been rooted
up by wild hogs and we were all covered with tiny round burrs that we removed
before returning to the car. We did see that nearby Okeechobee Outfitters
offers wild hog hunts in the area.
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| Osprey |
After our walk, Steve treated us to an
excellent lunch at Havana Days Cuban Restaurant
and Bakery. We all had Cuban sandwiches which were so large
that Mary and I split one as well as a side of beans and rice and some
tostones. The sandwiches and sides were both excellent.
After lunch we returned to their house and
played a quick game of Mexican Train dominoes.
Although we weren’t keeping score, it appeared that Steve would have won.
We gave them some of the brochures on the Everglades that we picked up through
the week and gave them our recommendations on places to visit. We really
enjoyed our visit with them. We see them so seldom since they moved to
Florida but we sure look forward to coming back and seeing them again. Steve has looked forward to moving to Florida for the nearly 50 years that I have known him because of his intense dislike of cold weather. It makes us feel so good to see how well they are doing and how happy they are living in Central Florida in retirement.
We left their home and drove the 90 minutes
back to Bonita Springs. We parked at the hotel and brought things up to
the room to pack. After starting to pack we decided that we should get a
small dinner. We had such a large lunch that neither of us wanted a large
dinner. There was the Culver’s across the street where we had eaten
earlier in the week so we decided to go back there. We walked across
Bonita Springs Boulevard to the restaurant and ordered. Mary got the same
cranberry chicken salad that she had before. I had the cashew chicken
salad that Mark and Cindy split before. My salad arrived with the chicken
chunks incompletely cooked so I sent it back. I seldom return food to the
kitchen but this chicken was still cool and pink on the inside and I didn’t
want to eat it that way. After preparing it again the salad was very
good.
After dinner we took a short walk around
the area and returned to the Bonita Springs Day’s Inn to finish packing and
print our boarding passes.
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