A Trip To The Nature Center

The Anne Kolb Nature Center is situated just across the intra-coastal waterway from Hollywood Beach, and although it’s close to the beach and where I used to live, I had never been there.  We thought this might be a good place to take the girls as a change from the pool and the beach, and educational at the same time.

The center is located in the middle of a mangrove swamp, with walkways that allow visitors to walk out into the swamp and to explore the wildlife close up, which includes various species of mangroves, and land crabs that can be seen climbing trees as well.

As well as the walks, the center does have organised boat rides through the swamp and evening excursions to see the turtles hatching in the summer months, but the latter are fully booked about a year in advance.

The only problem was that on the morning that we decided to visit, it was 95 degrees and extremely humid, in other words a typical summer day in South Florida, so by the time we had taken a walk we were all ready to cool off.

We followed up with a refreshing dip in the pool, dinner, and then in the evening a nice walk along the broadwalk, which was fairly quiet for a change.  Sometimes the beach area gets really busy, especially at the weekends, and where they rent cycles and carriages that you pedal, it can be a bit of a nightmare, since many of the users don’t keep to the lane that is set out for them.

With the girls having been with us a few days now, time began to pass quicker, as it always does, and before we knew it, it was Thursday evening, and their Mom came to pick them up, as they had an Irish Dancing competition in Georgia at the weekend.

So while the girls spent the weekend being driven all the way to Georgia and back, Debbie and I prepared to see friends of ours in Deerfield Beach and to do some planned shopping, since many items are much cheaper to buy in the USA than in the UK, as well as there being a lot more choice.

Visiting Friends In Deerfield Beach

Before I moved back to the UK I spent 2 years living in Deer Creek, which is a development in Deerfield Beach, between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.  We went back to see some friends there, and if you would like to see what it’s like, you can take a Walk Around Deer Creek on a Squidoo lens that I created before I moved.

It was good to see my landlord again, as well as some of the other people that we had become friendly with, including an elderly couple who had made sure that Debbie was ok when she came over to visit and I had to go to work.

We spent several hours by the pool, then had dinner with my landlord, and got an invitation to go out to dinner on Sunday at a typical Jewish New York Style Diner in Boca Raton to experience traditional Jewish food from New York.

A Day Of Shopping

With the girls away in Georgia, that left us free on Saturday to go shopping.  We usually stock up on things which are cheaper in the USA, or that we just can’t get in the UK.

The day began with a trip to one of our favourite breakfast places, Golden Corral.  It may not be everyone’s choice, and does attract the “Wal-Mart crowd” if you know what I mean, but the food is good and it’s excellent value.

Then a trip to Ross Dress For Less to see what they had in the way of bargains, and after that Kohls, a store that I have always liked, not only for their choice of items but their prices and special offers.  Kohls had special discounts this weekend for their store card holders, so we both purchased some items, including gifts for the kids.

Next off to Wal-Mart again to stock up on food etc, and back to the condo as the heavens decided to open.   It’s rather sad that we spent a nice day shopping and then when we would have liked to go in the pool it rained, but that’s summer in Florida for you.

Sunday we relaxed by the pool and then headed up to Deerfield Beach, firstly to see my landlord who has a shop at the Festival Flea Market and to get some cosmetics for Debbie as there are some discount stores there.

Dinner At A New York Style Jewish Restaurant

Our friends from Deerfield took us to Ben’s Kosher Deli in Boca Raton so that Debbie and I could experience some traditional New York Jewish food, and the place was buzzing, despite it raining.

Service was excellent, and as well as munching on pickles and trying pickled green tomatoes for the first time, we got to try Matzo Ball Soup and some real corned beef.

The meal was good, as was the company, and the atmosphere was wonderful too.  The walls of the restaurant are covered with humorous quotes, for example this one:

Moses led us through the desert for 40 years until we came to the only place in the Middle East without any oil.

It was good to see our friends again, and with them being in their 80’s, you never know what the next year may bring as far as health, so it was good to spend some time with them.

Then after dinner we rushed back to the beach condo, in time for the girls to be dropped off to us after their long trip to Georgia.   They didn’t get back until after 9:30pm, and I had promised them ice cream before bed, so of course having driven down from Georgia and had a late night, both were ready for a good sleep.

Coming Up Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Five and join us next time for a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo.

I have really enjoyed getting out of bed in the morning, and heading out around the lakes and golf course at Deer Creek to stretch my legs, listen to the birds chirping, and to watch the wildlife and trees.  There is always something different to see every time I take a walk, and I will really miss it.  At least I should have one weekend day when I can take my walk (the other I see my daughters and take them for breakfast, so no time).

I also still hope to go walking most evenings, which I also enjoy, and it’s different, especially in the dark.  Of course now with Summer here it doesn’t get dark until late.  Going out for a walk at 8pm even a few weeks ago would provide you with an awesome clear sky full of stars.  Now the sun still hasn’t set by that time.

Well it looks as if my Squidoo Lens about my walks around Deer Creek has started a trend.  Today Clouda9 published a lens about a Walk On Our Country Road, a lovely tour of the rural area where she lives, and it’s so different to Deer Creek, being out in the countryside.

I hope many more people will think about doing this.  It’s so nice to see the places where people live, so inviting to stroll along with them on a virtual tour of their favorite places to go walking, and nice to see the photographs of these special places.   So if you think you might like to do this, let me know.  Just stroll out, camera in hand, create a lens or a blog post, and I will write about it.   Maybe we can acquire a nice collection of these as time goes on.   If nothing else, these will make great memories in years to come, something to hand down to the children and grandchildren.

Patricia Sanders (aka Jewelsofawe) also has a great lens about being out on her sister-in-laws farm.  Take a look at Out On The Farm and see if you feel envious of the beautiful scenery.  She also created a lens that gives a wonderful virtual tour of her Garden Of Veggies – the Apple Pie looks delicious.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsDaqJEslQY

This morning I woke up to find it was still pretty dark, with the skies very overcast and it had rained a lot in the night.   Nevertheless, I decided to try and take my morning walk to try and wake up, as my head was in a complete fuzz after a hard day yesterday.

I saw hardly anyone on my walk around Deer Creek, just a lady walking her dog, and two people cycling around the loop.  I guess everyone else was more sensible and decided to play it safe!

Well about 1/3 of the way around the loop I could see a few spots of rain falling on puddles on the ground, and I thought to myself “This is it!  You are going to get drenched!”.  But I didn’t, the sky brightened up a bit, and the walk went really well, except for the blister on the ball of my right foot that insists on re-forming every time I walk.  Maybe I need to try two pairs of socks…

Moving forward to now, 30 minutes later, there is a terrific thunderstorm going on outside, it’s like a monsoon, and the wind has been howling.  If I had got caught in this, there isn’t a tree on earth that I could have sheltered underneath.  I would have come home like a drowned rat!

So maybe this day is starting off ok, maybe luck is on my side today!  I sure hope so, I have so much to try and do, and I am still really tired after yesterday’s exertions (see here).

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** NEWS FLASH **
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10 minutes after posting – a mini tornado whistles down the lake.  Even the ducks are trying to shelter from the rain which is now even harder.   Rain is beating on the front of the condo, a stream of water is pouring down the inside of the front door, and we just caught the bedroom windows in time as a lake formed on the inside and it started to cascade down the wall behind the bed!   Fortunately we just caught it, and a towel put paid to the otherwise large pool of water that was forming.

When it rains like this, the old windows in the condo just don’t seal well enough to keep the rain out.  Where we are by a stair well, the wind channels through, and increases in velocity.

Fortunately it’s calmed down a bit – for now at least…  I think we must have had a good 3 inches of rain in 30 minutes.

I had a phone interview, then found out at the end of the day that the client wants me to start on Tuesday.

My funds had really begun to run low, but fortunately this should work out in money starting to come in before I run out.

The day didn’t go too smoothly though, in fact it didn’t go smoothly at all.  Murphy played his trump cards, but it didn’t do him any good this time.

The day was due to start with my sorting out our storage units with my ex-wife, but due to rain early morning, we didn’t start until 11am.  At least the day from then on was great as regards the weather, even though the early morning forecast was for it to get worse.

I heard from an  agent that I have been working with that I had a phone interview for a position at 2pm.  Got the details for that, and proceeded to sort out storage.  This involved moving lots of boxes and furniture, sorting things out, repacking, tossing out, so by 1:30pm I was hot, sticky, and dirty.

I went to Wendy’s to clean up and prepare for my interview, was just about to order something to drink after cleaning up, and the phone rang.  The agent said that things were running late, so would 2:15pm be ok!   I ordered my drink and thought, ok, I have neough time to drive the 1 1/2 miles south to the Goodwill store to drop off some things we are getting rid of.

I had only got half a mile down the road when the phone rang again.  The interview was going ahead at 2pm after all – 2 minutes time!   So, I instantly hit traffic, made it to Goodwill within 5 minutes, dialed in on the conference call, and began the interview.

I was aware after about 10 minutes that the phone battery was starting to run low, my having been on the phone for a while already that day, and I don’t have a car charger since I never needed one for this phone.   Well of course the interview went on and on, and I got more and more beeps.   I said to the person interviewing me that I thought my battery was about to die, and as I said that I got a “boodly-boop’ing” sound and the phone went off.

PANIC MODE!   Holy crap, what am I going to do:?

I decided to head back north a mile to my ex-wifes parents house (where she lives), to see if I could use their phone.  Hit traffic of course, so by the time I got there and tried to call it was already 15 minutes after the battery went dead.  I also could not power my phone on enough to get any numbers out of it!   DRAT DRAT AND DOUBLE DRAT!

Plan B – I headed out to Radio Shack, ironically just up the road from Wendys where I had been 30 minutes before.    $21 and five minutes later I have the phone plugged in, but it won’t work because the battery is stone dead.  The phone needs a good 10 minutes of charging before I can use it.  After 3 attempts to call the agent during which the battery died again, I finally sewed things up.

I then went back to Goodwill, dropped off the items I no longer needed, back to my ex-wifes to watch my daughters do their homework, then off to the park with them for an hour.   They were very good today, my youngest who is 4 1/2 was climbing like a monkey, while my eldest who is 8 1/2 was having one of her sad moments, missing her brother (my son who is 28 and lives in England) and her Grandad (my Dad who passed away almost 2 years ago).  She is a very sensitive girl, and although she only met them when she was 2, she misses them.   I told her about when her other Nan (my Mum) passed away 12 years ago, and we both pretty much ended up crying.  Odd situation to see at a park, luckily there was nobody else there.  My youngest joined in and we had a good group hug.  They love hugs, and so do I.

Off then back to Wendy’s to grab a bite to eat with them, before taking my youngest to a swimming lesson.  She did really good, no problems putting her head under water, and I think she will soon be swimming like a fish.   While I was at Wendys, the agent called t0 let me know that I had the job.  Phew!

I dropped them off about 7:30pm, then headed the 30 miles back home, and spent the best part of the last 3 hours catching up on mail.   Wrote to the family about my new job, and now this post.

Since I missed my morning walk today, because it started to pour with rain just as I was about to set off, I am headed out in a few minutes.  Yes I know it’s 11:15pm, but a nice walk around Deer Creek should do me good.  It’s nice and peaceful, good for clearing the head, and I hope a stiff back…

Also today I noticed that my Fan Club on Squidoo now numbers 501!   That is an awful lot of fans, and I consider myself very fortunate and favored.

While Debhie has been working on her collection of lenses about Hampshire, I have been working on my USA States lenses, and also a local one about my daily walks.

Firstly, Debbie created a lens about Southampton, the city where she lives.  Southampton is one of the largest ports in England, in the middle of the South Coast, and has seen many famous ships sail down the river, including The Titanic, Queen Mary and Elizabeth, and also their successors the QE2 and QM2.

She just completed another about Netley, a suburb of Southampton which has a lot of history.  Netley has ruins of an Abbey, as well as an old military hospital, the remains of which have been turned into a country park.

Meanwhile, I just completed a lens about the morning walks that I take where I live in Deer Creek in South Florida.  The lens has over 80 photographs from the walk, including some nice homes, lakes, and much of the tropical foliage and wildlife of the area.

I have also been working on a set of lenses about the states in the USA.  I am creating these in alphabetical order, and so far have completed Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas and California.   Each lens has background information on each state, and a list of other lenses about that state.  If you have a Squidoo lens about any of these states, please feel free to add it to the list of lenses to get some free promotion.

If I haven’t got to your state yet, why not subscribe to our blog so you can be kept up to date with progress.  I hope you enjoy what you see here.