Our first week of vacation flew by. We left the Keys and then stayed at Fort Myer, Sarasota and Clearwater. At every place we stay and on the way we visit thrift shops :D As we don't have them in Turkey we make the best of them, you never know what you might find which makes it thrilling.
In between, we sightsee and visit beautiful parks and beaches as well.
In Fort Myers, we went to the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. It is a boardwalk through the slough.
The man-made boardwalk might seem weird but it causes that no one can actually step on the forest floor, keeping it untouched. It was very quiet and beautiful. We saw lots of squirrels busy hiding nuts.
The beautiful trees above are Bald Cypress trees, they look dry but that is because it is Winter (although warm there is still a Season change here as well).
There was also a lake, funnily enough we still haven't seen an alligator (we hadn't seen any last year either).
Cypress trees must be able to stay upright in soggy conditions. The swollen base of the tree, called a buttress, helps anchor the tree in place. Those pointy objects that look like witches' hats are cypress knees. Although they will not grow into a new tree, the knees pop up from the underground roots for extra stability.
These so-called resurrection ferns shown above are a natural rain gauge. These show it hasn't rained for days, after rain they open up, and they become even more crumpled after weeks of no rain.
A beautiful dainty Great Egret.
In general, Florida is very green but this was very peaceful and amazing.
Slash pine trees are often visited by the Pileated Woodpecker. They glide from tree to tree to flick off pieces of bark and peck into the wood in search of carpenter ants and other insects to eat.
After this lovely walk, we continued thrifting till the end of the day :)
In Clearwater we visited Pier 60 as our touristic visit for the day, famous for its beautiful sunsets.
We came just in time, although crowded the beach was so wide and big you did not notice at all.
It was windy and pretty chilly but so beautiful. The ocean is really rougher and bigger than the sea we are used to at home.
Tomorrow we are heading to Crystal River where Manatees often come for warmer waters during Winter, I really hope we'll see them!
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