Tonight I look around and find myself not only home, but in one piece.  So, I guess it’s time to get up the report for the trip.  Since I’m way too lazy to write ten thousand words (except in my books) I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking and just fill in with captions and what have you.

Check behind the cut for the full disclosure.  Just make sure you’ve got a comfortable seat, this many pics may take a while to load.

I’m reaching for the Forbidden Fruit.  Not sure if these were ‘wild’ oranges, or cultivated, but they looked good.*

And here we have the Guardian of the Oranges, except I think he was caught in one of those impossible fairy tales and drank from the wrong fountain of youth.

I tried just a teensy tiny sip of his fountain, and nearly lost my mid-section.  This was on the Coquina rocks out at the shore, just south of St. Augustine.  Lovely place.

In this pic I’m glassing a very irritable Bald Eagle mama, down in the old cypress forest in the Everglades.  She had my full attention, but perhaps I should have been watching my back…

And lastly, research and inspiration.  Namely, jungles.  Live Oak, Mangrove, they’re both getting feature roles in my stories. 

 

We also got down to the keys to goggle our eyes out on the glass bottom tour of the reefs.  We saw the cutest little sea turtle imaginable, but as he was rather camera shy, I’ve imported this pic from Tropical Marine Ecology to show you what he looked like.  This is a Green, and that’s how I remember him.  Someone yell loudly if I got him wrong.

 

*I did not, in fact, pick an orange or eat it.  This is not evidence of anything beyond my DESIRE to pick an orange and eat it.

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