We woke this morning to pouring rain of the torrential downpour scale. Since I had not gone to bed until somewhere around 1:30 a.m., and Clark did not finish his inverter diagnosis until after 3:30 this morning, neither of us were motivated to get out of bed early this morning. Thankfully today turned out to be a laid back day with no running around.
I graduated from college 40 years ago this year. Ginny, my roommate from my senior year in college, has a house here in Venice, Florida. We have not seen each other for years - not since a college homecoming long ago. She saw my posts on Facebook when we reached Florida's west coast and reached out to tell me that she winters in Venice. We immediately added Venice to our must-see places as we tour the coast of the state.
Ginny and her husband Matt drove over and picked us up before lunch today and took us to a Panera Bread. Surprisingly, I have never eaten at one before. The turkey cranberry flatbread was delicious as was the blueberry scone that I grabbed upon sight. Looks like next time I see Panera I'll be wanting to stop in.
After lunch Ginny and Matt took us back to their house. They graciously offered the use of their washer and dryer so I could do my laundry. It ended up taking three loads to get through it all. While the washer and dryer were doing their work, we sat in their back yard bird watching -- a hobby enjoyed by both Ginny and Matt. They are both very well informed on bird species and behaviors. Their house is on a lake in Florida and is surrounded by a variety of birds. In the water itself, we also saw a number of turtles swimming by. It was a very relaxing way to spend a day.
We talked non-stop as we watched the birds. After 40 years we had a lot of catching up to do. The birds are very daring and come very close looking for scraps of food. As usual Clark had his camera handy and captured several good shots.
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| Great Egret |
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| White Ibis |
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| White Egret |
Besides the ones he got on camera, we saw cormorants. anhinga, great blue heron, black crested night heron, and a green-backed heron. Ginny and Matt particularly like to watch the turf wars that occur among the cormorants as they roost in the nearby trees as evening approaches. A hierarchy exists in the cormorant world. The birds fight for the tops of the trees throw weaker birds out of the trees to land in the water below.
Clark also took a couple of videos of the ibis and egrets.
After a lovely afternoon of bird watching and three loads of wash completed, we all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner called Leone's Ristorante. After all we are in Venice so it seemed only natural to eat Italian. We talked and talked and talked long after we finished dinner. At 8:30 Ginny and Matt dropped us off at our boat. As we said our farewells we agreed we needed to get together again before another 40 years pass.
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