As part of the Southwest Florida Birding Festival, I was able to visit the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge a
nd ride on a swamp buggy! All those years that I was in Florida, I never got the chance to visit the Panther Refuge as its closed to the general public. We didn't see any panthers (there are only about 100 of them) but it was absolutely gorgeous to see all those palms and pines. Its totally different than coastal North Carolina!
It is so nice to be wearing flipflops in January again! We arrived after a 16-hour drive to Joe's gorgeous new house and have been having a blast! The doggies are playing and loving life- the brown brothers, Maverick and Payton. Maverick loves hunting for lizards in the backyard, with all of the tropical foliage. We took them to the dog beach and Maverick was hot stuff since he knows all about the beach and Payton was just a crazy maniac running all over the place. I spent all of yesterday at Rookery Bay, visiting with everyone, and actually volunteering in the research department; Susan and I went out on the boat to do some water quality stuff and I worked on my suntan. I even saw some dolphins playing!
Our house is finally back in order with all of our new xmas stuff! We've been using the weather radio to find out what its like outside and hear the forecast, pretty snazy :)
nd was to paint and hang up our new coat rack. I was thinking that we would put keys, Maverick's jacket, or my purse, but it turns out that we have lots of scarves and hats to choose from (thank you to some great xmas gifters!) so they are on display for the choosing instead! I picked up a nice little rug for underneath and now we have a (very small) mudroom-type area for our sandy shoes.
I forgot to post pictures from Maverick's trip to the farm! This dog goes crazy if he sees cows out the window in the car, so we thought why not take him to the farm to see some real cows? He wasn't so sure at first (look at his face in the picture!) I think the cows thought he was a baby cow because he's about the size of a newborn calf and he's the just about same 
color! He was really afraid for the first 15 minutes but then he got curious and one cow actually licked him on the head, haha! Wish I had gotten a picture of that! I kept him on a leash just in case he got crazy and started running around- my dad said that when one cow gets scared, they can knock over the one next to them causing a domino effect all the way down the barn! He had quite a day at the farm, chasing kitty cats and running around the hay loft. Then he promptly got a bath! 
Not only did Mav meet the cows, but he also played in the snow! He had quite a time in the blizzard; he loved to run wild like a maniac and catch snow balls. I guess that was a good substitute for catching shells at the beach?
Our trip to Pennsylvania was blissful! With the entire family in tow (yes, that includes Otis, too), the Subaru, decked out in greenery and bows, made its 11-hour journey to into the snow. We did all kinds of cool stuff on vacation: birding (of course), hiking, visiting, eating, shopping, eating, drinking, eating, and relaxing. It was really great to see the fam and high school crew; good times :)
