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How would you decorate an airport baggage claim? Shipwreck mural?
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Where we stayed in Fort Lauderdale Beach
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Where we had breakfast - cold, windy, outdoors
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Al & Ira watching a video about chicken-fried bacon. Really.
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Awww . . .
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These leaves and bushes are everywhere. Some kind of grape, they say
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The intracoastal waterway at Fort Lauderdale - mansions abound
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A Segway tour! Looks like fun
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No Segways, but we can look at the mansions across the water
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Many ways to get about . . .
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Water taxis are conceptually fun
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On Fort Lauderdale Beach. Lots of designer bodies about
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The blimp lives near here, and flies around a lot
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The signs say "No nude bathing". Maybe he can't read yet . .
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There's a state park right in the middle of Ft Lauderdale. Cool!
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Spot the lizard! Great camouflage . . .
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Along Alligator Alley (I-75) - Leaf-less Cypress trees showing off their bromeliads
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Sunset over the Everglades . . .
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More naked cypress, more bromeliads
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The lighthouse at Sanibel Island is just a big metal tube on stilts.
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Costs $2/hr to park at any beach on Sanibel Island.
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There are restrooms at the end of that path.
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The lighthouse again
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And one more time
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Talk about a shell covered beach. The southern tip of Sanibel.
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Brown pelicans pelicanating.
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Sunbathers are always out, it seems
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Some fly kites
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On the Edison estate, a magnificent Banyan Tree - covers about an acre
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The tree is just about 75 years old, grown from a shoot. Note the sign . .
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Judy liked the light bulb windows above the water fountains
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Bigger than life (him, not her)
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One of the first Ford V8 engines
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Perfect car for the wife, it says . . .
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Some of Edison's brightest ideas
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Edison invented the phonograph, and made major developments in motion pictures.
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Real Ford on right, stand-in on left
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The view of the pier at Edison's estate.
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The Edison winter home
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The Edison home is furnished with Edison family furniture.
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Doesn't that porch look inviting?
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Edison wouldn't have gas lights in his home - so he invented the "Electrolier"
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The green stuff is an orchid plant. The thorns are on the host tree
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The Henry Ford winter home was comparable to Edison's, even though Ford was much wealthier
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The subsequent owner made some improvements before selling it to the Edision Estate foundation.
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Furnishings in the Ford home are period appropriate. Ford sold the home after Edison died.
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The 1917 Model T truck sold for $500, you build your own body. The 1929 Model A sold for $700 complete.
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Fig trees are sources of latex. This one is one of the largest in the country.
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Check out that root system - almost all above ground.
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These bromeliads are very common
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View of the grounds of the Edison & Ford estates
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That's a Calabash, growing right out of the trunk of a Calabash tree.
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Bougainvillea is not a native Florida plant, but it sure is common
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Not many orchid blooms right now, but very pretty when seen
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Inside the Edison botanical research lab, used to try to find a domestic source of latex
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More of that spectacular Banyan tree
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Restroom doors at Cheeburger Cheeburger on Sanibel Island
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About 2/3 of a small order of "Frings" - half french fries, half onion rings
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Outside of Cheeburger Cheeburger
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Another beach on Sanibel Island
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You'd think we'd get used to these birds . . .
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We find them fascinating
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We think it's an Ibis. With pink feet
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A Blue Heron
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Our first stop on our Everglades tour
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Judy likes bromeliads
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That's Kliss, our naturalist-guide
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A Strangler Fig can either grow up or down, depending on where the seed sprouts
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A marvelous burl, or maybe a fungus - Kliss didn't know.
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Female bald eagle on her nest. No chicks yet . . .
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If there were chicks, momma would be out foraging for food
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Another strangler fig. The figs don't actually strangle the host tree.
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A Red Shouldered Hawk keeps an eye on us
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Beautiful bird
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Cypress knees are fascinating. Nobody's quite sure what they do
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Resurrection ferns in various states of resurrection
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At the end of the boardwalk, a gator hole. Big female gator
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Can you count the gators? There are at least 10 here
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Young gators hang around momma for 2-3 years
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We thought this was a LOT of gators in one place
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Later, we realized we hadn't seen anything yet
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There's momma again . . baby seems to be growing out of her head
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And another look at her flock
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The Royal Palm is very common. Edison brought it here from Cuba, and it just took off.
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Our safari transport
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Our boat awaits for a tour of some of the 10,000 islands of the Everglades
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Cormorants and gulls waiting for fish, probably
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All of these islands are home to impressive stands of mangrove
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That's Capt Paul, master of the boat and of countless really lame jokes
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Osprey on her nest. The solar panel is not for the Osprey.
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The guide said the chicks had not yet hatched
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The male Osprey was near . . .
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The tour boat wasn't full, making for a more relaxed tour
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At high tide, this wonderful beach is completely submerged
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A spit full of terns
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There we are . . .
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Mangrove roots complete with barnacles
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Another photogenic bird
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Mangroves are noteworthy because they can grow in salt water
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A large flock of white pelicans.
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These birds stand over 4 feet tall. Second largest bird in North America - California Condor is bigger
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Another Osprey nest
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This one has a chick peeking out
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Just in case . . .
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Another Osprey incubating
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And her mate, keeping an eye on us
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The old Train Depot in Everglades City, where we had lunch
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Back on the lookout for wildlife, another blue heron
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Nice
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There were many, many gators along this one road
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We didn't take pictures of all of them.
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And we're not showing you all the pictures we did take.
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Anhinga drying out
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At the airboat place, a Macaw with a questionable vocabulary
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Fred is our airboard captain
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Fred would qualify as a Good Ole Boy
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There were lots of birds about
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They perched everywhere
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But most folks want to see alligators
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There were gators everywhere
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These babies are joining Mama in her den
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Fred has a pony tail in his beard. Not sure why
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Great Blue Heron
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A pair of Sandhill Cranes, in step even
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The airboat can maneuver on wet mud with no water depth at all
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Well, hello there
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There were literally alligators eveywhere in this lake
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And a few turtles
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Get an idea of how deep the water wasn't
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Those things draping the trees are called "Air Potatoes". Not native, of course . .
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Bald Eagle flying overhead
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Same eagle
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We must have seen upwards of 200 gators on this airboat ride
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This one is a mature bull - check out those jaws!
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They smiled at us, but we never smile at a crocodile. Or a gator.
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Gators of all sizes close enough to touch, though nobody did
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Two Roseate Spoonbills ignoring a gator
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Spoonbills are such interesting birds
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Spoonbills also have very good balance
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Gators are also fascinating . .
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There are two birds in that tree. The farther one is a kingfisher.
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A white-headed blue crane, back in a pond
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They really were everywhere
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A beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk
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It's called a Tri-Colored Heron
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Gators are amongst the most successful animals on earth, virtually unchanged for over 200 million years
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Turtles do their best not to become gator food
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Normally, the white mangrove has its roots in the water. But there's a drought going on . . .
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An airboat much like the one we rode
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Both alligators and crocodiles live in the Everglades. These little ones in a cage - croc on the left. gator on the right
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As we prepared to leave Fort Myers Beach, a crew moved a park model in
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And we end our show with retired folks watching. We do a lot of that.