More West Palm Beach/John Prince Park

 

During our stay at John Prince Park, George and Irene attended the Florida Federation of Garden Club’s two-day class, the 59th Annual Tropical Short Course.  The morning sessions had programs on Everglades conservation, photography of flora and fauna, gardens by Raymond Jungles (a garden designer), and food forest gardening.  Interestingly, Raymond Jungles designed Naples Botanical Gardens which we plan to see while we are in Naples. The afternoon program both days was floral design presented by noted Florida designers who are National Garden Club floral instructors. 

The class was held at Mounts Botanical Garden, Palm Beach County’s oldest and largest public garden. Mounts’ gardens and programs provide the best horticultural and botanical information available related to South Florida’s unique plants and environment.  We enjoyed walking through the garden during breaks and after the class each day.

         

         

         

Orchids grew in many trees in the garden as well as huge staghorn ferns.

                  

                  

Mounts Botanical Garden is certainly a place to visit again.  We enjoyed the garden, the Tropical Short Course, and meeting garden club members from the area.

More Birds at John Prince Park

Near the end of our two weeks at John Prince Park, while bicycling in late afternoon, we again enjoyed seeing birds along the lake shore including a great blue heron.

                         

                         

A female anhinga, fishing with her neck above water – giving her the nickname snake bird – caught our attention.

         

After getting wet, the anhinga “hangs out its wings” to dry, resting on a low hanging branch with its neighbors.

         

         

Along the shore we saw some moor hens and also a flock of ibis.

                   

         

At our RV site, we were eating lunch outside when George saw a great egret land behind our coach causing Irene to run for her camera.

         

Back to West Palm Beach/John Prince Park

We’ve been coming to John Prince Park, a Palm Beach county park, for several years now.  It’s located in Lake Worth and the park has a campground, walking/biking trail around Lake Osborne, playgrounds, and playing fields. Our favorite sites are on the lake where we can frequently see birds.  It’s a great place to bicycle right from our RV site.
         
         
We often see birds as we bicycle, causing frequent stops.  It’s part of the enjoyment of the park.  One day we saw a limpkin . . .
           
Wood Storks, both old and young  . . .
                          
A couple of great egrets . . .
                          
                          
And a male anhinga.  (The female has a light-colored neck).  The anhinga is often seen perched on a snag above the water, with its wings half-spread to dry.
         
We saw another creature along the shore of the lake also, not a bird but a quite large iguana which we watched for a while, trying to get a better photo.
         
                          
         
                        
Our patience paid off – the iguana posed for the camera!  We complain about deer in our gardens at home, but in south Florida, iguanas are a big pest.  I guess I’d rather meet up with a deer in my yard than an iguana!
Another place we enjoy bicycling is the Lake Trail in Palm Beach which was the first 'road' in the town of Palm Beach.  It runs along the Intracoastal Waterway and provided a five-mile paved path stretching from Worth Ave (in the south) to Indian Road (in the north) for Flagler's hotel guests (brought to Palm Beach by his railroad) to stretch their legs and scope out the social scene. Nicknamed 'The Trail of Conspicuous Consumption,' it is sandwiched between two amazing views –  Lake Worth lagoon to the west, and an unending series of mansions to the east.  It’s a great place to bicycle and enjoy the views!
         


         
         


  
         

Port Charlotte–biking and more

 

Bicycling is one of our winter Florida pleasures, and the Port Charlotte area has some good bicycle trails.  One day we ate lunch in Punta Gorda, just south of Port Charlotte, and bicycled the waterfront trail there.  It ran beside the bay for a ways with the north and southbound Tamiami Trail bridges in view.

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The palm trees lining the trail also added to the pleasure of bicycling here. 

                                                

           

Another day – a warmer day – we went to nearby Boca Grande to bicycle and explore the area.  We rode to the beach and the lighthouse on the bike trail and stopped to see pelicans on the pilings of an old pier.

         

         

         

And of course we enjoyed seeing the beautiful bougainvillea.throughout Boca Grande.

         

Near where we parked there were some rather striking trees – Cuban Laurel, a type of ficus – that grow can 50 feet high and and almost as wide.

                        

We saw some more Cuban laurels as we were bicycling and paused for a photo.

         

We biked back downtown along side the railroad and ate lunch at the Loose Caboose  restaurant in the former railroad depot.  It was a sunny and pleasant day – a good day for a bike ride.

         

         

Venice, north of Port Charlotte, has a number of great bike trails. We parked at the nature center and rode along the Venetian Waterway Trail into Venice.

         

         

The downtown is marked by a colorfully planted area with shops and restaurants where we had lunch. The plants and palm trees make it a very pleasant place to eat and linger.

         

         

         

In addition to bicycling, we saw a couple of movies while we were in Port Charlotte, American Sniper and Selma.  We also went to the farmer’s market in Englewood where we got several delicious bakery items and a jar of honey.  Orchids and other plants were for sale, and a man making paella attracted a number of onlookers..

         

On a couple of evenings we returned to the RV park as the sun was setting and stopped near the clubhouse to capture the ending of the day. 

         

         

         

Port Charlotte–at a new RV resort

 

From Port St. Lucie on the Atlantic, we headed west and slightly south to Port Charlotte on the Gulf coast to a new RV resort, Myakka River Motorcoach Resort, an attractive and well designed park. 

                   

It’s a condo RV park and all the sites have pavers instead of concrete – a pleasing appearance – and the sites are widely spaced, mostly facing one of the 3 lakes. 

         

         

Our Chihuahua Tina – a few months short of her 13th birthday – likes sitting outside with us, though she usually prefers being in the sun.  She was predominantly black in her youth.

                       

We explored the park by bicycle and enjoyed seeing the club house, pool, pier, and the landscaping in the park. 

         

         

         

Tina enjoys sitting on the dash getting a “sunbath” and we enjoy the view of the lake and all the birds, some searching for their dinner.

         

         

                      

We took lots of photos of the little blue heron which frequented the lakes in the park . . .  

          

          

And also captured shots of a snowy egret.

                                                              

 

We saw several other birds from our lakeshore RV site:  ducks, a killdeer, and an anhinga which is known for stretching it’s wings out to dry

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Near sunset one day, George saw a great blue heron from the coach and took some shots out the window.

         

         

         

In case you missed it, the heron is in the lower right corner of the photo above.

Most of the birds we saw were on the lake shore, but one tricolored heron perched on the TV antenna of the coach 2 sites from us.  After taking a good view around, it took flight.

         

         

         

In addition to a variety of birds, we also observed some other wildlife from our site:

         

                          

         

As you can probably tell, we had fun watching and photographing all these creatures!  And we never expected such a show of wildlife at this park.