Birthdays a lo Keys!

Today was the most relaxed we'd had since arriving at Key Largo. The morning and early afternoon were spent tying up some loose ends and getting some more images and notes online. Since Bill is leaving tomorrow, we decided that we would spent a couple of hours just touristing.

After doing a little of that "necessary" souvenir shopping, we decided to head down the road to find what we could see given the deadline we had (we planned to meet Robin, Gail, Karen, Krisstina and Troy for dinner to celebrate Bill's upcoming birthday). We headed down Highway 1 and came upon the Florida Keys Wild Refuge Center and decided to stop in. This center is where folks bring animals (especially birds) that are injured for rehabilitation if possible. They had some truly majestic birds recouperating in habitats, and I was enjoying trying to identify them before looking at the tags - being no bird-watcher, I was often wrong. They had hawks, osprey, owls, woodpeckers, doves to name just a few. Naturally, there was an abundance of sea fowl.

Then the real excitement began. We heard the beating of wings and walked a little further to an open area, to what seemed like an orchard of egrets. There were egrets, some herons and pelicans on every branch. Below I share some of the pictures - I couldn't stop shooting, it was so impressive!

After a few awestruck moments, we realized that time had gotten away from us and we were due back at the MRDF to meet the rest of the merry-makers. We jumped in the car, did a quick stop at the hotel, and rushed to find the hungry crew ready to go out and do the birthday thing for Bill. The pictures tell the tale: Only in the keys would you blow out the candle on a slice of Key Lime Pie!