Awake: 7:42am Temp 65 sleep 7+09 mostly sunny - breezy overnight @ Fort Lauderdale, FL.
I visit the office & ask Tammy if we can have a few more days here; she checks her computer & shows me: (3) days open. The party who reserved our site had slid their arrival time again. We needed these days; there remain more things to see & people to visit.
After a small breakfast, K & I motor to Del Ray Beach & visit Susan & Elton @ their winter home in the gated community of Valencia Falls. We met these people during our Asian Pacific cruise in 2005 & were trivia partners for days @ sea.
We sit & chat for a good hr, catching up with each other on the years gone by. Then they invite us to go birding on the nearby boardwalk....which I was hoping to do since they are both very serious birders. With camera, binoculars, pad & pen, we walk the (1.5) mile boardwalk & see many birds I have never seen before and an alligator nest with several very small babies. Elton was precise in identifying each & every bird he could see & I was busy taking pictures & making notes to keep my life bird list accurate. Such a great bird sanctuary so close to their winter home.
Next, I ride with Elton to downtown Del Ray Beach where we pick up a couple pizzas and salads to take back to their house where we enjoy lunch on their lanai with more bird & some future planning talk. Susan suggests that, before dark, we visit Wakodahatchee Wetlands, a bird nesting area where the birds begin arriving for the night.
It's another short drive with more walking the boardwalk where we witness hundreds of birds landing to roost; for a junior birdwatcher like me, this experience was simply phenomenal. We also watched a few alligators swim around. Back @ their winter home, we have some ice cream & yummy homemade oatmeal raisin cookies that Susan made while Elton & I got the pizzas. We talk about a rendezvous @ our motorhome on Saturday & thank Elton & Susan for a wonderful get-together & look forward to seeing them on Saturday.
En route to our campsite, we make a quick stop @ a Wal-Mart in Boynton Beach for organic milk which they had run out of for the day.
Evening movie: "The Informer" with Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, etc. Dated but still potent study of human nature tells of hard-drinking McLaglen, who informs on buddy to collect reward during Irish Rebellion of 1922. McLaglen's performance won the Oscar, as did Ford, the director. 1935. An edge of your seat story...check it out.
Lights out: 12:20am
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