We drove over to Dunedin this morning to Mease Manor to see Ken's stepmother, Geraldine. Dunedin is a small town near the Gulf, just north of Clearwater. It's where Ken's dad and Geraldine retired to, and it's a great place to retire.
Geraldine moved to Mease Manor, a retirement community in Dunedin, ten years ago. She was in the independent living section until earlier this year, when she moved into the assisted living section. Basically that means she just moved from the sixth floor to the third floor, to a nearly identical apartment.
It's been almost nine years since we last visited--how did the years get away from us? We had invited Geraldine to go out to lunch with us, but she preferred to stay on campus and eat in the Mease Manor main dining room, so she ended up treating us to a lovely meal. We talked about her family and our kids and grandkids. Of course we talked about her health. She is 97 this year and has problems with hearing and eyesight and with her short term memory, but is otherwise doing quite well. She uses a walker to get around now. She likes to listen to the radio on her Sony Walkman, and she has a player and talking books from the Florida Blind Services.
After a nice visit, we said goodbye to Geraldine about 3:00 p.m. and headed to nearby Honeymoon Island State Park. Our first stop there was the Nature Center. We watched some short videos about the park and viewed the exhibits and picked up a map of the Osprey Trail at the north end of the island. We decided to go first to the beach and spend some time on the white sand and in the warm blue green water of the Gulf.
After a bit we decided to change and go for a hike on the Osprey Trail. We had been warned that the Skeeter level was "ugly" (think "the good, the bad, and the ugly"), so we put on plenty of bug spray. The trail was broad, level, and easy to follow, though for one section we did run into muddy conditions. Our Deet evidently kept the mosquitoes at bay, so we were able to enjoy the scenery, and the critters. We saw two raccoons. Both scurried into the underbrush when they heard us coming. We saw lots of osprey nests high in the pine snags and one osprey, though it was a bit far away to be sure. We saw an eagle's nest, but no bald eagles. Nesting season here is in the winter.
The one critter that did pose for the camera was this gopher tortoise, which was about ten inches in diameter. They dig extensive burrows underground, which then provide homes not only for the tortoises, but for lots of other species as well.
We saw lots of different kinds of butterflies and many great egrets. As we walked along, we heard thunder rumbling in the distance, but never felt any rain. We finished our hike of 2.3 miles at 6:20 p.m. and headed home.
As we drove home we were treated to a beautiful rainbow arching across the sky. It persisted for quite a while, and we thought we would probably catch up with the rain, but we never did, although we came to some very wet streets.
This evening the temperature outside is actually down to 75 degrees and very pleasant evening air.
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