Floral City, Duvall Island and Friends

I have so many unposted photos from Culebra, but with fast Wifi, it's time to Be Here Now! So I will.

Yesterday we went to Floral City to see Sue. As many years as I've heard about this place, I'd never been and it was a really beautiful surprise. Trees and lakes and rivers, wide expanses of green fields, a cute restaurant with really good burgers and being with friends. Combined, it made for quickly passing hours of happiness.

Outside the Shamrock

The Shamrock is the place to go in Floral City if you want a great burger and fries, a totally different experience from El Batey or the Tiki Grill but food wise? Close indeed. I should have taken a photo but sometimes you just don't and I didn't. They have three warnings on their menu and one of them was this: BE AWARE OF RAW OR UNDER-COOKED FOOD

I wasn't real sure what that would mean, or the other one that said they weren't responsible for over-cooked food, so I ordered my burger and said rare, fully prepared to accept whatever happened, even though the server said "I'll just tell the cook Moo". Since my Dad always called our choice in beef prep 'Flip flop moo' I took that as a good sign. And it was! A good rare burger smothered in mushrooms and real Swiss cheese. Francie and Sue got their medium rare's done perfectly too, so yay Shamrock!

I didn't know requests for undercooked chicken wings was a thing
but if you can order 100 at a time, who knows what people ask for?

There is a place nearby called Duval Island. It's not an island as we think of an island, but due to the many lakes, rivers and tributaries, it is surrounded by water, which is all that is required for the designation. One huge property owner is Ferris Farms, who grow citrus but are now known for their berries. You can go blueberry picking here! We didn't but you can. I can't quite remember if they are actually ON Duval Island, but there is a property there that looks like it would be theirs. Because they have a zebra!! Two donkeys and one big BIG bull were out when we were there, with horses across the street. It was definitely get out of the car time.

Even the mane is striped! How can you stop looking at a zebra by a river?
It's hard.

These critters are obviously used to visitors and calmly kept eating
and meandering as we clicked away

I think this one got a good chuckle out of our adoration
You can see the gigantico bull in the distance.

Look at that face!!!

I'm not sure what blue eyes mean but they were very pretty
(hopefully, it doesn't mean blindness, like ONE person suggested)

Fat and happy on a grey, cool day
(translate - perfect weather for sightseeing in Florida in June)

This horse was very dog-like in its desire for some petting.
We obliged.

Some serious bull here.
It's hard to tell from the photo,
but the size of His Magnificence is pretty close to a VW beetle.
For real.

This is just one of the barns. These critters are doing fine. 

We drove down to the end of the island, to a collection of cottages called Sunshine Lodge (apparently the same owner has the Moonrise Resort also but we didn't go there). If you ever want to take a holiday to the 'other' Florida, this would be one place to do it. Little cottages, a huge lake for kayaking, fishing etc. or just lazy gazing, it pretty well defines bucolic. No photos, again paying to much attention to the experience to recreate the experience. That's not a bad thing for me. Sometimes. 

Bamboo grows really, really well around there.
This is just one stand out of many.
I didn't capture the wowness of them but so it goes.
 

I'd been saying I wanted to get a photo of a sandhill crane - one of my favorite birds - for quite awhile, but every time we'd see some, it was not a good stopping place. As we were leaving Duval Island, this one was in a yard on a quiet street, so we stopped. Then I felt terrible; maybe it was hit by a car, or who knows, but its leg was definitely injured as it moved away from me and my camera. I jumped back in the car and let it be in peace. Waaah. 

If you like birds and don't know much about sandhill cranes,
  this link from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will help.

Out of the order of how things went, but another bird of note. Probably the biggest cardinal I've ever seen, he was sitting pretty on a barb wire fence draped with Spanish moss, posing this way and that. He waited until I'd gotten all of his best sides before flying off. 

Back at Sue's, we rounded up the good day with plans to meet again before I head out. That works.

Have a satisfyingly saturated Sunday. Do something sublime.