Innocent Family Led Sloshing through the Everglades

This is Karen.

You may remember Karen as my great friend from high school, the one who visited me in Imperial Bonita Estates on the west coast of Florida.

This is Karen’s beautiful family (minus a daughter at college).

Look again at that picture. This is the birthday cake that Karen brought for her very own special birthday to share with us.

This is Stephanie, who got Banjo to sit and lie down with a soft whisper. (Stephanie has worked at an animal shelter.)

This is the hike I led them on after the cake, the hike through pineland, a hardwood hammock, and a sawgrass prairie.

This is the water they had to walk through in their good tennis shoes.

This is what excellent sports they are, driving all the way from Miami then having to drive home in sopping, muddy shoes.

And this is the couple who led them on their wet, buggy hike and didn’t even apologize.

Seriously, we had a very fun day with Karen and all the Mortons (but one)!

Karen brought lunch plus that delicious cake (chocolate hazelnut), and I got to lay out a table using every dish I own and host everyone in the sunshine in front of the trailer.

Banjo especially appreciated our visitors and was petted by each and every one.

And the family hike I led them on was dark and quiet through the hardwood hammock, where I was able to share a few facts I’ve been learning at the evening ranger lectures here.

The sawgrass prairie was indeed wet, but the views were so glorious that everyone kept walking even through unavoidable standing water. I didn’t know that that’s what the Everglades are: an underwater marshy area that shifts and grows and recedes every day (lately mostly recedes).

Seemingly, the glades go forever on and on.

Thank you, Morton family, for sharing Karen with me on her special day!