Why did the ducks cross the road?

 And how did a mother and her ducklings make it across a busy six-lane highway without getting killed?

This mom had a much better idea.

As did this one.

Bank of America

The bank's headquarters building on U.S. Route 41 (Tamiami Trail) was built in 1985.

The building makes me think of an ocean liner.  It is a very busy road, but I waited until stop lights on both sides of the building paused traffic on both sides of the road.

Alex

 

We were both waiting for tire repairs.  Alex has tattoos all over his body.  No themes.  Just artwork he likes by tattoo artists he admires.  Nice guy. 

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

That is its name.  Not just a description.  Almost 6 inches wide.

Though I think its real name is Herbert.

Cattle Egret

 The orange on the head and chest show up in breeding season.

Mourning Dove

 She stood out against the roof's pattern.

Roseate Spoonbill

The roseate spoonbill was back and close enough for a portrait.

Mockingbird

Yes, I know that I have shown mockingbirds before, but I liked this picture.

A Brown Anole

She blended in with the dead and dying leaves.  

Then she blew her throat out.  I think she likes me.

Black-Necked Stilt

 These guys have unusually long legs, but he was in deep enough water to hide that feature.

Roseate Spoonbill

 Roseate spoonbills have been pretty much absent from my community for months.  Last week I saw a lone rosie for two days, unfortunately too far for a good photograph.  But, you take what you can get.

Flaps Up

A great blue heron coming in for a landing.

A Green Heron

They are not rare, but I haven't seen one in the neighborhood this year before yesterday.

A Mouthful

A great egret caught a good-sized fish.  Fortunately, egrets seem able to unhinge their bills to open a big pathway to swallow fish this size whole.

Things to Wonder about at Stoplights

Cat Lady.  With rescue and Kennebunkport stickers and Naples plates.  Those cats are eating caviar.  

"KO BC" on an End Breast Cancer plate.  We can get behind this one.

Dude, you're gonna put "Assets" on your wheels, at least get a Maserati or a Bentley.

I'd recognize a Bay State quilter anywhere.

"Taught U" in an Ohio State Alumni plate holder? 

A Buckeye grad who "taught you"?

Or, a Buckeye grad who taught at the U?  Maybe at Ohio State itself?  A mystery. 

A Distressed Bald Eagle

 A bald eagle panted and squeaked as a crow dive-bombed it.

Ever hear a bald eagle?  For a magnificent big bird, its calls are surprisingly weak.

Caffe Milano

Caffe Milano is a big award-winning restaurant at the corner of Eighth Street South and Fifth Avenue South in Olde Naples.  The interior is clean, light and modern, the menu is casual Tuscan.

Art Passage

 

I really like this passage from the service area to the main street of Naples.

The paintings bear a "Parker" signature.

Wind in the Willows

 A two decade-old whimsical painting of a well-dressed frog greets shoppers at this longtime dress store at a key intersection on Fifth Avenue South.  She now has a friend applying lipstick.

A Masked Pig

 NCH (Naples Community Hospital) volunteered a mask for this little pig on Fifth Avenue South.

Mortified

 A quirky gift shop on Naples' main shopping street has three white Persian cats that roam the store.  Sometimes they are dressed up.  (Poor cats!)  This bored cat lazed around in the display window.

Some Kind of Ism

Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer credited as the first European to discover Florida, stands proudly in front of First Citizens Bank on Tamiami Trail in Naples.

Osceola, the brave leader of the Seminoles, stands virtually ignored in the parking lot behind the bank.  That seems wrong to me, but I'll leave it to someone more aware than I to put the right label on it.

Wily

 Judy and Wily mainly walk on sidewalks.  That wears down his claws so he wears footsies.  

I took a photo for Judy on her cell phone, then one with my camera.  Should have noticed that she had not positioned herself well with respect to the statue behind her.  My bad.

Pipe Dreams

Apparently CBD stimulates dreams that are not always about sugar plums.  

Pipe Dreams is on Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs, just over the Lee County line from Collier County and Naples.

A local newspaper now calls it Bonita Buzz Road.  There are eight "medical" marijuana shops clustered in the area.  Lee County permits the sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes; Collier does not.  So far.

There are initiatives statewide and in both counties to permit the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes.  It is only a matter of time.

Down the Hatch

 A snowy egret has a snack.

Easter Bunny

 In the front window of a Naples gift shop.  Happy Easter!

Bald Eagle

 Down here, bald eagles usually hang out in pine trees.  This one chose a very different tree.  

I almost neglected to look for him there.

Back to the Zoo

 Before the girls went back to Connecticut, we went to the zoo so the older one could see it, too.

A black-crowned stork was a favorite.

As was a tiger.

And, of course, feeding a giraffe.

Grandchildren are the Best!

No fooling!  Grandchildren are the best.  But I had to put them on the plane yesterday. 

It's going to be quieter and a whole lot less fun for the next month, before I start driving north.  

  Looking forward to seeing them in early May.  (Their mommy and daddy are pretty nice, too.)