DD & I spent less than 24 hours w/ my DBro in Naples. But what an experience!!!!
For those of us older folks think Captain Kangaroo, Jack Hanna, Jacques Cousteau mixed with a large dose of Steve Irwin, survivalist, outdoorsman & radical environmentalist all rolled into one.
Dbro is now 64, and has not slowed down a bit. Hearing aids, diabetes & macular degeneration really haven't phased him. He still teaches full time at FGCU, is constantly travelling, lecturing, advising the government, NASA & other governments on animals & environmental issues. He is the world authority on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker ( extinct? or not???) and is now the US bird authority on Avian flu. The amount of knowledge he has in his head is absolutely astounding!
In his house he has 4 dogs (all rescues). Fugly, Scruffy (quite possibly the ugliest dog I've ever seen, but SO incredibly cute. He has every fur type & color you can imagine!) Bear & Minnie(who is litter box trained). Then he has in a small sandwich type container on his kitchen counter a 'flowerpot snake'. Looks like a piece of narrow black rubber tubine - maybe an 1/8" around and 6" long. Only females in the species. Comes into the country in flowerpots. Has 2 parrots, both over 30 years old. Smoky(grey of course) is insane! He calls the dogs(in my brothers voice) then laughs when they come to him. If they don't come, he doesn't laugh. If the dogs get a treat he says "Mmmmmm.....good!" If no one is near him when he gets up in the morning he yells "hello.....Isn't Anybody home?????" Yoda converses as well, but not as much as Smoky.
Then there is Pete & Repeat, the 2 headed red eared turtle that a farmer brought DBro back in KS when he was in grad school in the 60s. Farmer wanted him to preserve it when it died as it surely wouldn't live. Well it(they?) are still going strong. They still fight over food. And although they aren't as big as they would normally be (b/c they fight over food) they are not small.
And, of course, there is 'Mellow Yellow" an albino red eared turtle. And a couple of aquariums.
In his 3 car garage(now his office/library) he has several snakes. His office really doesn't have a path through it, and is mostly bookshelves. But he can quickly put his hands on anything he wants. He has taken over the dining room as well since there isn't computer access in the office.
So Sunday went something like this......
Before breakfast DBro & I walked his 2.5 acres & he showed my his 'shed' which is 20x40' building with all his kayaks, canoes & wilderness equipment, numerous cages, bird catching nets(think invisible volleyball nets), etc, his office, & many of his older 'nature' books - many from the early 1800's as well as many of the books he has written.
After breakfast on the way to Ding Darling wildlife xxxx on Sanibel Island he begins the 'lesson'. He is able to tell us the name, the scientific name, the country of origen, when & how each plant/tree/grass was introduced to FL/US, how it spreads, the problems it is causing, what is being done about it, etc. This is part of his book on Invasive Species that is almost done as well as the Govt council he's on as they consider the Avian Flu an invasive species.
Then we get to Sanibel Island where he tells me the entire history of the island, everything you can imagine & all about 'Ding' Darling who apparently grew up in Iowa & everything about his life, everything he ever did, etc. We finally get to the preserve, go to the 'office building' & everyone knows him. He hands DD a pair of binoculars & each time we get out of the car to see another bird, he gets out a large telescope type thing on a tripod, sets it up & explains EVERYTHING about what we are seeing, bird, water, tree, plant, etc. And does this for anyone who happens to be near & wants to take a look. About 1/2 way thru the preserve we realize that the binoculars DD has around her neck cost over $1700 - thank GOD she didn't drop them!! In the first 1/2 of this tour he takes over 1 gig of photos with his camera and HUGE lenses. Everything we say he could tell us EVERY possible thing you could imagine about it. Then after we went to the 'gift shop' where they were, of course, selling several of his books. He stood there & autographed several of them.
At the beach (the highlight for DD, of course) it was a repeat. Every shell, plant he knew & could explain.
At the next preserve (corkscrew) he was again immediately known by everyone & some of their guides came to him to get him to identify things they didn't know. Snakes, plants, gators, birds, it didn't matter. DD & I, of course are 'a bird is a bird, a plant is a plant, a snake is a snake', so she quickly got bored with his talks, but it was fascinating. I thought she would absolutely die from supressing a laugh when he began explaining the 'cooling mechanism' of a certain vulture that the excrement coats the legs so the uric acid can cool the bird - making the legs appear white. I, of course, had to ask what color the legs would be if we gave the bird a bath! I thought DD was going to explode from trying not to laugh as DBro carefullyf explained it to me.
DD did, however, cry for a long time on the way home over DBro's trips to the
Amazon. Her one dream is to swim with the very endangered Pink River Dolphins. Dbro HAD to tell her that every summer when he takes middle school kids, they go to an area of the Amazon river where they actually swim with them. She wants to go so badly!! Says that by the time she is old enough & has the money they will be extinct. Poor kid!! It's tempting to send her with him, but it's like $2500 + air to Lima, supplies, etc, for a 2 week trip. Not bad, but I just don't think I could let her go across the globe to live in a tent in the Rainforest like that, even with my Dbro. This summer he's doing a new trip for HS students to the Arctic for 2 weeks on Arctic Mammals, then the next week is the Amazon. He never stops!
Sounds like the pickup on the home end was a bit frustrating! You poor thing, especially after travelling! How did DD do with her Nepal (?) project she had to get done for school before leaving? Was she able to get everything done so she wouldn't be too far behind when she got back?
I kind of want to cry over that 
) Harry & David's ... yep, that gets me in to trouble every time too. 
What I said was I am not giving up on you for the Minnie, yet, and I am going to continue to look at SWA whenever I think of it and check the DING flights in the hopes that you might be able to join the other WISHers in Orlando! 
)
