Florida in August

This seems to be the hottest month.  John once had the theory that being near the ocean would keep us cool.  However, that does not take into account the fact that during the summer months the waters of the ocean get as warm as the temperature on land, so there is no cool moisture in the air to bring the temperatures down!  Our usual plan is to be quite a distance north to avoid the heat which we are feeling now.  That was not possible this summer because our daughter, her husband and child are living here and their second child is due any day now.

 

At least it is not dry here, the frequent brief rains keep plants and trees blooming so, despite the heat, we are still in a tropical paradise.  Down the road from where we are parked is the Dunedin Tree Arboretum.  Walking through this beautiful park a few weeks back we found a most unusual mushroom.  It certainly looks like a flower, but has all the earmarks of a mushroom.

It is impossible to stay inside all the time and keep one's sanity.  Yesterday, with our very pregnant daughter and her son Nathan, we drove over to Lowry Zoo.

We were surprised to see penguins outside in the 90 degree plus heat.  In the St.Louis Zoo they are in a building kept quite cool with air conditioning.  We soon learned that the penguins here enjoying their swim are from the southwest coast of Africa.  This breed of penguins, the ones still in the wild, are in high risk of extinction due to pollution and habitat loss.

Despite this being the hottest time of the year, it was interesting that out of the three times we have been here, we saw the most animals this time.  Or at least it seemed that way.  Checking out the people who were staring at him is a meerkat, another animal from Africa who loves the heat.

Most of the wallabies in their pen, however, were seeking relief from the sun.  Before we left the zoo we were treated to the sight of a Macaw Flyover.  We always seemed to miss that event in the past when we visited the zoo.  The sight of about 8 macaws flying over us was quite beautiful because of their bright blue and yellow colors.  It was almost as good as a Blue Angel show!