29 Apr 2026
Matt is currently in Florida; I dropped him off early Monday morning before work. He was originally planning to go last week and, since I had some time off work, I was going to join him, but then we remembered other plans and he moved his trip to my “on” work week.
Except I was looking forward to going armadillo hunting. I found one a couple years ago and Matt is staying at Fort Wilderness this trip, which is where I found my armadillo.
I have to go!
So I booked a (not-so-cheap) flight for my off days this week. It’s gonna be whirlwind of a trip (and a week, since I’m leaving early and getting home late, and going right back to work the next morning), but it’s also kinda what I do.
Hello, sleepy plane!
It must have been a sluggish morning for everyone- the gas truck was still filling us up as we boarded:
But a short nap later, we arrived in Chicago:
I had just enough time to say hi to my favorite dino skeleton:
Before catching my next flight:
and before I knew it, I was in the land of warm and palm trees!
I booked a ride on the Mears bus, but my stop was going to be the last and I’d have to venture back out after getting to Matt’s resort anyway to find food, so I just got off with the first drop off at the Polynesian and walked over to the Grand Floridian, which is where the good Mac’n’cheese lives:
Matt was over at Magic Kingdom, so he came over to join me:
he’s not swimming- apparently the monorail messes with location tracking
To get back to Matt’s room, we hopped on the monorail:
Which I totally forgot to take a picture of, but by happy coincidence, caught a shot of it when I took a picture of our boat:
We’re on a boat!
This is Matt’s cabin:
Probably the only way you’ll get him to go camping 🙂
It’s got a bedroom:
(and yes, I totally slept in the bunkbed!)
Living/kitchen area:
and a bathroom:
There are quite a few people that live down here basically full time and they have fun decorations, like these dinos!!!
But I’m here to find wildlife, so I went for a walk to see what I could see. First up is this Carolina wren, who I heard from a long ways off:
Not Mickey:
Anole!
These little guys are everywhere and I love them!
Red-bellied woodpecker:
It’s kinda hard to see, but there were 2 of them in this tree!
On our walk to Matt’s room, he spotted this chunky-tailed lizard on the sidewalk, but it quickly skittered into its hole. I hoped it would come back out but no luck:
Tufted titmouse:
Another anole!
This guy didn’t have the distinctive back stripe like the first one.
A squirrel just chilling in his tree:
Crow:
Turtle, just poking his nose out of the water:
Ducks!
The chunky-tailed lizard!!!
They were everywhere along this fence:
and technically, they are Curly-tailed lizards. My bad.
Bluejay:
And another!
A common bird I didn’t really expect to see down here (though to be honest, I don’t really know their range).
Another common bird that was everywhere- cardinals:
I GOT A PICTURE OF HIS THROAT FIN!!!
Cypress stump forest:
This guy was doing pushups on one of them:
Had to stop for a snack halfway through my hike:
Another cardinal:
This Carolina wren caught and ate a caterpillar!
well, tried to at least:
And one last bird, Brown thrasher:
No armadillos, though I did scout out a few promising spots to check out later tonight.
But first, dinner!
We had every intention of getting real food, but there were some new Dole Whip flavors that sounded fun, and the portions ended up being much bigger then either of us expected. We probably should have just gotten one and split it.
But they were tasty and filling and a fun dinner.
On our walk back, we spotted some deer!
(yes, this is a terrible photo)
But it’s dark, which means it time to go armadillo hunting!!!
I had been out for maybe 5 minutes when I heard the telltale soft shuffling off in the woods and spotted an armadillo!!!
But in my excitement, I moved too quickly and scared him off 🙁
Fortunately, I heard that same shuffling a little ways down the woods and spotted another!
There was a lot of vegetation in the way:
But I found a small clearing in the direction he seemed to be heading and parked myself there:
and he came right at me!!!
He was maybe 4′ away before he noticed me and took off 🙁
I heard another one later, but didn’t see it, and wandered around for probably another 30-40 minutes before calling it a night.
My phone said I put on over 10 miles today, though I think it was probably closer to 8.5. Regardless, I’m going to sleep well tonight!
30 Apr 2026
Sleeping in felt good, but since this is such a short trip, I felt like I should make the most of my time and go exploring again today.
Found this cardinal eating something:
A Tufted titmouse:
An anole posing:
A very algae-covered turtle:
Egret:
Blackberries!
They were just out of reach or I would have eaten that nice ripe one!
Hawk:
Dragonfly:
Flowers (and a pudgy bee!):
Anoles!
I spotted this trail off to the side that I missed on my first day:
It led to a marsh overlooking the lake:
and was home to fun birds like this Anhinga:
Red-shouldered hawk!
Cardinal:
and a mama cardinal feeding her chicks!
But, it’s getting later in the day and I’ve got to start making my way back home, so I changed the face on the pinecone critter that was outside Matt’s cabin:
Met my shuttle, and headed back to the airport:
My seat knew my name… not sure how I feel about that…
That is a very long line of planes waiting to take off:
(we sat in that line for about 15 minutes)
Farewell, Florida:
Hello, little jet that’ll take me home:
I feel like every time I fly out of Chicago, it’s raining out.
Fortunately, we left on time AND the seat next to me was empty:
I absolutely tipped over and took a nap- tomorrow morning is going to come too soon!
An absolute whirlwind of a trip, and I might be getting a bit to old to run on little sleep and lots of caffeine, but so worth it!
Update: Matt flew home the next night, and hit delay after delay…
That’s his plane, making a random loop-de-loop:
He ended up taxiing for like 65 minutes and (fortunately) made it to his next gate with just minutes to spare. But that flight took off late and he got home half an hour later than expected. Normally not a big deal, but I was coming off a 12 hour shift, heading into my weekend shifts, and desperately needed to get some solid rest. Ended up sleeping in the car at the airport for a bit and living off coffee to get through my shift but honestly, as exhausting as the past few days have been, I’d still do it all over again.