Celebrity Constellation Cruise - Tampa and the journey home - November 13-14, 2021

 We intentionally picked the hotel we woke up in this morning because it is across the street from what looked like a neat park plus not a far drive from the Dinosaur World and winery we visited the day before. So our plan today was a visit to Lettuce Lake Park before checking out but first we went down to find some breakfast.  We were quite pleasantly surprised with breakfast.  A staff member was there to serve up a to-go container and even had hot items like scrambled eggs and turkey bacon and when we got back to the room we discovered the eggs were even still hot!  

After breakfast we walked over to the pond next to the parking lot where we had spotted a Wood Stork the night before to see if he was there hanging out and he was!

Then we walked the block to Lettuce Lake Park heading towards the boardwalk once we entered the park.  This really was such an amazing park with some really great bird finds and the opportunity to get close to many birds in a natural setting.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Black and White Warbler

Carolina Wren

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black and White Warbler

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Tufted Titmouse

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

View from the top of the observation tower

Female Northern Cardinal

Common Yellowthroat

Common Yellowthroat

Green Heron

A Great Egret (white) sits on the right side of the boardwalk further down.  A Little Blue Heron stands on the railing.  A Limpkin is on the left side of the board walk in the marshy area.

Limpkin - This was a new species for me and fairly uncommon even in Florida.

Little Blue Heron

Limpkin

Little Blue Heron

Limpkin

Little Blue Heron

Limpkin

Little Blue Heron

Limpkin

Great Egret

Limpkin

Great Egret

Wood Stork

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

White Ibis

After walking three miles, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and take one last walk past the pond where we had seen the Wood Stork.

Snowy Egret

Wood Stork

White Ibis

Wood Stork

White Ibises

Tricolored Heron

In this third photo, something appears in the background in the water on the left side that I didn't notice until editing the photo.  The background is too blurry to make anything of it but I have to say I wonder if it was an alligator.

This is hard to see but there is a Common Gallinule next to the tree that is sticking out in the water (look for a bit of red on the beak).

We then checked out of the hotel and headed to the night's hotel, the Fairfield Inn in Albany, Georgia which was a typical Fairfield Inn.

We found dinner at a Mexican Restaurant on the other side of the hotel parking lot and then spent the evening relaxing.  

The next morning we found breakfast at the hotel and then started the last part of our journey home.  We were a bit shocked to see frost on the ground when we woke up!  We were back in our apartment at about 12:30 p.m. that day.  Can't believe the vacation went that fast!

When we checked the mail that evening, we had an envelope from Celebrity.  Upon opening it, we discovered luggage tags.  Does this mean we get to go on another cruise?  ;)  (Or maybe Celebrity was just a bit slow mailing them out to us after our room was assigned....oh well, we were able to print them before we left.)