We were on the tender at 8:30 for our excursion to the Peace River Botanical and Sculpture Gardens, which, like so much else in the area, had been hit hard by Hurricanes Helene and Milton during the fall. Despite the hurricanes and their accompanying storm surge, it was a beautiful place – most of their sculptures survived, many of the plants are recovering and they are doing new planting, and there are butterflies in the butterfly garden again.
Our docent, Jeanette, took us on a walk around the grounds. Here are some highlights.
Between our excursions, we had a tasty lunch at Village Brewhouse in Fishermen’s Village instead of taking the tender to and from the ship. Staying ashore also let us do a little shopping and see rescued owls from Peace River Wildlife Rescue.
We also got to see them removing one of the boats sunk by Hurricane Milton from the water; I guess they’ll haul it away sometime soon.
Our second excursion was a guided walk to see a few of Punta Gorda’s murals; there are more than 30. The first one we saw is doomed to destruction fairly soon because the former bank building it’s on was damaged beyond repair by…you guessed it…hurricanes.
The other murals we saw were on buildings in better shape, so they should be here for a while.
While we were at the “Ladies Remembered” mural, one of the honorees made a personal (if ghostly) appearance to tell us the real story of her life…meet Helen Cornish Wrobbel, a fire fighter and firebrand.
We also saw the real “Fountain of Youth” (it taps an artesian well), but it has a small problem…the water is radioactive!
We sailed away from Punta Gorda before dinner; it seems like it’s going to be a bumpy ride tonight.