Thursday, November 10, 2011

Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC...gorgeous and historic

Map of Savannah
On Monday, we left the cold climes and terrible winds of Jacksonville toward Savannah, Georgia. The weather in Savannah proved to be everything Jacksonville's was not...warm and sunny, ideal for walking around town. We set up the RV at Skidaway Island State Park...possibly one of the prettiest parks we have stayed in since July. The park has really tall oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them and the trees form a beautiful canopy over the roads throughout. With the bright blue cloudless sky and the fall colors, what a scene we saw. No pictures, though.

We ventured into Savannah to see the sights and discovered the pleasant river walk and a series of placards about the city's history. We saw a crowd listening to a street-performing trumpeter, who was briefly and amusingly distracted with a bridal party walking by and so broke into 'Here Comes the Bride'. He followed it up with a burlesque theme as the last two bridesmaids walked by...they didn't seem nearly as amused as the crowd was. Very funny.

We also found The Peacemaker, an old wooden schooner (tall ship), docked in the Savannah River offering free tours of its decks and planks. It was fascinating to walk all over the ship and see the city from the pretty boat.

We walked to two of the historic squares, Oglethorpe and Wright. The city's founder, James Oglethorpe, laid out a plan for the city in 1733 for neighborhoods to surround each of 24 squares. Today, 22 of the original 24 squares remain and each is a little park with houses, businesses and churches around them. Very quaint.

We headed back to East River Street for some brews at The Warehouse, a little dive bar filled with locals and tourists alike. Then we grabbed a burger at Five Guys, yummy and greasy.
USS Yorktown
On Tuesday, we packed up and headed to Charleston, South Carolina, home of Fort Sumter, the site of the beginning of the Civil War. We camped at Givhans Ferry State Park, then drove almost 40 miles (!) into Charleston to tour some of the historic district. We walked around the historic Charleston City Market, ate dinner at Southend Brewery and Smokehouse, then walked along the battery between the Cooper River and the beautiful homes along East Bay Street. What a gorgeous city.

Heading back to Charleston
On Wednesday morning, we raced down to Charleston early to catch the ferry boat to Fort Sumter, but we were 1 minute late, so instead, we walked around south of Broad along several streets lined with interesting architecture, colorful houses and little hidden gardens. We had lunch at a sushi place, then drove over to Mount Pleasant to catch the 1:30pm ferry to Fort Sumter from Patriots Point, a port on the Charleston Harbor featuring the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier.

The tour of Fort Sumter was fantastic. The ferry boat ride through Charleston Harbor took us past Castle Pinckney, a little wart of land sticking up out of the middle of the harbor with a "castle" (now just large weeds encircled by a short block wall). 

At Fort Sumter
We also rode past Fort Johnson, from where the opening shot of the Civil War was shot, and Fort Moultrie, where Maj. Gen. Anderson was originally posted before stealing off to Fort Sumter by cover of darkeness, a position he considered much more defensible. That move was seen by the South as an act of war and thus the shot from Fort Johnson followed not much later. Maj. Gen. Anderson and his small force held the fort until April 11, 1861, when he was asked to surrender the fort, which he refused. At 4:30am on April 12, Confederate forces began firing on the fort. Anderson surrendered the fort to the Confederacy after 34 straight hours of bombardment.
Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is an impressive structure whose walls were once over 50 feet high, but after all the shelling by Union forces over the 4 years of the Civil War, the structure is now barely half its original height. In 1898, at the start of the Spanish-American war, the Battery Huger (a large concrete structure) was built in the center of the Fort's walls though it never saw any action.
While at the fort, we saw a bunch of dolphins playing in the surf off the left face of the fort. There were at least four of them horsing around, jumping in the water...so cute!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Jacksonville Blue Angels Air Show 2011 - Saturday, Nov 5

There are four planes!!!

On Saturday, Nov 5th, we attended the Blue Angels Air Show at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, courtesy of my cousin, Jamie. It was an extremely impressive show, and you should see it at least once in your life, because, wow, it was TOTALLY cool. And, on Saturday, it was really cool...almost freezing, actually. Brrr. The other performers were great, don't get me wrong, but the Blue Angels were awesome. They fly only 18 inches apart at something like 300 mph. Yikes. And Jamie, along with a whole team of other fabulous folks, keep those planes flying at peak performance. Neato!

A big THANKS to Jamie for the tickets to the show...we will definitely try to get to another show next year!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Back to the East Coast of Florida...again

Kathy and Ken
On Tuesday, November 1, we chugged our way eastward in our sputtering RV. Unfortunately, Joel and Tina's timely discussion of RV issues and breakdowns foretold our impending problem.

We stopped for the night near Cape Canaveral at Manatee Hammock County Park, where thousands of mosquitoes enjoyed Ken for dinner. Yet again. Poor Ken.
St. Augustine Lighthouse

On the 2nd, the chugging continued all the way to the Ford dealership. It appears that a rodent gnawed through some important wires and tubes, causing several hundred dollars of irritating expense. But, we prevailed! We had a splendid time with George and Kathy in West Melbourne, playing Texas Hold'em and Blackjack over drinks and much chatting. George and Kathy were so gracious to put up with us, Charlie and The Ed, while the RV was in for emergency surgery.
Castillo de San Marcos
Flagler College
On Thursday, with the RV restored to its previous glory, we made our way to St. Augustine, where it stalled repeatedly in the parking lot of the campground. Grr. We managed to get it started and parked in the campsite, before we dashed away to watch the sunset over the beautiful town of St. Augustine. We took in the sights of the lighthouse, the old Spanish Fort (Castillo de San Marcos), and the shops in the historic district. St. Augustine was founded in 1565, making it the oldest city in America, even though Florida didn't become a state until 1845. Neato!

Ken, Dewey and Mary
On Friday, we made our way to Jacksonville, Florida, where, when we arrived, it was sunny and beautiful, but, by the time we left on Sunday, was cold and VERY windy. We parked the RV at Little Talbot State Park, a campground designed for smaller RV's than ours, but we managed to squeeze the 'beast' into a campsite intended for tents. We walked on the park's beach on Friday afternoon, discovering a beach both completely deserted and hard as concrete (perfect for bike-riding), with some really nice shells. Yay!

Little Talbot Island
On Friday evening, we shared a wonderful time with my parents' friends, Dewey and Mary. Thanks to them for their hospitality and yummy dinner!
Little Talbot Island beach

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Friends and Family all over South Florida

Ken, Bob and Jeannette
On Saturday, October 22nd, we left the Keys and landed at a Palm Beach County park called John Prince Park in Lake Worth, Florida, north of Boca Raton. The park is over 725 acres big, with lots of walking paths, sports fields and alligator infested ponds. Fun fun. For dinner on Saturday night, we drove to the Prime Catch in Boynton Beach to meet Ken's grade school buddy, Bob, and his lovely wife, Jeannette. We had a wonderful time sitting at a dockside table enjoying great seafood and even better company. Ken hadn't seen Bob and Jeannette in 25 years, so there was much catching up going on.
Burt, Marilyn, Ken, Pam, Joel, and Tina

On Sunday, we took a loooong hike around the park's beautiful walking path....much longer than we intended. This is getting to be a bad habit. (Fortunately, there was no need to call anyone for directions back to the RV....again.)

After a bit of sore foot recovery, we met Ken's cousins, Joel (and his wife, Tina), and Marilyn (and her husband, Burt) for a long lively lunch at Carrabba's in West Palm Beach. Ken hadn't seen Marilyn since 1996 and Joel in several years. It was interesting to compare our limited RV experience with Joel and Tina's 11 years of RV traveling. It seems we have much to learn about bad weather and breakdowns...hmm.

Ken and Monte at the Jetties
Jetties
On Monday, we returned to Venice for some much needed R&R...just kidding...there's been a ton of that. We went to dinner with Monte at Saltwater Cafe in Nokomis. Not bad, not outstanding but they do have some generous happy hour drink specials.

On Tuesday, we spent the day working around the RV and house, and then watched the sunset over the Venice jetties with Monte. Very pretty!

On Wednesday, we drove to Sarasota to meet Mary, our neighbor's mom, who lives on Siesta Key. The beach is gorgeous, with sand that feels like powdered sugar and sounds like crunching snow when you walk on it.
Mailman's tire tracks

In fact, just after I commented on the sand's similarity to snow, the mailman got his truck stuck in a foot of sand right in front of Mary's house. Ken and I shoveled him out and sent him on his way. It seemed more than a little ridiculous to be shoveling someone out of sand. ("Nor rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night..." Should probably include sand, too.) Mary helpfully offered to throw sand under the mailman's tires for traction. Ha!

Pam and Mary at Big Olaf's
Anyway, we had a nice lunch with Mary and then walked into nearby Siesta Village for some yummy ice cream at Big Olaf's. Let me enthusiastically recommend this place. Yikes. That was some AWESOME ice cream. Ken and I each had the toasted coconut, Mary had the chocolate peanut butter. Yum. Double yum.

On Thursday, Monte had given us directions to Stump Pass Beach near Englewood, where we could expect to find lots of nice shells. After a long detour due to a bridge outage, we found the virtually deserted beach and collected an embarrassing number of shells. After more than an hour, with two heavy pails of shells and no lunch in sight, Ken began to complain a bit, but was his usual good sport about the whole thing. We eventually had lunch at a local restaurant, the Lock and Key. They had very tasty seafood and excellent service.
Monte for Halloween

On Thursday evening, Stacy drove down from North Carolina to round out our foursome. We spent the weekend touring around the area, thrift shopping, eating, lounging, chatting and, eventually, constructing an awesome hippie costume for Monte to wear to work on Halloween Monday.

We had a ball handing out candy to every tiny princess, little skeleton, and short Jedi knight from the greater Venice area. It seemed like they were busing them into the neighborhood. Isn't that cheating?

As we have been eating our way through most of Florida, we both resemble pumpkins...how timely! Happy Halloween!

Big Olaf's...yum!





Lovers on Siesta Beach
Birdies on Siesta Beach

Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Keys and a lot of rain...and then sunshine!

On Sunday, October 16th, we drove south to Margate (near Ft. Lauderdale) where we caught up with Ken's high school friends, Dave and Betty, their daughter, Tracey, and granddaughter, Kayla. We had a fabulous time chatting and catching up over lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (great salad place!) and then coffee later. We departed Margate southward and within 15 minutes found the edge of a tropical depression that had formed in the Gulf. The rain was horrible for most of our way through Miami, but we continued until we stopped for dinner in Florida City (just north of the Keys). Monte called to warn us about the storm, potential for road flooding, hurricane possibility, etc, and so we sat in the RV in the parking lot under lots of falling rain for almost an hour before finally deciding to press on to the Keys...another 3 hours south.

Miraculously, we found Rt. 1 without flooding or traffic. As we were driving in darkness (and rain), we couldn't see any of the scenery of the upper Keys, but arrived and set up camp in Summerland Key (mile marker 25) during an uncommon break in the rainfall.

It rained most of Monday, though we drove to Key West in spite of it. Many of the stores and restaurants were closed, as they normally are, on Mondays, in the slow season...in a torrential downpour. As such, we retreated to the RV for movies and games.

On Tuesday, the 18th, the weather broke a bit though it was still very overcast, and we headed north to Marathon in search of cheap gasoline and a tasty fish lunch. We only found the lunch. (Gasoline here is averaging about $3.69 a gallon or higher, perhaps in anticipation of next week's FantasyFest goers. And we paid $2.97 a gallon in Mississippi not 2 weeks ago. Grr.) The lunch was tasty indeed, and on a deck overlooking the ocean at the Sunset Grill and Raw Bar. Yumm. The restaurant is next to the eastern end of the 7 Mile Bridge...which is actually just short of 7 miles long. (We feel a little ripped off...only 6 and half miles for a '7 mile' bridge. Pretty cheap, Conehead.) After lunch, we walked a little on the old section of the bridge and then went to a beach to dip our toes in the water. We didn't stay long with the heavy clouds threatening rain so retreated again to the RV for another rainy afternoon of movies and coconut rum/pineapple juice drinks (our new favorite, courtesy of Sean and Dulce in Port St. Lucie). Yum. 

We found wild roosters wandering around the parking lot of the local grocery store cock-a-doodle-dooing at everybody. Ha!

Overnight Tuesday, the rain and thunder and lightning and wind were loud enough to wake the dead...well, maybe not the dead, but they did wake me.

On Wednesday, the rain mostly stopped, though it was still quite overcast. We set out to see some sights and found mostly flooded side streets and parking lots. While driving through Big Pine Key, we spotted two Key deer, an endangered species protected by law. They are adorable and silly-looking because, while they look like (and are actually related to) the Virginia white-tailed deer, they are the size of dogs. I read that they grow to, at most, 32" at the shoulders and no more than 80 pounds. So cute!

We also drove to the same beach we had been to yesterday and waded in about a 1/4 mile following a path of bright white sand out far from the shoreline. Though we were so far out, the water was never deeper than our hips. We could see very little in the water due to the weather and headed back in before the inevitable next rainfall. We later read that upwards of 18 inches of rain fell in the lower Keys during the storm from Saturday to Wednesday.

Crabby!
On Thursday, the 20th, the sun finally appeared and we ran again to the same beach at Veterans Memorial Park, a little narrow beach at the bottom of the western end of the mis-named 7 Mile Bridge. The sun was glorious to see, so we rushed into the water to stroll the white sand through what we could now easily identify as seagrass on both sides of the path. We saw hundreds of fish...scores of tiny fluorescent green ones, lots of little striped ones, a bunch of very fast silver ones, two shaped like needles and one small catfish bent on charging our feet at one point. So cool!
Key Deer


Back on the beach, we found a ghost crab hiding in the grass and so we followed him around taking his picture and, inadvertently, terrifying him, I'm sure. Little guy was very expressive for a crab.

After the beach, we drove around the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key to look for more deer. We were not disappointed. The first one we found on a little side street came right up to the car when Ken slowed down. He sniffed Ken's fingers while we sat there in complete awe. His little head didn't even reach the bottom of the car window! Anyway, we were there for a few minutes taking his picture and letting him sniff our fingers before we drove on. So adorable!!

We did find more Key deer, though none nearly as brave as the first. We must have seen at least 10 of them within an hour's time. We also saw our first iguana at Blue Hole, the only freshwater lake in the Keys. We took lots of pictures of the 4 foot iguana thinking, later foolishly, that they were hard to find and harder to capture on film. Ha. On our way to Key West, we saw literally dozens and dozens of iguanas along the side of the road, in front yards, near businesses, on the bike trail...and in every size from 1 to 4 feet long.

We headed to Key West again, this time in the beautiful sunshine, for dinner and the famous sunset. Let's just say that the sunset was infinitely more satisfying than the meal at a local tourist rip off joint. The sunset is enjoyed best in the company of several hundred other sunset watchers, a mixed bag of street performers and an odd assortment of vendors of tchotchkes of questionable value and origin. It is a great sunset, overlooking the ocean and several large sailboarts. The view is amazing.

On Friday morning we took a long walk around the neighborhood and really noticed all the great textures and variety of the plants here. There are big palm trees with fruits of different sizes and colors, shrubs with thick knife-like leaves, bushes with flowers in blue or coral or pink or white, and these big palms with leaves in the shape of a fan...beautiful!

We decided to go to lunch at the Square Grouper at mile marker 22.5 on Cudjoe Key. This is a great restaurant with great food and a ridiculously cute logo. We totally recommend this place.

Afterwards, on the recommendation of our server, Sheri, we drove to Bahia Honda State Park at mile marker 37 to swim and lounge at the beach there. Great recommendation. The park has 3 beaches, part of an old bridge, several campgrounds, kayak rentals and a little deserted island, too.

We lounged at the water's edge for the better part of 2 hours at Sandspur Beach, enjoying the sun and the cool water. We strolled up and down the beach and found lots of pieces of coral and sea sponge and tons of dead seagrass. (We didn't take anything though, because the little sea birds eat from it, the dunes thrive on it, everybody wins.) We walked up to the bridge's end and then down to stroll on Loggerhead Beach. Such a beautiful day, such a beautiful park.

West Coast to East Coast of Florida

On Wednesday (October 12) in Venice, Ken and I lazed around the pool and then had a great dinner with Monte and watched the sunset at Sharky's On The Pier. On Thursday, we went to lunch at Pineapples Island Restaurant where it rained quite a bit, then we went to the beach, stayed there for about 10 minutes, then headed back to laze around the pool for the rest of the afternoon. That is vacation, folks. Geckos, little lizards, and little froggies ran all around the pool and the screened enclosure. HA!

On Friday the 14th, we left for the east coast of Florida, driving through the flattest land I have ever seen to date. There are enormous farms (orange groves, cattle ranches, palm tree farms, lots of sod farms) throughout the middle of the state, interrupted only by a huge prison complex with lots of razor wire. Yikes. The farms are extremely flat and so large that in many spots along the way, we couldn't see a house or a barn or even a tractor as far as the eye could see.

We did see a big turtle (we learned later it was probably a gopher tortoise) crossing the road. We swerved around him, people, don't get excited, and we saw him get to the side of the road safely before the next vehicle was close to him. Phew.

Sean, Dulce and Ken
We drove on to the Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound on the east coast. This is a HUGE park, with more than 11,500 acres, that was named after a Quaker whose vessel shipwrecked nearby in 1696. He, evidently, was on his way to Pennsylvania, but after landing here, was driven north by Seminole Indians to St. Augustine, Florida, where he settled.

On Friday, while innocently watching a Jeopardy episode, our TV suddenly, and unceremoniously, died. Nice. Just as we were going to hear the answer to one of the Jeopardy clues. Not cool.

On Saturday, we visited Ken's nephew, Sean, and his wife, Dulce, in Port St. Lucie. We enjoyed lots of catching up and great food and drink. It was really nice to see them! And they had a spare TV to replace our dead one. Nice! Thanks so much!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pensacola, FL...home of the Blue Angels

Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, Florida
On Sunday, October 9th, we drove to Pensacola to visit my cousin, Jamie, and meet his lovely wife, Genny, and adorable kids, Tara and Holden. Coincidentally, Jamie's mom, Della, was also in town, so we got to visit with her as well. Bonus!
Genny, Tara, Jamie, Della

Jamie is on the Navy Blue Angels team and he took us all on a tour of his "office". We saw a couple of spare planes and part of the hangar where the team is based. So cool! 
My cool cousin, Jamie!
Check out the pawprints!

Afterward, we went back to Jamie and Genny's house for a nice home-cooked meal and some slobber, courtesy of Killian (doberman) and Guiness (hairy mutt). The dogs were hilarious. We managed to get a picture with Tara, but 2 year old Holden had already gone to sleep.

At Big Lagoon State Park where we camped, Ken and I headed down to the 'beach', which was really only about 2 feet wide. But we saw dolphins! Jumping out of the water! Neato! We also saw quite a few snowy egrets and a crane...or maybe it was a heron. Ornithologists we're not.

In any case, we had a great time in Pensacola, especially visiting the headquarters of the Blue Angels with Jamie...so interesting.

Heron? Crane? Bird.
When we left Pensacola, we drove through the rain and wind to Perry, Florida, where we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. At least it was quiet.

Screwed tire
We left early the next morning on our way to Venice, but managed to hit a snag in Pinellas Park. Well, actually, it was a screw and it caused one of the tow dolly tires to roll off. With the help of two Good Samaritans to take the tire off, take the wheel off and then put the spare on, we were on our way again after only 45 minutes or so. Not too bad. A big thanks to the two of them!! We arrived in Venice in time to enjoy a nice dinner with Monte while watching the sun set over the Gulf at Sharky's.