Mother's Day in Florida

Since its Mother's Day today, I'll take a second to brag a bit...Jesse got a summer job with the architectural firm of Jones and Jones.  He's been looking forward to this opportunity, and it looks like he'll be heading up to Seattle in June.  I guess our plans will now include spending time in Seattle this summer!  Its nice to be flexible and able to add or delete places on a moment's notice...



We're in Cortez, Florida for the next week at a small, very nice private rv park.
Holiday Cove isn't as full as it was last spring, thats a good thing for us!  We have a site along the edge of the property and that means a little more space for the dogs to "get busy".

hundreds of these tiny crabs come out of their holes and clack their  huge claw at the dogs as we pass by at the back of our site.

Robin, this next picture is for you....We talked today about how the airconditioning over the bed flattens Lewis' 'fro.....here is proof!

Lewis's favorite spot on the bed, right under an air conditioning duct...

We finally got together with our dear friends, Richard and Ruth Hollings on the beach at the Longboat Key Club this afternoon.    After catching up a bit, we went to dinner at Portofino and had a fine meal.  Portofino is the restaurant that took the space previously occupied by Cafe On The Bay, one of our all time favorite places. We used to have our New Year's Eve celebration here for many years before LBK Club took over the restaurant and made it a members only venue.

Goodbye to the Atlantic

We packed up Beluga and left Vilano Beach today, traveled south on I-95 to I-4 west to I-75 south and the Longboat Key area.  It was about a 5 hour drive including a lunch stop.

 I passed the time by watching the sides of the interstate for a look at one of the huge wild boars we've seen in the past.  A few years ago I saw one dead at the side of the highway, and a number of others milling around it, like they were attending its funeral.  Ever since then, I train my eyes on the shoulders, looking.

On I-4, before the huge Disney/Orlando "machine" begins its domination, we pass through large, flat fields filled with cattle, zone coverage provided by small white egrets.  With Orlando in the rear view mirror, the road passes through  a very populated and nondescript area with nothing much of visual interest.  Well, we did see two large digital signs calling our attention to a "Silver Alert".  Only in Florida!  Silver Alerts are like Amber Alerts, only they tell us to watch for the car (described in detail) of some old person who is missing......

Luckily, our Sirius radio provided some engaging entertainment.  We laughed and laughed at "Click and Clack, the Tappit Brothers" and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me".  We're always delighted when we manage to find these two programs. The time seems to fly by.

We are at Holiday Cove RV Resort in Cortez, Fl., just over the bridge from Ana Maria Island, which is the key (barrier island) north of  Longboat Key.  That is a convoluted way of saying we're near Longboat Key.
Its a beautifully landscaped place, very high end, but I think Lewis liked Vilano Beach's campground better.  Here there aren't many places to walk and not much to see, except scary people.  No armadillos, or squirrels, or raccoons.  He'll manage for the week we're here, don't feel too bad for him.

We  found only this one perfect sand dollar the whole time we were on Vilano Beach. We couldn't help but remember how we'd pick up hundreds of them on the Colony's beach during the heyday of our time there.  They would wash up and hit our feet as we strolled the beach, they were so plentiful.

We're retired now, its a new day -  can't expect all those dollars to just float in anymore!

We both agree though,  we wouldn't change a thing, not one thing.

The ups and downs of St. Augustine - last installment

This is the last part of our tour of St. Augustine.  There are  museums we'd like to return to and some tiny, one lane streets we'd like to wander next time but at this point we're tired of the commercialism here.  It hides the beautiful and interesting areas almost completely.  I'm tired of tour buses, pirates, Ripley's Believe It Or Not shuttles, tour trolleys, buses disgorging hundreds of school children clothed in identical, neon t-shirts and their loud mouthed "keepers", brightly colored scooters complete with eyelashes, beer trucks, and store after store of cheap clothes and sunglasses.

What we will miss is our quiet, green campground and that wonderful beach.

Below are the last of the pictures I took in the Victorian era Flager College area.

 Flagler Collge, formerly Ponce de Leon Hotel

We are awed at the details in this building.  Dave reminds me to "look up" and I see even more...

Tiffany glass windows

This is the Alcazar Hotel directly across from the Ponce de Leon Hotel.  Flagler built it as a place for his hotel guests to have fun in early St. Augustine.  It housed a huge indoor pool, a bowling alley, a billiard hall, gambling casino, turkish baths, bike rentals and everything a Victorian traveler might want.

And I can't forget these two.  They flanked the entrance to the courtyard of Flagler Collge, right at eye level.
They mesmorized me.

St. Augustine - 2

Once again, I don't know what I'm doing and I managed to get the beginning of this post at the end and visa versa, so, please read St. Augustine - 1 first, then read St. Augustine -2.  Working on this blog is always the most interesting and exciting part of my day!  (not)

The Castillo de San Marco sits, alone, at the edge of the river.  It is the only extant 17th century fort in North America and was designated a National Monument in 1924.  It is surrounded by a moat, but not one that was ever filled with water.  It was used to keep its livestock safe during seige.

Below are some scenes as we walked around the old part of the city.

the oldest school house in the country

I know these pictures aren't in the best focus, but I was so excited to discover them!   They smelled as beautiful and exotic as they looked.  I have no idea what they are, do you?

Cindy, this guy looked just like a Fjord, but the wrong color scheme....what do you think?





More on St. Augustine tomorow.

St. Augustine - 1

Isn't he wonderful!

We had business at Edward Jones this morning and needed to get the car washed (we couldn't see out the windows anymore!) so we decided to take the rest of the day and tour old St. Augustine.

 We've never felt like leaving the beach long enough to drive around and really see the old city.  What a shame.  Lots of sights and history.  My pictures are taking forever to load tonight, so I'll show you a few and try the rest tomorrow.

first things first - rum raisin

After Kilwins, we had lunch at a Russian restaurant and thus fortified we plunged into St. Augustine to see what was here.  

A beautiful canopy road and tabby wall

close-up of the tabby

Tabby is a slurry of limestone, shells, sand and water and was used for construction in many coastal areas.

 

BCA and BOO

Last night we had a home grilled wahoo dinner followed by yummy cupcakes from LuLi's .

Today was another BC beach day. BC for you readers, but not for us...It was lovely and hot and sunny.  So hot that we went into the water before low tide and were tossed about by the waves.  The water temp. is lovely though, so we didn't mind and we didn't lose our sunglasses so all was good.

 I have to say, though, that once we start traveling again, I'll miss the wonderful ease of living here.


One last comment - Boo to North Carolina....

Night and Day

Last night we drove over to the beach to see the moon shine on the water.We sat by  the edge of the dunes and watched the fierce wind blowing sand and salt spray across the road.   It almost looked like the beginnings of a blizzard under the mercury vapor lights.    Very spooky.  I took the pictures below from the car because I was afraid I'd be blown away if I stepped outside.  Salt spray probably isn't very good for the camera lens either, so we balanced the little Nikon on the steering wheel and shot away.

last night's full moon over the Atlantic

Today we drove over the Vilano Beach bridge and had lunch at a favorite spot in the Marina, Kingfish Grill.

I guess locals love it too...