Miami - South Beach

Larry and Penny Thompson County Park, Miami, FL

On our way to Miami today we stopped by Castranova Chocolate to meet Denise the chocolate maker.  Like us, she makes handcrafted bean to bar chocolate from single origin beans. She also makes her own truffles and drinking chocolate. She is a delightful person and we enjoyed talking all things chocolate with her.  I hope you get a chance to try her chocolate, it’s pretty dang good! We bought several bars, now only if we can keep them from melting in this heat - the best way is to eat them😏.

Next stop was the infamous South Beach Miami. It was a scorcher today, close to 100 degrees and not a cloud in sight.  We had fun walking the strip and wandering around.

But, our real mission was to visit Lario’s Restaurant.

This restaurant holds a special place in our hearts. About 15 years ago, when I was working at Apple I traveled to Miami on a business trip with Ned tagging along. Since it was his first time in Miami I thought it would be fun to take him to some of the hot spots.  We had drinks at Madonna’s bar and had a romantic dinner at Lario’s (Gloria Estafan’s Restaurant) where he tried a mojito for the first time. When it arrived Ned very sweetly asked, “What is spinach doing in my drink?”  Oh man, how could I not fall in love with this guy?  Made us laugh so hard. Ironically, Ned is a master at making mojitos now.  If you haven’t had one of his mojitos hanging out on our back deck, come on by! Sooo good. 

We spent a wonderful afternoon having Cuban sandwiches, drinking several mojitos and settled in for the people watching.  

Okay, I was actually VERY selective in the pics I’ve posted here.  Trust me, this is pretty tame and tasteful compared to some of the scantily clothed people walking by. This place is just alive with colorful clothes, food and people. Our Cuban waiter, Daniel, was actually getting a kick out of us taking pics of the scene.  He started telling us stories of some of the things he’s seen working here. 

 Life goal: learn to work it like the people walking the strip in South Beach. 

The Art Deco buildings are the best. I love seeing them lit up at night too with all their neon colors.  Wish we could have hung out longer, but alas we needed to head out of the city before traffic really got worse. As it was, it took us 1.5 hours to travel 25 miles.  

Tonight we are camped at a county park.  It’s sooo friggin’ hot and we were really looking forward to jumping in the pool here.  It’s closed...ugh. We’ve settled on hosing ourselves down with the water spigot.  So, why this wonderful destination of a county park in the city of Miami?  It’s proximity to the Miami Airport.  Tomorrow we head out for Jamaica! Tonight is all about laundry, re-packing our bags, cleaning up Winnie and getting ready for the trip.  I have no idea if we will have internet in Jamaica, so if you don’t hear from me for awhile...stay tuned.  You know I’ll have a few good stories to tell. 

Beach Day!

Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne, FL

Sunday Funday!  We’re not rolling today just hanging another day on this beach. We’ve done beaches in California, the Gulf, up and down the Atlantic Ocean and even The Keys.  I think this is one of the best. Turquoise warm water, great sand, fun surf , and you can’t beat the location - right at our campground!   (I didn’t do any doctoring at all on this shot. In fact, most of my pics are just as is.  I like capturing the realness of the moment). 

We heard there was some snorkeling to do here as well.  Word around the campground was to catch it at high tide at the rocks, under the bridge, in the cove.  We gave it a go.  Meh - kinda a bust.  The water in the cove is super murky and the fish were just fish, nothing showy.  Time to move on to the beach. 

And what a great day it was!  We spent most of the day trying to catch that perfect wave.  We traded off with the boogie board, but honestly best ride of the day was when Ned had the boogie board and I was on my floatie. We both caught this enormous wave together and rode it alllllllll the way into the beach.  I swear I have more fun with my floatie, patched up and all.  

Picnic on the beach. We spent over 5 hours on the beach.  Thank goodness for Aloe Vera for me and the umbrella for Ned! Just LOVE the colors in this photo, it really shows all the beautiful blue hues here.  

Back at the campsite watching the party boats on the Indian River.  I think there’s a big sand bar where all the boats gather.  Music is blasting, people are standing around in the water drinking beers. It’s quite entertaining.  Time to pop a cold one and watch the action. 

We took an evening bike ride and as luck would have it we saw dolphin feeding! So fun to watch them come up and then dive back down.  We were also entertained by the snowy egret.  Such personalities.  

Atlantic Ocean - Sea to Sea

Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne, FL

Well, we made it across the country (zig-zagging a little here and a little there) and reached the Atlantic Ocean.  Hard to believe that three weeks ago we were camped at Doheny State Park with Josh and Marlina.  This ocean is MUCH warmer  than both the Pacific Ocean and the cold springs.  

On the way here we stopped by the village of Cocoa and did a bit of a walk-about.  Cute, artsy village.  If I wasn’t so impatient to get to the ocean we might have stayed longer taking in some of the art galleries, but I was feeling more of a beach vibe and less of an art appreciator.  Several years ago we visited Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral just a few miles up the road.  It is fantastic! If you ever get a chance we definitely recommend spending the day. 

We decided to take the drive down the long spit, thru Cocoa Beach.  We wanted to have lunch at a fish place overlooking either the ocean or the Banana River.  We opted for a place that says “caters to locals” and it was a BIG mistake. We share all the great meals and awesome local food as we eat our way across the country, only fair to tell you about the worst meal of the trip.  We took a few bites and both of us said, “Can’t do it.”  Ned’s beer was warm, the fish was oily and the coleslaw was soggy and limp.  A few miles down the road we saw this hot dog stand, should have stopped there, anything would have been better.  The funniest part was, as we continued to drive down the ocean road a huge banner being pulled by a plane said, “Eat at Squid Lips, where all the locals eat and drink.”  We just looked at each other and groaned. (Note how happy we look in these pics, that’s before the food and warm beer arrived).  And yes, the name Squid Lips probably should have been a tip off.

We are definitely beach camping. This state park is on a small island and we are overlooking the Indian River on the inlet side.  The beach is a short bike ride away. Yellow flags were flying, no red or purple flags, blue skies and warm weather. We found our little piece of heaven and were beach bums the rest of the day. 

This gives you an idea of where we are camped. Makes for great sunsets, unexpected on the East Coast! 

Juniper Springs, Florida

Juniper Springs Recreation Area, Silver Springs, FL

I think we got a winner here.  Juniper Springs for sure is the most picturesque of all the springs we have visited.  In 1935-36 the CCC built a mill house on the spring which just added to the bucolic ambience. Whenever we come across a project the CCC have worked on, you know it’s going to be awesome.  Those boys sure knew what they were doing.  So, what defines a magnitude of a spring?  It’s the volume of water that flows from it. A first magnitude is 64 million gallons per day or more.  A second magnitude has a flow rate from 6 to 64 million gallons per day.  I believe there are 8 magnitude classifications. Juniper Springs is a second magnitude spring. Sure makes it idyllic to float and snorkel around.

As far as wildlife goes, Manatee Springs had more fish, but Juniper did have lots of turtles...and eels. There’s more grass in this spring than any of the others so who knows what else was hanging out in there.  It was fun to see the turtles pop up every now and again, and also spot an eel swimming thru them. Ned is actually pointing to a turtle that just popped up. The top right picture is where the water is bubbling out of this spring. 

We took a nature walk to another spring.  It was incredibly beautiful! Loved the bridge that the CCC built, the boardwalk thru the forest, and seeing interesting creatures like 4 inch colorful butterflies and blue tailed lizards. 

The highlight was coming across Fern Hammock Springs.  Wow!  Pristine clear waters with lots of turtles.  The water was so clear that even when the turtles ducked down into the water as we walked by, you could still see them swim along the bottom of the spring.  The spring water was bubbling up from the sand so it made for some really cool special effects.  The link below is a video of some fish swimming over the bubbling springs. 

See bubbling springs

On our way here we thought we’d be driving thru just pine forest.  Imagine our surprise when we came upon all these fancy-schmancy horse estates. We were driving thru Ocala, Marion County which turns out to be the horse capital of the world. There are 600 thoroughbred farms.  We saw a sign proudly claiming “The 2017 Winner of the Kentucky Derby.” Uh - who knew? Certainly not us wandering yokels.  

Okay, back to what we do know best...

This campground was rated one of the best 100 campgrounds in the U.S.  Yes, it definitely deserves that distinction.  It’s a Federal Recreation campground, not a state park. (With Ned’s old guy pass er Senior National Parks Pass we are camping for $10.)  This is so much more our style than Gulf State Park, with the tennis courts and golf course for 1/5th cost. The sites are spread out and quite private. Everything is also in pristine condition.  This is black bear country, so every campsite comes with a bear box. I almost feel at home, except for the palmetto trees instead of the cedars and the hot tropical sun, and the bugs, and the gators.  But you know what I mean.  

Cold Water Springs Florida

Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL

We visited two cold springs today.  The first was Fanning Springs, a second magnitude spring.  Florida’s unique karst topography gives it the largest concentration of natural springs in the world.  Much of Florida rests on soluble rock, like limestone. The water dissolves the rock as it moves through it, creating sinks, caves and fissures. Underground water then rises to the surface through these passages creating natural springs.  And they make amazing swimming holes! 

The water is a constant 72 degrees at most of the springs year round.  The center of this picture is where the springs are bubbling up.

This gives you a perspective on the entire spring. There were so many fish swimming all around us.  Ned is swimming over a school of fish.You can also see the water bubbling up behind me where it is coming from underground.  Most surprising is that the water didn’t feel cold at all, instead rather refreshing.  It really did give us a break from the heat and humidity. 

Time for a picnic lunch between visiting springs. Just love the symbiotic relationship between the different plants in this climate. We ate beneath these gorgeous oak trees with the branches lined with ferns. 

Down the road a bit is Manatee Springs, a first magnitude spring.  Between 35 and 150 million gallons of crystal clear water flow from this spring everyday. You can really feel the difference in the current too! Both springs looks completely calm from above, but once in the water you really have to work to swim against the current in this one.  This spring gets its name because between November and April the manatee hang out here.  It’s warmer than the river. Did you know manatee weigh between 1000 and 3500 lbs, can be as long as 13 feet, can live to 50 years old AND have very little body fat? Lesson to be learned, do not judge a book by its cover.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling and just floating around.  For a large part of the time we had the springs to ourselves! Amazing. 

So why am I floating around and looking down? Well, looking out for some other creatures. Besides the fish and turtles we were also sharing the swimming hole with these snakes.  At first I was freaked out, then I figured out that they just wanted to hang out on the rocks and be chill.  Every now and then one would dart across the water, but I managed to stay out of its path. 

Most of the state’s springs feed into the beautiful Suwannee River.  We finally dragged ourselves out of the water and went for a bike ride.  So fun to ride along this boardwalk through the swamp and mangrove trees and then...

come out onto the Suwannee River.  So magical.  

Our camping spot for the night, along with some yummy grilled veggies. The last time we camped here (about 3 years ago) wild hogs ran through our campsite, thrashing thru the palmetto trees. Hoping for a quieter night this time.  

Florida Panhandle with dolphins

Grayton State Park, Santa Rosa Beach, FL

We spent several hours this morning on a charter boat chasing down dolphins.  It took awhile but we finally spotted them swimming in pods. It’s illegal to feed or interact with the dolphins in anyway, so you are pretty much at their whim when they decide to surface. 

The boat tour was mainly on Pensacola Bay and a bit into the Gulf.  The dolphins were so elusive and quick to come up and go under so humor me as I share some of the pictures that were so hard to snap!  We also saw a giant logger head sea turtle swim by. I also enjoyed the lighthouse and just hanging on the boat with Ned.  Fun morning and one that has been a highlight of this trip for sure. 

Back on shore we enjoyed fish tacos, mojitos and beer.  Just love being on the Emerald Coast. 

We took a drive thru the Gulf Island National Seashore.  I just can’t get over the brilliant sugar white sand beaches.  We were told that usually the water is more of a true emerald color, but because of the storm the water has been stirred up and the waves haven’t settled down.  Looks great to me! 

After picking up our voter ballot from Seaside Post Office (thanks Polly for sending it on. We had the Elections Office send our ballots to Polly’s house. We left before the ballots arrived.  Polly was kind enough to send it marked general delivery to the post office in Seaside Florida. The ballots were marked ‘partially damaged’ as a result of the hurricane, but we made it all work out) we headed to Grayton State Beach.

We arrived at the beach all set to play in the waves.  Uh-oh, the dreaded “no-swminning” flag was waving.  We settled on just sitting in the sand and letting the waves pour over us.  As luck would have it, in about an hour the ranger took the flag down and gave the okay to go in.  Ned and I had a blast body surfing, boogie boarding and getting swamped by the waves for the next couple of hours.  

Home sweet home for the night.  

The Gulf Coast

Gulf Shores State Park, Gulf Port, AL

Tropical storm Alberto has landed and is moving north! We finally get to break camp and move east, and this gypsy soul could not be happier.  4 days at one place and I start to get a little too antsy. Thank you Louisiana you’ve been so gracious hosting us, the people more than kind, and the food incredible, but we got new things to discover.  “To Infinity and Beyond!”  Well, the Infinity Space Center in Mississippi anyway, our first stop of the day. 

As far as interactive science/exploratorium type centers go, this one was just so-so.  It was beautifully designed and had a lot of cool props, but the exploring interactive part wasn’t that engaging.  My take was “all hat and no cattle” and Ned felt it was a missed opportunity.  With that being said, we did manage to amuse ourselves for a couple of hours.  The low point was being excited about experiencing the “X-Sphere-ience Theatre!”  We were expecting to be wowed by some big screen movie with special effects.  Not so much, it was a teenage girl (badly) reading a script while an ipad was projected onto a very small movie screen. The presentation was on climate change and geared for elementary age kids. Ned and I were the only ones in the audience.  Awkward....

We did enjoy seeing the Atlas rocket engine.  So impressive to stand next to it and appreciate its massive scale.  I liked seeing the Apollo 4 space command module.  It was launched unmanned into space in November 1967 and was only in flight for 8.5 hours.  Sure did get banged up in that short amount of time! Seeing how astronauts live in space is always fascinating too. 

We drove across Mississippi along the coast and really appreciated the blue skies, sugar white sand beaches and calm flat water.  Across from the beach are miles and miles of huge mansions. I wish we had stopped and played for awhile in the Gulf.   It looked really inviting, but...

we had a ferry to catch.  We took it from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan on the Alabama coast. We got there with 5 minutes to spare...whew.  I honestly enjoyed the ferry ride as much as the NASA museum.  The coolest part was seeing this odd looking ship called Deep Blue. Turns out it is “the world’s largest purpose-built ultra deep water pipelay and subsea construction vessel.”  

Gulf State Park is our home this evening.  It’s not your typical beach state park. This place is huge and more like a resort. There’s a golf course, tennis courts, pool, and lots of construction going on. They are building what appears to be high rise condos and a conference center. There’s also a 4 lane highway that runs right thru the park. We have a sweet campsite on a lagoon and there are tons of bike trails.  Of course, we did lots of exploring.  There’s an enormous fishing pier that seems to be the major attraction. 

Okay, funny embarrassing story.  When we arrived at the pier we saw some flags flying and recognized them from our stay at Grand Isle, LA. The red flag meant high danger swimming, the purple flag meant dangerous marine animals in water, but what did that white flag with the red x mean?  We were coming up with all these theories. I thought it meant swimming not allowed. Ned was convinced it had something to do with scuba diving. I finally asked someone and she looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said “It’s the Alabama State Flag!”  Oops.  

Hard to believe this area was experiencing tropical storm conditions yesterday. Tonight we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.  Red sky at night a sailors delight.