Fort Pierce

Feb 20 & 21

Today we drove the A1A that traverses the barrier islands along the coast. Two bridges cross the Indian River inlet, one going north and the other south. The northern side is much newer with lovely homes and resorts while the southern side was developed earlier and a little on the funky side. Both have nice parks so everyone can enjoy the beaches. It is so much less congested than the Fort Lauderdale area. We liked it much better. We enjoyed walking on the beach. The water temperature about 69 degrees and felt pretty warm. With a little less wind and a little warmer sun, Chris and I would be in the water. I do have my limitations. We had a late lunch at “the original Tiki Bar,” a fun place sitting on the water and delicious food. The fish tacos were fabulous. Mom would be loven the raw oysters. Big plates are served everywhere we go.

Small Dunes, Salt Grass and Aqua Marine Water!
Great combination!

A Little Windy!

Mexican Train in the Manor

Today was tour day with a tour of a citrus packing plant, the Manatee Center and the Navy Seal Museum. Big Al’s Family Farm tour was a nice surprise. We all usually like tours of plants and businesses so we gave it a try. It’s a family run small packing plant that put on a good show. We came away learning a little bit about the citrus industry here in Florida. 70% of our citrus comes from Florida and of that 90% is used for juice. The oranges grown along the Indian River have 30% more juice. With a taste test, we could see that indeed they are fabulous! We had to buy some fresh squeezed juice! We were impressed that the owner was on hand to answer questions. He walked through the lunch area and talked to people along the way, very personable. They had lunch, best hand made tamales I ever had, and the tour for $10.00. 40 people joined us on our tour! Next stop was the Manatee Center at the harbor along Moore Creek that feeds into the Indian River. We didn’t have any luck seeing any today but they have groups of 100 at times. That must but a sight to see. They provide a nice information center. Last on our list was the Navy Seal Museum. Again we were impressed with the information, displays and films. Fort Pierce is the birthplace of the U.S. Navy “Frogman.” From 1943 to 1946 Navy volunteers were trained as members of the Underwater Demolition Team. Today they are now the Navy Seals and train in San Diego on Coronado Island and San Clemente Island. They said it was the most demanding and arduous of any training in the armed services. Hell Week sounded unreal with five days of training and maybe a total of four hours of sleep during the entire time. Only a third of the class graduates. They are sent all over the world and have been in every war since WWII. We were thinking of the elite training our dad had in WWII in the 10^th Mountain Division. Interesting day.

Al's Farms Citrus Tour

Manatees do actually rest on their backs underwater.

Navy Seal Museum

Me sitting in one of the boats on display.

Fort Lauderdale

Feb. 18

We had a very relaxing day with a little blog time, some grocery shopping and a drive down to the harbor in Fort Pierce in the late afternoon. Nice to move in slow mothion once in a while.

Habor Full of Large Recreational Fishing Boats

Sunset at the Jetty

I love these pleicans with the golden heads.

Feb. 19

Today we planned to go down to Fort Lauderdale in the morning, just under a 2 hour drive, and check out the largest swap meet in the country. Norm and Chris had seen it on HGTV. Norm wants to pick up some things to sell on Ebay along the way. That part of our plan worked out great. The swap meet is huge and he did find some treasures. We walked over a mile but the 87 degree temp encouraged us to move on and go down to the beach. That’s where our plans went awry. Even though we have luck on our side and live on the sunny side of the street, we didn’t get close enough for a good look. Fort Lauderdale on a Sunday of a three day weekend with a marathon going on didn’t lend itself to a picnic on the beach. We couldn’t even get to the beach! The traffic was miserable so we headed back north on the coast highway but the few public parking spots were taken and the road was lined with high rise hotels and condos. They have most of the beach front. We wanted to see where all the college kids party for spring break but didn’t get so much as a peek. We decided to picnic in a corporate parking lot and see the beach another day. Next week we will drive down to Palm Beach during the middle of the week. Life is great back at the Manor after a shower and wine time on the horizon.

Looking for Ebay Finds

This one's for you Faye

Stuffing Jake's Chico stuff bag full. Thanks Jake.

Atlantic Coast

Early Farm Style Kingsley Plantation

Slave Quarters at Kingsley Plantation built of Tabby

 Feb. 14 and 15

The 14^th was a travel day over to the east coast of Florida outside Jacksonville to Little Talbot State Park at the beach. The park sits in a maritime hammock of majestic oaks draped with Spanish moss. Saw palmettos cover the ground. We checked out the beach behind a big expanse of dunes. This area is very pretty with large coastal grasslands, oak hammocks, dunes and a long beach..

After a night of rain, we drove up to an area called the Bluffs at Big Talbot State Beach. We got there at low tide to see Boneyard Beach. The beach is littered with oaks that have fallen onto the sand because of the ongoing erosion of the cliffs. Entire oaks, roots and all, are strung across the sand as far as you can see. As time passes and the bark is removed, they are becoming silver skeletons. Driving north to Amelia Island we saw resort after resort until we reached the out shirts of Fernandina with beach houses big and small lining the road. So many are for sale. Our first stop was Fort Clinch, another masonry fortification that was started in 1847 to protect the entrance of Saint Mary’s River. It was actually never finished but among other things it served the Union during the Civil War and was used for communications during WWII. They often have reenactments of the Civil War period and they had an interesting film depicting life at the fort. Buildings at the fort were set up with a few displays such as the store room for uniforms. They had a table set up with everything a new Union Army recruit would receive during the Civil War. Women worked at the fort as cooks and washer women. Washer women would wash the clothes of 26 soldiers twice a week for $26.00, twice what the men received but had to pay for room and board in town. The town of Fernandina saw a tourist boom after the war with Northerners coming down to enjoy the warm beaches. Fernandina is a darling town with beautiful Victorian homes and a lively downtown with shops and restaurants. The oldest bar in the state is the Palace Saloon. I’ll bet it will be the prettiest Victorian looking town as we head down the coast. We walked out on a long fishing pier before lunch and saw lots of fishermen catching sea trout. A woman told us they are very tasty. They cook them in parchment paper after filleting them, putting fresh dill down the center, and topping them with slices of onion, butter and lemon juice. Chris asked them what time dinner was served! We saw two new birds, a black skimmer and a purple sandpiper. As we took a walk along the beach the fog came in. I asked a couple if they had found some nice shells and it turned out that they were looking for 3 to 5 million years old shark teeth. I would have had a hard time finding any on my own but they pointed some out. The are small little black things among lots of shell debris. Very exciting find!

Lunch was fabulous at a nice restaurant in the harbor, fresh peeler shrimp and fried green tomatoes! Nice looking shrimp boats were tied up at the pier.

We drove down into American Beach. The land was bought up by a black man who was the owner of the first black own insurance company in Florida. He became very wealthy and wanted a beach resort area he could use as an incentive for his employees. It became one of the few beaches that blacks could enjoy in all of Florida. His granddaughter became known as the Beach Lady. Chris did a goggled her and she did a lot in later years to preserve the area. It is still a black community today.


The mMnor Set Back in the Oaks

Feet in the Gulf




Boneyard Beach

The Jekyll Island Club House - 1886

Chris and Norm Relaxing at the Jekyll Island Club

Chris and I Sitting in the Red Bug Electric Car in Front of the Rockefeller House

10,000 sq. ft. Country Home on Jekyll Island

Feb. 16

Woke up to sunshine and took a nice walk on the beach looking for shells and birds. Found both. We visited both Ribault Club and the Kinsley Plantation on Fort George Island. The Ribault Club was started in the mid 1920’s by 4 very wealthy northerners as a hunting club and family destination. I think the had the idea of a Jekyll Island community, an upscale yet very relaxed meeting place for families in the winter months. They even put in a golf course. Each family would bring their servants and enjoy each others company. They expected it to grow but didn’t get far with the crash, depression and WWII. It recently had a 4 million dollar redo and is now used for conferences. The golf course has returned to it’s natural state and has both biking and walking trails. The Kinsley Plantation is nearby and had quite a history. The plantation dates back to the 1700’s and was bought by Kingsley in 1814. His wife was from Africa and he had purchased her as a slave while in Cuba. By the time they got the Fort George, they had three children. They grew Sea Cotton and indigo. Blacks were free under the Spanish but when Florida became a U.S. territory they were under oppressive laws and Kingsley moved the family along with 50 slaves to Haiti in 1837. They built many of the buildings on the plantation from tabby, building material made from oyster shells, sand and water. The displays didn’t hold back on descriptions of the treatment the slaves received but also pointed out how they were survivors and had close family and community ties along with a strong religious faith that kept them going.

We were tired of the dreary weather and decided to drive up to Jekyll Island across the border in Georgia. Sure enough the sun was shining and we made it just in time for the last tram tour of the day. I have always wanted to visit this amazing place. A group of wealthy northerners bought the island in 1886 calling themselves the Jekyll Island Club. Names like JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Pulitzer and Gould were in the original group. They built a club house with the idea of spending the winter months in a warmer climate and relaxed atmosphere. They could do a little hunting and socialize with wealthiest of the wealthy fellow Americans. The club house is a resort today and very lovely. The first living quarters were the condos of today. The original six families had rooms in one building. Soon 8,000 to 12,000 sq. ft. homes were being built. We ended up having a private tour as no one else was on it and heard one fabulous story after another about life on the island. We toured two of the homes and drove the area by tram while our guide was narrating. Most of the homes did not even have kitchens because they took their meals at the club. If they decided to dine in, their meals would be brought to them. Being there for three months, the wives would bring 90 evening dresses since they could not possibly wear the same dress twice to their three hour nightly dinner! Each family would bring 8 to 10 servants. The club had about 200 servants for the three month period. They had indoor tennis courts, a bowling alley, pool, and stables. They built a beautiful church with a signed Tiffany stained glass window and it was required by the club that each family attend church. However, if you didn’t feel like attending you could send a servant in your place. I will just have to remember the stories we heard. It would take me far too long to write them down. The Federal reserve act was drawn up here and the president of AT&T made the first transcontinental telephone call speaking to President Wilson in DC and an assistant in San Francisco. The call took over 2 hours to complete. By the early 20’s Jekyll Island membership was said to represent one sixth of the world’s wealth. By the end of WWII, the later generations were not as interested in the island. The world had opened up and they were off to other places. The island was sold to the state in 1947.


Feb. 17

We had planned to drive south about two hours and stay north of Daytona Beach but made a quick change of plans. It was so cloudy and rain was the forecast for the next couple of days. We cancelled our reservation and drove down Hwy 1 along the coast to Fort Pierce. It ended up to be an all day drive but we wanted to be here for about five days anyway and the weather should be better. We will go back St. Augustine and Daytona Beach later. We are staying in a nice RV Resort much like the one we stayed in Phoenix last year but not quite as classy. There are activities every day and lots of snowbirds spending the winter here. The beautiful showers here were much enjoyed! It was fun driving down Hwy 1 seeing the little beach towns and old single story motels of the 50’s but it got a little old by the time we reached our resort at the end of the day. Lulu’s was a great lunch stop. Now all the big high rises are on the barrier islands that line the coast. We will explore some of those areas while we are here.


Tallahassee

River Boat Ride

Wakulla River

On River Ride

Ibis

Alligator

Limpkin - Rarely Seen

Feb. 13

Tallahassee, the state capitol, was our destination today. We thought we would check out the state capitol building but it turned out to be an ugly 22 story 1950’s tower and we drove on by. We were much more impressed with the city of Pensacola. Also in our plans was to visit the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens. At one time the land was a small African-American community of farmers. By the early 1900’s a hunting lodge had been built. Alfred Maclay, a wealthy banker from New York, bought the land in 1923 with plans to begin a garden that would eventually encompass 28 acres. He had a passion for camellias and azaleas. Both were in bloom now but the last two cold nights were really hard on the blooms. The family would spend the months from January to April in the small unassuming home each year. The family gave the home and gardens to the state and today the home is now part of a 1,200 acre state park and open to the public only those months. The camellias fared better than the azaleas with the cold and were beautiful. We drove down to a good sized lake with boat rentals and a swimming area; must be very popular for the locals in the summer.

Maclay House

Reflection Pool

With time left to explore we took a look in the AAA book and decided to visit Wakulla Springs Lodge and State Park. What a wonderful surprise it turned out to be. We got there just in time to take a fabulous 40 minute boat ride on the Wakulla River. The ranger was full of information and we saw a remarkable variety of wildlife! The 14 mile river is the last remaining pristine river in Florida and in fed by a spring that maintains the temperature at 70° . It flows into the gulf. The spring is the largest and deepest spring in the U.S. They have a dive tower that I am sure the boys in our family would have loved. The underwater caves go back for hundreds of feet and are taller and wider than an 8 story building. We were amazed at the number of birds we saw up close: Ibis, Great White Egret, Osprey, Hooded Merganser, Bald Eagle, Wood Ducks, Great blue Heron, Double Crested Cormorants, and Anhinga with their wings spread out. Everywhere we looked was a beautiful bird. We saw ate least a dozen alligators from babies to the largest at 12 feet, several manatees including a calf and Suwannee Cooters (turtles) basking in the sun. It was truly one of the most amazing collections of wildlife we have ever seen in a natural setting! It seemed like a Disneyland "E" ticket ride! It was a nice trade off with the unattractive capitol building that we had decided not to see! Ed Ball owned the spring after 1934 and established a wildlife sanctuary closed to recreational boaters. The lodge he built is lovely. He designed boats to be used for excursions and had them built on the property keeping the design a secret. The boats are still used today.

Feb. 11

It’s Norm’s birthday today! We started out our day with a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum which traces the development of aviation from its beginnings to the present with over 150 planes on display. Planes were everywhere, on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels and some of their jets were hanging from the ceiling! I have loved watching them fly over the Seattle area with Suz. We really enjoyed the Imax film high lighting the Blue Angels and had fun sitting in the cock pits of a couple of the planes. In the same area is Fort Barrancas, one of the four forts in the bay. Looking across the bay we could see Fort Pickens. Spain built the first fort in this area in 1698. This territory changed allegiances many times. The French were here in 1719, the British in 1763, then the U.S was in control before being occupied by the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The old Spanish fort is still standing unscathed in front of the formidable structure of Fort Barrancas. Before heading for town we visited the Pensacola Lighthouse. We found the history of Pensacola was characterized by the various cultures also. We visited the Historic Pensacola Village and toured Old Christ Church along with three homes built from 1805 to 1890. We saw many things we that were new to us. In 1805, they got their sugar in a hard “loaf.” the end of a wood mallet screwed off and had a pick attached. The mallet and pick were used to get a piece of sugar lose. They would put the sugar between their teeth and drink coffee with a nice sweet taste. Then put the leftover sugar back to be used again. They had beautiful larder boxes hanging from the ceiling to hold supplies and keep them safe from mice etc. The town has done a fabulous job of restoration with homes and businesses. A couple of streets looked very much like the French Quarter in New Orleans. We found a fabulous restaurant for Norm’s birthday dinner, Dharma Blue, where he could get some of the best Sushi ever, Chris had a fabulous chicken dish and I had one of the best duck meals ever. We do love a great meal out!

Feb 12

Today was a driving day along the Gulf through Panama City and circling up the coast stopping south of Tallahassee. From Pensacola to Panama City was one resort or hotel after another, quite the resort area. The beaches are beautiful! The white sand and turquoise water are gorgeous. We stopped at a state park for a picnic and short walk on the sand. We wished it was warm enough to go for a swim. The water was crystal clear but we are in the middle of a cold spell with night time temperatures down to 25° and daytime temps in the 40’s and low 50’s. Swimming and an outdoor picnic just didn’t cut it. We ate in the car! We were also put off a bit when we came across three large Portuguese Man of War. As we continued our drive it seemed that as the sandy beaches became smaller or almost nonexistent and the sand lost its sparkling white look, the towns became less prosperous. We wondered if some of the fishing villages were hurt by the oil spill. We found an RV Park in Panacea right on the water and an easy drive into Tallahassee for a visit tomorrow. Cy and Sharland sent us off with a bag of fabulous avocados. We enjoyed another one in our salad tonight!

On to Florida

Feb. 9

Before leaving the New Orleans area, we drove over to the Jean Laffite National Park to see the bayous of the Barataria Preserve hoping to see alligators. No luck on the alligator sightings but a nice walk through the bayou with Cyprus trees and small palms called Saw Palmettos. The large canal was man made to transport sugar cane for a nearby plantation. Jean Laffite was a privateer in this area in the early 1800’s. By 1812, this New Orleans business man was the leader of 1,000 Baratarians smuggling in store goods and slaves. He was jailed and escaped by 1814 to become an asset to the US Navy and Army warning them of a British attack. General Jackson accepted his help to bring in ammunition and supplies for the battle of New Orleans. He called Laffite a “hellish banditti.”

We drove through Mississippi along the coast through Biloxi to Mobile and on to Pensacola, old stamping grounds for Norm when he was in the Air force. We saw “for sale” signs for beach property by the dozens. Lot after lot must have been leveled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Some of the grand old homes survived and new ones were being built but you could have your choice of building lots. New resort facilities have been built, hopefully not to be leveled soon by another hurricane. The gulf coastline is gorgeous and we took a walked on the sand. We sat outside for lunch at Snuggy’s on the beach. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent getting organized in the manor for the months ahead. It feels good to be done with hotels and in our cozy home! Eating some home cooked meals will be nice for a change. Norm’s birthday is coming up so our dinners won’t all be home cooked this next week.

Feb. 10

We drove down to the coast this morning to see the white sands and turquoise water of the Gulf. The sand is amazing & reminded me of the white sand in Cancun. We are hoping to have more sun tomorrow to really get the sparkle. We drove out on a spit to the Gulf Island National Seashore. It goes for miles across Mississippi and Florida to include the Barrier Islands and coastal marches. 80 % of the park is submerged. The ever changing islands with sea oats growing as a stabilizer actually form a barrier to help protect the coast from hurricane damage. At the tip of the spit is Fort Pickens dating back to 1825. The brick fort was modernized, as cannons improved, with cement fortifications that were used clear up to World War II. This area has been under the rule of five different flags. The fort was held by the Union Army throughout the Civil War. We picked up sea shells along the beach, not in the National Park of course, and did some bird watching. There are a number of large heron and osprey nests atop dead trees. We were lucky to see a pair of heron sitting in their nest and an osprey heading back to its nest carrying a fish.