Florida's East Coast

  The time has come for us to make our way Northwest for the summer. We expect the first year will be the most congested, as we’re learning how to juggle two homes. Up to this point, however, we have very much enjoyed what we’ve seen so far of Florida's East coast.

Our first stop was TITUSVILLE: home of NASA. We very much liked it there. We could tell it wasn’t as booming as it once was and we only walked from the marina to the downtown area and back. Along the way, we passed a park with dozens upon dozens of astronaut monuments. It was very well put together. 

The Apollo monument designed by artist Sandy Storm of Merritt Island was built to honor the space workers and astronauts of the Apollo Program who made exploring the moon a reality. Twelve bronze panels will surround the base of the monument telling the Apollo story. On permanent display at Apollo are bronzed handprints of all the living Apollo Astronauts, where young and old alike can put their hands in the handprints of men who walked on the moon. Raised bronze profiles, by artist Sandy Storm, are there for those astronauts who have died. http://www.nbbd.com/godo/spaceviewpark/

We stayed a couple of days, which gave us time for showers, laundry, and a few groceries.

Our next on-shore stop and exploration was DAYTONA BEACH. We mainly stopped here to refill my prescription. The area was quite remote and there weren’t any grocery stores available within walking distance. We found ourselves buying cheese, hot dogs and a few dry goods from Walgreens. Desperate times, I guess. We spent the weekend walking a few touristy shops. Along with that, we found a Veterans museum to tour, cappuccinos and a cookie.

Boat races - I think it was a training class.

 This Osprey and Jimi were 'eye-balling' one another.

It lasted a while.

 "You lookin at me?"

 The Watermen are collecting the goodies from their crab pots and the Pelicans are hoping to score a snack.

Our third on-shore stop was beautiful ST AUGUSTINE. The question is how much can you pack into a few evenings and a weekend? After being stuck on the boat for a couple of weeks we decided to make full use of our stay and go to shore every evening and all day on Saturday and Sunday. A mooring ball at the marina was quite pricey for us, but we decided to stay a week and enjoy every minute of it.

This bird is watching these guys fish. 

The first thing we did was walk across the bridge and find a burger.

Tugboat coming through the bridge.

Stain glass windows at the St Augustine Cathedral.

Looking off the bridge over the marina. What do we see? A boat from Finland.

These guys guard the bridge. St Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. Ponce de leon landed here is 1513 and established as a town in 1565,

Look! Wookworth's had airconditioning.

The public well.

Outside a local church/

We usually see the bridges open from the underside. Here it is from the top side.

Disturbing.

We found this coffee shop and fell in love. The Kookaburra and then the song was stuck in my head for days. I sang it to Jimi at least a dozen times a day.

 We do like the old spanish architecture.

On Saturday we enjoyed live music in the park.

Then we went over to the Lightner Museum. The grounds held five weddings the day we were there.

How's this for a doll house. I'm guessing it was about four feet tall and 5 1/2 feet wide.

The museum was once a hotel.

A nice rocker, but it didn't look so comfortable.

The ballroom at one time.

After the museum, we stopped for a coffee and pastry.

On Sunday we toured the local Fort that once protected the town from invaders.

Quarters.

Original carvings in the concrete walls.

That's the Atlantic Ocean through the inlet. This is where the invading ships would try to enter.

Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail

They snatched me up!

Firing the cannons.

Marching.

After the Fort, we watch the Easter Parade.

And there was a masqurade in the park.

No shortage of Easter Bunnys.

A dinghy ride in with my selfie stick. 

Between all of our on-shore stops, we spent time simply hanging out in the middle of no-where. When we reached the St Johns river the container ships going by caused large wakes. Sanibel rocked like she was having a party; however, inside her belly, Jimi and I were not having a party. It was “hang on” to ourselves and everything around us. Those ships are simply massive. If you think about it, they can carry hundreds of containers and Sanibel is about this size of 2 containers. Crazy; and kudos to the Captains for having to always be on the look-out for us little guys.

We arrived at the Green Cove Springs Marina more than two weeks early. We didn’t plan this or realize it was happening. But I suppose it’s a good thing it happened. When we were about thirteen miles away I received a phone call from Cencorp asking me if I could fly to Texas the following week. So, we pulled anchor and sailed the thirteen miles to the boat yard. We have taken most of our personal items off Sanibel. We have so much stuff that we don’t need or use taking up space. It’s time to completely reevaluate what we want aboard. We’re leaving our linens, towels, kitchen dishes and some clothing. Everything else is going with us and we’ll bring back only what we know we’ll use. For the past four+ years, Sanibel has been our main home and we’ve managed to collect plenty.

Jimi will drive to Nebraska without me and I’ll fly directly to Nebraska when I’m finished in Texas and from there a new summer adventure awaits.