Up The East Coast Of Florida

I can see Georgia from our slip in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island.  That means, since my last post, we've made it all the way up the east coast of Florida from the Keys.

Our first stop north of the Keys, was Coconut Grove which is just south of Miami. We stopped there because it's near Coral Gables where my dear friend from the time we were 3 years old, Tamara Hartnett, lives.

Approaching Miami

Vizcaya

To get to Grove Isle Marina in Coconut Grove, we turned left directly in front of Vizcaya, the former home of James Deering of the Deering-McCormick-International Harvester fortune. It's now a museum.

Downtown Miami

After a couple of days in Coconut Grove, we headed north to downtown Miami, a very busy waterway indeed.

Port of Miami

We also had to make our way through industrial Port Everglades.

Port Everglades

After that, the scenery improved immensely as we approached Jupiter and the Fort Lauderdale area.

Jupiter Lighthouse

We were definitely the POOR relations in Fort Lauderdale.

A Ft Lauderdale bungalow

Looks just like our boat

More Ft Lauderdale extravagance

Trailers and double-wides along the ICW

On the way to Daytona, however, we saw how the other half lives and vacations.

Pelican poop is hard to clean up

While in Daytona, we made some new feathered friends.

Hiromi (from "Off Leash") and me at Manatee viewing place in Ft Pierce

And in Ft Pierce, Manatees were all around us. Turns out, they love fresh water and will come running if you have your hose going (it's illegal to purposely give them fresh water because it encourages them to hang around dangerous marinas), but it's sure fun to have them so close you could touch them.

Manatee drinking hose drippings

This is not OUR hose!

  

Mom 92 on 3/8/14 - Dad 93 on 3/10 /14

From Vero Beach, I drove up to Mt Dora to celebrate my parents' birthdays. While I was away, our friends and former Rocky Bound Pond, NH neighbors, Leslie and Bob Karpp, crewed for Pete from Vero to Melbourne. Bob and Leslie spend the winters in Vero and showed us around before I left.

Leslie and Bob Karpp

One of the things loopers are always looking for, is a good farmer's market, and we found one right off our stern in Marineland.

Farmer's market practically in our cockpit

Farmers market loot

Sometimes, I get a bit carried away at a good farmer's market.













From Marineland, we traveled to St Augustine where we were once again...complete tourists.

Approaching St Augustine

Nearing the Bridge of Lions

Lightner Museum

The first day in St Augustine, we took the "Red Train" tour and stopped at Flagler College, ate lunch at Cafe Alcazar (which is in what used to be the largest swimming pool in the world and is located in the Lightner Museum), zoomed by the Fountain of Youth and visited the old fort.

Another day, we visited the very bizarre, "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" museum.

Cafe Alcazar in the deep end of the pool

Flagler College

Old Fort 

Fountain Of Youth (it didn't work)

Typical St Augustine street

Bridge Of Lions

Lunch above the tourists

A Ripley oddity
  

 At Ripleys - This guy taught his pet snake to crawl through his nose and out his mouth...lovely



Also at Ripley's, there are portraits made of seeds, others of jelly beans, still others of match sticks and one of Legos.

Lego portrait (hi Soren)

              Our final port of call in Florida was Fernandia Beach on Amelia Island, where we met up again with our friends, Hiromi and Mike. We rented a car together (Enterprise: $10/day on weekends...a favorite of loopers), went to Fort Clinch and reprovisioned at Publix.

                              

Fort Clinch

No blog post is complete without a docktail picture - this one's next to HUMBUG in Fernandina Beach - included were loopers from Seattle, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Connecticut and Rhode Island

 We  leave for Cumberland Island, GA in a day or two when the weather clears, and my next post will start from there.

xxxxx