You Gotta Love Florida!

Lucky me, I just happen to be in Florida during festival season it seems. The newspaper had an insert listing all the festivals that will be going on from now thru the end of April, and it just so happens that there is one more before I go home. Remember Stijn and I went to the Seafood Festival in St. Augustine on March 14th, well now there is another one March 21 in Jacksonville Beach, "Springing the Blues". I'm there!

Jacksonville Beach is the next town going north on 1A1 from Ponte Vedra Beach, so it only took me about 10 minutes to be at the beach front where the festival was taking place. When I get here it is evident that this is a very popular festival based on the fact that I had to park 3 blocks away.

As I am walking towards the Seawalk Pavilion where the festival is taking place, I can here some great blues music being played by one of the many artists that will be performing today.

The festival had several vendors selling their crafts, clothing, jewelery, and some great sauces and marinades that you could sample for free!

Then of course there was that great row of about a dozen or so food vendors selling all kinds of seafood. I walked up and down this row taking pictures and trying to decide on which vendor I was going to choose.

As I was deciding I would see people with plates piled high with seafood, and baskets overflowing with crawfish.

I can't decide!! So I make a couple more passes and finally decide on a seafood wrap. When I walk up to order the guy says to me "So you finally made a decision"?. I didn't realize it was that obvious, and then he says "Didn't you have a camera"?. Okay, I guess that sort of made me stand out in a crowd.

I then headed over to the Pavilion, found myself a spot on the grass and enjoyed my seafood wrap while listening to some great blues music.

You gotta love Florida!

Jacksonville Beach on Dwellable

 

To see more pictures just go to "Where's Debbie" and click on the "Seafood Festival" album

Back to St Augustine

Well you have probably figured out by now that I love Lighthouses and no matter what coast I'm on, if there is a Lighthouse, I'm finding it and taking some pictures. So today with the clear blue skies and perfect weather I decide to go back to St Augustine and get a closer look at the Lighthouse and of course take a ton of pictures.

With a big smile on my face and excited to start taking pictures from every angle possible from the ground as I have always done, something is different for me today.

Now a little background. I never, I mean never seem to hit a Lighthouse with a museum and/or tours when it's open, as you well know from the drive to Tybee Island I took when I was in Savannah and the Amelia Island Lighthouse up in Fernandina Beach. So how surprised was I when I discovered that not only was the museum open but you could purchase a ticket that gave you the privilege to go to the top of the lighthouse. Way Cool!! I couldn't get my $9.00 out fast enough!

Oh my gosh, I am entering a Lighthouse people! I know this sounds a little silly, but for someone who has always just been able to see a Lighthouse from the outside, this is a BIG deal. So I start climbing the 219 steps of the spiral staircase to the top, stopping along the way to take pictures out of the windows so that I have proof that I am in a Lighthouse. When I reach the top and step outside I am in absolute awe and filled with so much excitement, I just can't believe I am on top of a Lighthouse.

Whew! Got that out of my system. So now I head on over to the "Fountain of Youth" in hopes that a drink of the water will give me eternal youth! May I have seconds, please? I pay my $8.00 and join in on the tour which starts on the original site of the "spring". After sampling the water and listening to the tour guide give details of the history of the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon and the "Fountain of Youth" we then head over to another building where a short movie is shown repeating pretty much what the tour guide had already shared with us. Good for me, because I do need to hear things a couple of times to sink in. Then yet onto one more building, the planetarium. The purpose of this was to educate you on how people such as Christopher Columbus and Ponce de Leon used the stars as a navigational system while sailing uncharted seas to discover the New World. I then walked the grounds for a little while and then headed on back to Ponte Vedra Beach.

This has been another day filled with excitement and history.

If you would like to see more pictures of my day just go to "Where's Debbie" and click on the album "Back to St Augustine".

St Augustine Florida

Today we are headed to St. Augustine to check out the Seafood Festival. Remember, while on our way to Blue Spring, as we drove through St. Augustine we saw a sign about a Seafood Festival that was going to be a 3 day event. Well it's March 14th and we are ready to go and see what this is all about.

 

St. Augustine is only about 15 miles from Ponte Vedra Beach, so it's a nice drive along the coast on A1A. In fact we have already spent part of another day in St. Augustine shopping at one of their Outlet Malls. Stijn loves to hit the Outlet Malls when he comes from Belgium and do a little shopping for some great deals. In fact he likes it so much that the first place we stop at today is the other Outlet Mall. Lucky me! A man who likes to shop.

 

Satisfied with his purchases, we now head over to Francis Field where the Seafood Festival is taking place. We pay our $7.00 to park and then follow the crowd onto the Festival grounds and pay another $2.00 each to enter. We spent about 1 hour walking along the vendors booths checking out all the different types of crafts they were selling. Then it was time for some of that Seafood. There are about a dozen or so vendors selling all types of seafood that is cooked every way possible. Crab legs, crab cakes, whole crabs, boiled crawfish, frog legs, alligator, shrimp! Of course I'm having a tough time trying to make a decision here people. I finally settle on a booth that is selling a dish called the "Captain's Platter". So for $15.00 I am handed this plate overflowing with crab, scallops and shrimp over some rice. I know you're expecting a picture here, but silly me didn't take my camera into the Festival. What was I thinking.

 

We decide now to explore some of St. Augustine. but first we make a stop at the car to get my camera! The Visitor Center is right next to Francis Field and here Stijn picks up a walking map of St. Augustine, we head out the door and right in front of us (across the street) is Castillo de San Marcos. Now for those of you who might not know this (sad to say, me being one of them) St. Augustine is the oldest European city in the United States, settled by Juan Menendez de Aviles, almost a half a century before the first English settlers landed at Jamestown.

Castillo de San Marcos is this magnificent military fortress that was built in 1672 on the shoreline of St. Augustine to protect the Spanish that had settled here from the British.

You can pay an admission to tour the inside, but we arrived just minutes after they sold the last tickets for the day. However, this was still a magnificent site from the outside to explore. We took our time walking around the outside looking closely at the bullet holes that had tried to penetrate the 18 foot thick walls while under attack by the British.

There is a lot more to see and do in St. Augustine, but it's getting late and Stijn needs to figure out how to pack his purchases he has made over the last few days. Yes sad to say, he has to fly out tomorrow to go back to Brussels.

The packing is done and we spent the rest of our evening remembering the wonderful time we were able to share with each other again here in Florida.

I will be staying for another week holding down the fort...........

So check back soon to read more about my home exchange here in Ponde Vedra Beach.

St. Augustine Beach on Dwellable

And if you would like to see more pictures of our day just go to "Where's Debbie" and click on the album "St. Augustine".

Blue Spring State Park Florida

I am in heaven being so close to so many beaches here in Florida. In fact on Saturday and Sunday we just explored a couple of beaches and just enjoyed our days taking walks and lying out working on our tan's. Well I worked on my tan and Stijn worked hard at not burning. I think our favorite was the beach at Guana Reserve just about 15 minutes south on A1A. We spent most of the day here and enjoyed finding sharks teeth again like we did this past October in Venice Florida while on a home exchange.

So today, March 9, we are all rested up and ready to do some more exploring. We went to Blue Spring State Park which was about a 2 hour drive to the south. We again decided to take the A1A for obvious reasons, until we had to take the I4 inland to Orange City. The A1A of course took us through St. Augustine where I could see a Lighthouse in the distance and also a sign that there was going to be a Seafood Festival the weekend of March 14th. See why it's good "NOT" to travel along the Interstate. You miss little things like this. So we will definitely be coming back here.

The reason we picked Blue Spring State Park as something we wanted to see while in Flordia was because this is a designated Manatee Refuge to the growing population of the West Indian Manatees. They come here to escape the cooler waters of the St. Johns River between November and March. Blue Spring is an artesian spring and the water is at a constant 68 degrees. And you can rent canoes!

We pay $5.00 to park and set out to walk through the Park on it's elevated boardwalks along the spring waters in hopes of seeing some manatees. We saw some beautiful scenery, but no manatees. So we decide it's time to rent our canoe and paddle out onto the St. Johns River.

It is only $10.00 for the first hour to rent a canoe, so after paying we walk down to the shore line, pick out our canoe and start paddling. We were given a map with some suggested routes to take while we are enjoying this perfectly sunny day on the water.

We first explore a lagoon just to the left of us and as soon as we enter the lagoon Stijn is spotting alligators along the banks. Camera in hand I start snapping pictures. Then up ahead Stijn spots a couple of alligators in the water. More pictures! He's not real excited by the idea that we're not moving while I'm taking pictures and we are in the middle of a lagoon with alligators all around.

Yes, this is a picture of the front of our canoe with an alligator just ahead of us. "Keep paddling" Stijn says with an anxious yet firm tone.

We paddle back out onto the St. Johns River and here we see a few more alligators and some turtles sunning themselves on fallen trees along the banks.

Now we head into an area that is going to take us through a loop and here we see more alligators, turtles and birds. We pass a house boat and wave to the people on board. They inform us that there are a couple of manatees in the area and that we should keep an eye out and maybe we would see one. They also pointed out that there is a "Huge" alligator just ahead of us crossing the water. Cool! After paddling a little further down we can hear the people on the house boat telling us that there is a manatee about 40 yards behind our canoe and he is coming straight towards us. We turn to take a look and we could see the wake of the manatee coming straight in our direction. As he approached our canoe he circled around us and we could see him just below the surface of the water. Magnificent! Then he stopped just behind Stijn, lifted his head out of the water, took a look at us and then re-submerged and swam away. This was the most amazing thing I have ever seen!

Up ahead we did see Mr. Big along the shore to our right and he was "Big"!

Satisfied with all we were able to see, we decide it's time to head back and turn in our canoe. Afterwards we take a little walk over to see the Thursby house which was built in 1872 by Louis Thursby and is a nice little museum that is free with some history on the area along with some artifacts.

This has been an amazing day and I will never forget the experience and the feelings I felt when I saw my first manatee.

If you would like to see more pictures of our day please go to Where's Debbie and click on the album "Blue Spring State Park"