We are moving south to Vero Beach tomorrow and ending our one-month stay in St Augustine. Mary and I really like the campground we are at (North Beach), and we really like the St. Augustine area, in spite of the record cold snap.
During the past week we spent a few days hunkered down because of the cold, but went into town for the Christmas Boat parade. The biting cold wind made it feel just like watching the Christmas Boat Parade back home on Puget Sound.
The weather finally turned and we rented a boat and motored 25 miles up and down the Intra-Coastal Waterway. We had a great time and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of wilderness we encountered. A lot of the marsh areas are either protected or still undeveloped and the bird watching is fantastic.
Just north of St Augustine we spotted a large pod of dolphins feeding and playing along the banks of the channel. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with them as we stopped our engines and floated along with the incoming tide. They were very active and appeared to be females and juveniles.
We also managed to get in a few more beach walks along the ocean. We were trying to spot Right whales in the calm water and ideal conditions, but didn’t see any. We did see a very large number of dolphins just beyond the surf line, and of course, numerous shore birds, pelicans and some very large Northern Gannets that were making very impressive deep dives into the ocean. At first we thought we were seeing whale blows when we would see the spray from a Gannet dive. The cold snap even cooled down the ocean temperatures in northern Florida. Some of the casualties included small purple and orange starfish that washed-up on the beach. We gathered several to give them an honored final resting place adorning our modest Christmas tree.
We’ll miss this place, and plan to come back. Merry Christmas, you old St Augustine!
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