St. Augustine final

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!

St. Augustine

Our first blog from St. Augustine had glowing reports about the perfect weather, but I’m sorry to say all that changed soon after. It’s been pretty cold and windy for most of the last two weeks. Daytime highs have been in the 50-60 degree range and nights at 25-40. That is TOO cold for my sunny winter in Florida. This has curtailed the daily walks on the beach and cut back on biking and hiking. Bob and I got up at 6am one morning, bundled up and sat in the truck to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. It was glorious.

On the few sunny and warm days we have had, we visited several state parks up on the Florida/Georgia border that are on or near Amelia Island. We rode our bikes on the beach and encountered a dead sea turtle. On our ride through the park, we enjoyed the armadillos that were rooting around in the leaves. They are such funny little critters, and don’t seem to know you are there until you get right next to them.

We also spent a day at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, which is only about 5 miles up the beach from us. They have a great visitor center focused on local wildlife and has good recreational areas. We rode our bikes on sand trails through the woods, where we observed armadillos, many species of birds, and 5 or 6 dolphins in the Intracoastal waterway.

Northern Florida is a birders paradise. I have seen many types here for the first time including wood storks. Since this is a migratory route, there are new birds coming through all the time. Several species of sea turtles nest here in the spring and summer, and in the winter the greatly endangered North Atlantic Right whales calve offshore. Bob and I went to a training this week for whale spotters, but we’ll be out of the calving area when the whales arrive in January. If we decide to make a home in this area, I know that I will get involved with many wildlife projects.

Bob and I both hoped that we could see a space shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral while we were in Florida. They had one scheduled for this week, but as if often the case, it was put off until February at the earliest. But, they had a rocket scheduled to launch on Dec 7^th, so we went down the day before and toured the Kennedy Space Center. At the last minute, that rocket got rescheduled too, so we didn’t get to see a launch, but we really enjoyed our time at the Space Center. We even got to ride in a shuttle launch simulator. What a rush!

We have one more week here in St. Augustine before we head south. I am certainly glad that we’re not in Minnesota with my family digging out from the great blizzard of 2010!

Thanksgiving in Miami

We had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in Miami with Shoshana, Mary’s best friend, and the woman who married us. She recently moved from Orcas Island to Austin, Texas, and was visiting her family in Miami for Thanksgiving. We drove down from St Augustine to Shoshana’s mom’s condo in North Miami Beach. The 7^th floor condo is like an art museum, and overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Shoshana’s cousin’s house and also got to spend a wonderful evening at her brother’s house on the Intracoastal. He took us out for a very nice sunset boat ride complete with a few dolphins frolicking nearby. We had a great time, and very much enjoyed the warm weather and balmy nights. (Mary is on a diet now to get rid of those holiday pounds.)

Shoshana went with us to the Miami Seaquarium to visit Lolita, the last living orca in captivity from the Pacific Northwest. She was captured in 1970 at the age of 4 and has been performing at the Miami Seaquarium ever since. Lolita is believed to be the oldest orca in captivity. She is in a notoriously small tank with no other orcas, and only a few pacific white-sided dolphins for company. There has been a campaign to try to secure her release for many years, but with no result. We weren’t sure what to expect. Thankfully, she looked in surprisingly good shape (skin, teeth and mouth all excellent). She did a very good job of splashing the audience, and interacted well with the trainers. Mary checked in with her, and she seemed to be resigned to her lot.

On the way back up to St Augustine, we checked out campgrounds for our next stop near Vero Beach. It’s unseasonably cold right now in north Florida (overnight freezing temps), but still nothing like the rest of the country, so we are not complaining.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We hope you are being spared by the tough weather across the country, and that you have a wonderful holiday filled with light, love, fun and fabulous food. We are driving down to Miami to spend the holiday with my best friend Shoshana who is there visiting family.

Bob and I arrived in St. Augustine last Friday and are loving it. We are grateful for perfect weather in the 70s during the day and low 60s at night. It’s been mostly sunny with only a light breeze. Generally we spend 4 days in a town running around and visiting all the sights, but so far we haven’t even been into downtown St. Augustine. We are finally relaxing and chilling around the campground.

We LOVE this RV resort. It is situated between the Atlantic ocean and the Intracoastal waterway. Each site is private and surrounded with vegetation. We have a nice pool and two restaurants within a block. What more could we ask for?

I’m including photos of the beach we walk on every morning, the entrance to our campground, our site, and myself walking with a high school friend of mine who has a home near here. I think we’re going to have a great time in this area, one of these days we’ll go out and explore it.

Have a wonderful Holiday!!

100th Blog

Wow, is it possible that this is our 100^th blog? That’s what Blogspot says. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been on the road for 11 months and we’re only on the east coast. There is still so much more of this wonderful country to see and explore. It looks like it’s going to take us another six months to get back to Washington.

Bob and I watched the air temperature rise by 20 degrees on the drive from Asheville, NC to Charleston, SC. It’s great to be in a warmer climate. We had a wonderful campsite just 100 feet from a large pond ringed by palms and trees covered in Spanish moss. Just looking out the window made me feel warm.

Downtown Charleston is a lovely old city with many historic buildings. We spent an afternoon walking the streets and along the waterfront where we found many cobblestone and brick roads. The large old homes on Battery Street are gorgeous and the restaurants offer shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp!

We are staying in the Mount Pleasant area and there is a wonderful beach town called Isle of Palms out on the Atlantic coast. Most of the spectacular beach houses must have been built after Hurricane Hugo (1989). The beach is broad and flat and not developed with the tacky boardwalks and businesses that we have seen in other beach areas.

Cypress Gardens is about 50 miles north of Charleston and a great place to spend a day. We chatted with their parrots and cockatoos, visited the butterfly house, toured the Swamparium and hung with their three large alligators. We also hiked one of the nature trails and paddled a flat-bottomed boat through the Cypress swamp. It was great to be on the water and encounter turtles, vultures and even a few wild alligators.

We also visited Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery that was not too far from Cypress Gardens. Bob and I enjoyed the beautiful gardens and quiet, but were too late to get a tour. The monks have been on this 3,000 acre, 18^th century rice plantation since 1949 and in addition to fruit cake, they produce jellies, jams, candies and creamed honeys.

Asheville, NC

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina are gorgeous. I visited here twice before, once in 1981, and then again in 2000 but Bob had never been to this area. Even though the peak of the fall colors is gone, there are still red and yellow trees scattered throughout the hills. There is something I really like about seeing layer after layer of hills in the distance.

We stayed just outside Asheville and spent time in the quaint town of Black Mountain. We also went hiking with a former dolphin trip participant who lives here. The hike she took us on was on the property of a place where I had attended a silent retreat at in 2000. What are the chances of that? It was a lovely warm day with incredible views.

Asheville is a wonderful town with a vibrant and busy downtown scene. It is known for its Art Deco and Gothic architecture. Bob and I were amazed at the number and variety of restaurants in this reasonably small city. We enjoyed the Friday night community drumming circle in a park downtown and found this to be a very livable city.

Asheville is also known for the enormous Grove Park Inn that was built in 1913 out of huge boulders. It was designed to look rustic, but still afford its guests a high scale of luxury. The walls are lined with photos of famous guests such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Ford, actors and actresses, not to mention many presidents and their wives.

By far the most impressive landmark in Asheville is the Biltmore Estate. The 250 room French Renaissance style home was finished in 1895 by George W. Vanderbilt. It is the largest private home in the country and is still owned and managed by the family. The 8,000 acres of the estate (down from the original 125,000 acres) are filled with gardens, trails, a farm, a winery, large inn, restaurants and shops. Bob and I spent an entire day here, touring the house, the grounds, the winery and of course the tasting room. We also visited the house in the evening when its dozens of Christmas trees were lit and the fireplaces burning. The elaborate decorations were really something to see. They said that there was more than a mile of fresh garland in the house, in addition to all the poinsettias, trees, swags, and ornaments. In the grand dining room, the tree was 40 feet tall!

Next stop is Charleston, SC for a few days and then we will be in St Augustine, FL for a MONTH! Looking forward to winding down and relaxing a bit in one place for a while.

Snowin In the Smokies

Mary and I stopped in Pigeon Forge, TN (yes, Dollywood) to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We arrived with a cold wave, so in order to get a chance to hike in the mountains we had to stay a few extra days. That provided time for us to explore the tourist venues of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. These towns are very touristy, and from the large off-season crowds it was hard to tell that the economy is not doing well. By the way… in a 12 mile stretch of highway there must be 20 pancake houses and 10 “As Seen on TV” stores (this is not an exaggeration)

Our first day was rain and some snow even in the lower elevations of the park. We stayed in the truck, but took a very nice five-mile “nature drive” outside of Gatlinburg and saw a very large Black Bear right along the side of the road. We also saw a wild turkey fly across the road and up very high in a tree. Neither of us thought they could fly that high.

We went to see Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner show. This is usually Dolly’s version of the medieval knights arena show were it’s North versus South in an array of horsemanship events, while the audience dines (with their hands only) on a whole chicken, a slab of pork, potatoes, corn on the cob, soup and an apple turnover for desert. Mary and I saved up all day for this caloric and carb binge. We actually caught the Christmas version of the show, and it was really very nice. We still had the North Pole competing against the South Pole, but the festivities included a flying fairy Nutcracker scene and a Nativity scene with real donkeys, sheep, goats and camels. The horsemanship was excellent and included a woman doing “Roman” horse tricks, which involves standing on top of two horses and moving back and forth from horse to horse. She also straddled a line of torches and jumped through a ring of fire while standing on the horses. This was quite impressive.

The weather did clear up and warm up, and we went over the top of the Smokies into Cherokee, North Carolina. They had gotten about 6-8 inches of snow at the top, and the skies were absolutely clear which is rare here. Most of the fall colors were gone, but it was still absolutely gorgeous. After most of the snow melted off we were able to get onto the Appalachian Trail. The AT here runs along the ridge line of the Smokies, and is also the separation between Tennessee and North Carolina. We hiked along the AT both north and south from Newfound Gap until we ran into too much lingering snow. We also drove and then hiked the ½ mile to Clingmans Dome (6,643 feet), the highest point along the entire Appalachian Trail and the highest point in the Smokies. Another day we hiked to Grotto Falls and encountered a line of 8 pack llamas coming down from the mountain. That was a real treat and a big surprise

We did succumb to pancakes one morning, and we had some killer beer-cheese fries at a pub while watching the Breeders Cup Race on TV (very fun since we had just seen the movie Secretariat and had been at Churchill Downs last week). There have also been some dinners and lunches out at this stop. Our diets are like our hikes….we keep looking for a beautiful level path, but we keep choosing trails with lots of ups and downs.

Next stop is Asheville, North Carolina, then on to Charleston, South Carolina.

Music City

Bob and I rolled into Nashville, TN and set up at Yogi Bear’s Jelly Stone Park. I have been resisting staying at one of these because of the high percentage of children, but this time of the year it’s mainly adults. The big plus at this place is that they do a Christmas light show extravaganza and this week they are testing and putting the finishing touches on it. We have been treated to an exciting light show that is synchronized to music each evening. I do love those Christmas lights, so it’s been a lot of fun.

My Dad loves airplanes, still flies a lot and has even built a few. One of the planes he built is a French plane called a Flying Flea. A few years ago the Flea was purchased by a collector and moved to the Lane Motor Museum here in Nashville. Bob and I made a visit to see the Flea and really enjoyed the whole museum. It was filled with mostly European, unusual cars and motorcycles – and one little airplane hanging from the ceiling.

Nashville has an amazing network of freeways that makes getting around quick and easy. We never saw any rush hour backups like we get in Seattle. We even went into downtown around 4:30 in the afternoon and easily found a place to park in The District. This area is filled with restaurants and saloons where live country music is played more than 12 hours a day. Bob and I were planning to go into a Honky Tonk to feel the local vibe, but here in Tennessee (and also Kentucky) they still smoke in public buildings. It was early on election day and there wasn’t much of a “happening scene”, so we just listened outside.

We also visited the Grand Old Opry that just opened after the flood that filled Nashville six months ago. Many buildings in the flood zone are still closed. Bob and I cruised up and down Music Row and stopped by the Ryman Auditorium where country stars have played for decades

Before this stop we were unaware that Nashville is called the Athens of the South due to its love of Greek architecture. We went to the Parthenon in Centennial Park, which is the only full size replica of the original in the world. We also got in a pretty good 2.5 mile hike at a wilderness park that is located very close to town.

Our final day in Nashville was rainy, but we spent it with good company, a friend and client of Mary’s down in Franklin, TN. It’s supposed to get cold in the next few days, so we’re loading up on propane for our furnace before we head to the mountains.

Unbridled Spirit(s)

Bob and I were excited to go to Blue Grass country this week, but when we got here, the grass was all brown. We were told it has been a very dry year in Kentucky. There wasn’t much green anywhere. We were also surprised to find that most of the barns and fences in this area are painted black. The barns are historically black to aid in warming and drying tobacco. Many of the fences are treated with creosote to discourage horses from rubbing and biting the fences. That look is very different from the rest of the country.

We spent our time in the Lexington, Frankfort and Louisville areas that are known as bourbon and horse country. Frankfort is the state capital and we enjoyed visiting Daniel Boone’s grave. We also went to a unique Vietnam Memorial with a giant sundial that points to the names of those who were killed on the anniversary date of their death.

I don’t like bourbon and neither does Bob, but we were interested in seeing how it was made, so we toured Woodford Reserve, a small batch bourbon distillery. They produce high quality bourbon and we did our tasting at 11am. What a way to start the day. Then we did a tasting at the Wild Turkey distillery where we discovered a bourbon liqueur named American Honey. Maybe bourbon isn’t so bad after all. One interesting thing we learned is that the USA is the only place in the world that is allowed to produce bourbon and 90% is made right in this area. Whiskey is made in lots of places, but there are strict regulations on bourbon. Bourbon has to be 51% corn based. Other ingredients include rye and malted barley.

After the bourbon stops, we went to the Abbey of Gesthemany, an old Trappist monastery. The famous Catholic mystic and writer Thomas Merton lived here for 27 years. The monks have seven prayer sessions each day starting at 3:15am! We spent some time in the chapel, but the monks were not at their prayer stations. I guess they were off making cheese and fruitcakes at that time.

This part of Kentucky is known for their horse farms and they are everywhere and very beautiful. We spent a day at the Kentucky Horse Park which houses the International Horse Museum and the American Saddlebred Museum. It was also the site of the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Bob had actually watched some of it on TV. We met some champion horses and saw a wonderful breed performance. A high point for us in horse country was watching five races at Churchill Downs in Louisville. It was great to sit in the stands and see the horses thunder by. One jockey was having a very good day and won 3 of the races we saw.

Kentucky also has some unusual foods that we had to try. Bourbon candy was not as good as I expected. You really couldn’t taste the bourbon. We also had burgoo stew which is a thick mutton vegetable soup. I really liked Kentucky Old Brown, which is a baked open faced sandwich with turkey, ham and tomato, smothered in cheese sauce and topped with bacon. Bob tried the barbequed mutton and I had the Kentucky ribs – both were delicious. It’s a good thing we didn’t try all the pies or I would be having even more trouble zipping my jeans.

Next we’re heading south to Tennessee and then on to North Carolina.

Happy Howloween

Bob and I donned our costumes and joined in the Halloween fun at the Dragon Pub in downtown Frankfort on Saturday night. Mary was a leopard and Bob was a kilt wearing Robin Hood. Many people were decked out in costumes and they had a great DJ who played very danceable songs. We drank and ate too much, but it was a fantastic time and my legs only hurt for a few hours this morning. Let’s do the time warp again……………