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!