FLORIDA - Part One

We have been in Florida for over 3 months and are just leaving to continue our adventures north. We started in the far west in the Panhandle, cut across to the east coast where we worked our way down to St. Augustine, Daytona Speedway, Cocoa Beach, Ft. Lauderdale then down to the Keys and then up the west coast to Ft. Myers and Nokomis (where Kim had her foot surgery).

Instead of putting out blogs on each of those stops, we're going to put out a few blogs highlighting some of our activities with photos and captions. We trust you'll enjoy the quick overviews.

St. Augustine

America's oldest permanent European settlement

The oldest schoolhouse in America

One of the nice walking streets downtown. Shops, restaurants, historical places.

Kim insisted I try on these beer glass glasses.

Old Spanish architecture downtown where the city center used to be.

Maybe this is why she wanted me to try on the glasses?

You can take this boat out into the bay and Atlantic Ocean....for a fee of course.

Castillo de San Marcos fort re-enactment of the color guard.

While I explored the upper walls, Kim took a break to listen to the lectures. "Hi Blog-Folks", she says.

Inside the walls of Castillo de San Marcos where guides give lectures while dressed in period costume.

Looking out over the bay from the upper walls of the fort, Castillo de San Marcos.

Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral

A first-class deepwater port for passenger ships near Cape Canaveral.

There were three large ships in dock loading when we were there.

Look at all the decks on this boat !

One in the foreground and one in the background. We could not get over how huge they were.

One of the local Florida icons.

I bet you can guess which is Kim's hat shelf and which is Steve's....and NOT by the type of hats either!

This truck was pulling a 38-ft 5th wheel and, for his get-around car, he had one of those Smart cars.
This is how they loaded it up.

Sandhill Crane in our RV park. This one was OBNOXIOUS ! He was noisy and aggressive. After we left photographing him (her?) he came over outside our door and "honked" for food !

...just had to take this photo of the Duck Gathering 2012.

One morning we got up before the sun, drove over to the beach and watched the sun come up over the horizon. Kim took dozens of shots. This was just an example of how beautiful it looked.

After the sun came up, the sky got even more gorgeous.

Florida Keys

The word "key" is derived from the English word "cay" which in turn is derived from the Spanish word "cayo" and all mean "island."

Also, "cayos" is the Spanish word for little islands.

They are called keys because they are a chain of little islands.

Looking west toward the Gulf of Mexico from the Seven Mile Bridge.

This is Steve snorkeling in the Gulf. Our RV park had an area sectioned off with floats. He was in the water at least three times a day. One day I saw a manta ray while he was in the water....eeeek !

We thought the entire keys' roads were like this but only a few spots had these long bridges connecting the islands but, once you got on them, the view was spectacular.

Way down in the last island, Key West, is this spot that is the Southernmost Point in the continental USA....only 90 miles to Cuba from here. Naturally, there was a very long line to get photos taken. We took this from across the street in our car.

A typical tourist street in Key West....many many were like this.

We wanted to get out and walk around the town a bit but this cruise ship arrived at the same time and about 3,000 people debarked to clog up the streets....rats.

There were many styles of home in Key West....and expensive. This one is about $400K.

Another style of Key West house...even more expensive. Location, location, location.

...and a bunch of houseboats too. Not sure how they ride out the storms.

One day we rented a kayak. This is Steve coming to get me. This was a tandem kayak.

Most of the sunsets were amazing. A few days were so-so, but most were like this.

Everyone in the park would start gathering about 30 minutes before the sunset to watch.

This is one of the better photos Kim took. Nice huh?

One day, I got on top of our motorhome to wash the roof. This was our view of the Gulf.

One day, Hobbes wanted to do some reading.

Well, we hope you like this smattering of photos and events....we'll do at least one more Florida blog before we move to another state.

Kim and Steve