February 5 - Northern Florida

 We spent January 21 - 31 at De Soto Park south of St. Petersburg, located near the entrance to Tampa Bay, on 6 keys or islands that are connected by bridges. It has 7 miles of bike paths, lots of beaches, birds and wildlife, and great campsites.

 Some of the things we did while we were camped there are: ride our bikes all over the park, walked out on 2 fishing piers, walked on the beaches, explored the fort, and took wildlife walks where we found a mother Great Horned Owl on a nest and two baby owls hatched while we camped here.

One day we took a small passenger ferry from our park to Egmont Key State Park that has ruins of an old Fort built for the Spanish American War. The only things remaining are the gun batteries from the fort, lots of red brick roads and sidewalks and a hurricane battered lighthouse. One cool thing was lots of Burrowing Gopher Tortoises on the island.

We then visited some friends we met during our European river cruise, Jackie and Paul, in Palmetto and toured the area, ate lunch and got caught up. Another day we drove north to Honeymoon Island State Park and took several nature trails. We have never seen so many Ospreys in one place.

Mark’s cousin Mike and his wife Lea from Virginia were snowbirding in the area so it was very nice to catch up with them again. We met in Tarpon Springs and ate at a Greek Restaurant on the river and then visited and learned about all sponge business and visited many stores. The Greek immigrants settled in the area in1876 and carried their traditions of sponge gathering, grading and selling with them to Tarpon Springs. It is world famous for the quality and quantity of sponges from the Gulf of Mexico.

We visited the Sunken Gardens in St Petersburg. These gardens started in 1935 in an old sink-hole as a road side attraction. It has lots of tropical and subtropical plants growing along paved paths. The garden suffered over times and was rejuvenated when it turned into city park in the 1990s. It was very relaxing and beautiful.

On Sunday the 27th it was very rainy and cold so we decided to go to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Dali’s artwork is amazing and beautiful but also strange. It would have been hard to see what Dali was trying to do and to understand the pieces but the museum has audio tour headsets that fill in the details. The building itself is also a stunning in tribute to Dali. Afterward, in keeping with the Spanish theme, we found a Spanish restaurant and enjoyed tapas for brunch.

Toreador, a fantastical masterpiece of double imagery and visual illusion. Look for the matador  (nose and eyes)b in the center of the picture above the green tie.

On the 31st we left DeSoto and headed north to Manatee Springs State Park for two nights. The park is very lovey. Due to all the rain, the area around the spring and flow to the Suwannee River was flooded, tannin in the water made it very dark, and the Bald Cypress trees made the whole scene eerie and beautiful. We looked a lot but never saw any manatees this time but Mark was able to get the kayak out and take two trips around the water and through the cypress.

On February 2 we heading north and west and are staying at Gulf Islands National Seashore across the bay from Pensacola. We have been very worried with the shutdown that we would not be able to camp here but luck was with us and we have our spot. They have many miles of beach here that is the whitest sand we have seen on the trip.

We spent the first day biking around the park and visiting Fort Pickens which was built in 1834 and was used until 1947. Most of it is broken down but still interesting to see the brickwork and moats used for protection. 

We also have daily, or hourly fly-overs by jet trainers and f-18 fighters. It took us a long time to figure it out, but when we got here we distinctly heard taps playing … turns out the Coast Guard Station - Pensacola is right across the bay from here and sounds travel very well over water. Some mornings we hear Revelry and The National Anthem… never had this at a campground before …

On Monday we visited the National Naval Aviation Museum that is one of the must-sees in this part of Florida. They have meticulously restored navy airplanes from the first world war through the present. They have the planes on the floor and suspended overhead to fit all the aircraft in the two buildings, including four Blue Angles jets in formation. We also took a trolley tour out to the flight line to see other aircraft outside and saw several trainers take off and land.

We finished the day by visiting the lovely Pensacola Lighthouse which we can also see from our campground.