Our first beach plan was to out-do ourselves from our last Florida sandcastle. Although this moat had a smaller diameter, Stephen added buttresses to make it taller and taller.
Ginger gave the castle octopus arm moats and collected shells for suckers.
This beach was at a city park, Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park. We liked this beach because it was not too crowded, however, cook-outs were not allowed.
Our favorite day was the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. (Nancy and Anna visited this farm back in 2002) The farm was huge; we spent hours there. It had not only many alligators, but crocodiles, ghirdals, turtles, and tropical birds.
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| (not a real alligator) |
Some animals were behind glass, and some were surprising close. An employee walked around in this exhibit of lazy alligators.
Our favorite set of small birds, Golden Conures, enjoy lots of frolicking and fun.
Stephen likes the Indian Gharil crocodilians with their long needle like snouts.
We caught alligator feeding time in the lake. They mostly threw pellets, but also carefully teased and dropped a few rats.
Ginger's favorite part of the park was the birds. There was a rookery for White Ibis and Spoonbill.
The indoor section had many snakes and gila monster, Stephen's favorite.
Nearby attractions in town included a lighthouse and a historic church. We also visited St. Augustine in 2009, but only had time to see the old fort.
This trip we had more time to linger at all the tourist traps. Ginger likes the Oldest Wood School House in the US. Nancy remembers it too and says the anchor is tied around to keep it from blowing away in hurricanes.
Our next day trip was to Daytona. We briefly visited the International Speedway. It's one of the tour sites we weren't quite willing to pay for, but it was fun to visit the giftshop so Stephen could dress up and text silly photos to his co-workers.
Also, their hot dog bar was a good place to grab some ketchup packets for our beach cookout.
At Dayona Beach, you get to drive on the sand. This was a lot of fun, especially since it was our coldest beach of the trip. But, we managed a cookout anyway at a nice park just next to the waves.
The second half of our trip, we visited Miami. There was one site we wanted to see on the way- the Kennedy Space Center. After paying a large sum for parking, we found out that going inside is even more pricey, especially if you don't have time to be there all day.
Still, it's a fun and creative place to take photos!
Down the road is the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
In Miami, we visited a house Stephen has wanted to see since he was 7. He noticed the same house in two different movies,
Ace Ventura and
The Money Pit. Stephen didn't get to know the name of the house until years later when we got internet. And now he finally got to visit Villa
Vizcaya.
This is the back side, facing the ocean.
Indoor/outdoor pool (which we couldn't swim in it- too bad, it was the hottest day of the trip)
A manatee was swimming in the ocean under the garden bridge.
And an iguana went for a stroll on the walkway, mostly ignoring the tourists and eventually snacking on the garden. Our host said that iguana are an invasive species in this area.
The huge gardens have a special wheelbarrow ramp up the steps.
South Beach Miami has a walking tour of many excellent Art Noveau buildings. They span several decades and styles. We loved seeing a busy downtown where all the buildings were still short!
That day we visited our third beach. It was our hottest beach day, and we took our time finding a less crowded area. (North of South Beach is recommended.) Just as we settled in, it started to rain! Everyone began packing up, but we jumped in the waves instead. We missed another cookout opportunity, but that's okay. (We were out of ketchup again.)
Goodbye, Florida! See you again in another six years, maybe.
