Sonya's Blog - Day 200 - Whaaat!! 200 Days!!!

Sonya’s Blog - Day 200 - January 8th - Whaaaaat!!! 200 Days!!!

200 days! It is hard to believe we have been on the road that long, traveling around and checking out the sights. It’s been a little bit crazy.

We were going to see alligators today in the Florida Everglades, but it ended up being a bit cooler. Alligators are most active when it is between 25 and 27 degrees C and we were not going to reach that today. If the temperatures don’t warm up enough then they just stay in their burrows to stay warm. Tomorrow is going to be sunny and warmer, so we will go on our Everglades tour then.

We decided to go and see some other sights instead. First we went to The Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island to check it out. It was really neat. It contains the largest Anastasia limestone outcropping on the US East Coast. This is what Coquina looks like in it’s natural state. The Spanish mined and built with Coquina in St. Augustine, the fort is built with it and many of the houses. They do not use it anymore as it is a natural resource.

We saw a few of the rocks when we walked the beach the other day, but this is a whole shelf of them. The waves come up and under the rocks and then they shoot up in the air. After a storm, or during extreme high tides, the waves can crash against the rocks and the plumes will shoot 50 feet into the air. We didn’t get to see that, but we saw some spectacular waves hit the rocks. The sea was quite rough today and some big waves hit the rocks. Natasha got splashed pretty good.

This preserve has helped to be a safe haven for the many sea turtles (green, loggerhead and leatherback )that nest along it’s shore. They have taken out introduced plant life and returned the area to native plants and trees. It was a really nice area and a beautiful beach.

We then walked along the Sand Dune trail. This used to be the old A1A highway and was paved, but is now been returned to its natural state. It was not even a mile long, so it didn't take us long to stroll along it:

We then hopped in the truck and headed to Palm Beach. We have a book that is 1000 places to see before you die and it recommended that we check out Flagler’s hotel in Palm Beach, called The Breakers. Once we found it, we found parking and went to walk around the grounds. It was very nice and very posh. Blake looked up the price of rooms and the crappy rooms (partial ocean view) are $800 per night and the suites go for $5500 - out of our price range. So we just walked around and checked it out. We had Kizmet with us, but nobody said we couldn’t. We walked down Pine Lane, which was the original entrance to the hotel. It was where all the horse and buggy’s and hand pulled carts would go along to bring the fancy guests to the hotel. There was a hybrid parrot introduced along this lane years ago and the species was able to breed and thrive along this corridor. They are active in the morning and at dusk, so we didn’t get to see any.

We then walked around the grounds and along the seawall. It is a very nice hotel. We walked out on the beach and the water was just spectacular. Just blue, blue and the sand was really nice. Wow, what a location. We had fun goofing around on the beach and letting Kizmet walk around. We then walked up the other side of the hotel and they had a small farmer’s market going on for the residents that live in the area. We bought a few things because the prices were really good (which was surprising given how expensive the hotel is). We then popped inside the hotel to see the front lobby and use their facilities before we went on our way.

We decided to head back to camp so that we wouldn’t get stuck in traffic when rush hour started. We were an hour away, so we still had a bit of a drive ahead of us.

We had bought some Dover Sole filets for supper and the guy recommended that we pan fry them. Wow, were they ever good. We will have to get some more of that fish.

We played Forbidden Island after supper. This is a team game. You have to work together to collect all the treasure and get off the Island before it sinks. We usually make it off the Island, so this time we started our water level at a higher leve. Well we didn’t make it off the Island this time, it sank before we could collect all four treasure pieces. We made a tactical error and that did us in. Ah well, that’s the way it goes.

Sonya