Getting Settled in Florida: November 21 2014
Now
it’s time to get clean. The salt washed
off the boat, our clothes washed and us scrubbed. There were no showers underway because a hose
let go and our fresh water drained away - all 190 gallons. Drat! No big deal for a two day hop and
Chris is hot on the trail of replacement parts. Plus, the weather is
wonderful - sunny and high 60 degrees. Unbelievably, it should be in the
70s soon. Yippee! Glad to have the New England weather in the rear view
mirror. Speaking of weather – we cannot believe the news story about the
several feet of snow dumped on Buffalo?! Holy cow - it paralyzed them, to
say the least.
We
have eased into doing boat projects at the dock - thankfully at a civilized
pace. The water leak was fixed and we have moved onto replacing old
hoses; bedding/towel/kitchen implements inventory; calling local
experts to help eyeball what we think we are noticing on new-to-us systems;
doing a tool/spares list and stow, scrubbing rugs and all is well.
Chris'
parents joined us aboard for a few days over Thanksgiving and Erin created a big
day spread of bone-in, skin-on turkey breast on a bed of homemade stuffing
along with some sides and a non-traditional key lime pie...we are in Florida,
after all. But not all meals were had aboard
since the Kingfish Grill is a two-minute walk from the boat with excellent
burgers and seafood as well as a hot, cheesy spinach dip (http://www.kingfishgrill.com/). Plus, we have learned that great pride is
taken by locals who claim people in Northern Florida are the friendliest in the
state. We wholeheartedly agree and have
met wonderful people everywhere we go.
It
was great to have family with us over the holiday and the boat handled guests
perfectly. Also, we did a bit of
touristy stuff like visiting the Lightener Museum (http://www.lightnermuseum.org/). Lightener
was a collector of collections which makes the museum a bit on the
quirky side. Fran, my Mother-in-law, and I hooted at a
funny hook rug hung discretely in an alcove.
The rug had a catchy little ditty describing the stereotypical in-law
relationship…thankfully, it is not my in-law relationship. “Inlaws are rodents in human guise. Who eat me out of cakes and pies. Oer hill & vale & river &
ruts. They gather for dinner. I hate their guts.”
The hooked rug was created by Mercedes and James Hutchinson;
James created the copy, Mercedes created the illustration and craftsmen
were commissioned to make them.
Off
went Chris’ parents back to Boston while we stayed a bit longer in Florida. With just a few more days before we return to
Boston for the Holidays…plus another day with the rental car…we
ventured beyond St Augustine for some Florida exploration. Our destination was Bulow Creek State Park,
approximately 45 minutes south of the marina (http://www.floridastateparks.org/bulowcreek/). The enormous live oak forest was stunning;
ancient oaks grown craggy and full of character over decades of life with
Spanish moss draped like Christmas tree tinsel.
The majestic master of this forest is the Fairchild Oak – more than four
hundred years old – oh, the things this oak must have seen; from wilderness
cleared for European settlement (Spanish, English and French) to the
establishment of missions by the Catholic Church to marauding pirates to the
Semilole Wars to the wilderness taking back the plantation which is now in
ruins. The ruins are spooky and silent
in an area seemingly unable to prosper.
However, prosper it did as a cotton, sugar cane, rice and indigo
plantation until it was swept away in the Second Seminole War of 1836.
We
rounded out our exploration with a visit to Flagler Beach. Hey - this is what the picture post cards
show of Florida – complete with sand and waves, surfers and boardwalks. The drive back to the marina had us spotting
many burger shacks for return visits. It
is fun to explore northern Florida.