Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Another beautiful day.  Mike planned on watching a basketball game this afternoon.  So I thought I’d go see a movie.  Ended up taping the basketball game and we both went to see “An Act of Valor” about Navy SEALS.  Definitely worth going to see.  85 today.

Jupiter Light

Beautiful water in the channel today.

My kind of boat--floating tiki bar!

Yacht waiting for the draw bridge.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  After breakfast this morning we headed over to the stadium to get tickets for a baseball game—the 2011 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals to be exact.  By an amazing stroke of luck we were actually able to get tickets!  We’re going to a game on Wednesday.  They play the NY Mets.  Should be a good game.  After securing our tickets we headed over to the Sugar Cane Bar and Grill.  A woman told us about this place last night while we were having drinks at Jetty’s.  There’s a guy playing the piano and singing Irish songs.  Since it’s St. Patty’s day and we have on our green, we went in search of this place.  It’s part of the Jupiter Condominium complex and was pretty easy to find.  We got a table at the outside bar by the pool, ordered lunch and people watched.  A seemingly great community.  Everyone knew everyone. This piano-playing guy was drawing a rather large crowd of people all decked out in green.  Some pretty outlandish outfits were on display.  And boy were they drinking!  A fun group.  We listened to him for an hour or so and then went back home.  Lunch, it turns out, was very good.  A beautiful day in the mid-80s.  

 Cacti are blooming all over the park.

Everglades National Park to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Left the Everglades (reluctantly) this morning at 10:00.  Another great stay here.  I drove for the first time since December.  Taking the Florida’s Turnpike, drove past greater Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. Stopped at the West Palm Beach service area for lunch and Mike took over driving.  Arrived in Jonathan Dickinson State Park and were set up by 2:30.  We’re directly across Hwy. 1 from Burt Reynolds’ place.  Headed out to our favorite restaurant for dinner, but it’s closed and has been bought out by Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  OMG!  Went next door to Jetty’s and had an appetizer and drinks.  Had some great fun with some people from New Jersey at the table next to us.  Back home to our site and watched TV.  I’d rather be in the Everglades.  At least Jupiter has a lot of open areas dedicated to wildlife preservation.  They haven’t built high-rises or shopping strips on every space available.

Our site at Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Thu, 3/15/12:
Everglades National Park:  Our last full day in the Everglades.  Weather has been almost perfect—warm days and crisp, cool nights.  A couple pulled in yesterday afternoon in a cab over with a semi chassis pulling a huge, triple-axle cargo trailer.  This cargo trailer has an elevator in it.  Their two-seater convertible was on the bottom and their boat was in the upper compartment.  Not sure what else they had in there.  Pretty impressive though.  I can just imagine the path of destruction I would leave pulling that rig.  Around noon we decided to go get some lunch and then go for an airboat ride.  There’s a little grill just outside the park with picnic tables.  No inside seating to speak of.  We ordered sandwiches and ate them in the truck, since it was starting to rain—with thunder rumbling off in the distance.  So we ate our sandwiches and nixed the airboat ride.  Back to the park and inquired about the Florida panthers.  We see the signs for them around our campground.  They have seen them crossing the road in our vicinity in the wee hours of the morning.  Wish we could see one.  We topped off the water tank for the last time and put the hose away.  Played Aggravation for a while.  Mike actually won for a change.  Tomorrow we leave for Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter, FL.  

View out our back window

An example of the challenges of an off-trail hike in the Everglades.

Wed, 3/14/12
Everglades National Park:  Started out clear and sunny this morning.  But clouded up by the time we showered and had breakfast.  Topped off the water tank and sat outside looking at the clouds moving in.  But we decided to get the bikes out and go exploring.  We took a back road out of the campground which was really bumpy but came out on the road out to the old Nike missile base.  This is a nice bike route because there’s very little traffic on this road.  Rode down to the missile base, then turned around.  But not before it started raining—well, sprinkling anyway.  Saw a couple of gators on our ride.  Got back and still pretty cloudy, so we decided to head in to do the laundry. Of course as we drove in there it cleared off nicely.  Got that done, picked up a couple of burgers, stopped at the produce stand and bought some more tomatoes, and then headed back.  Glad to get back to the peace and quiet.  Couldn’t wait to get away from the people and the traffic.  And the sky had cleared beautifully.  85 today and mixed sun and clouds.

Cross section of what is under all that saw grass.  These "ditches" were dug--I guess for drainage.   Shows what the off-trail hiker could encounter.  These "ditches" harbor all kinds of wildlife.

Even gators!

This gator was in a little slough.

A crocodile--Flamingo 

Tue, 3/13/12
Everglades National Park:  Not much wind this morning so we thought we take the bikes out, but by the time we had our showers and topped off the water tank the wind was back.  So we relaxed outside enjoying this peaceful place.  After lunch we drove down to Pa-hay-okee and then on down to Mahogany hammock to see if the owl chicks were about.  Didn’t see the chicks today.  A beautiful afternoon though.  Pa-hay-okee is on the shark river slough.  Gives one an idea of what the Everglades are all about—although it’s just a shadow of what it used to be, what with all the “water management” going on. We heated up left-overs for dinner.  82 today.

Mon, 3/12/12
Everglades National Park:  Pretty cloudy this morning.  I took care of the cleaning.  After lunch we headed out to get a paper and pick up some produce.  There’s a large produce stand just a few miles outside the park.  It’s called “Howard is Here”—weird name, but a lot of their produce comes fresh right out of their fields.  We picked up some raw peanuts, some tomatoes, sweet corn, and some pickled vegetables that Mike likes.  On the way back we stopped at the Anhinga Trail which was really crowded with people—mostly Europeans.  Decided to skip that and just come on back.  Relaxed outside for a while.  I just finished a book by Mark Twain, “Roughing It” about his travels across country on an Overland stage back in the 1860s.  Bought it when we were in Virginia City.  I chuckled all the way through it. Mike grilled up some steaks for dinner.  I cooked up the sweet corn along with some tiny potatoes I bought a while back.  81 today. 

Milk thistle in bloom