St. Joe's Campsite and Beach by Day

Hispid Cotton Rat. indigenous to St Joesph's Peninsula and the area.  Just fun to watch, more like large mice than what one thinks of rats.  I sat and had my morning cup of tea while watching their antics.  They like to chase each other around.

The Boy on his perch.  The front passenger seat actually swivels right around so that it faces the back when you are stationary.  He's probably on his mobile texting or catching up.

We used his phone for GPS, this is something I never use, give me a good old Map.  Not to say GPS is not wonderful especially in finding an absolute address.  But I like to envision the bigger picture, not turn right here, turn left there.  I like to know what routes, and have a more distant picture in my mind.

The boy and I are in sun protective hats.  Mine was far better for that.

The walkways across the dunes to the beach.

Some of the flora.

Rob on the beach at St Joe's.

I took an early morning walk on the beach, and decided I wanted to walk to the point, where the Gulf meets the Bay, in other words the end of the peninsula.  Well I kept walking and walking and walked for over an hour, every time I saw in the distance what I thought was the last set of dunes, I would round the corner and in the distance was another goal, it just kept going on and on and in the end I gave up.

It made me think of intrepid explorers who were hoping to reach their destination after just one more horizon.

We were sorry to leave.

Christy

Sunday Brunch

I seem to have had a busy weekend.  Sunday I was invited to a Ladies Brunch at a friend's house.

I don't seem to have taken photos of the savoury part of the brunch, but it was all delicious.

All the lovely table settings.

Christy

Tilly Mint's Tea Room, Souderton

A dear friend and I got together for Afternoon Tea on Saturday.  I mentioned Tilly Mint's Tea Room and that is where we headed off too.

You are made very welcome right from the beginning, their variety of tea to drink is spectacular, definitely a tea lovers delight with all the different varieties they have.  Served in Saddler Tea Pots of which she has a huge collection and was part of the fun to see what was on each teapot.

The theme of course was Blue in tribute to George, the new baby, third in line to be King.

Joni and I go back a long way to our single days, so have many wonderful shared memories, and what I have forgotten she remembers.  These times are special and must be archived in ones happy memories of friendship, and all that that means.

Christy

P.S.  Naughty Tuppy has twice been caught sitting on my dining room table, but not just sitting on my dining room table, sitting on top of my Florida hat which has been left on the table since coming back from our trip.  I even moved it and she went up to that end of the table sat on it and flattened it.  What is it with cats? I see I need to put it away as I should have done in the first place.

St. Joseph's Peninsula at Night

If you have ever camped you know that getting a nice pitch is part of the whole experience.  All our campsites had to be reserved ahead of time through Reserve America, so you take your chances.  Although now with the Internet you can see plan layouts and you can on quite a few see a photo of the actual site, still this can be misleading.  But here on St Joseph's we said Wow!  we think we have one of the best sites on the camp.  All we had to do was walk across the road, and onto the wooden walkways over the dunes to the beach.

These are the wooden walkways, to preserve the dune and stop people from walking all over the dunes.

After setting up camp which in the VW Camper is a cinch, one of the things we did love about it.  We were eager to walk to the beach, which is on the Gulf.  St Joe's is a peninsula with the bay one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other.

You can only describe the sand here as the difference between granulated sugar and powdered sugar, it is that fine, I don't think I've ever trodden on sand so fine.  Just gorgeous.

I always like the West coast facing for the Seaside.  Living on the Eastern seaboard we only ever see the sun rise over the ocean and set over the bays, but Florida gets the best of both worlds, rising and setting sun, having both an East and West coast.  But my favourite is to see the sun set over the ocean, as we do here.

I think I read that St Joe's has some of the highest Dunes in the country.

Rob trying to catch the sound of the surf.  

These are Rob's night time photos.  It seems that he was woken by the Noseeums, which is No See Them, bugs that can actually get through the screen mesh and bite you and Rob being on the top bunk where all the mesh screens were was being eaten alive, so could not sleep, went out and took these wonderful night time photos.  I hope you can see them clearly, they show up well on the iPad.

A car went by just as he took this photo and lit up the trees.  The night time sky is wonderful, no light pollution hardly, what glory.

Isaiah 40:26

"Raise your eyes high up and see.  who has created these things?  It is the One who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name.  due to the abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power, not one of them is missing.

 

This was early in our trip but did turn out to be our favourite camp site location, I would go back here for a longer stay in a heart beat.

Christy

Wakulla Springs The Lodge

This is the Lodge at Wakulla Springs, you can read about some of the history here

Built in 1937 by financier Edward Ball, I love the Art Deco Spanish Style architecture, it seems he fell in love with the Springs here and who wouldn't.  One's own private playground.  How nice it is that is was bought by the State and is now open to the public to enjoy.

With my Boy.  I must say he is great company and a joy to be with. Of course that's a mum saying that, but he is.  Two weeks together, no AC while travelling and just me and my boy, that will test any relationship, and our's stood the test, I will not say we did not have our moments, few and far between though.

Looking up to the back of the Lodge.

I think there is a Spanish/Moorish influence going on here.

The painted ceilings here are a combination of European folk art, intricate Arabic scroll work and Native American influences.  The wood is heart cypress, that has been immersed 50 years or longer in water and is impervious to rot, which can be a big problem in Florida.

This is meant to be the world's longest known marble bar, at 70 feet 3 inches long.  It was all cut to have a repeating matching grain pattern.

After our boat ride we decided to take a look in at the little bar restaurant and they had pulled pork on the menu at a very reasonable price, so after seeing Rob's sandwich, I was going to abstain, I decided to get one.  They were very good.

 
It seems that you can rent these facilities and stay at the hotel for weddings etc.

Love these art Deco touches on the staircase.

I rather liked the bathroom, with very short stall walls.  What about those sinks and the wall?

Christy

P.S.  You may have noticed that I have been changing my banner to correlate with my posts, where I can.