life's a beach

The weather FINALLY cooperated, after weeks on end of high winds and small craft advisories.  That meant that Donnie and Kenny got a day on the water, so Steph and I packed a picnic lunch to cross off as many items on her vacation to do list as possible.  First stop?

The bridge at Bahia Honda State Park, is one of the few standing structures
from the original Flagler Railroad completed in 1912.  If you are a history buff
like us, download "Hemmingway's Hurricane" to your Kindle.  You'll love it.

The view of the beach at Bahia Honda, from the bridge.  The Atlantic
Ocean is in the backbround.  So beautiful, right?

Love the history of this bridge.  I saw a spotted
eagle ray jump twice as I was looking down. Very cool.

Time for our pic-a-nic!  We had pbj's with mango jelly- yum!
There's a great view of the bridge in the background.
Suzie Q-L, I thought of you today and wished you were here :)

Umm...new meaning to beached whales in their very own blow up beach chairs!

We then drove to the other end of Bahia Honda State Park and visited
Sugarbush Beach, our second beach of the day.  I'd never been there before.

Another beautiful beach...

We took a break from the sun for a bit, and went to Big Pine Key in
search of the little key deer- found some!

I nearly hit this fella when he darted across the road.  It's not easy being green.

Next stop, the Blue Hole in search of alligators.  Found a big turtle...

Found a crabby in his hole...

Found a different type of turtle...

Found the 'gator, too!

Our third beach of the day, Sombrero Beach.  It was wonderful; I napped :)

After we were 'well done', I took Steph to the neighborhood to meet
all the friends and relatives on Angler.  I showed her around my sister-in-
law's house and all of her beautiful plants...her pineapple is growing :)

Her banana tree is looking good, too :)  I'd love to take a stalk of green
bananas with us to the Bahamas!

Stephanie loved Diane's orchids.  She couldn't get over how they
attached themselves to the tree trunks. They are so pretty.

The weary fisherman finally returned...with only four mangrove snapper,
all of which Kenny caught.  Donnie worked on his tan a little more :/

Pelicans are such beggars...they always know
when somebody is cleaning fish.

He was begging too, but the pelican beat him to it everytime.

Before getting cleaned up for dinner, Cap'n gave
Stephanie her first snorkeling lesson around the docks.

You have no idea how many times I counted to three
to get her to jump off the dock with her fins on, lol!

Cap'n is giving some pointers on how to clear your snorkel...

Away they went!  Tomorrow we're sailing to the reef :)

But tonight, we're having a pizza party and movie night at Ken & Lucille's
beautiful home.  Lucille's friends, Mary Ann and Gene, and Kenny &
Fran joined in on the fun, too.  Fran's not going to miss out on an
opportunity for a 'pie' :)  We watched Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close.

We called it a night soon after we got back to the boat.  Tomorrow we want to get an early start by heading to Big Pine Key for the Flea Market.  We have some items left on our list before we leave for the Bahamas.  The plan is to be off dock by no later that 11:00am for a day of sailing, snorkeling, and dinner at Burdine's.  Looks to be another gorgeous day in paradise :)  G'nite y'all!