I woke with a start. What was I hearing? Oh yeah, rain. At 4:34 AM we experienced ten minutes of very heavy rain. Apparently I was the only one to hear it. I went back to sleep waiting for the “Punky” alarm to get me up. Sure enough, 6:30 AM on the dot, a wet nose was nudging up under my hand for her ear scratch.
It was quite nice when we got up, partly sunny and about 75 degrees. With breakfast out of the way Tina and I decided what we wanted to do for the day. Since the wind was down we took several walks with the kids, did a few chores then headed out to “Blowing Rocks Preserve” on Jupiter Island. (http://sofia.usgs.gov/virtual_tour/blowingrocks/index.html)Getting to the preserve, we parked, paid our entrance fee and started up the trail through the White Mangroves and Myrtle Oaks. As we got closer to the beach the dune rose up in a crest parallel to the shoreline. A dune trail led off to the left and a wooden stairway and viewing stand went up over the dune with stairs leading down to the beach.
We went up and over the dune and down to the beach. The wind was blowing in from the Atlantic pushing huge waves before it. Between the mountains of white foam the sea was a deep emerald green – really beautiful.
We got there at a good time. The waves were crashing into the face of the Anastasia limestone rocks sending geysers of water twenty feet in the air. Anastasia limestone is found along the coast from St. Augustine south to near Boca Raton, but most of it is either underground or underwater. We spent a couple of hours taking photos, looking for shells and watching the waves roll in.When we got a ways down the beach we went up over the dune at another set of stairs and followed the dune trail back to where we started. One of the information signs noted that the quarter-mile of the beach that isn't rocky is known for turtle nests. An average of 500 nests are dug here each year by loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks. We’re planning to go to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in a couple of days.
We drove the short distance back to the RV Park for lunch and to take the kids out for a walk. Later in the afternoon, Tina suggested we go for a bike ride so we got the bikes out, pumped up the tires and headed for A1A, the coast road which parallels the beach. E made a couple of stops to watch the surfers and also a “Kite” surfer setting up to go out. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the small camera. Oh well, better luck next time.Since this was the first bike ride for both of us on our new bikes we turned around just before the Jupiter Lighthouse, crossed the road and returned back to the coach – total ride length about eight miles. When we got back we took a couple of documentary photos then went in to prepare for dinner. A nice first ride of our trip!
After dinner we watched the news, played some more cribbage (I’m still four games down), and relaxed until bed time. It’s a rough life, but somebody’s got to do it – heheheh!! To see all our photos, click on:
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