Monday February 9: Bahia Honda State Park

Guppy's cushion covers are totally finished (100% of the remaining 4 zippers in correctly!!) - time to play for a day or two.

Steve said we had a two day window of opportunity so we headed out to Bahia Honda State Park. This is located a short two hour cruise west (toward Key West) so it makes for a nice trip.

We headed out on the ocean side (rougher than we thought it might be sadly) with Randy and Cindy on I Think I Can behind us.

It was a rolly trip down but just before turning north into the park entrance, dolphins were spotted. One more thing checked off on the list to show their grandkids who were visiting for the week!

It was an ok trip - definitely glad to see the cut in the old bridge (built by Flagler in the early 1900's -  click here for more info) and the entrance to the dock at the park.

I Think I Can was still behind us as we made our way in.

First on the agenda once we were tied up and plugged in was to walk over to the top of the old railroad bridge.

The view back toward the marina is always a good one and the day could not have been a better one!






And of course there had to be a trip to the beach. Randy and Cindy's daughter (Nikki) and son-in-law (Nick) were escaping from the northern reaches of Ontario (actually near Orillia - one of our favorite stops on the Trent) along with their children Mea and Liam. Gigit and Cricket of course were with us as well :-)

Lots of sea grass with the south-east winds but the kids still enjoyed finding shells and playing in the water.

The afternoon for the kids wasn't complete without a kayak ride though.

Liam rode (and helped paddle!) with Steve while Mea rode with her dad Nick.

It was a great day on the water for the kayakers and a great day on the dock for those left behind :-)

The docks at the marina are quite nice and are RIGHT by the beach. Also a plus.

It's a shallow entrance though. We need to enter at half tide or better. Definitely worth it though!

The evening entertainment was provided by the spiders that live in the walkway to the old railroad bridge. They are quite large and the webs are not all that far off of the ground either. Not that I experienced this first hand of course :-)

You can get a sense of the size of the spiders and the height of the webs with Randy reaching up behind one of the webs. Yep - think I can do without seeing these in person.

One of the creepiest scenes from Lord of the Rings involved a giant spider - nightmares are made of this.

Early today I Think I Can headed out. We were stuck until the tide came in a bit. Nick and Nikki needed to drive to Ft. Lauderdale yet today so the earlier start the better!

It wasn't too long before we could leave but the winds were such at we decided to lay the mast down so we could fit under the highway bridge to the bay side.

Good decision for sure. Nice easy ride back :-)

The weather was weird the rest of the day. Rain seemed to come and go a couple of times.

Interesting cloud formations late in the day. Never did have the thunderstorms predicted though. But that was ok by us.

Cricket slept in the front v-berth this week :-)  She loves being under the TV! Randy and Cindy joined her and Gigit as they took us up on our offer to use our front cabin.

Those two dogs are SO cute it's almost makes me want to have a dog on board. But that's not going to happen ..... it's way easier to just enjoy someone else's dog :-)