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January 25th 2011: Bicycle ride in Seaside area

Details: Category: Danielson Walker Florida Trip 2012; Published on Thursday, 26 January 2012 16:25; Hits: 0

Wednesday has all the makings of a beautiful day. A bit of fog in the morning burned off quickly to bright sunshine. It is probably in the mid 70's for the day but probably about a 7 mph breeze. We shopped around for bicycle rentals and found them from $15 per day to $35 per day. We settled with the store that had the $15 rentals in Seagrove and negotiated them down to $10.

We had a lovely ride through Seagrove, Seaside and Watercolor, exploring all of the back streets and residential areas. An occasional peek at the beach but once you see a beautiful white sand beach with turquoise water and mild waves rolling in, they all start to look alike and you have set a new expectation for beach conditions. Many people were out on the beaches today and many were actually swimming.

We returned home for about an hour or so and then headed out to The Crab Trap to catch what we thought would be a great sunset. Unfortunately, the cloud cover moved into the horizon and cut off the sunset. So we just went inside and had dinner. All of us had Swordfish topped with crab. It was excellent.

Upon returning home we put in a movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", which is set in Savannah. We thought it might give us an idea of what to expect when we get there on Sunday. Strange movie and just a few of the Savannah sites.

Tomorrow is forecast for rain but we will see what evolves. With only 3 days left in Miramar, we will explore to see if we missed anything before we go. Also we will probably catch a movie at the theatres.

Januar23rd and 24th: Quiet Days

Details: Category: Danielson Walker Florida Trip 2012; Published on Thursday, 26 January 2012 15:11; Hits: 0

Monday and Tuesday were overcast days in Miramar so we took advantage of the weather to laundry, clean, read, shop and a bit of cooking. Pretty quiet days around here.

Tuesday evening our landlord Dennis dropped by and invited us to come and see his home, which is the Penthouse above us on the 4th floor. It is spectacular with a gigantic patio that overlooks the ocean. Quite a place. We had a lovely visit with he and wife Maria. He also took us over to a Penthouse in another building that is rented and would like us to come back and rent it sometime. It is real tempting but we have a lot more places to see first. However, if anyone is thinking of coming this way, the 4 bedroom, 4 bath Penthouse would be a great way to spend a month here.

Monday night was a beef night but Tuesday we returned to our experimenting with fresh fish preparation and had a Parmesan Crusted Grouper. Great Flavor.

January 22, 2012

Details: Category: Danielson Walker Florida Trip 2012; Published on Monday, 23 January 2012 20:23; Hits: 3

An early start this morning as we are planning on attending Church at the 9 am service. We had a small breakfast at the hotel and then headed for Old Historic St. Augustine. We arrived plenty early so we went to St. George Street and found a little bakery. We all had coffee and shared a fresh Cinnamon Roll at the Bunnery Bakery. It was a busy little place for this early in the morning.

We attended the St. Augustine Basicilla Cathedral which is the oldest Catholic Parish in America, dating back to 1565. The building has been destroyed and rebuilt a couple of times but is a pretty neat old church. Nice services.

After church we moved along to the Old Fort for a tour of the interior. This is the oldest masonry fort in the US. It was extremely well designed and well protected. During several attempts over many years, this Fort never fell to defeat. It only changed ownership as a result of a change of regimes: Spanish, English to US. It was an interesting tour.

We made a brief stop by the Fountain of Youth but determine it probably wouldn't help at this stage so we move on north along the Atlantic Coast. We found theTPC Sawgrass Golf Club and stopped there for lunch on the patio.

After lunch we began the 6 ½ hour trek home, arriving at about 6:45 pm. The end of a nice road trip. It is good to be back "home" again in Miramar Beach and listening to the waves slapping the beach as we listened through our patio door. It is quite warm and also a bit on the foggy side. It looks like we might be closed in with fog and clouds for this week. But still very nice.

January 21, 2012

Details: Category: Danielson Walker Florida Trip 2012; Published on Monday, 23 January 2012 20:22; Hits: 2

We had a great day of travel today. After about a 2.5 hour drive from Anna Maria, with a stop at Starbucks of course, we visited The Villages which is a Sr. Living Developed Community just southeast of Ocala Florida. It is a relatively new development with lots of golf courses, many other activities, trails and great City Squares. We had lunch at Lake Sumner Landing It is a great area, only missing the beaches.

We went from ther to Daytona Beach, past the Daytona Race Track and on to the Beach area on the Atlantic Coast. Interesting thing here is that you can actually drive out on the beach and park near where you will beach for the day and actually tailgate at the beach. Pretty neat.

On to Saint Augustine and never in the world did I ever think I would go to St. Augustine. It is quite an old city but also quite commercialized and full of people, most of them an embarrassment to the US, but I might be biased. I do have a thing against tattoos, piercing, foul language and of course skate boarders. Other than that, there were some well dressed European visitors there also.

The Old Fort interior visits were closed for the day so we walked around the outside perimeter of the 360 year Spanish Fortress.

We had a great dinner on the patio of a waterfront restaurant named "Hooked on Harry's". It was a beautiful evening and the place was packed to the walls and beyond. We walked the streets of Historic Saint Augustine which are all narrow Europe like streets with pavers. Many unique shops and old buildings St. George is the main shopping attraction so of course the ladies had to visit a shop or two.

We will attend mass in the morning at the Oldest Catholic Parish in America which is called the St. Augustine Cathedral, then go to the Old Fort for a visit thereafter and then begin our way home with probably a distraction or two along the way.

We spent a lot of time today talking about how much fun we had at Anna Maria. Thanks to Don and Marcia for their hospitality.

January 19 and 20: A visit to the Engers at Anna Maria Island

Details: Category: Danielson Walker Florida Trip 2012; Published on Monday, 23 January 2012 12:08; Hits: 3

On Anna Maria Island Thursday 1/19, we began the day with a nice long walk along the beach heading north on the island. We ended up at Ginny and Jane E's for a breakfast pastyr treat. We saw the City Pier (100 years old) and drove the length of the 7-mile island. We went to the Starfish Co. in Cortez, the authentic old fishing village, for lunch and a look at the fresh seafood for sale. We watch the birds of the sea entertain us as we lunched. Many photos will show up in todays gallery. Drove through the Bridge Street area in Bradenton Beach (south end of island). Had a great fresh Gulf shrimp dinner at home.

Friday, we had walked to the Manatee Beach Cafe and had breakfast on the beach. Then we rode bicycles all over the north end of the island, seeing Bean Point (and finding shells), having a picnic at Anna Maria city park, a beer at the Rod and Reel pier, and later a free trolley ride to dinner and sunset at the Sandbar restaurant, one of the oldest and most well known restaurants on Anna Maria. Finished off a good day with bad karaoke at Pelican Pete's. However, it was nonetheless entertaining and another great experience of the trip to Anna Maria.