Okay, so perhaps I was a bit hard on Florida. I think our initial reaction to coming back to the States was more a reaction to the excesses of American culture than Florida itself. Florida just seems to have a very high density of American culture. We certainly discovered some beautiful and interesting places there as we made our way north up the ICW.
One of three notable anchorages in Florida was in Titusville. We only stayed there for one night but we were able to make a quick trip to shore to check out "Space View Park". The park, which overlooks the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, was a popular spot to view the shuttle launches before the space program was cut. The town resonated with an air of boom-town-gone-bust, and was a bit depressing. But, Scott had fun sharing his passion for space travel with the girls.
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"And so
girls, the typical liquid propellant used for rocket fuel has a
density similar to water, approximately 0.7-1.4g/cm³ (except liquid hydrogen which
has a much lower density), while requiring only relatively modest pressure to
prevent vaporization."
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| Chillin' (literally) with JFK |
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| Neil Armstrong has big hands to fill |
Then it was on to visit our nation's oldest city, St. Augustine. We spent two nights there on a mooring at the town marina. This gave us great access to the city via their "dink dock" (yes, cruisers affectionately refer to their dinghys as "dinks").
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| Our dinghy was not allowed to park here |
We had a lot of fun exploring the streets, museums, art galleries, and
El Galeon, a replica of a Spanish Galleon that was visiting St. Augustine. These massive ships roamed the seas between the 16th and 18th centuries, transporting goods between America and Europe.
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| El Galeon |
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| El Snowy egret |
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| Discussing the trade routes |
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| I'll bet they never lost their dinghy |
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| Typical provision list. Only 400 strings of garlic?! |
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| Country mice |
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| Riley ponders a painting |
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| Fountain at Flagler College |
Our final stop in Florida was Jacksonville. We anchored in a beautiful marsh right near Kingsley Plantation National Park.
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| Kiawah at Kingsley Plantation |
I'll let Riley tell you about the plantation in her blog. It was the first time either of the girls had such an intimate view of slavery. It was a very powerful experience for all of us.
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| The faces of slavery at Kingsley Plantation |
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Same tree. Different times.
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Hello, Frallards!
ReplyDeleteI envy your run up thru the ICW. As a chicken to adventure into the open water, I like the idea of a houseboat cruising south and north on a waterway with boundaries. This notion reminds me of a bad drunk friend of mine who described his driving technique as "gravel to gravel." This technique applied to the ICW seems to me would be a much less stressful way to navigate. No GPS required....
May safety accompany you on your run as your educational and fun adventure continues. Again, good onya. Check your email occasionally, too, OK?
Love and a hoorah from the McCormicks. Oh, yeah, ha-ha, you missed another snowfall this morning!!