Collage of Beautiful Beaches

Alligators in Shark Valley

It’s been a while since we caught up our blog. We had a quiet and lovely holiday season – the first we spent in our RV and the first we spent without our family near by.  We missed our loved ones but kept in touch by texting and phone calls.

We had a wonderful time at Stephen Foster State Park and Cultural Center.  It’s a really pretty park with great sites and the added pleasure of being the site of the Festival of Lights.  At night we walked through the park’s light show, enjoyed the free hot chocolate and popcorn, the craft displays and the friendly crowds.  We went to a small concert of hammered dulcimer and guitar and took in the history and culture of the Suwannee River Valley featuring the songs of Stephen Foster.  The carillon (bell tower) played his songs and we saw many of the pianos he composed and played on.   We have plans to return to this park.

Carillon at Stephen Foster Park

We spent some time at the Starke/Gainsville KOA and then at the Three Flags RV Resort in Wildwood.  Then we arrived at another great park – Wickham County Park in Melbourne.  This park hosted us for our holiday celebrations.  Wickham also had a spectacular light show which we drove through on Christmas Eve.  It was fun to see alligators incorporated into the more traditional holiday images.  We spent a really nice Christmas Day on St. Patrick’s Beach.  I had prepared most of our holiday dinner ahead of time so we both relaxed and enjoyed the sun and waves.

On December 27^th, we drove to Mims and stayed at the Seasons in the Sun RV Park.  There we celebrated Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve.  It was sweet to see the menorah lights in our new home and of course, we followed the Lytle tradition of eating fondue at midnight on New Year’s Eve.  We traveled to Long Point Park in Melbourne Beach on the first day of the year.

Then came the highlight of our Florida adventure – seeing Everglades National Park.  Our visit was made even sweeter by sharing it with our sister-in-law Theresa.  She took us to Shark Valley where we rode a tram and saw many more alligators than I ever thought I would see and saw them very close up!  We also happened to be there on a day when the wading birds came out in full force.  The birds are so beautiful; they really enhanced our visit.  We saw anhingas, storks, herons, egrets, ibis and my favorite roseate spoonbills.  The River of Grass was amazing to see and learn about.

Wading birds in Everglades

Big guy on path

Theresa also took us to Ft. Lauderdale for the Jazz Brunch along the River Walk.  It was great to be with her, have her over for lunch in our RV and spend time at her house viewing her art work and seeing Skippy the tortoise.  Definitely this was a special time for us.

I have never been a big fan of Florida.  When I was very young, living in northern New Jersey, my grandfather went down to Miami to be part of the construction boom.  My grandmother and their youngest son followed him down there and for a few summers my family drove down to visit.  I loved the car rides – my two brothers and me playing in the big back seat (no seat belts).  Curling up on the floor to sleep, with my poor mother having to share the space with us while Dad and Uncle Eddy shared the driving.  But then we arrived in Miami.  I vividly remember one arrival late at night.  As I got out of the car a giant palmetto bug flew in my face.  I had barely stopped sobbing when I was put into a bed above which a large spider stared at me all night.  That was the trip that my Uncle Nick got bit by a scorpion and Aunt Mena found a snake in the flowers next to the house.  I was in the kitchen while my grandmother was telling my mother how when she first moved into the house she had snakes in the house, lizards and frogs everywhere and was loosing her mind trying to eliminate the giant ants invading her sacrosanct kitchen (large red ants crawled in and around the sugar bowl as she spoke.)  All our other trips to Florida were in the summer months.  I grew to hate Florida as a whole and dreaded the bugs and oppressive humidity and heat any time we planned a trip there.

BUT- now I see the beauty and blessing of Florida!  We have been traveling around this beautiful state for weeks and I love it!  Of course, the difference is that it is winter.  The weather has been amazing – warm with cool breezes, mostly dry with limited humidity.   No (not even one) bug flying in my face or crawling near me.  And then there are the beaches…

We got to Sugar Loaf RV Resort on the Florida Keys on January 11^th.  I have always wanted to see the keys and they are beautiful!  The color of the water was a unique seafoam green that sparkled in the bright light.  We spent one wonderful day on Key West and sat on the beach at Zachary Taylor State Park.  The next day we enjoyed Bahia Honda Beach and on the third day we sat on the beach that was part of our RV park on Sugar Loaf Key.

Bahia Honda Beach in the Keys

January 13^th was our one year anniversary of living in our RV so we went to the pub in our RV park and listened to live music to celebrate.  All of my anticipation and excitement about the keys was satisfied – we were only there four nights (it was hard to get reservations during the peak season but also it was pretty expensive there) and every minute we were there was perfect.

Celebrating 1 Year in RV

When we were at Markham State Park, we drove to Ft. Lauderdale beach, had lunch at Boccatini’s right on the beach and then sat on the pretty sandy shore watching the waves, enjoying the perfect weather and walking along the rippling water.

Landing in Punta Gorda, we immediately planned a trip to Venice Beach on the Gulf of Mexico– another lovely day.  And then we were on another beautiful beach – Lover’s Key State Park.  We were amazed with the beauty of this long stretch of beach.  We know we are lucky to have the opportunities we have to enjoy this.  Each beach is different and often I can tell you which side of the world I am sitting on by the crashing of the waves.  The smaller, more frequent waves on the Gulf bring in a beachful of pretty shells.  I always promise myself that I’ll just look at those shells – that I don’t need to take any home to appreciate them.  But then a really perfect one appears by my feet – I think the ocean rolled it there for me to take – a present from the sea.  How can I say no?  So one more shell or rock finds its way to me.  When we left our home in Tucson I carefully used my many, many shells to decorate around the cacti.  Now I have one small box in the RV.  That’s it – so my collecting is limited.  But what if the next shell is the prettiest of all?  That’s another difference between the beaches on the east and west coast – wandering through all those beaches on the west coast, I mostly found smooth, multi-colored rocks that I also couldn’t just leave on the shore.

It’s not by accident that we are on these beaches.  Doug plans our travels with destinations and things to do in mind.  We both love a peaceful day of wave watching and sand strolling.  We usually read but even though I always need something to do when I sit down any place else, I am perfectly content to just sit on a beach.

Lover’s Key on Gulf Coast

We often plan the day around a leisurely picnic lunch eaten while sitting in our folding chairs.  That day at Lover’s Key was a little more difficult – we both had pieces of our Subway sandwiches stolen by very aggressive birds.  The terns dive-bombed us while the loud seagull tried to distract us.  Doug lost a big chunk of his veggie delite and I lost the last yummy bite of my tuna.  The birds seemed to be okay with the jalapenos.

Now we are at Quail Run RV park in Wesley Chapel.  This is a large resort with nicely landscaped plots, many of which look like permanent or seasonal sites.  We are looking forward to doing some sight-seeing around the Tampa area.  Just more good times in one of my now favorite states – Florida.