Time to wrap up our first winter as snowbirds! First, the most frequently asked question: No, we didn’t miss the snow; we really liked wearing shorts almost every day this winter. 🙂 We visited a lot of Florida — east coast, west coast, central, and panhandle. We learned that we really like to be where we can swim outside (in heated pools), walk on the beach, ride our bikes, and kayak. A whole bunch of people like the same things — if you want to RV in Florida during the winter, you need to have a reservation by April/May or it’s nearly impossible to find a place to stay. There are A LOT of snowbirds. So next winter (January, February, March) we will be at the Rock Creek RV Resort in Naples, FL.
As we toured Florida we caught up with some friends and relatives. We saw Joe’s Aunt Audrey, cousin Susan Stiles and her family, and Aunt Louise. We visited Jane’s Aunt Phyllis and our friends Dave and Karen Wheeler and Joe and Sandy Burghardt. We enjoyed all of the visits; it was a lot of fun to talk to people we hadn’t seen in a while.
I didn’t do a blog for all stops, so here are a few photos of some of those places.
Blue Spring State Park near Orlando is a fantastic place to see manatees during the winter. They love the 73 degree, crystal clear spring water that flows at a rate of 102 million gallons per day. The park also has a large population of birds, just waiting for photographers. If you go, be aware that this park can get crowded and when it reaches capacity you will need to wait for somebody to leave before you can get in.
We stayed a few days in Punta Gorda and enjoyed a kayak trip on Shell Creek. It is a large creek with little development along its banks. It has a lot of birds, turtles, and some alligators. We learned that Jane can kayak faster than Joe when an alligator jumps into the water near her!
Also while in Punta Gorda we went to Lovers Key State Park. While kayaking in the mangroves we saw manatees, dolphins, and lots of birds. The beach there is beautiful.
Hillsborough State Park near Tampa is another great place for hiking and seeing wildlife. Kayaking is available, but we ran out of time for a trip.
Next up on our way to Destin, we drove through Mexico Beach where Hurricane Michael roared ashore as a category 5 storm in fall of 2018. The significant damage stretched for approximately 50 miles along the coast. These pictures are 5 months after the storm and show that debris removal is still in progress. From what we saw it will be many years before this area recovers.
Last stop on our Florida tour was Destin, where we stayed at Camp Gulf on the beach. Destin’s beach and water are gorgeous. March is a little cool for swimming in the gulf, but we enjoyed walking on the beach and the surrounding area.
I’ll close with a few of our favorites:
Favorite beach – Butler Beach just south of St Augustine
Favorite restaurant – Red Frog & McToads in Butler Beach – great shrimp ‘n’ lobster mac ‘n’ cheese.
Most awesome experience – Tie: Watching a Falcon 9 rocket launch and first stage landing, and kayaking with bottle-nose dolphins.
Sight that will never leave us – Mexico Beach and the damage from Hurricane Michael
Best Kayaking – Indian River Lagoon in Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve, and any place with mangroves