Our trip to Florida didn’t play out like we had planned, but it was still a lot of fun. Our RV was out of commission due to a blown out hydraulic part that couldn’t be replaced due to supply chain issues. We decided to compress the trip and stay in hotels and Airbnbs. We covered the west coast for the two weeks before Thanksgiving and the east coast for 10 days after Thanksgiving. Although both of us had been to FL many times, almost all of the time was spent in Tampa and Melbourne. The highlights:
Crystal River manatees – The town is about 80 miles north of Tampa and is less “glitzy” than most of the places we visited. We took a boat tour up the river and Suzanne literally swam with the Manatees in a wetsuit. Apparently this is the only place in Florida where you can do it. We ate fresh seafood in some unobtrusive local restaurants that were simply outstanding. The whole area could be termed “authentic old Florida”.
Everglades National Park – The park is huge and has very few roads in it. We toured it from both the west and east sides of the park. As we’ve come to expect in National Parks, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. The way the surface water flows through southern Florida, the plethora of wildlife, and the scourge of the Burmese Python where some of the bigger surprises. It is a truly unique place.
Tampa – We only were there for a couple of days, but it only reinforced my opinion that it is one of the most beautiful cities in the country. We spent a some time downtown, including a full day in the Florida Aquarium. The waterfront is just gorgeous and a great place to chill.
St. Augustine – The city is just as cool as it’s hyped up to be. Even though it’s pretty touristy, it offers history and charm similar to Charleston. We thoroughly enjoyed Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. This is the oldest fort in the US and beautifully preserved and displayed. During the holidays, the entire downtown area is lit up with Christmas lights. We rode on a night-time tram that provided spectacular views of the lights throughout the city and finished off the evening with a great dinner at the legendary Harry’s Seafood. A short, but great visit it was.
Blue Springs State Park manatees – Blue Springs is park about 30 miles from Daytona on the St. Johns River. The Blue Springs feed water to the river at 72 degrees year round. The manatees can’t tolerate water below 68 degrees so they swim up stream in the river to spend the winter where the temperature is tolerable. Consequently, once you hit November they start arriving in droves. When we were there, over 300 were hanging out near the Springs.
Kennedy Space Center – This was our first visit to the Space Center and it wildly surpassed our expectations. There is a tremendous amount of history and technology on display and the supporting graphics and info are excellent. It covers everything from the first satellite launch to the future of space travel and includes every type of hardware. The Space Shuttle launch simulator is not to missed. We spent two days there and didn’t see it all. As a bonus, we parked ourselves on the bank of the Indian River and watched a night launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites.
Biscayne National Park – When they say 95% of the park is underwater they mean it. The park is all about snorkeling or scuba diving to see coral reefs, fish, sea creatures, and ship wrecks. Unless you have a boat the only practical way to see it is to take a guided boat tour. We did just that and it was well worth the trip. As expected, Suzanne was the last person out of the water.
Keys – We stayed in an Airbnb on Key Largo and used it as home base for Biscayne, the east side of the Everglades, and exploration of the Keys. After driving down the Keys quite a way and making serval stops, we came to the conclusion that we need to bring our RV there and bask in the sheer beauty for “a good while”.
In addition to the major attractions, we had a great time dining with Doug and Lynne Lindsey in Ponce Inlet, as well as with Ed and Brian Gardepe in Nokomis. To sum up the trip: we both came to appreciate the beauty and the weather of Florida in a new way and are seriously considering a 4th attempt to get there in our coach.
