Looking south from Granada Blvd bridge towards Daytona Beach and beyond to Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket that placed 51 Starlink satellites and Spaceflight’s Sherpa-LTC into orbit.
Little Talbot Island is one of a handful of undeveloped barrier islands remaining in Northeast Florida. Boasting more than 5 miles of pristine beaches and 3 miles of bike trails, Little Talbot offers untouched natural beauty and diverse ecosystems. There is, of course, the white sand and rolling surf typical of many high energy coasts. But there is also the eroding sun-bleached roots and fallen trunks of cedar and palm that create a linear tapestry of natural sculptures.
Fort George Island Cultural State Park – A site of human occupation for over 5,000 years, Fort George Island was named for a 1736 fort built to defend the southern flank of Georgia when it was a colony. The park includes the Riabault Club (a private club for well to do Northerns visiting in winters), St. George Episcopal Church, Kingsley Plantation and slave quarters and ruins of a Tabby constructed house.
The 150-acre Hickory Bluff Preserve overlooks the St. Johns River and contains many natural communities including mesic and scrubby flatwoods, oak hammock, cypress domes, floodplain swamp, and wet prairie.
Etoniah Creek State Forest contains 8,902 acres of various natural communities. Etoniah Creek State Forest is named after Etoniah Creek, a stream that travels 2.5 miles through the eastern portion of the forest.
Ravine Gardens State Park is one of the nine New Deal-era state parks in Florida. The park has two ravines up to 120 feet deep with steep banks at 45-degree angles. Unlike common gullies, trenches or sinkholes caused by temporary flooding, the steephead ravines are a permanent feature with a spring-fed creek that never dries up, called Whitewater Branch. The underground water bubbling up cuts into the bank and carries the sand and soil downstream to the St. Johns River. Over thousands of years, the ravines have widened and deepened to what you see today. The 2.5-mile Azalea Trail winds through the ravine systems of Ravine Gardens State Park
Shell Bluff Park is in the Andalusia community just east of the Putnam County line. This 60-acre park features fishing, a floating dock, playground, hiking trail, picnic pavilions, restrooms, and a boat launching facility on Crescent Lake.
Carl Duval Moore State Forest is one of the smallest state forests (336 acres) but still maintains a variety of ecosystems, including sandhill, mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, and flatwoods lake. The park has two main hiking trails — (1) Up and Down Lake — the hiking trail is 1.2 miles in length and has interpretive tree identification signs along the route. (2) Hardesty Lake — hike down a 1.5-mile trail through a multitude of ecosystem types that range from sandhill to basin swamp.
There are more than fifteen different natural biological communities in Jennings State Forest, including sandhill, slope forest, flatwoods, seepage slope, dome swamp, blackwater stream and seepage stream. Fire is needed to maintain many of these communities. The Florida Forest Service uses prescribed fire to maintain habitat for the forest’s unique plants and animals.
The Fire and Water Nature Trail is an informative 1.7-mile trail that will give insight into how fire and water affect the various forest communities. The Dunn’s Farm Trail is a 2.7-mile trail that offers a variety of ecosystems – ravines cut by springs, so called waterfalls (Duck Pond Falls) and a cemetery — for the Dunn and Padgett Families.
Ralph E. Simmons Memorial State Forest offers views St. Mary’s River (if you have a machete to get near it), which forms the northern boundary of the forest and serves as the forest’s primary water source. The 1.5-mile red trail gets you close to the river. I started on the 1.75-mile yellow trail (a spider habitat) in the early morning fog which was eerie on a trail that hadn’t been hiked in a long time.
Cary State Forest was established as Florida’s second state forest in 1937. Cary is known for its scenic mature flatwoods, sandhill and basin marsh. The 1.25-mile Nature Trail at Cary State Forest winds and twists through scenic flatwoods and cypress swamp and includes a boardwalk that takes hikers across the wetlands.
Hot weather – who cares – these walks in the woods provided a little diversion and exercise.
Hawes Creek Preserve – not my first time here but the 1.3-mile boardwalk and trail hike usually provide a good variety of birds to view. Not today – too hot for them.
Lake Disston – stopped at a shady spot to view the lake, an old boat house and pier.
Welaka State Forest – Mud Springs trail (1.75 miles) and John’s Landing trail (4.0 miles)
Rice Creek Conservation Area – 5.3-mile loop trail near Palatka
June 6th – met FL friends at Domaine Carneros for a lovely tasting and a great introduction to the beautiful settings we hope to encounter as we wander Napa & Sonoma valleys. Champagne at 11:30 was a good start.
Close by was Cline and their rich reds.
Our VRBO was right off Sonoma Square – we dined & wandered around the town.
June7th- off to Cliff Lede Vineyards for wine tasting and rock and roll music. Most vineyards name the vine plots Chardonnay 1, 2,3…etc. Not this vineyard they are named after classic rock songs from “My Generation” to “Dark Side of the Moon”. Bill, our tasting host, was the most knowledgeable of our entire trip. The wine was great but a bit out of our price range.
Next stop – Castello de Amorosa – the pictures are better than words. Wine tasting was in their caves – surprisingly, the Chardonnay was better than their reds, so we purchased a bottle.
As we headed back to our VRBO we took a side trip to Yountville to walk their sculpture trail and do a drive-by of the French Laundry. Dinner was near the Napa Riverfront.
June8th – off to Jacuzzi Winery which is a sister winery of Cline. And yes – the family did invent the Jacuzzi tub along with airplanes and water pumps. The setting is Tuscan with a chapel and well-appointed grounds with flowers and fountains. The wines weren’t bad either.
Off to Sonoma Botanical Gardens. The surprise there was that all the trees originated in Asia. What we thought were native were not.
Then on to Ledson Winery styled as a castle. The facility was very impressive, but the wines were not so hot, and our tasting guide was poor. It was a lot of work to engage him in conversation about the vintner, the wines and/or the beautiful castle.
We finished the day at Ty Caton cellars where we tasted 7 wines -one better than the other – so good we joined their wine club. This was just a tasting room – no castles- but we were so glad we stopped. For dinner we returned to Sonoma Square.
June 9th – Kunde Winery – Last day of tasting and the best yet. Kunde grounds were beautiful with pools and flowers and hill sides lined geometrically with lush vines. We were greeted with a glass of wine then escorted through their wine caves. Then another glass of wine and a van ride through the vineyards and up the estate’s hills to an overlook with an elevation of about 1800 feet giving us a 360 view of the vineyards and Sonoma Valley. While spending about 45 minutes on the observation patio enjoying the view we tasted 5 other wines – perfect conclusion to our wine country trip.
June 1st – Union Square, Financial District, Yerba Buena Gardens, Wells Fargo Museum, Chinatown, and the Cable Car Museum.
June 2nd – Golden Gate Park and the de Young Museum, Japanese Tea Garden and SF Botanical Garden.
June 3rd – Hike up Filbert Street Steps to Coit Tower
June 4th – Christening of 2-year-old Austen Joseph – godparents were Chris & Nick’s brother Alex and must not forget god brother Wesley. AJ watched with supreme interest as the deacon applied oil & poured water on the first 2 (much younger) children & accepted with supreme tolerance as the same was done to him. We held him during the ceremony & prayed that the 75-year-old handmade silk gown would survive any of his wiggling, but he was as quiet as a church mouse recognizing the solemnity of the day. What a champ!
We arose at 5:30 to view the Golden Gate Bridge on arrival into San Francisco Bay. Surprise! The fog was so thick we only saw the bridge when we were directly under it – fortunately, the fog lifted a little as we passed Alcatraz and cleared significantly as we approached the city. It was a fantastic cruise, but… our adventure will continue until the 15th of June when we fly back to Florida. We will spend 3 days in San Francisco, head inland to Dublin Ca. for our grandson’s christening, spend 4 days in Napa with Florida friends and spend the remainder with our west coast family and friends.
Back to SoCal where we lived for 20 years. It was interesting that the entire ship including crew needed to disembark for a US Customs review. No one was allowed to reboard until the entire ship was empty. Fortunately for us we were heading for a walk around the harbor and meeting Pasadena area friends for lunch. We were able to see the 90-year-old Cunard Queen Mary now docked at Long Beach and used as a floating hotel and compare it to our much younger Queen Elizabeth and its 12decks.
Manzanillo is principally a working port. Sailing into the harbor the town looked like a colorful stretch of the Italian coastline. Getting off the ship and strolling the Malecon it became apparent that this city was in significant decline – many of those colorful houses we saw from the sea were dilapidated with windows boarded and some floors uninhabitable. On the positive side the Malecon was lined with modern sculptures depicting the signs of the zodiac. The highlight of the port was a dominating sculpture of a sailfish – the town claims it is the sail fishing capital of the world.
We arrived in Puntarenas, which is a working port with a not incredibly attractive central downtown. We signed up for a skybridge tour through the rainforest in Park National Carara. The park is in the transitional zone between the humid and dry forests which run from the mountains to the marshes and the sea. It was an hour plus drive to the park and along the way we stopped at the Rio Tackles Bridge to see the famed grey American crocodiles which can grow up to twenty feet. We saw a few but not the monsters. (We had better luck when we were here several years ago.) Our hike in the park was along a slippery trail and over 3 swinging bridges which would be rejected by a blind OSHA inspector. In the afternoon we visited Pura Vida Botanical Gardens and walked the trails with a knowledgeable guide explaining the flowers and fauna as well as protecting us from “army ants” a jumping and more virulent version of red fire ants.
Travelling Photographer 