John Prince Park/Palm Beach

We returned to John Prince Park in Lake Worth for our third year.  Visitors are welcomed by palm trees surrounding the park sign and lining the street as they enter the park.  An outstanding feature of the park is a seven-mile paved trail which circles the lake.  Our RV site was on the lake, and we enjoyed seeing wading  birds from our window.   This park is a place where we feel a sense of tranquility.

               

The South Florida Fair in West Palm Beach coincided with our visit this year.  We enjoyed seeing some of the shows including Extreme Canine Stunt Dog Show and Bella Luna Cirque. 

                                      

The dogs were impressive, but the cirque was extraordinary. 

               
               

A Palm Beach Post article entitled “111 Reasons to Enjoy the 2011 Season” gave us a few pointers.  We ate lunch at Panama Hattie’s as suggested and took the water taxi for a tour of the Intracoastal Waterway with views of luxury homes, yachts, and sub-tropical plants.  What a way to live!   The Delray Beach art show beckoned us also.

               

We learned about Green Cay Nature Trail from a couple we talked with at another park.  With an outstanding boardwalk through 1 1/2 miles of wetlands, it’s a great place to see birds, turtles, alligators, and grasslands.  Irene had fun photographing every kind of bird she saw.

  
Okeeheelee Park is another location which is great for bicycling and birding.  The paved trail there circles the lake also and offers varied scenery.  Okeeheelee is also a Palm Beach County park, all of which are well maintained and nicely landscaped.  We are very impressed with the Palm Beach County parks including John Prince where we are staying.

            











We visited the very grand Flagler Museum, the winter home (for 6 weeks each year) of Henry Flagler and his third wife, to whom Flagler gave the home as a wedding gift.  It looks much as it did when they lived there with many of the original furnishings.  Flagler was a partner in Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller and later built the Florida East Coast Railroad, thus developing the east coast of Florida.  He also extended the railroad to Key West.  When we first began going to Key West, the highway bridges were built on the old railroad trestles and were quite narrow, but they’ve long been replaced with standard width bridges.

                       

The Most Beautiful Bike Path in the World – that’s what the Lake Trail in Palm Beach must be. We biked it today for the third time now. It runs along the bay side of Palm Beach island and passes behind fabulous Palm Beach homes. On one side of the trail you see homes and on the other side you see their yacht tied up. Most homes have a ficus hedge for privacy, but many homes’ back yards can be seen. Home owners maintain the area through which the trail passes, and the semi-tropical landscaping with palms, colorful bougainvillea, agaves, ficus hedges, and banyon trees is a verdant glory.

Today was sunny with temps in the upper seventies.  This wonderful balmy climate is due to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the southerly breezes from the Caribbean. It was a lovely Florida day as we biked our favorite trail on our last day in the Palm Beach area before heading further south.

A New Stop: Jonathan Dickinson State Park

We’ve spent the past week at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, FL, just north of Jupiter, an area we haven’t previously visited.  Established in 1950 on land which was home to a top secret WWII radar testing facility named Camp Murphy, the park covers 11,500 acres and has 2 campgrounds.  We stayed in the newer campground which has been open about a year and has large sites with full hookups, unlike most Florida state parks which generally have only water and electric hookups.

The park has a number of special features including a nature center, multiple trails for walking, bicycling, and horseback riding, trips on the Loxahatchee River, and the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower.  The tower is located on Hobe Mountain, an 86 foot high ancient sand dune which is one of the highest points in south Florida.  From the tower you can see the intracoastal waterway, the Atlantic Ocean, the distant city of Palm Beach and much of the park.

                 

We also enjoyed activities outside the park including bicycling at Riverbend Park in Jupiter, a new Palm Beach County Park with paved and hard surface walking and bicycling trails with lots of natural areas. On another day we biked on Jupiter Island where Tiger Woods has a large mansion.  As always we enjoyed biking past the homes of the rich and famous and seeing the lush semi-tropical landscaping.

                

We also biked the A1A route along the beach in Jupiter and Juno Beach.  It was really nice to be enjoying sunny Florida weather when north Georgia has 4 – 5 inches of snow/ice and the lows are still in the teens at home. 

Our best meal in the area was lunch at the Food Shack which was rated the #1 restaurant in Jupiter on Trip Advisor.  George had sea bass with a crunchy sushi rice coating served over mixed greens with apples and kiwi.  Irene ordered angel hair pasta with shrimp, scallops, asparagus, eggplant, and cheese in a roasted tomato and pepper sauce. We split dessert which was a dark chocolate mousse with nuts topped with whipped cream with toasted coconut on top.  The plate had swirls of raspberry coulee.  It was delicious.

We had some interesting “neighbors” across from us in the campground.  They enjoyed spending time around the grill, and we enjoyed observing them – two sandhill cranes.  They were  pretty amazing when they flew.

                
                

Photo Album–Ft. Clinch SP and Fernandina

 

Here are a few more photos of this beautiful park and historic town.

		Ft. Clinch SP and Fernandina VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ft. Clinch SP–Fernandina Beach

 

We entered Fort Clinch State Park through a tunnel of live oak trees draped in moss – a similar biome to Jekyll Island.  We stayed at Atlantic Beach Campground which was indeed on the Atlantic with a boardwalk to the beach.  It’s open and sunny with a few palm trees.  The other campground in the park is Amelia River CG which is very wooded and shaded – a good spot in the summer. 

             

This park offered great bicycling on the paved roads through the “oak tunnel,” and we rode to the old Civil War fort whose cannons still overlook the Atlantic, now guarding the pass through which nuclear submarines enter Kings Bay Submarine Base.  We had hoped to see a submarine there, and the ranger advised us to look for helicopters and navy patrol boats, but none came while we were there. 

             

Tuesday was a warm sunny day and we had a great bike ride into Fernandina.  We enjoyed exploring the historic district which consists of 50 blocks of historic buildings. 

                           

The area was prosperous in the 1800’s and many Victorian homes and businesses were built.  When Flagler’s railroad bypassed Fernandina, the town became less prosperous and the buildings were repaired instead of being replaced.  So they were saved from “progress” and that’s why there’s such a large historic district.  We biked along several streets of huge old homes which were well maintained and beautiful with Christmas decorations still up. 

              

We ate lunch at the Marina Restaurant, a family-owned restaurant located in a historic building downtown since 1960.  Irene ordered the shrimp basket with fries and slaw, and George ordered from the day’s specials menu choosing two broiled crab cakes and three sides:  butternut squash with honey and walnuts, navy beans with rice and onion, and carrot and raisin salad – all for $9.95.  The walls were lined with framed “Best of” awards from the local newspaper.  The restaurant appeared to be the locals’ choice, and the service was welcoming and friendly.

On returning to the park, we’d ridden 17 miles.  We took the short boardwalk to the beach and enjoyed the view there and visiting with other campers – a good conclusion to a good day.

             

35th Annual New Year’s Bluegrass Festival

 

Counting this year, we’ve attended 5 Jekyll Island bluegrass festivals.  We love coming here, both for the music and for the bicycling on Jekyll’s excellent bike trails – when the weather’s nice enough.  And this year, the weather’s been great.  The festival is held Thur., Fri., and Sat. with a different slate of performers each day running from 12:00 noon until 10:00 p.m.  We generally see all the groups once.

              

                                   

              

              

We also enjoy seeing the Historic District decorated for Christmas and the beautiful old oaks surrounding the area.  The temporary convention center is located there while the new center is being constructed.  It was quite adequate for the festival which will be held in the temporary facility again next year.  It’s a  bit more than a tent with walls of 2 thin metal panels with foam insulation sandwiched between and has heat and ac.  The manufacturer is De Boer of the Netherlands.   

             

             

We’ve had a great time at Jekyll Island and look forward to next year’s bluegrass festival.  We’ll head south tomorrow.

Arrival at Jekyll Island

 

After an early morning departure from the Baxley, GA Walmart, we arrived at Jekyll Island for the 35th New Year’s Bluegrass Festival.  Not only the convention center but also the shops across the street from it have been razed for construction of a new convention center and park. The shops and post office have been moved up the beach and are now housed in trailers. Zachery’s restaurant has moved to Brunswick.The airport is closed to provide motor coach parking for the festival, and we are parked on the edge of the runway facing the intercoastal waterway.  The We saw a few boats travel up the waterway and the sun set over it.  The Sidney Lanier Bridge is visible on our right side. 

                

After repairing a flat tire on George’s bicycle, we biked to the historic district to see the temporary facilities for the bluegrass festival, and we were pleased with the size and quality of the facility.  We checked out a couple of restaurants in the historic area and just enjoyed bicycling.  We ate dinner at a restaurant on the Atlantic side, Driftwood Bistro, which was praised on web reviews for its vegetables, and we thought the squash casserole and fired okra (cut like french fries) were exceptional.

We look forward to the first day of bluegrass tomorrow. 

               

Warmer Weather–Music to our Ears

 

It’s time to begin our annual migration south in search of warmer weather. In fact we’re a little late as the really cold weather has come early this year. We will depart December 28 for our fourth visit to the Jekyll Island New Year’s bluegrass festival. This year the concert will be held in quite impressive temporary quarters in the historic district while a new convention center is being built on the site of the old one. RV’s will park at the airport this year. We’ll miss the Atlantic views, but look forward to views of the intercoastal water way, the “Marshes of Glynn,” and the Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick. As always, biking around Jekyll’s bike paths will be keenly anticipated as will the local seafood.

After Jekyll, we’ll travel a short distance to St. Mary’s, Georgia, home of the Kings Bay Nuclear Submarine Base, where we will visit the submarine museum. Next, we’ll visit Fort Clinch State Park near Fernandina Beach, Florida, which will be the first in a string of Florida state and county parks we’ll visit as we travel down the east coast of Florida, eventually reaching our old haunt, Key West.