Moving On

As I said - we really enjoyed exploring St. Augustine but after nine days a change of scenery and pace was really instore.  We traveled not too far south to Marineland, which turned out to be not only the dolphin water park but also a very nice marina - both of which are located in the town of Marineland, FL!  Because it was such a nice place we ended up staying there for a week and thoroughly enjoyed it! 

The water park originally opened in 1937 and used to feature performances with the dolphins very much like you now see at Sea World.  Now, it's primarily a place where you can view the dophins through glassed tanks - or oceanariums - or you can pay to interact with them such as feeding or swimming with them.  We didn't actually do any of that but we did spend some time one afternoon observing them in the huge tanks.  They are very entertaining to watch because they like to show off!

One of the things we liked best about this marina was that you can walk right across the street and you're at the beach!  We had fantastic weather the entire week and we spent a lot of time walking and sitting on the beach!  We even found a few pieces of sea glass!

They have great bike paths in this area so we took advantage and rode every morning.  Some it even goes right along the top of the dunes so you can see the ocean as you ride!

They also had a farmer's market every Tuesday morning where we bought some delicious homemade breads and pastries along with fruits and vegetables.

It was a great week and of course some more beautiful sunsets that I cannot resist but then it was time to move on again!

Daytona Beach was our next stop but we only spent one night there because we have been there many times in the past.  I did snap a few pictures as we passed through.

From Daytona we went south through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on our way to Titusville.  The refuge is very large and we were in it almost all day!  We saw dolphins the entire way as well as many, many birds.  We also spotted our first mannatee and our first alligator!  I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of either of them but I did make one of these pelicans.

Many of you have visited Kennedy Space Center so you know how huge the building there is - well, we spotted it on the horizon long before we realized what we were actually seeing!  We were looking at it for hours and hours that afternoon and then we anchored and could still see it across the water!

This anchorage was just north of Titusville where we ended up staying in a marina several days due to very high winds.  It was a good place to visit with a beautiful astronaut memorial park and a great space museum!  Here are a few pictures from the park.

Me and President Kennedy!

 John Glenn's handprints.