Saint Joseph's Peninsula, FL: Part II
The weather was gorgeous Friday! Cleared to just partly cloudy (much of an improvement from the cloudy, hazy trip down) and probably reached mid-80s. Granted, if you weren't in the breeze on the beach, there was horrendous humidity, but still, not bad. We got up, Chris made breakfast (lots of bacon, eggs and some toast) and we sluggishly got ready to spend the day at the beach.
We had brought the kid carrier pack to take a nice long walk up the beach and perhaps back in the interior trail (runs up the middle of the peninsula). We didn't walk as far as I think Chris wanted to, but with not sleeping the night before following a long trip down the day before, and then carrying a kid on my back for more than half the way. Well, I wasn't going to hang for that long. We had left at about 10am and stopped at about noon for some lunch and play time on the beach. Chris and Jonah built sand castles (or as Jonah refers to them, Pizza Castles, after seeing the one in Dothan, AL), we had a couple of beers, then we all played in the waves a bit. Jonah didn't want to get in the water at first, but then I picked him up to give him some security and showed him how much fun it could be to jump the waves. Then, he didn't want to get out! He even got brave enough to let go of me and try to jump on his own, but would mistime it and get a face full of salt water.
We weren't far out, in fact, I was on my knees in order to be in up to my neck and kind of on Jonah's level. But we would see fish just beyond us in the waves right before they'd break. Quite a large school of them actually. Looking them up, I'm pretty sure they were mackerels. We had seen tiny clams all day digging their way back into the sand after waves would wash them loose. Also, as I was walking back in from the water, I barely stepped on a huge blue crab. I just felt something move under my big toe, then saw it skitter across in front of us and back out into the waves. This is the reason we love to go here, in particular. It's a living beach, unlike the areas farther up the coast where there are high rise condos and such. One lady mentioned she and her husband had seen a rather large pod of dolphins the morning before just really jumping and playing not far off the beach. And pelicans were a fairly regular sight during the day and evening, as were the gulls of course and sandpipers, plus the occasional white crane.
Once we were done playing, we decided to head back. We had to make the decision to either walk back along the beach, or cut in and walk through the dunes up the middle of the peninsula. I had to be honest. I remembered the center trail being hot and not very forgiving. So, I put in my request to walk back along the beach. I know it's probably longer and there was wildlife (mostly lizards and some deer) we'd miss out on, but the breeze and water were both nice refreshers when I was too hot or too tired. Jonah was needing a nap very soon and eventually we had to get him back into the carrier.
Once we got back to the site, Jonah and I went to get cleaned up. Then, as we got back, Chris took his turn at the bath house while Jonah and I drove out to the Trading Post to get ice and some cold drinks. Jonah promptly fell asleep in the car and I had to carry him around in the store, still asleep on my shoulder. Luckily, he didn't wake up even once I got him back to the campsite and even Chris was laid out resting in the tent. So, we all decided to take a nap and a couple of hours later, we awoke and went back down to the beach for a bit.
While we were down there, we ran into a couple of old retired hippies who had talked to us on our way back up from our walk earlier. One of them had made some joke about Jonah riding on my back (that I can't even remember now) and the same one kept talking about that joke and how he had come up with it in the morning when he saw us on our way out. Kinda weird. These guys were hilarious to talk to though. You'd just get fragments of stories and some of it didn't run together very well, but it was pretty funny. They were both 60. One of them looked it, the other one, who spent his time swimming like a fish and stretching on the beach, looked fantastic! I mean, I've seen 40 year olds that are in worse shape than this guy! Hell, I've seen 30 year olds that look more aged, actually. And despite his looking like a total beach bum, his skin wasn't leathery or anything. Very obvious he takes good care of himself. They invited us to their campsite after dinner, which was kind of funny to me. I guess they saw our "heads full of long, luxurious hippie hair" and thought we were kindred spirits or something. ;)
We went back and cooked dinner. On our way back, we noticed our new neighbors (as well as a lot of other occupied sites that were empty the night before. They were a nice, young family on their first camping trip with their three kids, two girls and a boy. Jonah had fun running over there and playing while they set up camp and we got dinner started. Just after dark, we had everything done. Grilled oysters and shrimp and zucchini. YUM! We put Jonah to bed and noticed our neighbors having some real trouble getting their little ones to bed, or that's what it sounded like anyway. Jonah had a little trouble settling down as well, but eventually he did. Chris wanted to go over and be entertained by the hippies but I wasn't feeling well and was exhausted. I had stomach pains and was concerned about the seafood I had consumed earlier. Eventually my stomach settled, but not before I was about to pass out sitting straight up.
We had noticed it clouding as we sat by the fire whiling away the night, so as we were turning in, we packed everything that wasn't waterproof away in the car. We left the tent wide open because even the mesh windows weren't letting in enough air and it was quite pleasant outside, actually. In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of sprinkling rain on the tent and woke Chris up to ask him to zip up his side as I got mine closed. The rest of the night there was off and on rain, nothing horribly heavy or anything, but steady. I woke up a couple of times and didn't hear any, so I know it didn't last all night and hoped for the best for the next morning.
We had brought the kid carrier pack to take a nice long walk up the beach and perhaps back in the interior trail (runs up the middle of the peninsula). We didn't walk as far as I think Chris wanted to, but with not sleeping the night before following a long trip down the day before, and then carrying a kid on my back for more than half the way. Well, I wasn't going to hang for that long. We had left at about 10am and stopped at about noon for some lunch and play time on the beach. Chris and Jonah built sand castles (or as Jonah refers to them, Pizza Castles, after seeing the one in Dothan, AL), we had a couple of beers, then we all played in the waves a bit. Jonah didn't want to get in the water at first, but then I picked him up to give him some security and showed him how much fun it could be to jump the waves. Then, he didn't want to get out! He even got brave enough to let go of me and try to jump on his own, but would mistime it and get a face full of salt water.
We weren't far out, in fact, I was on my knees in order to be in up to my neck and kind of on Jonah's level. But we would see fish just beyond us in the waves right before they'd break. Quite a large school of them actually. Looking them up, I'm pretty sure they were mackerels. We had seen tiny clams all day digging their way back into the sand after waves would wash them loose. Also, as I was walking back in from the water, I barely stepped on a huge blue crab. I just felt something move under my big toe, then saw it skitter across in front of us and back out into the waves. This is the reason we love to go here, in particular. It's a living beach, unlike the areas farther up the coast where there are high rise condos and such. One lady mentioned she and her husband had seen a rather large pod of dolphins the morning before just really jumping and playing not far off the beach. And pelicans were a fairly regular sight during the day and evening, as were the gulls of course and sandpipers, plus the occasional white crane.
Once we were done playing, we decided to head back. We had to make the decision to either walk back along the beach, or cut in and walk through the dunes up the middle of the peninsula. I had to be honest. I remembered the center trail being hot and not very forgiving. So, I put in my request to walk back along the beach. I know it's probably longer and there was wildlife (mostly lizards and some deer) we'd miss out on, but the breeze and water were both nice refreshers when I was too hot or too tired. Jonah was needing a nap very soon and eventually we had to get him back into the carrier.
Once we got back to the site, Jonah and I went to get cleaned up. Then, as we got back, Chris took his turn at the bath house while Jonah and I drove out to the Trading Post to get ice and some cold drinks. Jonah promptly fell asleep in the car and I had to carry him around in the store, still asleep on my shoulder. Luckily, he didn't wake up even once I got him back to the campsite and even Chris was laid out resting in the tent. So, we all decided to take a nap and a couple of hours later, we awoke and went back down to the beach for a bit.
While we were down there, we ran into a couple of old retired hippies who had talked to us on our way back up from our walk earlier. One of them had made some joke about Jonah riding on my back (that I can't even remember now) and the same one kept talking about that joke and how he had come up with it in the morning when he saw us on our way out. Kinda weird. These guys were hilarious to talk to though. You'd just get fragments of stories and some of it didn't run together very well, but it was pretty funny. They were both 60. One of them looked it, the other one, who spent his time swimming like a fish and stretching on the beach, looked fantastic! I mean, I've seen 40 year olds that are in worse shape than this guy! Hell, I've seen 30 year olds that look more aged, actually. And despite his looking like a total beach bum, his skin wasn't leathery or anything. Very obvious he takes good care of himself. They invited us to their campsite after dinner, which was kind of funny to me. I guess they saw our "heads full of long, luxurious hippie hair" and thought we were kindred spirits or something. ;)
We went back and cooked dinner. On our way back, we noticed our new neighbors (as well as a lot of other occupied sites that were empty the night before. They were a nice, young family on their first camping trip with their three kids, two girls and a boy. Jonah had fun running over there and playing while they set up camp and we got dinner started. Just after dark, we had everything done. Grilled oysters and shrimp and zucchini. YUM! We put Jonah to bed and noticed our neighbors having some real trouble getting their little ones to bed, or that's what it sounded like anyway. Jonah had a little trouble settling down as well, but eventually he did. Chris wanted to go over and be entertained by the hippies but I wasn't feeling well and was exhausted. I had stomach pains and was concerned about the seafood I had consumed earlier. Eventually my stomach settled, but not before I was about to pass out sitting straight up.
We had noticed it clouding as we sat by the fire whiling away the night, so as we were turning in, we packed everything that wasn't waterproof away in the car. We left the tent wide open because even the mesh windows weren't letting in enough air and it was quite pleasant outside, actually. In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of sprinkling rain on the tent and woke Chris up to ask him to zip up his side as I got mine closed. The rest of the night there was off and on rain, nothing horribly heavy or anything, but steady. I woke up a couple of times and didn't hear any, so I know it didn't last all night and hoped for the best for the next morning.