A First for the Last

During this last week of the year, we had the ideal conditions to walk south from Bathtub Reef Beach down to the north end jetties of the St. Lucie Inlet. This was a first for us, since we weren't sure this was even doable. Right after the public beach parking lot, the road turns into a private gated community, and we thought perhaps the beach was private too. Luckily that wasn't the case, and with the tide low (which is a must now with so little beach left after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole), we walked the 1.12 miles each way, down to the end. The soft sand was challenging, but our feet sinking down made for a great workout. We made it though, and there was much more sand at that end and on the inlet side too.

Now we can add another new experience to our growing list of things to do and places to see. At least the weather was a bit warmer that day after some very chilly Christmastime temperatures. Now we are almost hotter than usual with close to mid-80s for this, the last day of 2022. We'll take it! We'll see you in 2023 and hope you have a good one!

Mainstream

We have been too normal lately and there isn't much new to post. We are so mainstream that Dave is the vice president of our HOA and I am the membership chair. That is keeping us busy with our annual meeting approaching, plus we run both the residents' cornhole tournaments and cocktail hour shuffleboard games. It is nice to be settled in and assimilating into our community. We have done some more kayaking, but it was all to places we have been before. Dave is doing extremely well with his RC sailboat racing and even comes in first place quite often! We hope you are enjoying this festive holiday season and I will be back when new adventures or exciting events happen.

Holiday Spirit

Last night was our community's annual Christmas golf cart parade and luminary display. I didn't get any photos of the golf carts since it was dark when they went by our house, but the luminaries were gorgeous throughout our whole park. We took a walk and were impressed with how most all of the residents partook in this tradition. Luckily it didn't rain like it did last year, so it really looked amazing. The photo below of the park's entranceway was taken by a neighbor (I 'borrowed' it from our community's Facebook page).

Our home looked the same as last year, except this year Mustang Sally is in the driveway.

Here a few other decorated houses in our neighborhood...

The house in the background has a blow-up Grinch pulling down the lights lining the roof.

Next door to us, they went all out with the decorations and it is quite bright, even through our blinds. We don't mind (too much 😉). 

Last year's winner of the house decorations contest and we hope they win again. 

Although this photo doesn't show it, the lights are actually red and white, making it look like the Hope Town red and white striped lighthouse.

On our nightly walks we have noticed more decorations than ever, so the holiday cheer is in full force. We hope you are enjoying this festive season!

🎄🎅

Surrounded By Dolphins

What a fantastic dolphin encounter we had on the "Sea of Stuart", which is what we call the section of the Indian River that is south of the Stuart Causeway. We launched the kayaks at the Chastain Beach river access in what was supposed to be a light northeast breeze. However, the wind ended up being about 10 mph from the Northwest which put our destination of Boy Scout Island right on the nose with quite a heavy chop. The water was not clear at all, despite an incoming tide, so we were a little depressed starting out. We persevered though and made it to both that island and the island south of it, that we have named Girl Scout Island. As we approached the southerly island, we spotted a whole bunch of turmoil in the water, which ended up being about a dozen dolphins of all sizes looking for fish in the shallows. As we approached, they didn't seem to mind, and instead kept up their search for their next meal. At times they were so close, they went under our kayaks and we could smell their fish breath when they exhaled. We all continued on our intended routes and as we were paddling back to the Hutchinson Island shore (yay, the wind completely died!), we again came across the same pod of dolphins (I even recognized some of the dorsal fins). They were a bit more inquisitive and stayed closer to us, almost like we were a part of their pod as we all were going in the same direction. 

Dave also scared a sleeping 5 foot shark in the shallows, which then scared him when it made a huge swoosh trying to get out of his way. We saw lots of herons, egrets, ospreys, a kingfisher, turtles, and a ray, which was pretty amazing considering the turbid water. To top it off, we witnessed a brown pelican land on the back of one of the dolphins as it surfaced and the pelican stole its fish! We may have had a rough to start to the morning, but it certainly turned out to be an amazing and memorable day!