Valentine's Day Cruise

A cold front was expected later in the day, but we really wanted to get out on the water for more explorations. We had it all planned to launch at Sandsprit Park and head south on the Intracoastal waterway to picnic at Peck Lake, explore the barrier island and be back home before the weather turned cool and rainy. Peck Lake is really just a wide spot in the ICW, but it is also an anchorage for cruising boats, and a party spot for day use people. 

The island is still part of the St. Lucie Inlet State Park, but there is no dock on this section, so everyone has to anchor out with either the bow or stern on shore. We opted for securing the bow onshore and a stern anchor out in the water. If you choose the right spot, it is almost 3ft deep all the way to the shoreline, so you don't have to worry about being aground as the tide goes out.

X marks the spot, or at least this old flag pole marks the spot of the short trail to the ocean beach.

Once again the beaches were pretty much empty except for the birds.

I walked the beach looking for treasure, but the only 'gold' I found were shells.

Why is it we find so many shoes that wash ashore? This one had been floating around for awhile and grew barnacles (and yes, that is a Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish next to it). 

Dave couldn't resist going swimming in the calm blue water. He turned the trailhead marker into a clothes tree. 😉

Exploring oceanside reminded us so much of our adventures in the Bahamas.

Our timing was perfect, as we arrived back at the launch ramp before all the fishermen hurried in from the inlet, and back in our driveway just as the cold front arrived. Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. We sure did! 

Every Forty Years

We are now rock concert groupies! Right after our fantastic Styx concert we happened to be talking about how it would be nice to see a Kansas tribute band. I searched the internet for concerts in the area and amazingly found out that the real Kansas group was going to be in Melbourne, FL that Friday night. Why see a tribute band when you can experience the real thing?! Tickets were still available and we drove to Melbourne last night and the concert was fantastic. The Maxwell King Performing Arts Center was the perfect place to hold this event and everyone was so friendly. The ushers were even taking photos for people...

The balcony was the place to be for seating, as it is steep so that every seat has a good view. As an added attraction, the balcony had screens on the side that showed the band up close. This was especially nice when there were instrumental solos (I was in awe of the keyboardist and violinist. It was like listening to an orchestra).

Once again we were seated next to very cordial people and we joked about our ages and band members ages being almost the same. One girl, about 16, had brought her father with her, who told her she was the youngest person there, and I think he was right. When the lead singer came on and looked at the audience, he said something like, "looks like we are playing for our peers tonight." However, age had nothing to do with the enthusiasm of the audience or the band performance. They played for over 2 hours without a break, playing new and old songs, including the entire Point Of No Return album. We had just been talking about how we had seen Kansas back when we were just married, which must have been about 40 years ago. That's when it was announced that this IS the 40 year anniversary of the Point of No Return tour!

Time sure does fly, but we are proud to say that we were there back then and now and so glad we went both times. I don't think we will make it to the next 40 year anniversary though. 😉  As the band left the stage at the end, they summed it up best, "I bet you didn't think we were going to be this good, did you?" 

Cars & More!

We discovered that the Lowe's in Stuart has a car show every Tuesday evening. We checked it out last night and were surprised to see how many people and cars were there. It was fun seeing different vehicles than we were used to seeing over and over again at the shows up north. This show is open to classic, antique, and unusual cars and trucks. There was even a PT Cruiser Convertible which made me miss mine. It would have looked really good under the lights, except Dave said our T-Bird would have looked better 😉 (It sure was a perfect convertible night).  Below are some of the cars and trucks we saw:

So, did you recognize any of these vehicles?

Sail vs. Kayak

Today we could not decide whether to go sailing or kayaking, so we split it up and did both. We headed to the Jaycee Park launch ramp in Fort Pierce with the DC 15 in tow. We were actually at this ramp yesterday and went north along the Indian River shoreline, checking out all the boat basins and marinas by kayak. We discovered quite a few treasure hunting boats and then came home and found out that the area off the inlets is known for the 1715 fleet that sank, along with its gold, silver, and jewels. No wonder this is called the Treasure Coast! Today though, we launched the sailboat and one of the kayaks. Dave sailed one way...

I paddled the other way through the shallows and mangroves.

I approached this anhinga as it was drying its wings in the trees (I liked how the sun was shining through its feathers). Although they look quite a bit alike, anhingas spear fish underwater with their long beaks, while cormorants catch fish with their mouths/beaks.

When I floated too close he was not happy and 'yelled' at me. He apparently did not want to leave his perch.

I also happened to catch a photo of a great blue heron as it took flight off a seawall up one of the canals.

It was fun for the two of us to come back to the launch ramp and compare experiences. Sometimes we just have to do things separately, yet together, to keep us both happy.😉

Concert !

We have found that one of the advantages of living in this area is that there are many different concerts held. Earlier this season we went to the historic Lyric Theatre in Stuart to see a local Led Zeppelin tribute band that was really awesome. We will return there in a couple of weeks to see a Pink Floyd tribute band. Last night we were lucky enough to get tickets for a Styx concert at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center, just 6 miles from our house! This was the real band, not a tribute band and we are still in awe that we finally got to see them after all these years. The catch was that it was an outside venue and it rained all day. Amazingly it stopped a couple of hours before the show and we didn't get wet, except for mud on shoes and beach chairs from the grass field we were in. They did have higher cost seating in a gated off area, but we found a spot along the perimeter of the gates that actually had a better view of the stage, especially since the cordoned off seating was all on flat ground. Everyone in that area had to stand through the 2+ hour show, since the people in the front stood up and no one could see. We sat happily the whole time and even moved closer when the people in front of us left because the girl was freezing and hadn't dressed for the cold front and wind that had arrived following the rain. We did, but were still chilly, and you should have seen the huge hanging speakers (not to mention Tommy Shaw's hair 😉) blowing in the breeze. The music was superb with everyone's favorite songs being played, and they moved around the stage and interacted with the crowd, just like they used to back in the videos we have from long ago. You would never know the founding members are over 65 years old. Lawrence Gowan, who took Dennis DeYoung's place in the band 20 years ago, was fantastic and we were blown away at his keyboard talent. What a fantastic night! Dave's photo doesn't do it justice, but it proves we were there. 😁

Preserving It

We took our first powerboating adventure recently on a crisp cold front day, along with friends Bruce and Judy. We launched at Sandsprit Park and after taking them on a tour of Manatee Pocket, we headed over to the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park on Jupiter Island. It is only accessible by boat, but there are nice floating docks to land at.

There is a 3/4 mile long walk thru the marshlands over to the ocean beach (on the weekend a tram is provided). Most of it was on a beautifully made boardwalk.

It also goes over a creek which we will come back and explore with our kayaks soon.

When we arrived at the beach, there wasn't a soul in sight but the four of us. It was amazing. This is looking towards St. Lucie Inlet. 

Bruce enjoyed hanging out and watching the different kinds of sandpipers...

As we walked the beach, there were even quite a few nice shells washing up at high tide. However, since this is a protected preserve, we did as they said... "take only pictures, leave only footprints."

Worked for us!