St. Augustine’s Anastasia State Park

Thursday – Saturday                                                                           Most Recent Comments:
November 3 –5  2016                                                                          On the Water at Faver Dykes
Anastasia State Park                                                                           Back in Virginia – Celia Comes to Visit
St. Augustine, Florida

 

 

As you can see, I’m getting MUCH closer to being caught up and hope to do so within the next week.  BUT since I’m not, I do have to wish a happy 6 month birthday to my sweet little Celia who was 6 months old yesterday November 19th.  What a joy!!

 

 

THURSDAY

The distance from Faver Dykes to Anastasia is a whopping 21 miles so we manage to arrive early enough in the afternoon to do a minimal set up, eat dinner at the picnic table and head to the wide sandy beach where the wind is really blowing.

 

 

 

 

Seeing Pelicans fly is like watching pterodactyls.

 

The winds of course don’t bother them

 

 

 

 

We only saw this stage on the beach the day we arrived.  By the next day it was gone.
I wish I’d asked what it was used for and by whom.

 

 

FRIDAY

There are two campgrounds at Anastasia.  The smaller is older and one circle with a central bathhouse and 33 sites.  The larger is newer and the 105 sites are divided up between 6 loops with beachy names like Sea Urchin, Sand Dollar, Shark Eye and Queen Conch.  We are in a site at the back of the older loop called Coquina.  Our loop is closer to the beach so this morning we walk the half mile over to see  the sunrise.  Time hasn’t “fallen back” yet so sunrise time is reasonable even for David.

The predawn sky is ablaze as we approach the dunes.

 

 

Someone must have been having serious creative fun in the sand yesterday.  So glad they left it for me to enjoy this morning as I wait for the sunrise.

 

Love the shell hat.

 

David looks very solitary at the edge of the vast ocean as the sun’s early color recedes toward the sunrise.

 

 

Here’s what he’s been waiting for

 

 

 

Later in the day everybody is out enjoying the water and the beautiful wide beach here.  Some with thick skins are even wading or swimming.  What an amazing beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY

We love the fact that the St. Augustine Farmer’s Market is every Saturday morning just outside the St. Augustine amphitheater and right next to the park.  We can bike or walk to it.

Calling it a farmer’s market is a bit of a stretch though in my opinion.  The market is pretty good size but there are only 3 vendors of vegetables and fruits.   The remaining vendors are quite varied.  They include African carvings for your tiki bar, digeriedoos, PVC flamingos,  handmade brooms and gourd birdhouses,  of course pottery, as well as massage tables and chairs and oil and watercolor artists just to name a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stop on our walk from one end to the other of the market to listen to the musicians.  The music here seems to be a jam session with whoever shows up and in whatever numbers with whatever instruments. 

 

We walk to the end and have looked at all the booths when we start back to make our purchases.  But I spot a path off to the left that looks like a trail.  I can’t help myself, I want to see where it goes.  So we do. 

 

 

.We find this lovely pond with a female anhinga and lots of turtles.

 

 

 

 

Eventually we stumble upon a gazebo with this map and we discover that we have been walking through the St. Augustine Arboretum and Nature Trail.  We look at the map and find that we were seeing the turtles from the fishing pier, Letter A.  But the map does not show the paths we walked on from the Farmer’s Market which runs all along the side of one entrance to the amphitheater.  Rather than continue trying to figure out where to go next, we just retrace our steps back to the market.

We bike home with our purchases and hit the beach

 

 

 

 

Happy to be back beside the Atlantic again and nearer to Bruster’s Ice Cream!