Spending More Time in Sanford Area

Some of the cars in Old Town

Cool Clock on the Square

Watching the cars cruise by
Very cool!

Some with blower motors - some natural
All very cool!

A beautiful sunset over Lake Monroe

Cool old cabin on the river

 

piece of artwork along the Breezeway

Another pretty sunset

Lee and Ricks Oyster Bar

Waiting for our oysters!

Enjoying Wekiva Springs!

Fun Boat on the river - The Floating Hippie!

Isn't this hilarious!

Baby Owl waiting for his snack!

This guy went into a roll when he got near the boat!

Momma guarding her eggs

John was our airboat captain

Holding a baby alligator - about 3 years old
Tiny - but they still taped his mouth shut!

View of the St Johns River

Old Florida - beautiful

So very peaceful

Old Florida at its finest!

This is the big guy at a distance - BEFORE
we met up so close
He didn't like us crossing his path!

It is so beautiful along the river on a sunny day

Another one lurking about

Home along the river
Wonder what they think of the bugs!

We really have had a very busy time these past few weeks.  First thing we did when we got here in June was to take a road trip back to Joplin for a visit.   My friend Pam Kelley rode back with us and hung out here on NautiNell for a couple of weeks.  There were a few days in between and then our buddies Dick and Debbie Smith came for a visit.  Whew!  Now it’s the end of July and we’re planning to leave Sanford in about a week or so and head north to Ortega Landing in Jacksonville.  We’ll probably spend a month or two there.

Dick and Debbie got here late Sunday night (July 20).  We stayed up way past Mike’s bedtime visiting and hearing stories about their trip here by way of New Orleans and Pensacola. 

Monday morning the guys took a short dinghy ride.  After that we went just a few blocks from the marina to Christo’s for lunch. Their food is terrific!  So far we’ve not been disappointed.  We took a tour about town and drove around the area.  A little more than we anticipated thanks to their GPS – almost ended up in Orlando!  We finally ended up at Boat Tree Marina where we sat by the pool and enjoyed a few drinks.  We also secured a rental of a 21’ pontoon boat for Tuesday.  On the way back we decided to check out the Sanford Elks Lodge.  It just so happened it was open and drinks were cheap!  Gotta love the Elks!  Of course, while we were there a huge storm hit.  We had to stay a little longer than we intended.  Darn!  More drinks and hey – we even played a little bingo!  J

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day for a pontoon ride down (north) the St Johns River.  After a great breakfast at the Colonial Room, we were off on our adventure.  It’s funny to think we would rent a pontoon!  Of all the boats these two guys have owned a pontoon has not been one of them.  However, it was perfect for what we wanted to do – spend the day cruising the river – a lot more room on it than on our dinghy!  We checked out Riviera Beach (ha!) and went to Swamp House Grill where we had a great lunch.  We even saw a baby owl that hangs around there.  They would put out a fish and he would swoop down and get it right in front of us.  He wasn’t bothered by any of us.  Pretty cool!  We also went up into the Wekiva River near DeBary (the City of Rivers).  We saw a huge gator that didn’t want us to bother him by crossing his path.  He came up to the boat and did a roll!  He was at least 10 feet long.  A granddaddy of them all!  Personally I was glad I was in the pontoon rather than in our dinghy!  He was almost as long as our dinghy! After a great trip seeing old Florida the way it should be seen – we finally had to turn the boat back in.  After all, it was approaching happy hour.  We enjoyed happy hour on NautiNell then off to dinner at Gators (by car).  The food was good and again they had live music.  We’re becoming regulars!  On the way back to the boat we spotted a huge gator on Lake Monroe AND a spectacular sunset.  An end to a great day…..

I finally get to mark something off my bucket list.  Wednesday we went on an airboat ride!  We went to Oviedo about 15 miles from here to the Black Hammocks on Lake Jesup.  Lake Jesup is the most alligator populated lake with an estimate of over 9500 alligators and is one of the largest lakes in Central Florida.  What a great ride!  It’s been a while since Mike and I have gone that fast on a boat!  We saw several gators including two that were nesting.  They were back in the grasses protecting their eggs.  According to our guide – the female guards her eggs for over 90 days until they hatch.  They don’t leave!  They can go up to two years without eating!  However, they seldom do.

After the ride and a cold beer at the Lazy Gator Restaurant we were off on a road trip to Orlando where we’d plan to stop at Lee and Rick’s Oyster Bar for lunch.  Linda and Ray had told us about this place.  It first opened in 1950 and has quite a history.  It is quite a place!  If you sit up at the bar they serve you buckets of oysters and shuck them right there in front of you.  The bar is more like a trough and everything just gets washed or “raked” away.  The four of us put away about two buckets – at least 3 dozen in each bucket!  Debbie and I also had steamed shrimp.  Yum!  Our server or “shucker” I should say was a young girl that was from Bentonville Arkansas!  What are the odds!  Only about an hour away from our home in Joplin!  She was really personable and we had a great time.  We left definitely stuffed!  We made it back to the boat just in time for a nap.  Then it was happy hour again and believe it or not – we cooked bubba burgers on the grill.  Another great day!

We took it easy Thursday.  The plan was for the guys to go back out in the dinghy in the morning.  They wanted to go back up the Wekiva River.  However, that didn’t work out so well.  They got out in Lake Monroe only to have the motor quit.  They had to row back.  Water in the gas was the problem – with all the rain we’ve had we figured that water must have gotten into Mike’s spare gas can.  By the time they got back we were ready for some lunch.  We decided to go to Jax’s for a late lunch and then on to Wekiva Springs State Park (by car).  That way they would have seen the headwaters of the Wekiva River and the ending where it spills into the St Johns.  They would see how clear it starts out.  Hard to believe that it can be so clear just a few miles upriver to only become murky and swampy at the St Johns. We hung out at the park a couple of hours or so.  And guess what – we made it back to the boat in time for Happy Hour again!  Surprise!

Friday morning we had to say our goodbyes.  They had a long drive ahead of them that we know all too well.  It was really great to see them.  I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!

First thing Mike did was check out the motor on the Whaler.  With a change of the fuel filter, bad gas and a shot of starting fluid it’s as good as ever.  After hanging out and resting a bit – we decided to check out the cruise night that is held every Saturday night at Old Town in Kissimmee about 40 miles away.  Linda had told us about it and we owe her big time!  It was a little hectic getting there with the traffic but it was worth it.  Old Town is a fun little area that has an amusement park, several shops and bars and restaurants.  The cool old cars which are from 1974 or earlier are parked all around the area.  At 8:30 p.m. they all line up and parade down the main streets.  How cool is that!  We even found a great spot in front of a bar that had tables and chair outside!  They paraded right by us.  The drive back home wasn’t bad at all and we were home on NautiNell in no time.  The rain even stayed away!

Now we’re hanging out on Sunday afternoon (July 27) not doing much.  Mike has a few odd jobs to do before we leave here.  Ray and Linda will be back here this next weekend.  Looking forward to seeing them.  Guess I’ll end this for now.  But stayed tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”

Back on NautiNell in Sanford Fl

The park and riverwalk across from our marina

A beautiful sunset on the St Johns River

Beating the rain!

Happy Birthday Mikey!

All the snorkelers in the 72 degree water!
The cave is just to the right

This area was beautiful

The walkway through Blue Springs Park

Blue Springs flows into the St Johns River

I love the Spanish Moss

Yes, Mikey can read but he floated the river anyway!

Huge gar among others

Turtle sunning himself - you can't see it here
but an alligator was just to his left

He's in there - you just have to look close

Fourth of July!

Wonderful fireworks - watching
from NautiNell

Wow!

Okay so this is what they call the "beach"
on the river!

We made the best of it!

Swamp Grille - great place!

"Motorboating" on the river

He just struck a pose!

Couldn't believe how close he let me get!

Poolside at Docktails - can you see the storm brewing?

One of the gators that greeted us at
"Gators Riverside Grille"

This is our resident gator here in the harbor

This guy was at Gators too.

Mike checking out the river - thanks
to Ray and Linda for the photo

Oops!  Dinghy down!

Working on bringing her up

She's floating again!

Botanical Garden walkway

It was so pretty here in the gardens

There were so many roses it was hard to
decide which picture to use

Giant Floral Clock

View of the lake in the Gardens

So peaceful and serene

After a great trip home to visit the grandkids and attend Mike’s 50^th High School Class Reunion we’re back on NautiNell.  We have a stowaway with us – my BFF Pam Kelley rode back with us and is spending a couple of weeks.  Hope she knows what she’s in for!  

We arrived tired but happy to be back on NautiNell night late Wednesday night (June 25) after a long two day drive in the “Silver Bullet”.  Thursday was Pam’s first full day on the boat.  We spent it with Ray and Linda bar-hopping.  Big Surprise!  We hit the West End Brewing Co (two for one drinks) first then on to the Fat Rats which is next of Shantell’s.  It rained off and on – so we ducked in to the bar called Little Fish Huge Pond.  Now this was a weird one.  I’m saying it was so weird that we just kept movin’!  Remind me to tell you sometime about this bar.  Can’t put it into words!  J  We ended up at the First Street Bar and then on to dinner at Christo’s.  I highly recommend Christo’s for dinner and most certainly dessert!  Definitely going back there!

Ray and Linda went back home to Murphy on Friday so we were on our own.  It was a pretty lazy day.  We were going to take a dinghy ride but a storm came up.  Little did we know that this was going to become the “norm”.  Rain Rain Rain!  Pam and I did find the Mall one day though.  Had a fun day shopping! 

As the days passed we did find things to do.  We just had to plan them around the rain.  We took the dinghy over to Gators Riverside Bar and Grill – a great little place on the river.  We saw several gators along the way – and they were hanging around the dinghy dock when we were tying up.  That’s a little unnerving!  This place has good food, cold beer and a fun band!  What more could you want?  Just so you know we went back again later on.  Only this time a storm moved in while we were there.  We had to wait out the storm – wind and lightening.  It moved out pretty fast so we ended up having a great ride back home.  Lucky for us!

The bugs did come back for a visit!  At least not as bad as they were when we were traversing the river.  It’s become a habit for Mike though to wash down the boat every morning.  They just seem to be everywhere!  We were told they would be back if we had a north wind.  Even though it’s not common to have a north wind in the summer – we managed to have one pretty much for a whole week! 

We decided it was time to take a road trip!  SO we took the silver bullet to Orlando for the day.  First stop was West Marine.  Of course, that seems to be on every boater’s list.  We had lunch at the Brick House and visited the Church Street Station area.  There wasn’t much going on at either place – probably because it was a Monday afternoon and it was “raining”!  It did let up for a while so we managed to visit the Harry P Leu Gardens (Botanical).  Pam and I really enjoyed it – Mike stayed in the car.  Oh well, you can’t please everyone.  This beautiful garden consists of over 50 acres.  The Leu family was very active in the building of central Florida.  They donated their home to the City of Orlando and it is now a museum on the grounds open to the public.  It was so peaceful and serene.  We were told that there are several weddings and receptions held there.  In fact, our very own Ray and Linda were married there!

After the Botanical Gardens, we made a change in pace and headed to the Orlando Brewery.   This was a neat little place in the industrial part of town.  They had several different type of beers.  They give free tours of the brewery every night – EXCEPT on the 30^th of each month.  Can you guess what the date of today was?  You’re right – the 30^th!  This is their special party date – “Beer Thirty”!  There are several specials but no tour.  Oh well, maybe we’ll hit it again some other time.

On our way back home we stopped at Jax Fifth Avenue Deli and Ale House in Lake Mary.  Don’t let the name fool you – there’s no deli!  But there are 60 different beers on tap!  Nice place  -  will definitely be back here too!

Tropical Store Arthur (soon to be Hurricane Arthur) is wreaking havoc on our plans!  We’re not getting the actual storm but we’re getting the rain!  We had planned to go to the beach and to a minor league ballgame in Daytona but had to change our plans.  So we settled on $1.00 tacos and $4 pitchers at the American Legion and then a ballgame in Sanford.  The team is the Sanford River Rats and play in the Florida College Summer League.  It was fun and cheap!  AND we didn’t get rained out!

On Thursday (July 3) we celebrated Mikey’s birthday!  We grilled ribs for dinner.  It was another lazy day -  thanks to Arthur stirring up the lake we were stuck on land.  Surely things will change around soon.  At least the wind has switched to the south so the bugs are about gone.

Okay so it’s Friday, July 4 and it’s really slow around here.  I’m not sure we’ve ever been in a marina as quiet as this one on such a big holiday.  We are used to lots of things going on – boats going in and out of the marina and parties going on.  Not here!  Hardly any more people here than usual.  Only one exception – MaryAnn who has a 75 foot houseboat on the end of our dock invited us over to her boat for a party.  There were about 40 people there to watch the fireworks.  The fireworks are set off here at the marina only about 150 feet from our boat.  The Harbor shuts down about 8:00 p.m. and doesn’t reopen till about 11:00 p.m. And believe me there are plenty patrol boats out there to be sure you don’t try to sneak in or out!   Needless to say we had a great spot on the front of our boat to watch the fireworks.  We also had a water hose ready just in case.  Good thing the wind was blowing the right direction and away from our boat.  The City of Sanford put on a spectacular show of fireworks.  We weren’t disappointed!

 Finally it looked like we’d have a good weather day so we ventured out in the dinghy back north on the St Johns.  We went quite a ways to the area the locals call “the beach”.  Not really much of a beach – but more like a little mud area where you can beach your boat.  Being the day after the holiday it was a busy place.  We finally saw where “everyone” was hanging out.  We found a place called Swamp Bar and Grille for lunch.  They had wonderful gator tacos.  Now I’ve heard of fish tacos but this one was a first.  It was a pretty cool place once you find it.  It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and we saw lots of gators lurking about.  On the way back we stopped at Docktails Lounge at Boat Tree Marina.  This is the place where you can hang out in their pool too.  We definitely wanted to get in the pool and cool off.  It was a bit crowded but very refreshing.  THEN we noticed the clouds were building - a storm was forming.  We stayed awhile longer until we THOUGHT the stormed had passed around us.  The problem was we still had to cross Lake Monroe.  The storms had pretty much passed but the winds followed.  We decided to give it a try and if it was too rough we’d just turn around.   It turns out that MaryAnn was there too with her boat – a bit bigger than ours.  She had decided to leave at the same time.  Lucky for us!  Pam got in with her and her bunch and Mike and I rode it out in the dinghy.  The waves were at least 3 foot and very bumpy – whitecapping big time!  We tried to stay in her wake but we still were getting a ride!  I held on like I was riding a rodeo bull. Longest eight seconds ever!  Heehaw!  We bounced and banged for what seemed like forever.  Finally we all made it back safe and sound.  Everyone in MaryAnn’s boat was drenched since she was breaking the waves.  We stayed pretty much dry but were definitely worn out!  We had only been back in NautiNell a few minutes when the skies opened up and it began pouring!  We received 3.5 inches of rain in just a few hours and the lightening was crazy!  In between storms Mike would go out and check our whaler and also on Ray and Linda’s dinghy.  The last time he went out to check he found that their dinghy had sunk – motor and all.  It was still hanging by the cables attached to their boat but it was just barely sticking its nose out of the water. 

First thing to do Sunday morning was to recover Dear Abbie (Ray and Linda’s dinghy).  They were still out of town so we needed to take care of it for them.  It wasn’t an easy task and it took quite a while but we managed to get it back up and floating.  Luckily Mike knew what to do with the motor – having sunk at least one before…….  J  Luckily the rain held off until we got it done because after that it rained pretty much all day.  We were able to walk over to the Riverwalk Pizza and enjoy a good pizza.  Linda made it back in time to join us.  I think she was anxious to check on things with Second Noelle. 

Monday was another beautiful day so we decided to make the best of it before the rain would come.  We headed to Blue Springs State Park – by car.  This is a very pretty area where the water is spring fed and it is a crisp 72 degrees!  This spring discharges 104 million gallons of water daily into the St Johns River.  We saw several gators and there were also manatee.  There is also a cave that can be explored underwater that goes down 130 feet.  It was crystal clear water around the cave – a little murky the closer you get to the St Johns – more gators too.   Mike floated down the river – I just couldn’t get myself motivated enough to completely get in the cold water.  Maybe next time if it’s a hotter day.  We got home just in time to head to Jax again for happy hour.  Good planning!

Pam and I made the most of her last day here.  We did some more shopping and stopped at a great little donut shop “Donuts To Go”.  I think I may be hooked.  Anyway we also made one last dinghy ride back to Gators for dinner.  It was a nice trip but we did have to wait out a storm before we could return back to the boat.  Big surprise to everyone!  NOT!

I hope that Pam enjoyed her stay as much as I did.  It was a short two weeks.  Now we’re preparing for a visit from our friends Dick and Debbie.  They’ll be here around the 20^th of July and are staying a few days.  We’re staying here in Sanford till at least the end of July.  After that we’ll see…..  We are tentatively planning to head back north to Jacksonville the first of August – but who knows.

Till next time!

Admiral “C”