Travels ... here and somewhere else ....!: Best wishes for 2017 from Florida

It had been a while that we had not traveled by car to Florida...and not in the week between Christmas and New Year. Well, we were surprised by the amount of traffic...from Harrisburg to Florida, lots of standing traffic, accidents, and it was difficult to find accommodations for the night.

We made a stop in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina: it is such a nice place that no matter how often you visit, you have the need to take photos! Irish moss give such a romantic touch to buildings and streets!

Slowly driving south, we made a stop at St Augustine. and had lunch at the brewery close to the water. In 1992, this establishment existed already and we had their pancake breakfast there with a fellow cruiser ...great memories. St Augustine feels like home!

Because we miscalculated our travel days (one too much) we had a spare night before meeting our friends in Fort Myers.

We spent the night at the very comfortable Courtyard Marriott in Stuart, Florida...also on memory lane! Last time we anchored there was to celebrate the year 2000 with many other boaters! There are now mooring balls in the anchorage and so many boats!!!

We arrived in Fort Myers after crossing Florida and going around the Okeechobee Lake. The Big "O" is the largest freshwater lake in Florida! And it is big with its 1,900 km2! Unfortunately, the intense agriculture in this part of Florida (sugar cane among other) is polluting its waters (phosphorus). It is a poor part of Florida as its inhabitants are mostly agricultural workers.

It was great to see our friends Lindsay and Karen upon arrival in fort Myers. It was the last day of the year and they had planned a nice evening with two other friends! It was great not to drive anymore and to just relax with a drink on their deck upon arrival as well as every morning before breakfast.

We had fun times with them, and enjoyed visiting Matlacha, a small community on Pine Island. It is a very colourful "Old Florida" village, home to traditional Floridian cottages, art galleries (see photos of artist gallery Leoma Lovegrove), boutiques, and seafood restaurants!

We had a great seafood lunch at Bert's Bar and Grill(http://www.bertsbar.com/pics-and-video.html...it was delicious!!!

And as time passed, we got merrier and merrier!!!!!

We also had a great time visiting the SIX MILE CYPRESS SLOUGH PRESERVE close by to their home.

We were lucky that day and saw quite a bit of wildlife! Anhinga, sometimes called snake birds abound in this area!

As well as great egrets and blue herons!

And quite a few alligators! Not only did we see their long "foot prints" in the muddy forest but we could observe them silently skimming the waters from the safety of the board walk!

And snakes!! Cottonmouths snakes (vipers)...not the friendly type!

After our stay in Fort Myers we began our camping adventure! Heiner had carefully studied the available sites...we were very lucky to find 3 nights available at the wonderful De Soto park in St Petersburg! A real gem! http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/article/fort-de-soto-park

It was a short stay, but under ideal conditions!!!! Warm days, warm nights, not one bug, and the only wildlife was raccoons, squirrels and feral cats!!! Better than gators or vipers if you are tent camping!!!!

There was so much to see and do in that park! We rode our bicycles on the great biking paths, walk on the beach, ate ice cream, and spent quiet evenings at the tent, feasting on sea food, or chicken. Unfortunately, this blissful stay came to an end with the arrival of the cold front... which brought temperature to less than 10 C for a couple of days. And so, we moved to an hotel in Sarasota. From there, we used the one rainy day to visit the Dali Museum in St Petersburg (only one hour away of Sarasota).

We had seen some works of Dali while in Spain and were curious to visit the collection of the St Petersburg museum, the largest outside of Spain! What a treat! Very surrealist architecture!

As a bonus, we got to revisit the works of Frida Kahlo ; we had already seen some at Toronto's AGO but we enjoyed the small exhibition anyway. The curator had done a nice job of presenting her in a Mexican decor...with flowers, and ceramic pots such as the ones in her beloved Garden of Mexico city.

Downtown Sarasota has some interesting buildings and a sculpture...Heiner was just curious!

We decided to head north after Sarasota ...and booked a B & B in Savannah. We had never really spent much time in that town and so were looking forward to discover its historic district. Trees were green and gave all the parks such a "southern" flair..

We lodged in the Confederate House near Forsythe Park, at the south border of the historic district. The weather was slowly warming up and remained sunny.

Beside the exploration of all the squares of Savannah's historic district, we sampled good food and enjoyed once more fried oysters and calamaris, cozy coffee houses (we liked the Gallery Espresso café best) and enjoyed the happy hour and excellent pizzas of the Mellow Mushroom!

We took a ferry boat to the island in front of Savannah..just for the pleasure of crossing the Savannah river!