Florida trip- Day 4!!!

Today we spent the day exploring around in Ocala National Forest. I was searching for the illusive Praying Mantis! My friend out in California, Cindy, from Bug Safari challenged me to possibly find one in Florida! Since I've not seen one in years and years in south Florida, I thought I would look around in North Florida. I even stopped in at the ranger station to inquire about them, and the best I could get from two different rangers was that you have to be patient, they show up very sporatically, and one of the rangers has seen both the "walking stick" varieties and the green Praying Mantis' in her own yard!!! This was encouraging to hear! YEAH...they are alive here!

The only thing worthy of a picture today (it was another lightly drizzly rainy day)...was this lovely, juicy looking caterpiller! Sadly I do not know what type of tree I found him in...maybe someone recognizes the leaves??? I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to I.D. it, and to no avail! I was both creeped out and intregued by these unbelievable creatures! I really HAVE TO KNOW what this type of caterpillar is, and what it will turn into! If anyone out there can I.D. it...please let me know!!! Maybe you, Cindy??? The body is smooth with bands of yellow, black, yellow stripes and each set of that is separated by a bristly orange hairy section! Click to make it big to really see close!

Tomorrow we head home...and I get to see my Doozey dog again! I did buy her a chewy toy/treat at a cute little pet shop in St. Augustine...a corn cob shaped Nylabone chewy thing that is supposed to be good for their teeth...It smells like bacon...I hope she will like it!

I got the smallest one here just for my sweet baby girl!!!
See ya later everyone!
Julie

OLD cemeteries for you, Claude!!! LOL!

As promised...two cemeteries from St. Augustine, Florida. These are some REALLY old dead people!!!!! This is not something I would normally take pictures of, but I had to get these for you, Claude. Hubby and daughter got in on the fun of finding them for you too!!! LOL!

Florida trip--- Day 3, with fungus,bugs, crabs and flowers!

As we aproached St. Augustine...just outside of town was this restaurant with the same name as my grandson! We had been looking forward to having lunch at a little Irish place in the old part of town, but when we saw this we had to stop! It was excellent, and I am already dreaming of taking my little grandson, Donovan there soon!!!

We left there and headed into town and ran into Fort Mose. Hidden away in the marshes of St. Augustine, Florida is one of the most important sites in American history: the first free community of ex-slaves, founded in 1738 and called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose or Fort Mose (pronounced Moh-Say).

More than a century before the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves from the British colonies were able to follow the original "Underground Railroad" which headed not to the north, but rather south, to the Spanish colony of Florida. There they were given there freedom, if they declared their allegiance to the King of Spain and joind the Catholic Church.

Fort Mose was the northern defense of St.Augustine, the nation's oldest city.
It was here, on a boardwalk out over marshy land, that I discovered these fungus, bugs, and crabs! First...a beautiful tree limb covered with a white fungus whose name I have not had time to investigate yet! It is just beautiful.

This spider was so beautiful also gleaming in the sunlight. He was fairly large, but yet just out of reach for the camera lens! His body and legs had markings of red, black and yellow.

I believe this is a Cicada. We could hear them out in the trees farther out on the boardwalk. I grew up with this summer sound all in my neighborhood, and we actually used to play with these things when I was a kid. LOL...it was torture for the poor cicadas...we would tie strings around their necks and fly them around the neighborhood. One little boy across the street was the brave one who would touch them and tie them up! Oh, gosh, I can't believe that we used to do that!!!

We found a ba-jillion crabs out in the dark muck at the end of the boardwalk! My daughter got very excited (normally she hates outdoor adventures)...but she LOVED finding these crabs! Here is a far away shot where you can see how proliferative they were.

You can see one giant claw in this pic...but there were actually about 4 crabs in the frame of the shot! They would scurry down in their holes, or be hidden by the grasses. There seemed to be black fiddler crabs, and then whatever kind these were with the white/fleshy colored claws! They would stick just their claws straight up out of the mud and pinch with them...it was comical to see so many doing the same thing. I believe my grandson will have to see this as well!!!

A close up of Crepe Myrtle flowers.

A gorgeous grape vine draping down over a place along St. Georges Street in the old part of St. Augustine...in the rain!

AND...last, but not least...a gorgeous bunch of flowing Periwinkles where we stopped to get a latte at a Dunkin Donuts...I could not resist getting a picture!

I got some shots of two old cemetaries in St, Augustine (these are some OLD dead people in the oldest city on the U.S.)...will try and get them posted in the morning (for Claude, of course...LOL).

Happy Cactus Monday from Fernandino Beach, Florida!

Well, I am barely slipping my Cactus Monday post in under the wire as it is now 9:45pm on Monday! We are tucked into our hotel, and I have uploaded my photos from today. Oops...the bear snuck back into the car with us again while we were not looking.

My husband has a "thing" for checking out prisons...especially big state ones, like Florida State Prison at Raiford. Weird, I know, but true...so we saw the buildings surrounded by rolls of razor wire at the top, and then we were on our way again...

McClure's Hill was on Amelia Island, and I thought the marker story was very interesting...if you click on the picture you can read it easier!


a cool looking Prickly Pear next to a fence that had the top rail of it (a chain link fence) covered with sea shells!!! These homes were beach homes on Fernandino Beach. I thought this cactus, which my husband spotted, BTW, was neat looking because it was covered with the white areas where the flowers had fallen off, and now the fruits are developing! They were arranged in a pretty pattern, I thought!

How do you like this house we discovered there that was shaped like a boat??? Pretty cute! It was literally right across the street in a subdivision, from the intracoastal waterway! What a great view from your "boat-house"!!!

I had to take a picture of this staicase up to an art gallery in downtown Fernandina...for all you artists out there!!! Sadly we did not have time to walk up! I would have had time, too, if I would have been by myself ya know!!! Hmph!!!

Happy Cactus Monday to all!!!

Trip around Florida, Day #1

We got a late start out the door today...not wanting to hurry, and especially ME NOT WANTING TO LEAVE DOOZEY!!! My Mom is watching her for us, or I swear, I could not leave her!! It was rough...a lot of blubbering on my part. I suppose it is just because she is so small, and CUTE, and just my little sweetheart...but the fact is that she has turned me into a blubbering idiot!!! I miss her already! LOL!

I swear I do not know what the name of this town was (well, it wasn't really a town)...just a restaurant on a road in the middle of the sticks somewhere in mid Florida...HA!


This was the cutest little place one could ever see, complete with the smokehouse just pouring out a delicious smell! It came right out to the street and entered our nostrils and man, we HAD to turn around and get some of that!!!

It was the biggest rip off ever! The restaurant at some point had boiled down to just a few little tables inside, and the rest was a huge movie rental and arcade! We laughed, but still stayed for a BBQ pork sandwich...it was very mediocre...I did not eat the bun...not worth eating in my estimation. Fun building to take pictures of though!

Then we visited the Dade Battlefield State Park, in Bushnell, Florida. This was a wish of my hubby's to get to see. It was very interesting and beautiful with all of the old oak trees with loads of spanish moss hanging down! Very romantic! There was a visitors center with a lot of information and two very knowledgeable rangers. We watched a 12 minute video about the battle and it was so well made...bringing emotions into the whole thing...and being able to actually feel the emotions on both sides...between the Seminole Indians and the U.S. Army...again, I blubbered. One of the park rangers divulged to me that he too is overcome with emotion (to the point of tears) each year when they do the reinactment of the battle! They actually had a cannonball that had been found in a neighboring yard where someone was out gardening and discovered it there under the dirt...it weighed 6 pounds and was approx. 3 inches in diameter...quite heavy!

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According to Wikipedia:
Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is a Florida State Park located on County Road 603 between I-75 (Exit 314) and U.S. 301. The 80-acre (320,000 m2) park includes 40 acres (160,000 m2) of pine flatwoods and a live oak hammock. Also called the Dade Massacre site, It preserves the Second Seminole War battlefield where Seminole Indian warriors fought soldiers under the command of Major Francis L. Dade on December 28, 1835. Each year, on the weekend after Christmas (as close to the original date as possible), the Dade Battlefield Society sponsors a reenactment of the battle that started the Second Seminole War.

Dade Battlefield Historic Memorial, it is also a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
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As per usual, hubby and daughter are taking a little nap before we go out for dinner...and I am up doing SOMETHING!!! LOL! I might fall asleep sometime before 2am! Se you all tomorrow!
Julie