Anastasia State Park... Reprise

Yes we do visit Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine FL fairly frequently both as volunteers and visitors.  

Salt Run
Looking  north from the boardwalk

Why not, it is a beautiful park, a bicycle ride over the Bridge of Lions to the "old city", a bicycle ride to visit many friends and family, and simply a good place to hear the ocean roar.

Bridge of Lions
Bicycles must still ride with traffic
Usually people are courteous

View of town and docks from the bridge

And spending my entire life, up to college, living under the shadow of the lighthouse (left in the picture background) this is 'home' for me. Walking along the paths and trails allowed time to recall childhood adventures through the Salt Run hills.   

Wooded trails

Finding gopher holes let me know the tortoise population is recovering.  They were a popular protein source for my ancestors, probably because they were plentiful and easy to capture... but not easy to clean or prepare.  However, the biggest threat proved to be a lack of habitat due to human encroachment.

Now this is a gopher hole!

Spending time by the water is always special and each morning my goal was a walk on the beach, woods, or old coquina quarry.  It was somewhat nostalgic as I grew up clamming in Salt Run, body surfing along the beach, pulling the mullet sack behind my dad as he fished in the sloughs.  Towards the end of our stay we walked the entire beach to the jetty around 8 miles round-trip.

March winds blowing
sand from the dunes to the ocean
Mother Nature will sculpt the land!

This was March which has a reputation for being windy and often damp and foggy.  The coast did not disappoint as it provided a wide variety of weather during our stay... temperatures from 38 to 94 but not all on the same day, bright sun to heavy rains, dead air to wind that felled several old branches, and clear moon lit nights to pea soup foggy mornings.

Damp road rising over the hill
Yes it did rain several days

Exit from our campsite loop
on a beautiful day

And spring means new growth with flowers, seeds, and pollen.  This is the time of year the budding oak leaves push out the old brown leaves from the previous year.  The oaks bloom and every thing is covered with brown leaves along with yellow and green pollen.

Spring time Oak Flowers
Lovely to view

Spring time ferns

Now, we had a lovely campsite at the park.  The back yard trails led to the campfire circle/amphitheater which allowed several interesting walks with our cats. 

Our back yard

And the site was wide enough for Bill to build fires and play the banjo.

Bill playing our new
Mike Coleman banjo
at the campsite