The Treasure Coast

From Disney World we went over to the East Coast and stayed around the Treasure Coast area.

The campsite at Sebastian Inlet was great - right on the Intra (they all say "inner" though) coastal waterway. There were quite a few dolphins and a couple Manatees swimming by right in front of us.

They had a playground Hanna liked (another great Jake photo).

One other thing I liked was the fishing - I just watched but it was very different from Alaska fishing. First off - you don't know what you'll catch. They use a throw net to catch Mullet and then use them live (fishing with live bait is illegal in AK), hooked either through the tail or lip to catch something bigger - even a bigger Mullet. The fishing regulations said "If you wade in the schools of mullet, you will get bitten by a shark." Sometimes there were pretty big schools of Mullet panicking on the surface - something big was after them!

This guy caught a Snook right in front of our campsite.

Right about here I realized I liked Florida a LOT more than I remembered...


When we left Sebastion Inlet we headed South and stopped at a couple museums:


The McLarty Treasure Museum is on the site of a 1719 Spanish treasure fleet shipwreck ( the entire fleet wrecked) and full of gold and artifacts. It was pretty interesting - 1500 survivors made it to shore and supposedly one of the boats had the Queen's dowry on it. She wouldn't sleep with the King until she received a pretty specific collection of jewelry that she had specified. What do we call those kind of women again? Anyway, the real good part is that the dowry was lost at sea the year before too!

Then we went to big Mamoo of treasure museums - Mel Fishers. Everything was "Mel Fisher" this and "Mel Fisher" that until Jake and I began to call him Biff Tanner (from Back to the Future...). But really, you can't begrudge the guy. He sold everything he had and spent 16 years finding his first big treasure.

The silver they find in clumps like this - but the gold is so noble that it is pretty much perfect after hundreds of years in the sea....

I couldn't talk them down to $350,000 for this gold piece so it's still there if you want it :-)

I learned a couple very interesting things - have you ever noticed how the old Spanish/Pirate coins are not perfectly round? They were cast round, but then an assayer would nip a bit off to make the weight perfect. And then, people might nip a bit more off the coins that passed through their hands, because who would know? Also, when the sailors got back to Spain, the gold they had was taxed... UNLESS it was jewelry. So there was some pretty gaudy stuff. Chains were popular - see the large chain below. It has about 3/8 inch links. The customs guys must have known they weren't going to wear it. I guess the sailors got off the boat in Spain decorated up like Mr. T to beat the taxman. I wish it were still so easy!

Epcot

We had a good time at Epcot. I never really spent much time there before and it was really cool. The ethnic areas are great and the food is fine, too!

Terra cotta warriors in Chinatown

The kids loved Louisiana (the REAL Louisiana!) and discovered Tabasco sauce so they were glad to see the temporary Epcot Louisiana area.


of course... we'll always have Paris!

DisneyWorld Campground

We had a good time at the Disney Campground. The spots were nice and there was a lot to do - outside movies every night and such. We usually got back pretty late though....



The week before Halloween people decorated their campsites like crazy - lots of really elaborate stuff. Some of the other campers said "Have a Magical Day" instead of "Goodbye" which began to freak me out... :-)

Hanna was more interested in the transportation system than anything else - a perfect day for her was riding the bus to a boat or two and going on the tram...

Palm Trees and Water..Ahhhhhhhhhh.......

This is our 5th day is Fort Myers,Florida. We are finally on the water(bay not ocean but nice) and loving the view of palms, mangroves, blue sky, fluffy clouds, greenish water,and bobbers from the oyster beds..ahhhh.
We went to Sanibel Island. Nice but where are the shells? Lot's of hype, not a lot of great beaches. One beach we went to was nice; gentle waves and a few shells, but nothing to write home about...



We have been having great weather here in Fort Myers, and Fort Myers Beach. Found an interesting store called Shipwreck with some pirate stuff..fun! We also found the cool place where the locals eat --Yucatan Beach Stand--yummy food and KARAOKE !! The kids loved it --very cultural! Lot's of talented people in FMB...

We stopped at a Fruit Market Stand--Lots of fresh fruit..yummy grapefruit, kiwi, plums and honeydew melon.8*P



Today we are driving to Orlando and then picking up David tomorrow am. Then Sat. we start the Disney adventure for a week. After that we might drive to Key West for a couple of days then back to Orlando to drop David off...
Jake will add some pics now..Love to all and a big THANK YOU to my girlfriends at home in Alaska..sorry about the snow guys.. ;*) Julie

Update from Crystal River Florida by Julie

Well, sorry it's taken me so long to update...no internet at Wal-Mart!! :^)

We have been having a fine time... It takes a while to adjust to sharing and being so close but I think we have it down now!

We liked New Orleans but it was pretty commercial--hard to find the history stuff. Cool music everywhere though, WOW!! I also went to Jimmy Buffett's Maritaville store(mecca for me-Julie)(since they were so good-waiting for me) (they also give you a coupon for a free drink to use next door) We spent about an hour there...ahhhh... then I took the kids next store to eat at the Margaritaville Cafe and Hanna was yelling/singing Cheeseburger in Paradise at the top of her lungs..I don't know where she learned all the words-David... They pretty much inundate you with all the songs you know on three huge screens..when you are done eating, they give you a coupon for a free bumper sticker next door at the store you just came from....wow..



Next we drove through Bayou Country on the back roads..New Iberia, Houma etc...the real Louisiana for sure. Nice folks along that road and some of the most beautiful scenery ever!! I'm at the library so I will update the pics later.. We also toured the McIlhenneys Tobasco factory--very interesting and cool..

On to Mississippi, and we went straight into the ocean at Gulfport or right around there-warm as a bath water..

Drove through to Mobile, Alabama-you have to hold the gas pump on when you get gas -hated it- glad it only took a minute to get through Alabama..!

Finally we got to Florida! Pensecola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Perry, tried to see the manatees at Manatee Springs Nat. Park but we are a month early:( On to Cheifland-pouring rain, Inglis and now Crystal River where we are going to camp overnight because we need our water pump looked at in the am at 815am no less!! wow my free time is up!! More later