a floridays journey

a floridays journey

Springtime On The First Coast

Living in the slow lane allowed us time to visit St Augustine again prior to our Georgia excursion. Anastatsia State Park was our first stop, which I had booked over a year ago as it is one of the most difficult parks to reserve a campsite. Last year we got lucky by just continuing to check the park reservation site for openings. It was nice to be back. Springtime weather in Florida is always a unknown, there can be hot sunny days, clold windy days, or what we call Chamber of Commerce days where the weather is just right, barely does it rain. We had a little of everything. We camped for 4 nights and it was not enough time. We thought we would get to downtown St Augustine but we only got as far as the Alligator Farm just outside the park to see the nesting birds in the rookery. There were Spoonbills and Great Egrets nesting. Widespread Panic was at the ampetheater for 3 nights and we could hear there music from the campsite. They sounded really good. We were able to get to the farmers market again and it was twice as large as when we were here in October.

The more you know: Florida’s First Coast is the Atlantic coast of North Florida in the United States. It is the same general area as the directional region of Northeast Florida. It consists roughly of the counties abutting Jacksonville: Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau, and St. Johns—and nearby Flagler County and Putnam County. The “First Coast” name originated in a marketing campaign in the 1980s, and has become part of Florida’s regional vernacular. It is so named due to its history as the first European settlement in what is now the mainland United States, at Fort Caroline, Florida, in 1564.

Wildlife Sightings: Blad Eagle, Wood Storks, White Pelican, Pileated Woodpecker, Ibis, Black Vulture, Gopher Tortoise, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, Osprey, Hawk, Dolphin, Little Blue Heron, Brown Pelicans, Great Egret, American Oystercatchers, Spoonbills




Nature Moments

Wind swept beach


Note: All photos and videos unless otherwise stated are property of Wayne and Margaret Shoemake. If you would like to use any of them please email us at [email protected].



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