4/8 Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Historic Spanish Point

I've been driving for several days in a row and recovering from a bunch of infected mosquito bites that required me to go to urgent care a few days ago, so I am late getting several items posted.  I have downloaded photos, so hope I can get them sorted and posted by later tonight.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I visited the second of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.  This one is several miles south of Sarasota along the Gulf of Mexico, at a place called Spanish Pointe.  It originally consisted of a large family compound with several homes and was donated to the botanical gardens because of its location and variety of plants. 

I parked my big motorhome at the entrance parking lot, and started walking, following the signs below. 

What I did NOT know was that I had parked at the public library lot, which acted as an overflow lot for the botanical gardens.  This meant that I had a very long walk to the real parking lot and entrance!! (They gave me a ride in a golf cart on the way back.)

 

 

There is a lot of walking in this botanical garden even when you DO get to the right parking lot and entrance booth!  One of the first buildings I found was what had originally been a garage and utility building, but was now an archeological museum.   

 

Ancient peoples also lived in this area, particularly on the peninsula where these homes are located.  Because this Gulf here was loaded with oysters, the ancient peoples picked thees up from the shallow water and ate them in groups on the peninsula, building up a "midden" of shells over hundreds and thousands of years.  Such middens are common throughout the world and became the foundations for living structures, including this building.  (See also the Neolithic community of Skara Brae that I visited in Scotland that is built into a midden: https://2022humongousukadventure.blogspot.com/2022/06/616-ferry-to-orkney-visit-to-skara-brae.html )

 

 

On the left, behind the glass, is a section of the oyster midden here.

And a closeup of the shells in the midden.  Lots and lots of meals of oysters eaten here! 

This is the end of the peninsula looking out over the waterway and homes in the distance.

 

 

Another home at the end of the peninsula.  

 

 

Another view looking down the peninsula. 

The main home was located about halfway back along the peninsula, and has a lovely, formal garden.

The house is now used as a restaurant, serving very good food. 

After a pleasant lunch, I headed back down the trail to another part of the gardens.

This area has a lot of mangroves and also oyster beds.

This is part of an aqueduct that the owner had built to provide water for her fountains.

 

 

Another one of the homes.  This one was open to the public to view the inside, however.

 

 

Very interesting crooked tree in the yard!!

 

 

While there is not much original furniture, other than the hand-carved bed seen here, the paneling is gorgeous.  I am guessing it is cypress.

 

 

Most of the paneling is just straight-grain wood, but the "curly" cypress on the stairs is amazing!!

It was a pleasant day with a cool breeze coming off the Gulf.  Before air conditioning, homes of the well-to-do in Florida were built along the coast for those breezes and also because originally, it was easier to get to them via boats than roads, which were mostly lacking back then.   

4/1 John McArthur State Beach

Trying to catch up with posts, but it takes me a long time to download photos from my camera, go through them and select ones that tell my story, but are not blurry or redundant.  The following photos are from a quick visit I made to this state park, located on the Atlantic, about 8 miles north of West Palm Beach and 10 miles south of Jupiter, Florida.  I like it because there is a lot of good parking for my motorhome, and there is a very nice boardwalk that goes over a lagoon and ends up on the beach.  Also, most days of the week, there is a shuttle that will take you on the part of the boardwalk that goes over the lagoon.  

Can't complain about this parking lot, other than it being the farthest from the visitor center and boardwalk. 

 

This is the shuttle pickup point near the visitor center.  

This is a very long boardwalk, so it is nice to catch a ride to the opposite side!!

 

 

The shuttle turns around here to head back to the visitor center.

But, the boardwalk continues on for couple hundred feet to the beach.  

I found a nice bench at the top of the boardwalk, overlooking the beach, so I sat down and spent a comfortable hour in the breeze.  Note that the red flag means swimmers need to stay out the water because of a riptide that day. 

This is a flock of pelicans that flew overhead.  I did not have time for the auto-focus to actually focus on the birds, so was amazed that this photo turned out as well as it did. 

Heading back to catch shuttle to parking area.

The Nature Center and Visitor Center.  You can rent a kayak or canoe here and borrow life jackets if you want to go out on the lagoon. 

I felt a little windblown on this sunny and windy day.  Even with my glasses darkening, my eyes felt really dry, so I need to bring some eye drops next time.

3/28 Back at St. Lucie Lock & Dam

I'm back at St. Lucie Lock & Dam for a couple of weeks.  It's never boring here because there are always different and interesting boats going through the locks.  

First, some of the boats going through the locks. 

This tugboat has gone through several times, mostly pushing barges full of equipment.

 

This boat spent the night in the river because it missed the lock's closing time.  I thought it was cute!  

There were also several boats tied up in the campground boat area.  Each has electric and water service. 

This building is rented out for family events, but the boats who are parked here for several days, also use it as a group meeting area.  There is a fire pit and grill here also. 

This time I got one of the three sites overlooking the river.  Nice view!  My rig is in the middle.

 

 

There are also three tent camping sites.  

 

No one home in this gopher tortoise den right now.  

 

Someone is home in this burrow.  There were at least 10 burrows in this small campground!  

 

Adult gopher tortoises have a shell about 12-14" long and 6-8" wide.  They are a lot taller than river turtles, and almost never need to drink water.  They will spend all their lives in woodsy areas with easy to dig in sand for their burrows.  They are federally protected because a lot of other animals use their old burrows for homes.  They live about 75 to 90 years.  

 

You can easily recognize a gopher tortoise home by the pile of sand in front of it.  This guy was suspicious of having his picture taken. 

 

This guy was on his way in a hurry.   It is surprising how fast they can move. 

Notice that he or she is eating something orange.  I came back later and took this photo of some kind of palm fruits that he had been eating. 

Notice in the photo above that some are brown and others are orange and ripe.  She/he seemed to be enjoying this orange one that was ripe. 

A close-up of the fruits under the tree. 

 

And this is the palm tree they had come from.  

I had noticed an old road or hiking path at the far end of the campground that followed the river, so on one slightly cooler day, I decided to walk down it.  Following are some photos of that walk, which turned out to be 2/3 of a mile each way--a lot longer than I had expected! 

Can you see the transparent wings on this guy?

At the end was a boat docking area for a nearby subdivision. 

The walking did not bother me that day, but after a long drive the next day, I could barely walk because of my sore muscles.