Adventures in Florida 2008: Part 1

Well, we have only been in Florida a couple days and already it has been adventure.

Our drive from Colorado to Florida took about 30 hours, and when we arrived Saturday evening we were completely exhausted! After a good nights sleep, we decided that it would be relaxing to take a trip to St. Augustine beach. We drove through downtown St. Augustine, parked, and walked up by the Casa Monica and than ended up at A1A Ale Works for lunch on the balcony. They have the best ale and cheddar soup, so it's super important that our once a year trip to Florida includes a stop by A1A. There was a slight breeze coming off Mantasas Bay and the temp. was a glorious 78 degrees. It felt just incredible, and I thought I could've sat there forever.

We finished up at A1A and walked by the Lightner Museum to pay a visit to the koi in the museum's courtyard. After taking many pictures of the brightly colored koi and than getting the "I'm bored" look from Jeremy, we walked back to the car for a ride to the beach.

We kicked off our shoes and hopped out of the 4Runner. It wasn't too long before we met up with what would become our first big adventure. As we walked there was a huge brown pelican on the shore. I was holding my breath hoping that it would stay put and I could take its picture. We kept getting closer and than finally it started waddling toward us and flapping it's wings. We took off down the beach. Later on, when it was time to walk back to the truck, we saw the pelican attacking a guy on his bicycle. It was biting his leg, and when we walked up it went towards Jeremy. It latched onto Jeremy and tried a sawing action on his wrist. His fingers went inside his throat sack and than Jeremy pulled out his hand. After that experience we decided we were done at the beach, and besides, Jeremy needed to wash and disinfect his hand. Back at the house, we had a great story to tell, and the pictures to prove it!

I don't think that I will ever feel the same about pelicans again.

Merry Christmas, Monica