So we have now come to my last full day in Florida. I made some comment to Jess about why she doesn't have a state parks pass because we were always pulling cash out to get into all these attractions. She made the point that she usually doesn't visit a different park every day for a week straight. I guess that's a reason. Monday morning we headed up through the forest to St. Augustine; the oldest city in America. It was so beautiful. We started out at the Castillo de San Marcos which overlooked the water. There was really no battle history there but I love wandering around old forts and imaging what life was like for those soldiers. Jess decided to go all first person and lie down on one of their mattresses while everyone else was gathered out front watching the musket demonstration.
This experience led me to think about our other experiences at sites of historical significance: Don't get me wrong, we love national parks, but we have to experience them in our own way (i.e. with no rules).
Later, I wanted a picture on the rooftop so I sat down and had Jess take some and then she says quietly "Kelly you better move, that Ranger is yelling at you" (if you look closely you can see the Ranger in the background). I took cover and was nervous the rest of the time that they had an APB out for me.
I really enjoyed the Fort though. It was huge with lots of rooms to explore and the roof had tons of old cannons that were tinted a really pretty green.
Despite being on the water, the Fort was oppressively hot so we went into the historic part of St. Augustine and came across a wine shop so we decided to go wine tasting. Apparently the wine was made from fruit and not grapes so it was nice and sweet. I tried the raspberry and it was delicious. Too bad I can't carry liquid on the plane. The historic part of St. Augustine reminded me of a movie set. All the facades are straight out of ye old days and the streets are really narrow. By this point we were bitching out from the heat and all I could think of was "why is this the oldest city in America?" I can't imagine being a colonist and disembarking my boat with 8 layers of wool in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity and thinking "Yup, this is it. This is where I want to start my new life" Ugh. My ancestors were smart to stay North. Our next stop was Fort Matanzas (another NPS site). I am now up to 81 out of 392 parks. By the end of this year I would like to hit 100. My life goal is to get to all of them. I wonder if anyone else had done that?
We blew through Matanzas because by that point I was sweating so much my sunglasses wouldn't stay on my face. We rushed down to the dock when the visitor center lady told us the ferry was about to leave. Something was wrong with the big ferry so the rangers had to take the smaller one and we barged our way on it ahead of people that had been waiting there for half an hour or so. Haha. It was just a quick jaunt aross the channel to the Fort. It was a smaller outpost operation of St. Augustine and only two bullets were fired from it.
It was still a really neat little Fort to see and it was integral to keeping the Spaniards out so there was some redeeming historical value. My favorite part was when we were leaving and Jess was totally over the heat. The video is priceless.
On the way out we stopped to climb in some live oak trees. I've always wondered why it was called a live oak because I figured all trees were live but Jess explained to me that they were live because they remain green and "live" throughout winter. I guess an MBA doesn't teach you everything.
We were on our way to being cooked through from the heat and humidity so we tore over to the beach on Anastasia Island. This time it was the Atlantic and I didn't have to worry about sting rays so I went running in Baywatch style. It was cooler and darker than the Gulf Coast but I enjoyed it all the same. Jess was disappointed at the wave size but they were big enough for me. I almost lost my suit a couple times. It's so weird to feel the water pulling away and then be slammed by a wave a few seconds later. I tried to build a sand castle and Jess told me the sand I used was too wet so she took over but she packed it so hard that the sand wouldn't even come out of the bucket. I stole my bucket back and proceeded to make three lovely towers with my wet sand. So there Coastie. A storm was rolling in so we headed back.
I should mention that throughout the week I was there, Jess forced me to watch Veronica Mars. She has been going on about this show forever but I resisted watching it because last time I got sucked into a show I put my life aside and devoted myself to it for a few weeks straight. But OMG I heart Veronica Mars! It's just so interesting. I watched all of Season 1 in FL and have been slowly getting through Season 2 at home. I had a great week in Florida and I would like to thank Jess and her family for all their Southern hospitality.
I had been to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado 3 times so I wasn't as impressed by the size of these sand dunes. However, I was impressed at the sheer cliffs and "ghost forests" that they formed. A ghost forest is when a forest grows but then the dunes take over and starve out the trees to they are "ghosts".
There were really no trails so I hiked over to the shore and the sand just dropped off a cliff so I became a little more cautious. The oddest thing was hiking through the forest and then the trail turns to sand and then you are in the middle of dunes and then there's a Great Lake in front of you. Quite the changing ecosystems. I then hiked over to Sable Falls. They were very picturesque.
My next stop was the Log Slide overlook. Apparently the UP relied on timber, copper and ore for their economy in the past and this area was where a lot of timber was harvested. So I hiked out and I see the following sign
That's right. This park lets people fall down a sheer sandy cliff that apparently was previously used to shove logs down!! I didn't think anybody would actually do it since it takes less than a minute to go down and about an hour to come back up. But of course, there were some idiots doing it. When I stepped out of the forest and onto the sand I was immediately swarmed by flies. I wasn't that concerned until I realized these flies sting! What!? What kind of heinous devil spawn of a fly are these things? I had never heard of killer flies but these things were swarming me and I could barely take any pictures. I barely lasted a minute there and I ran back to my car through the woods like I was on fire. 
The main road through the park was closed for construction so I headed back and took a 12 mile detour down a dirt road. Every roadtrip I'm on I always hit at least one dirt road, usually unintentionally. Luckily, this one wasn't in too bad a shape and it shaved about an hour off the detour I thought I had to take. I then caught another 5 mile long dirt road to a trailhead. I hiked to Chapel Falls. 
The nice thing about Michigan is that it's covered in trees so the hike was nice and shady. The Fall were pretty. I decided to hike 1.5 miles further to Chapel Beach.
There's a really pretty rock (Chapel Rock of course) that sits above the beach. I was walking past it and thought, oh my gosh this is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! It's crystal clear water and there's Chapel Rock and then a little waterfall that runs into Lake Superior and the beach runs along the shore until it hits these beautiful cliffs (the pictured rocks). I started running down to the water and all of a sudden here come the damn satan flies! Now I realized why this beach was nearly deserted. 
I was so hot I dove into the water in my jean shorts and yellow tank top and glasses. I was so disappointed because I wanted to spend some time relaxing at this gorgeous spot but I couldn't escape the flies. After submersing myself as much as possible, I surfaced to leave. I sighted in my shoes and bag on shore and took a deep breath and burst out of the water, ran across the burning sand, grabbed my shoes in one hand and my bag in another and took off running through the forest. I was soaked and my hair was dripping onto my glasses so I couldn't see and my feet were covered in dirt and I was swatting the flies so I got sand and dirt all over me. I'm pretty sure the other hikers thought I was some feral creature running through the forest.
