Today my alarm went off early. But it was the first night I’d slept legitimately well in months, and I was groggy, so I quickly turned the alarm off, decided that good sleep was more valuable right now than seeing the sunrise over the ocean, and went back to sleep for a bit.
Eventually I got up and moving. Once I was ready, I headed out and walked to breakfast at the Juno Beach Cafe. This was right next to the Thirsty Turtle, so it was an easy walk from the hotel. When I got here, I was seated right away on their covered, mostly enclosed patio.
Breakfast here was decent. I had cinnamon roll french toast. It was more french toasty than when I’ve had the same thing elsewhere, but it was still really good. Service was very good too. A good start to the day, and really nice to not have to drive anywhere. Taking a left out of my hotel was…not the easiest.
After breakfast I walked back to the hotel and finished getting ready for the day. Once places were actually opening up for the day, I hopped in the car and made the pretty easy drive to Loggerhead Marine Center.
Loggerhead Marine Center is a turtle rehabilitation facility. They have a few other sea creatures there too, but turtles are their big thing. They rehab sick and injured turtles, and have different tanks for turtles based on where the turtle is at in its rehab process. It’s a mostly open-air set-up for visitors. I had a great time watching the turtles and listening to the various volunteers and staff talk about the individual turtles and their needs. And, surprisingly, I saw a whole bunch of turtles that had been rescued from Cape Cod, when they’d become cold-stunned at the start of winter. Apparently there’s an adolescent age-range where this tends to happen, and Loggerhead Marine Center gets a bunch of these turtles from the Cape every winter.
After a really worthwhile visit here, I hopped in the car and headed to my next destination, the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. Emphasis on museum for me, because I can’t do spiral staircases. Regardless, this was a beautiful property, with some great small museums, and great docents working there. I enjoyed my visit here a lot.
Lighthouse explored, it was time to go to the beach! I really wanted to capture just how blue that water is midday. Also, it had made it into the mid 70s so why wouldn’t this New Englander want a bit more time in the sun?! I parked at the pier parking lot again (still a decent amount of open spaces midday!), but walked over to the next beach entrance down from the pier. I did some picture taking, and just enjoyed sitting in the sand taking it all in.
While on the beach, I did some thinking about how I wanted the rest of my last day of vacation to go. When I was ready, I hopped in the car and headed out for an early dinner. My intent was to go back to Square Grouper, because that had been so good and the weather was so nice, but the parking lot was totally full, so I switched it up, parked in a nearby lot, and walked over to Guanabanas.
Guanabanas was not a mistake. This is an all outdoor restaurant. With guidance from the hostesses, I grabbed a high-top table and had a very enjoyable early dinner. I had a coconut mojito (with more than the happy hour cost of the drink in mint) and a bbq chicken sandwich that involved plantains. It was all excellent. The atmosphere was enjoyable. And the service was decent. It was a perfect end of vacation dinner spot.
Dinner eaten, I headed back to the hotel, where I read on my balcony until the sun went down, then packed my suitcase. This last full day of vacation had been a great one!
