I was awake pretty early. It is vacation after all. I checked in with home, found out that the bulk of the blizzard was thankfully going to be staying south of home and then started getting ready for the day, which included eating that donut I’d bought in MHT the day before. Unfortunately, it had gotten kinda warm in the trunk of the car, so the glaze had melted off and piled up in one spot, but it was still a very good donut. I also took some pictures of the balcony now that it was daylight.
Then I got dressed for Florida cold. The highs were going to be in the 50s today. But it’s sunny, so it’s basically dream weather after the winter we’ve had!
I headed out to the car and on to my first stop of the day, the ever glamorous, Publix. I picked up a 12 pack of bottled water and some snack food, and then headed for my next stop.
Despite the wind and the cool air, it really was a beautiful morning. It was about a 15 minute drive to the first vacation stop of the day: Coral Cove Park in Jupiter, but it was a very easy drive, and it was very obvious this would be a beach region that I enjoyed.
Once I had parked and rolled up my pants legs into makeshift capris, I headed for the ocean. My goal here was to see some of the limestone formations, but of course I also just took in the sounds of the water and the sunshine. There weren’t a ton of limestone formations, but it was still a pretty interesting place.
About 9:00 I hopped back in my car and drove about a mile up the road to the place that inspired this whole trip: Blowing Rocks Preserve. When I got there, I was very glad I’d gotten there just about opening. People aren’t kidding; the parking lot is miniscule. I parked and started exploring. Blowing Rocks preserve has a tree lined entrance to the ocean, and just down the beach a bit is a larger area of limestone. A) The formations are cool and B) as the tide is coming in, these rocks turn into blowholes. I had chosen today, because high tide was the earliest it would be this week, so I’d get to experience it coming in. This was a great choice, although I’d happily go here at low tide to see the formations from below.
I was here for a couple of hours. The power of water is just amazing, and watching it interact with the rock was incredible. I’d go here again in a heartbeat. I can only assume every visit would be unique.
When I was done on the beach side of life I crossed the street to the visitor center and a brief boardwalk along the intercoastal. This was boring in comparison to what I’d just seen, but always good to check it out.
Back in the car, I headed a few miles down the road to lunch to the Square Grouper Tiki Bar. This was an excellent choice. Super casual place: order at the bar, grab a seat at any of the tables either under cover or outside in the sand under palm trees, with a view of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, then pick up your food when it’s ready. I had a coconut mojito and a mahi sandwich and obviously chose to eat outside. The food and drink were excellent and so were the views. I would totally go back here.
After lunch, I headed to my last tourist stop of the day, the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. Here they take in an average of 5000 or more sick or injured wild animals from around Florida a year and rehabilitate all that can be. They have animal exhibits open to the public of animals that are not able to be rehabilitated enough to return to the wild. I had the wrong timing for any of the presentations, but still enjoyed walking around watching some of the animals in the sunshine.
Animals observed and cell phone battery dying, I headed back to the hotel to recharge for a bit before dinner.
Dinner tonight was at the Thirsty Turtle, which I was able to easily walk to from my hotel. I had a margarita with pomegranate schnapps that was pretty good and a grouper sandwich that was decent. Would this place be on my list of restaurants to repeat? Probably not. Did it do the job for tonight well enough? Yes.
Dinner consumed, I headed back to the hotel where I caught up on life at home (where, thankfully they had only gotten a few inches of snow) and crashed fairly early. It had been a good first day of vacation!
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