October 15, 2021

October 15, 2021

This morning we drove from St Augustine back over to Anastasia Island and then south to its southern tip where we found Fort Matanzas National Monument. Matanzas is Spanish for slaughter and that is what they did to a group of shipwrecked French Protestant Huguenots who were trying to colonize Spanish Florida. They only spared a handful who professed to be Catholic. This is also the site of a small Coquina Fort built to protect the back entrance to St Augustine.

The small outpost is across the inlet on Rattlesnake Island. Since we are early we easily get a ticket for the Park ferry. Because of Covid the ferry is restricted to twelve passengers. Most of today’s tickets are allocated in the first minutes we are here. Since the National Park is a government organization, the Visitor Center is closed to 'protect' me.

At 9:30 our group loads onto a pontoon boat and we make the five-minute crossing. The veteran ranger gives a thirty-second somewhat-forced history lesson. She should be retired. The volunteer ranger driving the boat is a fireball and makes the experience come alive. He has two little girls raise the flag. He also demonstrates how the cannon are targeted. If it wasn't for him the visit to this tiny outpost would have been a snoozer.

Back on the road, we drove ninety minutes south to Canaveral National Seashore. This part of the Florida coastline was protected during the Kennedy administration when this area was chosen to host our Space Program. In the Apollo Visitor Center, we learn they won’t show us the park film even though we are the only visitors.

At the first parking lot we spend some time walking the beach. This is one of Aimee’s favorite activities. On the way out of the park we stop at Turtle Mound. This huge hill or midden is built of a vast number of discarded shells. There is probably a story about why the Indians built these mounds but there is not a storyboard to be found. Apparently the NPS planned to upgrade the signage. They took down the old signs but they have no idea when the new ones will arrive, if ever. Our government at its finest. I could write a book.

From Canaveral we worked our way around and south of Kennedy Space Center to Cocoa Beach. When I was a child one of my favorite TV shows featured Larry Hagman as an astronaut living in Cocoa Beach. So we had to stop at a local park that sits on I Dream of Jeannie Lane.

After checking into our beachside hotel, Aimee and I don our bathing suits and have a couple teal-colored ‘Lime in the Coconut’ drinks poolside. Last night we celebrated Aimee’s last day as a young hottie. Today we are drinking away her new senior citizen status.