At Home at Hanna

Our month of beachfront living in St. Augustine came to a close at the end of the month. We are now back at Hanna Park in Jacksonville so PJ can fly out of Jax Airport one more time to file taxes and see to some matters in Rhode Island. We are back nestled in the shady oak grove by the sea.

The first few days we experienced some spring rains as another cold front quickly passed through. The ambience is a bit different this time at the park. Being spring break, there are a lot more kids and youngsters running around. But things have still been pretty quiet at night in our corner of the woods.

Frat boys whacking golf balls into the frothy sea

Cali’s been having a little gastric distress so we’ve been sticking close and keeping an eye on her. Yesterday, we went to an ‘As Bill Sees It’ meeting in Mayport and then got in a little workout at Planet Fitness. The sun returned in the late afternoon but it was still chilly. We went for a windy walk down the beach and watched some young guns surf the sloshing waves out front and battle the strong southbound current. We talked for a while in the evening with some friends we made down at Bryn Mar who are also camping here and visited with our neighbor from Tennessee who has turned out to be a really funny guy. On one late night foray with Cali I spotted the biggest armadillo I’ve ever seen grubbing around in an empty campsite down near the lake.

Today started out at a relaxed pace. PJ was all business most of the morning, paying bills online and making phone calls and appointments. I went for a bike ride around the park, starting at boardwalk 11 then slowly making my way down to the poles stopping at each beach area to see what is going on. Near the abandoned lifeguard building, I took a little closed off road that led to a burned out pavilion that had been shuddered for some time. A huge osprey came wheeling by with a big fish wiggling in his talons. I tried to take a picture but I was too busy staring and shooting photos of a blank blue sky as he came right past my head. Ospreys are awesome. That’s my scientific conclusion.

We sat in the sun in front of the RV eating lunch, relaxing and playing a few tunes on the guitar. We are surrounded by birds of all kinds. Big woodpeckers, tiny little songbirds that fearlessly flit around underfoot and hummingbirds looking for a good meal. In this area of the forest, there is a family of owls that rule the canopy. PJ first spotted the pair mating back when I was in California. Now they are watchfully guarding a nest back in the north end of the woods.

In the afternoon, we rode over to a hidden boardwalk that few people use and headed out to hunt for shark teeth. The beach had a good crowd of people out enjoying the sunshine. The wind kept things cool but some hearty souls were still skinning it in the chilly wind blown ocean. We killed a couple of hours wandering around the sand. I found the biggest tooth yet and another cool little brown one. Most of the teeth we find are fossilized black ones so these were a bit different. PJ found two good sized specimens as well. Nature abounds at Hanna. We watched anoles going green to brown on the wooden decking and pelicans surfing the air pockets above the waves. Large flocks of cormorants pass overhead every so often heading north. It was a peaceful way to spend the afternoon until we started getting chilled.

Starting off green

I think I’ll go brown

Cali kept wanting to explore the park, so we went for a couple of long walks getting some extra exercise and getting a peek at what the other campers were up to. She goes to the vet tomorrow for a check up to get her meds refilled and an overdue toenail clipping. We’ll see how the Atlantic Beach vet works out.