03-03-2019 A Few Days at Mayport

Current Location: Pelican Roost RV Park, Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville, Florida

Cloudy and humid at 66 degrees F at 9AM

Our time here at Pelican Roost RV Park has been a bit low key.  Some of that is due to Mo’s less than perfect knee, but she has been plugging along reasonably well.  We are now taking turns walking the dog, and we have managed a few beach walks as well.

Even a dull gray day Mattie loved the beach at Mayport NAS

The other limiting factor in our adventures this week has been the weather.  We love outdoor stuff, mostly kayaking  and hiking. While there have been breaks in the gloomy weather, most of the days are foggy in the morning, gloomy during the day, and almost always with a prediction of rain ranging from 20 percent to 100 percent.  Not good kayaking weather.

One of the nicer amenities here at Mayport is the great view of the St John River and all the passing vessels coming and going.  The other amenity we came to appreciate more as the week progressed is the lovely beach, stretching for as far as the eye can see.  It is quiet and uncrowded, clean and peaceful. One morning we managed to get down to the beach in time for the sunrise.  Being from the west coast, sunrise on the beach is something we never see, and it was beautiful.

Atlantic Beach

Our adventures have been more connected to the car than usual, but we have managed to do some exploring in this area that was interesting.  I will say up front, that I am not particularly enamored with this part of Florida. It isn’t quite as crowded as the more southern parts of the Gulf side of Florida, but it isn’t even close to the Old Florida charm of the limestone backbone of the state around Ocala and Gainesville. 

This part of Florida certainly isn’t a bad place to be when almost the entire country is encased in snow and ice, blizzards, floods, storms and horribly cold temperatures.  I am glad we are here and not complaining in the least.  Just sayin’ I would choose North Central Florida over the Atlantic side of Florida.

Mom runners on Atlantic Beach.  Dedication!

On our first full day here, we decided to do a bit of reconnaissance and traveled south on A1A toward Atlantic Beach.  One of the better parts of Florida beaches is that many of them are actually dog friendly.  I had no idea about this, since most of the beaches in the state parks do not allow dogs, even on leashes.

Reading about the dog friendly sands at Atlantic Beach, just a bit south of us here in Mayport, was all we needed to pile into the Tracker with the dog and head for the beach.  The skies were sunny, and the breeze was a bit cool, but the walk was wonderful.  We saw a few people walking the beautiful beach, but not nearly as many as I expected to be out on this lovely day.

Beach parking in Atlantic Beach consists of a couple of spaces at every cross street that ends at the beach, with 15th street having the most spaces.  We were lucky to find an open spot on 14th street near some rather lovely beach homes. 

Beach homes at Atlantic Beach

Something that doesn’t show in the nice photo is the damp, moldy, musty smell that accompanied our walk from the car to the beach.  Lots of water here, and lots of humidity.  Of course that damp smell is to be expected.

Atlantic Beach in the vicinity of 14th Street

Mattie loved walking the beach as much as we did.  It was a gorgeous, long stretch of sand that extended north to the base that we could barely see in the distance and south as far as the eye could see.

Our next stop for the afternoon was  Dutton Island Preserve, where we read that the trails are open to dogs with leashes, and there was a kayak launch. The afternoon had warmed beautifully, the winds abated a bit and the sun felt wonderful.

Kayak launch at Dutton Island

We found the kayak launch where some fishermen were working their lines, but the tide was out and the launch looked rather uninviting with all that mucky mud.  Kayaking in a salt marsh can be interesting, but not necessarily during mid afternoon in hot sun.  It didn’t excite either of us, and we decided to simply explore the preserve a bit, and save our kayaking for areas that might entrance us more than this one.

Look close. That is me at the base of that huge trunk, see the blue shirt?

I did love the huge old oaks at the park.  There were walk-in campsites, and a lovely pavilion for picnicking. Once again, wildlife was almost absent, and even in the muddy shoals we didn’t see any alligators and very few birds.

Fishing boardwalk at Dutton Island

On another day, we decided to drive north, using the St John Ferry to save 20 miles on the route toward Amelia Island.  I have heard of Amelia Island since forever, and am pretty sure I have read a few novels from the famous getaway.  Long ago I imagined it as a high end ritzy place that catered to wealthy easterners.  Lately I have read about the wild parts of Amelia Island, and thought it would be fun to see what it had to offer.

We decided to travel all the way to the north end, to Fort Clinch State Park, and take our time on the return trip checking out Little Talbot Island and Big Talbot Island, state parks that are all part of the Amelia Island Complex.

Traveling north along A1A, we were shrouded in the deep darkness of ancient oak forest, and the extremely high end houses on the east side of the road were only barely visible beyond the gates and signs for each “community”.  It definitely looked like a place where moneyed people choose to come and play, and we didn’t see much of the beach on the west side of the road either.

Once we arrived at Fort Clinch, however, we could see the charm of the beautiful beaches and lovely forest in the wilder part of the island. We had a picnic with the area entirely to ourselves before we left Mattie in shade with windows open enough that we didn’t have to worry about her as we entered the Visitor Center and the grounds of the fort.

We have visited a few forts from this era of our history, built before the Civil War. Amelia Island and Fort Clinch were considered strategic, and the fort was taken by the Union Army from 1862 until the end of the war.  It has been restored several times, and it was interesting seeing the old brick of the original fort compared to areas of the smaller new brick of the restoration efforts.

Union uniforms at Fort Clinch

The views of the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south were gorgeous, and the views to the northwest of the huge St John River harbor were impressive. The fort had that same lovely red brick, blue sky, black and white trim look that makes photographing them so much fun. 

We took a bit of a side trip in the park to check out the campground, and were somewhat disappointed.  With all that space, and all that gorgeous forest, the camp was located right on the sandy beach, in the wide open somewhat weedy spaces.  The sites were narrow and all crammed in tight with no breathing space at all between them.  Not something we would chose to do no matter how lovely the beach might be. Especially a beach that had a no dogs allowed sign on it!

We stopped on the return trip to view the Amelia Island lighthouse from the Egans Creek boardwalk, finding one lone great egret watching  fish jumping in the low water.

Egans Creek Overlook

I think what I loved most about Amelia Island were the huge oaks overhanging the roads.  They are so dark and mysterious, and even more so with their shrouds of gray Spanish moss.  Our route back to the base passed by both Big Talbot Island and Little Talbot Island, but the skies were darkening, and we decided that it was time to get on back home.  Both parks would be great for more hiking trails, but you must pay a separate fee for each park, and with our limited walking distances, it didn’t seem like a good choice.

That evening the rains came at supper time, and my plans for pulling out the BBQ went by the wayside and we drove the short distance back north toward the Mayport St John’s Ferry, where we had dinner at a place that came highly recommended.  The Safe Harbor Seafood Market and Restaurant was perfect.  One could choose fish from the case of fresh fish and have it cooked to order, or choose from the menu, or stock up on fresh fish for the home fridge.

We chose to sit on the covered porch and watch the pelicans and river boats while we ate a truly yummy supper.  Grilled haddock for Mo and blackened shrimp for me.  Gotta thank Laurel for introducing me to the yummy flavor of blackened shrimp.  What a treat!

Yesterday it was raining and thundering, but we needed to get out for a bit at least, and once again piled into the car with the dog to go exploring.  We chose this time to continue south toward Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach.  Along with Atlantic Beach, these places are listed in the “things to do” in this area.  It was an interesting drive, with the “beach” being completely obscured along the route by houses, condos, and development. 

A short side trip into the main area of Neptune Beach led us into an enclave of mostly restaurants.  There were a LOT of them.  We drove on south toward Jacksonville Beach which our pedicure person had extolled as a fabulous place to go.  Maybe it was the rain, but it wasn’t all that exciting either.  In Jacksonville Beach, the main draw seems to be the restaurants and bars and it was happy hour.  The bars were overflowing on the decks with young people drinking and partying and having a great time. 

By the time we headed back north, we both decided that visiting the beaches along A1A isn’t exactly on our high priority list of fun things to do.  We don’t like to eat out all the time, and walking beaches in the rain isn’t all that much fun either. 

We pulled out the BBQ for the steaks I had planned for Mo’s birthday dinner.  That dinner turned into indoor enchiladas due to rain, but I didn’t let the rain stop me last night.  I managed to get the steaks done before the worst of the rain hit and we enjoyed a great dinner to the sound of drumming rain.

Today we are traveling a short distance back to the other side of Jacksonville, to set up for another week in another Military Family Camp.  It will be interesting to compare JAX NAS to Mayport NS.