On Sunday, Aaron had planned a trip to Fort Clinch State Park where there are a lot of trails for hiking and biking, a beach, and Fort Clinch of course. The drive from the entrance of the park to the fort was absolutely beautiful, with a full canopy of live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down over the road. We even saw a baby deer cross the road with it’s momma! We arrived at the fort around noon and ate our sack lunches on a bench outside the visitor center. Construction of the fort started in 1847, though it was never completed, and it is classified as a Third System Fortification. It was used during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War ll. The fort is in the shape of a pentagon and has a set of walls surrounding it. We spend a good part of our time there going through all of the buildings inside the fort and walking along the beach. After seeing everything at the fort we headed to another beach at the park where we walked along the waters edge and played in the sand and water.
After leaving the state park we tried to visit a lighthouse which Aaron found on Google Maps but it turned out to be on private property and there was a gate blocking the road. So we headed to the historic area of Saint Marys. We walked around the town and enjoyed the views of the water and sailboats before heading back to the camper for the evening. We had set up an appointment to view another Hunter 376 in Port Charlotte, 5.5 hours away from the camper, at 11AM Monday morning. Anticipating the early morning, we heated up some leftover spaghetti and meatballs and called it an early night.
Today we woke up at 4AM to get ready for the drive over to Port Charlotte. We took Louise with us since we were going to be gone for the entire day. Upon arrival at the boatyard we met with Skip who brought us to the boat which had been on the hard for the summer and was very interesting to see out of the water. We were not impressed with this boat and are still in favor of the other Hunter 376 we looked at on Saturday as it is in better condition.
Once done looking at the boat we started the drive back to the camper. On our way back we kept seeing these billboards advertising free fresh-squeezed orange juice and baby alligators which compelled us to stop. The orange juice was refreshing but the alligators were pretty boring. After a quick stop at Dairy Queen for a pup cup for Louise we continued on our way.
Finally back at the camper 12 hours after we set out for the day we were exhausted and hungry. We had leftover spaghetti again for dinner and will call it an early night again tonight.