Hobe Sound, Florida

Sunday, Oct. 28th

Today is my 60th birthday! Wow! How did that happen! Thank you all for the phone calls, emails, texts, and FB posts with birthday greetings! They were indeed appreciated, and made me feel very loved. No worries for those who didn’t know it was my birthday. It’s entirely probable I don’t know when your special day is either!

We left Silver Springs this morning and headed to Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound on the Atlantic Coast side of Florida near Jupiter. It was a lovely ride east on Hwy 40 driving through the Ocala National Forest. Then south on I-95 which was surprisingly tame… the only real traffic being in the Daytona area. We arrived in the afternoon and have a great back-in site with palm trees out the back. Really there’s no better view than palm trees! We’re here for seven nights, and handled the back-in site like pros! 

It was a lovely day so we sat outside and enjoyed the mild temps. Gary cooked filet mignon on the grill with mushrooms and a salad. What could be a better birthday dinner! Oh, yeah, and we watched the Red Sox win the World Series! Very cool! 

Monday, Oct. 29th

Gary woke up with an upset tummy. Maybe he doesn’t care for his own cooking? 🙂  Since his tummy was unsettled throughout the day, we stayed pretty close to home. I sat outside and read for awhile and went for a bike ride around the campground and on one of the trails. Jonathan Dickinson State Park encompasses an area over 11,000 acres. It’s huge. It has hiking and biking trails including several off-road bike trails…. with manmade hills and dales. We’ll pass on the off-road biking stuff, which seems to be very popular down here! Later in the day we took a ride down to the visitor’s center to pick up additional information about the park and see the river. It’s on the Loxahatchee River and they offer kayak, canoe rentals and a boat trip up to Trapper Nelson’s homestead (more on that later). 

Linda & brother Andy and Deb & brother Bob are flying in today, and will be settled at their airbnb tonight. We are all here for a “cousins reunion.” My cousin Marie and her husband Stuart live in Port St. Lucie, about 40 minutes from here, and my cousin Andrea is already down from CT visiting her sister Marie. The fact that my 60th birthday was yesterday was a happy coincidence. 

Tuesday, Oct. 30th

The bros and Linda and Deb came over late morning and we hung out for the day, which is very special since we aren’t usually all together at one time!  We sat outside and visited and then in the afternoon took a pontoon boat ride around the Loxahatchee River with Captain Dan and enjoyed a lovely river cruise seeing mangroves, a few alligators, turtles and egrets and herons. Then we got to Trapper Nelson’s homestead. 

Vince “Trapper” Nelson was considered a hobo back in the 1930’s and lived off the land. He was quite the entrepreneur and managed to amass over 1,000 acres by paying back taxes on land owned by others. He was handsome, physically fit and at 6’4” was quite popular with the ladies. People started paying to visit his collection of animals and plants that he called “Trapper’s Zoo and Jungle Garden.” Then he started charging them to picnic under his shelters and using his tables, and to boot he’d bum a lunch off them. People soon learned to pack extra food. He made a nice living for himself until things changed in the 50’s with the advent of other forms of transportation and more exciting spots to visit. He died at the site in 1968.

Two volunteers give a nice tour of the houses, the shelters, and the collection of out buildings where he kept animals…. including alligators. 

After the tour, we boarded the boat for the return journey with Captain Dan. An enjoyable few hours on the Loxahatchee River.

After that the six of us wandered back to sit, eat, drink and chat some more. I had dinner cooking in the crock pot. Thanks, Ellen, for the taco soup/stew recipe. It was a hit!

We had birthday cake for dessert. Thanks family!

Wednesday, Oct. 31st

We arrived at (cuz) Marie & Stuart’s house in the late morning. They have a beautiful home! Marie is a collector and their home is a treasure trove of interesting fines and lots of cool artwork on the walls. 

There were nine of us chatting and sitting around the table. Lots of laughter, catching up and family stories. A wonderful day! Marie had made a great Italian dinner and we all brought a little something to contribute to the meal! A wonderful time all being together! 

Once the sun was setting, we finally called it a day and headed to our respective campers, hotels, or airbnb’s.

Thursday, Nov. 1st

We linked up with Andy & Linda and Deb & Bob at the Time to Eat Diner for breakfast. There was a collection of clocks on the walls all around the diner. Thankfully there were no batteries in them so no ticking. We had a leisurely (delicious!) breakfast and waddled out of there and decided to walk off lunch by heading to Carlin Park and walking on the beach. Marie had recommended it as a good spot. Beautiful beach! The sand isn’t the sugar white sand found on the gulf. It’s more of a darker sand with the accompanying larger waves found in the Atlantic Ocean. We saw wind surfers and kite surfers enjoying the waves. Always wonderful to put toes in the sand!

After that we bumped into a local who recommended a good watering hole! Good food, good drinks…. overlooking the intracoastal waterway. It was called The Square Grouper Tiki Bar and was made famous by Jimmy Buffet & Alan Jackson when they recorded “It’s 5:00 Somewhere” at that very spot. Awesome place! Funky island vibe and it was mostly empty on an early Thursday afternoon. We had a view of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse across the water, boats docked in front and some boat traffic on the intracoastal, pelicans, and a view of some gorgeous homes across the water.

After a few hours there we headed back to Andy & Linda and Bob & Deb’s airbnb rental so we could check it out. Perfect rental house…. open kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths, backyard with a grill, and the furniture was clean and modern. We chilled out and played cards for a few hours, and Gary helped Linda on the computer for a bit. Then it was time to head out for dinner. We seem to need to eat every few hours…. 

Had dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Jupiter called Guanabanas. Parking was non existent but they did have valet parking…. ’twas a tad interesting getting Gary’s dually into that tiny parking lot to hand off to a valet. Just required rearranging a few cones. I’m sure they didn’t mind. 🙂  Awesome island vibe sitting outside under a palapa once again with a view of the intracoastal waterway and seeing the sunset. We all had fabulous dinners and learned later that Liz, Marie’s daughter, had once managed the restaurant. Small world!

We said goodnight and said goodbye to Andy & Linda since they had a wicked early flight and were leaving at 4am (excuse me 3am) Friday morning. 

Friday, Nov. 2nd

We picked up Bob & Deb who were checking out of their airbnb. Then we headed to Hobe Sound for another walk on the beach. The drive over was beautiful with a row of banyon trees lining Bridge Road on the way into the beach.  Magnificent with the trees arching over the road. This time we saw folks fishing and some gorgeous private homes set back from the water. After that we visited the Hobe Sound Wildlife Refuge, and one of the volunteers gave us a little meet and greet with the animals and let us pet them (sort of like what they do with 8-year-olds!)… which included a red rat snake, gopher turtle, and a baby alligator. They also had a red-tailed hawk and barred owl who live at the Refuge because each has a broken wing. Beautiful birds. They were so still I thought they were stuffed at first! They have a great nature trail down to the beach, and once again beautiful homes across the water. A very fun morning, which we then topped off with lunch back at The Square Grouper. Much busier at The Square Grouper on a Friday afternoon than a Thursday afternoon! But we managed to snag a table overlooking the water once again. Not very difficult since all the tables overlook the water!  Unfortunately, after a leisurely lunch it was time to bring D&B back to the airport to catch their flight. 

We dropped them off, picked up a few groceries and got back to the camper before the heavy rains came. 

Saturday, Nov. 3rd

We visited cuz Marie & Stuart once again in the afternoon. Had a wonderful visit with them and all too soon it was time to say goodbye. We ran a few errands, I took a walk, and we did a little prep since tomorrow we take off. We head back to Lakeland to drop off the RV to have a spiffy new hydraulic landing gear installed.