Amazing day yesterday - it started with a tornado and ended with a double rainbow! Clyde and Nancy recently joined us at Silver Palms RV Park and yesterday we all drove east to find a beach. The day started out sunny but after awhile it got cloudy and as we neared Jupiter, we saw a small tornado. For some reason it didn’t seem to matter to us - it was off to the side quite a ways, and the weather wasn’t too bad where we were, so we just kept going.
We intended to take Clyde and Nancy to King Neptune restaurant in Port Salermo, but when we got there we found out it was closed on Mondays - bummer. Nancy quickly checked the internet for other restaurants and we ended up at The Whistle Stop - a tiny, tiny little restaurant with just 8 chairs (most of them at the counter). A customer recommended the steak sandwich so we all ordered it, and it was really good - we would go back there. We also stopped at Importico’s Bakery for a treat - chocolate bread, chocolate covered eclairs, almond cookies and bear claws. What can I say? Life is good.
The lady at the restaurant recommended the beach at Jupiter Island. Jupiter Island is one of the richest areas in the country; people like Celine Dione, Greg Norman and Alan Jackson have homes here, as did Tiger Woods, although he doesn’t live there anymore, not since a certain car accident. Like Jensen Beach before, it was windy and fairly cool, but perfect for walking in the sand and looking for shells. I will try to make jewelry later with some of the shells we found.
We found something else, too - lots and lots of tiny Portuguese Man-o-War. Technically they aren’t jellyfish (they’re something called a siphonophore), but they look like jellyfish and they sure sting like jellyfish. Sometimes that sting can kill, but we were careful and didn't get stung. They look funny - like little blue plastic bubbles. The bubble part is the bladder that makes them float. The tentacles were not easy to see on these little ones, but they would be more visible on the mature ones.
After walking all over that beach for over an hour, we got in the car and drove a mile up the road to the Blowing Rocks Preserve. Beautiful and very rugged rocks - old Anastasia limestone - fringe the coast here. The rocks are set up from the sand a little bit, and when the tide is in, the surf comes splashing up through holes and crevices in the rocks. Another beautiful spot, and of course, I got a few more shells.
Endangered turtles (loggerheads and leatherbacks) lay eggs on both of these beaches but it was the wrong time of the year for that so we didn’t see any. We talked to a young man who was trapping sand fleas (aka mole crabs). These critters are about an inch long with a hard shell on one side, and their underside is the part that looks like a flea, with jointed legs folded up under the shell. For a moment I was afraid he was catching them to cook, but it turns out they are used for bait.
For dinner we met some other couples from the Park and went to Cowboys, where they serve all-you-can-eat baby-back ribs on Monday, and mighty good ones, too. Because they are “all you can eat”, I felt obligated to have a second helping - well, I didn't want to insult their cook! But next time (and there will be a next time), I’ll try to limit myself to one rack.
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