Weekend with the Pucci's

We had a wonderful visit with Mike and Cheryl (Michelle's folks) this past weekend, covering a lot of ground. I guess we'll let the pictures tell most of the story. Big thanks to Cheryl for just about all of these pictures, including our new blog header photo - American Beautyberry.

Dunes near St. Augustine. Sea oats and dune sunflower.

East coast dune sunflower.

Estuary to coastal hammock to flatwoods.

Wood stork in pond pine.

More roosting wood storks. These are the only storks native to North America.

Chance, Joel, Mike along estuary. Chance didn't see it, but there was a gator 200 yds in front of him.

Exposed juniper roots.

Southern leopard frog. Michelle took this one; Cheryl doesn't like frogs so much.

Starrush whitetop.

Gopher tortoise.

Beach bum.

Michelle and Joel try boogie boarding.

Medium range (~ 1.5 miles) canons at Fort Matanzas.

Bastion at Castillo de San Marco. This fort was completed late 17th century, essentially built out of compressed seashells, which hold up amazingly well to canons but amazingly bad to tourists.

Inside the fort, where over 1500 people lived for close to 2 months during a siege. Wisely, they kept the livestock outside in the dry moat.

Old church in St. Augustine.

Flaggler College. Used to be Ponce de Leon hotel.

Golden silk spider aka banana spider. Scale is kind of tough here...look at the palm of your hand and think about this spider just about covering it.

Ichetucknee River. This is what locals refer to as "the real Florida".

North Ichetucknee spring. We swam here and another spring like it on Sunday when high temps were in the mid 80's. The water is a refreshing 70 degrees all year round.

Well-fed gator in Payne's Prairie...nowhere near the spring pictured above :)

Food chain - gator, egret, frog.

White Ibis.

Common Moorhens.