Honeymoon Island State Park

Today we took a day trip over to one of the Gulf barrier islands, Honeymoon Island, which is one of Florida's state parks. Located near the tip of Florida's barrier island chain, the island received its name in 1939 when a New York developer purchased the island and, together with LIFE magazine, held a contest for newly married couples. The winners of the contest stayed in thatched bungalows in sunny Florida for a two week "honeymoon."

The ranger at the Nature Center told us to keep an eye out for Gopher Tortoises, and sure enough we saw one an hour or so later crossing a parking lot.

Among the many birds who call these islands home is the Laughing Gull --

In addition to all of the shorebirds we saw, this Mourning Dove posed on a post for us. Can you see the iridescent feathers on his neck?

The lavender hue doesn't show up near as much in this close-up,,,

These Sea Grapes are all over the coastal areas of Florida, both in bush and tree form --

Today we found one in bloom. I understand that "grape-like" seeds form in a cluster all down the flower stalk like clusters of grapes.

I don't know if it is because of the name or because beach weddings are popular --

By late afternoon there were TWO weddings taking place on the beach where we were sitting in the sand watching the birds!

There is even a cafe on the island which, since it was Friday, was having an "all you can eat" fish fry tonight. It was getting late and we had been wondering where we would stop to eat...

On To Moore Haven

It was just plain chilly this morning! It got down to 28 degrees last night -- that's COLD for Florida! By the time we got everything organized and were ready to go this morning, it had warmed up enough to ditch the sweater. We took Highway 66 for the first portion of the trip. It is a two lane road that went through some lovely agricultural areas. We have been surprised by how many cattle ranches there are --

And still lots and lots of orange groves!

We switched over to Highway 27 as we went further south. 27 is a four lane highway that has unlimited access, so there is lots of on and off traffic AND traffic lights!

As we got closer to Moore Haven, we began to see fields of sugar care --

We are settled in at "M" RV Resort. What a change from where we have been the last two weeks. We were met and escorted to our site -- and assisted to back in (though Forry really doesn't need help...). We are basically right in the middle of Florida, the Park literature says they are equidistant between the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and just a few miles from Okeechobee Lake. The park is nowhere near as busy as Peace River was and there is lots of space between sites. And we had a pretty sunset as well --