24 Hour Challenge

Terry took off the past couple of days because a friend was supposed to come down and backed out last week....so we turned the 4 day weekend into our own little vacation :)  We (ok, I) slept in yesterday and we decided to get ready and go check out Fort Mantanzas. It's a short little drive up A1A just past the inlet on the left. When we got there, we went inside the little gift shop, got our free boat passes and they took us by boat over to what I later learned was Rattlesnake Island where the fort is.  Obviously, had I been paying attention to the tour guide, I would have learned of this, jumped off of the boat and swam back to shore despite all the "Live Oyster" warnings on the shore.  Fortunately, I saw no rattlesnakes on the island!

The fort is tiny, and it was actually used as a watchtower.  They said the only action it got was firing 2 warning shots out of it's 80 years of service, but it was part of a network of forts that spanned to the big one in St. Augustine.  We got to see where the Spaniards slept and all (they were apparently short), and went to the top of the little fort by a latter.  Somehow, Terry was able to safely get Ryan up and down the latter so he could see the top too.  We weren't there long when Ryan declared "Done!" and wanted to go back down.  On the way back from Rattlesnake Island, we got to see a group of dolphins swimming next to the boat, so close that I actually got to see their little faces :)

From there, we went directly across the street to the beach at Fort Matanzas, and it's like Daytona in that you can drive on it and the sand is flat going out to the ocean.  It's right next to Anastasia Island (or maybe even part of it), so we've decided we have to go back and check it out later this weekend.

Mom and Dad picked us up when we got back and we all went over to Aunt Catfish for Mom's early birthday lunch.  As usual, it was awesome, and I managed to not eat 10 cinnamon rolls, but rather 1 1/2 (Mom says that;s love when Terry splits his cinnamon roll).  We took A1A back, listening to 80's music on Sirius.  I had one of my "OMG I love living here" moments doing that.  Of course, I have those all the time here!

Ryan spent the night with them, and we went to Kohl's and did a little shopping and came back and watched American Reunion.  It wasn't as funny as the other ones, but we still loved it for all the 90's music and humor that they still have in their movies.

This morning we got up and went next door for some kayaking.  We went all the way down to where the little bridge is next to Canopy Walk and under the bridge to where a fish almost jumped in the boat, at which point Terry got scared and we turned around a short while later.  It was odd seeing a fish flying through the air with it's eyes all bulging out and those crooked little teeth flashing at you without getting a little weirded out.  We went back up the Intracoastal and called my dad so he could meet us out back of Tidelands (he took the picture at the bottom).   Mental note....I LOVE KAYAKING!!!

So that has been the last 24 hours....Gran and Pawpaw are almost here and Ryan should be up from his nap shortly, so who know's what else we'll get into this weekend :)