Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 22

3 February 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida    

Scrub Jay (Florida State Bird).

Marc-  We were upon out early to meet up for a guided Scrub Jay hike at Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  Our guide helped helped describe the habitat of Florida Scrub.  It consists of rolling hills with oak bushes and oak trees, pine trees, saw palmetto palms, cactus and other plants. We saw many Scrub Jays and Northern Mocking birds, cat birds and  cardinals. Only the Scrub Jays were easy to photograph.

The saw palmetto palm.

Prickly pear cactus.

Prickly pear fruit.

The Scrub Jays are not shy.

Well worth the effort.

Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 21

 3 February 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida     

Fort Lauderdale Beach

Marc-  Our mission today was to go south to Ft. Lauderdale to meet with Steve and Paul in their new condo.  It was a cool 50 degrees but the Florida sunshine helped a lot.  There condo is fantastic and well located between the Atlantic Ocean beach and the ICW.  It has a lot of window looking North.  I took a video and will try to post it.  Steve took us out to dinner at an excellent Greek restaurant:  Ethos in Wilton Manors.

Earlier in the day we stopped by two quilt shops for more cool fabric.  

Sue on the beach.

Beautiful beaches.

View from the condo.  Note the several boats tied up behind homes on canals.

Quiet ICW behind the homes.

Nearby state park.

Strangler fig tree on a live oak tree.  

Dania Beach Quilt shop.

Lots of fabric to choose from.

Cinderella's carriage.

Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 20

2 February 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida     

Beautiful painting at the campground nature center.

Marc-  Today we continued the campground shuffle where we move to another campsite for two nights.  It is not that difficult but you need to wait until the new site has been vacated and inspected before you can move in.  Then we drove down the coast to visit with Annie Donnelly (and her dog Pocket) from Vergennes who lives in Lake Worth Beach.  She showed us some of the sights including beautiful beaches and parks.  We enjoyed lunch at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina right across from Peanut Island and then we went for a walk at the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach.

Riviera Beach Municipal Marina.

Our lunch spot.

View of the Margaritaville Cruise Ship. It runs from Palm Beach to the Bahamas.

Fishing.

Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 19

1 February 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida    

Jupiter Light from US 1 highway bridge.

Marc-  It was 28 degrees here the morning....  burrrrrrr!  That said there was no frost and no icy windshields or roads near here.  I drove out to get a few things at ACE and ALDI without any problems.

We stayed close to the campground today doing camper maintenance and Sue sewing flying geese.

At the end of the day the winds calmed down and we headed out on the river trail.  It was worth the effort.

Sunset on the Loxahatchee river trail.

Near the campground.

These are flying geese, but not Sue's.  These belong to Mary Nunnencamp, and they are the border to a quilt Mary and Sue and several others started at a retreat in Vergennes in November.  Mary lives in Tampa, and we will see her at an American Quilt Society Show in Daytona in February.

Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 18

31 January 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida   

Tropical seas quilt.

Marc-  Our first mission today was to refill a propane tank before the temperatures tanked to 29 degrees overnight. Mission accomplished thanks to the friendly Ace Hardware of Vero Beach.  We came north to Vero to visit with my cousin Armand, his daughter Michelle and his son Michael.  They live in Latham, New York when not here enjoying Vero.  

We also went to two Quilt shops.  Sue found fabric for a quilt she wants to make.

Sebastian, FL

Amazing spiral pattern quilt on display.

Excellent detail.

Hummingbird.

Melbourne, FL

Sue - I forgot that 2 years ago when we went on a Winter trailer camping trip that I was rating the quilt shops we visited in this blog.  But I ended up saying they were all really good, so it was a bit pointless.  The shop in Sebastian is one we went to 2 years ago and it was a bright shiny friendly place.  It hadn't changed.  I was looking for a pretty much all black background fabric.  Not pure black but black with "a little something."  I also wanted rainbow fabrics without much of a pattern.  I didn't find it there.  They told us they had another shop in Melbourne that was 3 times larger.  After we had lunch with Armand, et al, we headed to Melbourne.  I looked for quilt shops on my phone and saw that Sew Much Fun was open until 6, assumed that was where we wanted to go, and it wasn't.  It is a completely different name, but that didn't sink in.  Turns out Sweet Time Quilting in Melbourne closed at 3pm anyway.  

Sew Much Fun has only been open a few months and took over from another quilt store.  It's pretty good sized, has friendly people, is not quite the bright fresh beautiful place Sweet Time Quilting is, but I found what I wanted.  I wasn't thinking about getting batiks, but that's what I got.  A Robert Kaufman rainbow fat quarter assortment, and a Robert Kaufman black background with a little something in it - Marc says blue and I say green - a hazy little something that I can barely see.  I need to make a disappearing 9 patch quilt for a guild challenge, and this is what I plan to make it with.

Tomorrow morning it's supposed to be 29 degrees.  The farmers are very concerned about their crops, and people are concerned about their pipes.  Peggy & John Brewster, and Craig & Donna Lewis are  getting snow in Myrtle Beach right now.  This is nuts.  When we came back to the campground today the staff told us to leave our faucets open a bit tonight, as well as our gray water tank.  We will certainly comply.

Southern Camping Trip 2026 (aboard "Elsie" the land yacht). cont. 17

30 January 2026

Jonathan Dickinson State Park 

Jupiter,  Florida  

Gopher tortoise near our campsite.

Marc-  We continued our exploration of the area both inside and outside the park.  Our first adventure involved taking a guided river cruise up the Loxahatchee River (river of many turtles).  The Captain explained that this river has seen tremendous change beginning in the 19th century when Jupiter Inlet was created.  The Inlet allowed for the influx of salt water during high tide when the flow of the river reversed.  Large stands of bald cypress and palm trees died off in the brackish water area of the new estuary.  These were replaced with extensive growth of mangroves that survive well in salt water.  Upstream parts of the river retained their traditional bald cypress and palm trees.  The water color and clarity changes from perfectly clear aquamarine near the inlet to dark brown murky water stained by the mangroves to the crystal clear water upstream with the bald cypress and palm trees.  There were many of birds along the banks including great blue heron, night heron and anhinga.  

Anhinga perched on a mangrove root.

Swamp lilies.

Air fern.

Bald cypress and palm trees.

Turtles.

                        The mid point of the cruise was stopping to visit Trapper Nelson's outpost.  

Nelson constructed a number of cabins such as this for tourists. 

Hunter, our Park Ranger.

African sausage tree.

Bleeding heart vine.

Trapper Nelson boathouse docks (made of cypress - a hardwood resistant to rot).

Great blue heron.

After the cruise we went in search of a quilt store in the developed part of Jupiter.

Route 1,  ICW drawbridge.

Cool pinwheel design.

Colorful design.

"The Dress," a Laura Heine pattern

Eventually we returned to the Park and climbed its tallest peak, Home Mountain  (86 feet above sea level).  We also enjoyed riding our bikes this afternoon.

Looking west from Hobe Mountain.

Tonight's sunset.