Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl): April 24

Monroe Habour Marina

"There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps, for the rest of our lives, we will be unwilling to settle for less." - Kurt Hahn

We woke up to fog this morning...good thing leaving early isn't part of our agenda this year. By the time we had a leisurely breakfast and got things ready on the boat the fog had lifted and we were left with another beautiful day. Our destination today was Sanford, our most southern point on the St. John's River. The river is narrow from Blue Spring to Lake Monroe and the banks seem to have a little more elevation, less marshy and few water hyacinth. It just seems to get prettier the further south we go. The area is known for having a lot of manatees, so travel is slow in this area of the river. We didn't see any manatees today but we did see A LOT of alligators. They seemed to be enjoying the sun as much as we were.

We arrived at our marina in downtown Sanford right after lunch. It'll be nice to be in a marina for a few days. We have a lot of things to catch up on...like laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning the boat, but those things can wait until tomorrow. This afternoon we wandered around the historic downtown section of Sanford and Stan got a much needed haircut.

This evening we went to the Breezeway Restaurant for happy hour. They have live music Thursday thru Saturday, today it was karaoke. Neither of us have been to a karaoke night and didn't know what to expect, but these folks were very good and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had dinner at the Willow Tree Cafe. A German restaurant that we were told about from everyone who'd been to Sanford. We both had amazing meals and the atmosphere and music makes you think you've been transported to Germany.

One of the many alligators we saw today.