St. Johns River Trip

The Crew! Dusty, Arin, Anson, Mel, Gavin, Toni, Brittany and Jared
At Blue Springs

Dusty cooking the catch of the day!

Our boat

The Blackwater Inn in Astor

Sunrise in our favorite little lagoon.

a moss covered tree... common sight on the river.

An osprey carrying a fish!

Our neighbor in the lagoon

Saw this one as we were cruising by

A gator near our first night's stay

Last weekend we rented a house boat in DeLand, FL and cruised down the St. Johns River! It was the kind of trip that really made you feel like you "got away from it all". We got on the boat Friday afternoon, and after a quick lesson from the marina staff we were Rollin' on the River! We saw tons of alligators, many kinds of birds, beautiful old Florida Live Oak trees eerily covered in hanging moss, turtles, and some other humans too! The first night we tied up to some palm trees on the side of the river in a little inlet called Catfish Bend. We didn't catch any catfish but I did catch the first fish of the trip... a nice little Bluegill! Since I caught the first fish, that motivated the guys to get serious and catch some fish of their own!

Anson had the time of his life! He loved fishing with Daddy and his Uncles, Jared and Gavin. He loved climbing up to the top of the boat, shining the flashlight to see all the gator eyes at night(and there were a lot!) and looking for owls in the trees (didn't see any but we could hear them!). Ella stayed with my parents in DeLand. She wasn't quite old enough to be cooped up in a boat and I didn't want to worry about her flinging herself overboard every second of the trip :o). On Saturday we traveled up river to Astor and ate lunch at the Blackwater Inn. Dusty and I have passed it many times from the road and we finally got to eat there! We had a propeller fixed while we dined and then we were on our way to Blue Springs. We got there in late afternoon and decided to tie off in a little lagoon near by. This ended up to be everyone's favorite stop! It was so serene and quiet, with just the sights and smells of nature. I was a little freaked out going to sleep that night because we had gators all around the boat and I was sure one could climb in my window :o). Well, they didn't and we had a nice quiet night in the lagoon. We did all of our cooking/grilling on the boat and ate very well! One night we had steaks professionally grilled by Mel and the next nigth we had chicken Satay by Brittany! Yum! I made pancakes one morning and dessert the next day.

We all decided that we will definitely do this trip again. We made the mistake of looking at the bigger, more expensive house boats when we got back so we will probably upgrade next time, although ours was perfect this time. It slept 8 but there was only 1 bathroom and 1 real bedroom. The other beds were a double bed bunk bed and a pull out couch. Since we were all family we did not mind the open sleeping arrangement, but the bigger boat has 4 separate beds and 2 baths. Nice!

Check out Jared and Brittany's post about the trip... They are so creative! They even created a trip soundtrack with river songs! :o)