Sabastian, FL: Finally, The Real Treasure Coast

Over the last several days our time has been spent exploring the Treasure Coast 'area'. Today we explored the 'real' Treasure Coast. Mostly around the Sabastian Inlet which connects the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean.

The colors of the Atlantic today reminded me of the beautiful waters around many of the Caribbean islands we have visited. Not quite as spectacular as Bora Bora and Tahiti however very close and a whole lot easier to get to.





Lots of birds, some of which I was able to get pretty close to when I took the photo's. I'm use a simple digital 'point & shoot' camera that fits in your shirt pocket instead of one of the larger SLR models. All in all, I've been pleased with the results of the point & shoot. It does mean I have to get close due to the limited zoom.

The Great Blue Heron in the photo at the top was hilarious to watch. There's a guy surf fishing just out of the photo. The Heron keeps inching closer and closer as the guy is busy reeling in his catch. When the guy looks around the bird holds still; as soon as the guy is looking out at the ocean the Heron is sneaking up on the guy's cooler, trying to get to either the bait (live shrimp) or the his latest catch (don't ask me what kind of fish, your guess is as good as mine -- it had silver sides, a white belly, and was shaped like a fish).

Fishing is huge down here -- from the beach, from boats, from fishing piers, and from the banks. People fishing everywhere you looked. And people were catching fish, at least some of them were cleaning fish at the fish cleaning stations provided by the park. You can easily find a fish cleaning station by looking for a large concentration of birds, all sitting contentedly waiting for the scraps to be thrown to them or washed off the cleaning tables. Made it much easier to get close to the birds, many of which are normally pretty shy.

The white bird is actually a wood stork. He looks all white but actually has large black areas on the trailing edges of his wings and tail that you only see in flight (or if he opens his wings to warm up). Plus they have a very disctinctive neck and band over the top of their head. They are endangered due to habitat loss.


The fishing pier extends into the Atlantic about a 1/4 of a mile and ends over a large reef. In addition there is a fishing pier underneatch the bridge that covers the Sabastion Inlet. You can see most of it stretching back to the causeway bridge in the picture with MLA. This is just before we bought her a big straw hat to help block the sun and cut down on the wind swept hair look. She loves the new hat.


We rode around the campground at the Sabastion Inlet State Park to see if we would like to stay there someday. We would. One row of sites was located right on the edge of the inlet -- prime waterfront. Even the other sites had a pretty nice view of the inlet. Each site had water and electricty. We've found the state parks to be a real bargain, smartly laid out, well maintained, good security, and priced right -- that is to say cheap.

Another sign we found "The Real Treasure Coast"? The houses all along the Atlantic Ocean and the seaside developments featuring golf, marinas, condo's and increadible landscaping. This is the where the money comes to vacation or retire. Sure I know there's even more 'old money' down in the Miami area however there was plenty on display here.



One interesting note: a lot of the homes are for sale, many are FSBO's (For Sale By Owner). If you are thinking about retiring in Florida along the coast, it sure looks like a lot of it is up for sale. We didn't check prices however I'd be willing to bet you can find some bargains without working up a sweat. In Miami, there's one realtor who opened up a new realty company he calls "Vulture Realty". He specializes in Miami condo's where the owner is upside down (owes more than the property is worth) and just wants to get out, even if it means selling for a loss. Everyone knows prices will comes back sooner or later...

Tommorrow we vist Uncle Grayson & Janet one last time before we head back up to the Theme Park area. We move on Wednesday and the driving lessons are on Thursday and Friday.


Not sure when the girls are going to come for a visit; it looks like Kasey will have to have her wisdom teeth removed in the next few days. Oh boy!




Love to all & See Ya!