Matanzas redoux and Anastasia

Since the ferry was not running when we were at Matanzas a couple days ago we decided to go back to see the fort…and to get the kids’ Jr Ranger badges.  When we left the trailer I noticed water on the ground and I decided to stay back to find the cause and fix it.  So Steph and the kids went on to the fort without me.  They got their ferry ride and were able to visit the fort.

The kids had also completed their Jr Ranger books and again went the extra mile to get both a badge and the patch.

Back at home I found the leak pretty quick.  I got this nifty quick release connector for my fresh water hose back at the beginning of the trip because my hose was super hard to thread onto the inlet on the trailer…in fact it was hard to thread on to ANYTHING.  I assume that the threads on my hose must be slightly out of spec.  I figured after installing the quick release with pliers I’d would never have to worry about it again.  That didn’t work out…because now the quick release leaks.  When we were in Key West I had to buy a 2nd hose.  So I pulled that bad boy out, connected it up and no leaks!  So hose number 1 has now become the backup hose and the quick release is being retired.

I was able to pound out a couple hours of work before the family returned for lunch.  Then we all went to Anastasia state park where we got in for free using Brielle’s state park Jr Ranger coupon.  We didn’t explore the park much, just went straight for the beach.  We played for several hours in the sand and the water and had fun with some trick photography.  See if you can spot Dacens’ twin!

We stopped by the ranger station on the way back so the kids could get their final stamps in their Florida State Parks Passport making them full fledged Jr Rangers for the state!  The ranger station only had the plastic badges so we scanned in their completed passports and emailed them to the state park office requesting patches.  I received confirmation the next day that the patches were in the mail!

Back at home the kids wanted to swim in the pool so I took them while Steph made dinner.  Throughout the day we were trying to figure out where to stay next.  We were having no luck finding a place to stay in Georgia so we decided to go back down to Manatee Hammock for several days (a) because we liked it there, (b) they had room for us, (c) we wanted to see the SpaceX launch and (d) it filled the gap before the reservations we were finally able to secure in Georgia.