Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, Florida

5/27/28/29/30
Left Salt Springs and traveled northeast through the National Forest towards St. Augustine where we will be camping for Memorial Weekend at Anastasia State Park with Stephanie. It was only about 50 miles away so we arrived in the morning but made some stops – Wal-Mart, Camping World and gas. We have camped here so many times by ourselves and with the kids. It is a good first and last stop in Florida. This state park has 139 sites in seven loops, all with water, electricity and shade. That is why we love it! Some of the most shaded sites that we have camped in which are a walk away from the beach. The beach is beautiful and one can kayak, fish, surf, and wind surf in the inlet.
This park is an easy ten minute ride into the historic town of St. Augustine where you can visit historic sites like the fort, shop in the quaint shops and eat at a number of good restaurants many with tables outside. They now have a parking lot for RV’s a few streets back from the visitor center which is free.
We went back to Stephanie’s apartment in the morning to do laundry and pick up some items she needed and of course dad fixed everything that needed fixing including her car. Drove back to St. Augustine where we ate at Barnacle Bill’s Seafood Restaurant across from the visitor center and we were lucky that we did not have to wait since this is a very popular place to eat and the shrimp was some of the best that we have ever had. It was such a nice day so we found parking near the fort and walked around and shopped at the cute shops. Headed back to the campground and had a fire last night. We plan on going to a winery today after beaching it for awhile. Today is hot and humid! This weekend is flying by and tomorrow we say goodbye to Steph and start to slowly head up the coast towards home but it will take us another two weeks. George and Steph went swimming before we left Monday and the waves were slamming them so bad that both of them lost their bathing suits a few times! They both had a good laugh about that!
We heard from another camper that the new governor wants to close all Florida State Parks and sell them to private companies. Florida has one of the best state park systems in the country and here are the politicians not cutting where they need to cut but selling off their most valuable assets. When will they cut entitlements and build up their infrastructure!