A Picnic on the Beach at Anastasia State Park, St Augustine

We had another day in St Augustine, before we headed south and there was so much to do, should we visit another museum, go to the light house, explore more of downtown St Augustine, or perhaps have a picnic on the beach? The beach of course won out, as you guessed from the title.
So Renita packed our lunch and it was a short drive to Anastasia State Park. After paying the eight dollar entry fee, (a little high but it keeps people away), we parked in the mostly empty beach lot. It was a little cold, seventy five degrees, but the north wind wasn't very strong as we carried the lawn chairs across the long boardwalk.

The beach was really empty so we set up the chairs in the first spot we came to before heading out to walk the surf and high tide line. There were lots and lots of shells but the only ones being different were a narrow and thin razor like clam. Still Renita managed to add some to her collection.
Several horseshoe crab exoskeletons had washed up, they must be molting, and we even came across a threatening to-dee-loo crab, (called to-dee-loos because they usually run away when you approach).

This one stood and showed off its large single claw warning me to leave it alone.
It was safe however, too small for a crab boil, and we continued our stroll with Renita walking the high tide line and me wading in the warm waters. I stopped to look for sharks teeth but didn't find any even though others showed up and bent over scanning for the small brown fossils, (the ones here are brown instead of the black color we found in Aurora, North Carolina.

Returning to the lawn chairs we sat down and enjoyed our lunch before just vegging out. I almost fell asleep but I am leery of sleeping and getting a horribly sunburn. One time, in the Bahamas I actually forgot to put sunscreen everywhere and sunburned the bottom of my feet!

The sand here was squeaky clean and it actually squeaked as we walked in the dry windblown ripples. It was just the kind of day we needed before continuing down the coast and heading inland to the Peace River at Walchula. That's our last stop before we move to St Petersburg for the next two months. Clear skies