Cape San Blas - Wildlife Paradise

We've been home from  A Tropical Breeze and Cape San Blas for a couple of days and I'm still talking about the wildlife we saw. On Saturday morning, Rob and I went into the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park ready to launch our new/used boat at the Eagle Harbor boat ramp.  On the park access road we spotted four deer right next to the road.  I told Rob, "That's a good sign, we are going to see dolphins today."  To clarify, any time I get on a boat in Florida I am looking for dolphin and my husband is looking for fish.

After multiple tries and by hogging the entire two boat ramp, we successfully launched our19' fishing boat. This was my first time backing up a trailer, to say I was nervous is an understatement). The bay was beautiful and we started catching sea trout right away.  I'm always on the hunt for dolphins so I was anxious to move around to find the dolphins. Just as we're about to move to another location, the little fish start jumping out of the water and here comes a dolphin lazily swimming by.  Our boat has a trolling motor which allows for quiet stalking so we followed for awhile.  I suggested a boat name - Dolphin Seeker.

Now that I had my dolphin fix, it was back to fishing.  Our next siting was a huge leopard manta ray about 4' feet by 4' and then the excitement of the day... A large sea turtle.  We were heading back to the marina and saw a ripple in the water and then a full size sea turtle surfaces.  It was like having a dinosaur come out of the water.  There were fish resting on it's shell, going along for the ride, and when it surfaced they swam away. New boat name- Turtle Seeker. The next day we saw a small sea turtle, sand dollars, a star fish and sea urchins.

For those wives who have ever had to back up a trailer, after 6 trips up and down the boat ramp, I went from trailer novice to trailer pro. In my husband's eyes, my worth increased with every trip up and down the ramp and was a nice glimpse into our future retired life.

We ended a wonderful weekend with a bonfire on the beach roasting marshmallows and admiring the stars until some one turned a large light on behind A Tropical Breeze. It took me about 5 minutes before I realized it was the moon rising.

After 10 years of regularly visiting Cape San Blas, I still marvel at the beauty!