Friday, March 8

Once again it was a chilly morning, but sunny. 8.4C (47F)
By 8:45 it has warmed up to 19C (66.2F), as we drove into town to go to Home Depot. Instead of returning to the RV park, we drove east to the coast on Hwy 70 past huge ranches and orange groves. The land is flat, flat, flat! It was a pleasant drive on a 4-lane highway, rarely seeing another vehicle. After a short drive on I-95 south, we arrived at the Port St. Lucie Chamber of Commerce for information.

I finally found somewhere to get a much-needed haircut!

The man at the Chamber recommended a beach at the National Navy SEAL Museum on Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce as the best beach around, so off we went. We took the scenic route along the coast on Hwy 1, then across the North Causeway onto Hutchinson Island. From there, we followed A1A, which, to my surprise, led us past many highrises on the beach!

After parking at the Museum, we headed for the beach. In case you haven't heard, many of Florida's beaches are closed due to the migration of black tip and spinner sharks. At least 15,000 have been seen along the coast by Palm Beach, a little south of us.



Unfortunately, we didn't spot any sharks.

Next, we went to the Museum.  It houses exhibits to inform and educate on the role of Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) and Sea, Air , Land (SEAL) teams. The museum also preserves the history of the SEALs (the original Navy frogmen first trained outside of Fort Pierce). www.navysealmuseum.com . There are many excellent artifacts and displays inside and out, explaining how the UDT and SEAL teams came about and trained.
We walked around the outside first to check out the Huey helicopter that was used in Vietnam, a UDT SDV (Swimmer Delivery Vehicle), two Apollo control module training capsules, a Patrol Boat River craft, a Seafox boat, a Naval Memorial Statue and some SEAL UDT training beach obstacles.

Next, we toured the museum inside where we spent an interesting 2 hours learning about the origin of the UDT and SEAL teams and their importance during WW 11.
Of course, there were some "hands-on" displays.


Then it was back to the RV park for dinner.