Dinata Misovec

Marathon Florida has one of the nicest city parks I have seen anywhere.  It is not very big, but it has a beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean. Today, we stopped in the Publix grocery store for some lunch and then took it down to the beach to eat.  We found an empty picnic table near the large pavilion.  A group of young hippies was on a blanket near us making jewelry to sell.  I did not see a soul even stop to take a look, although children did stare at them as the families walked by.

Our purpose today was for me to take a long walk, my first since the spider bite.  When we finished eating, we walked over to have a look at the beach. To the east:

and to the west:

The holiday crowds have not gone home yet. We took a look and then started circling the park by heading west past the large picnic pavilion.  That is our current favorite place to sit and eat because it is elevated and has a nice view over the grass buffer zone to the ocean.  But all the tables there were taken by loud talkers with loud music.

The park has a very nice playground for the children.  The only drawback is that it does not have any shade. There is some great playground equipment.  I especially like this merry go round, but have not tried it yet.

There are two swings that look like small trampolines.

The west end of the park has two sand volley ball courts.

Our other favorite picnic pavilion is in the corner of the park where Sister Creek meets the ocean. There was no one using it when we walked by.  We had taken the first available table we came to because the park was crowded and we didn’t want to miss out on getting one.

There is a nice row of palm trees along the Sister Creek side of the park, but the beach is lined with rocks.  They are not too difficult to cross over.

There is a nice pier out into Sister Creek.  A boy was at the end of the pier fishing.  He said there were some mangrove snappers under the pier, but he was not able to catch one.

The park has two toilet buildings and they always have an adequate supply of toilet paper and paper towels. There are also plenty of outdoor showers to wash the sand off.

You get from the grassy park to the beach via short boardwalks through the grass buffer zone.

We spotted a small iguana at one picnic pavilion.  The smaller they are, the brighter green they are.  This one had a big belly.

There are four small mahogany trees in a row along the fence near the road.  We noticed that one at one end appeared to be dead, the next one had small leaves coming out. The next one had a few more.  The fourth tree was full, lush and green. We don’t know what is going on there.

We circled the park two or three times and my foot feels just fine.