Travels by Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Florida Road Trip 2014

Today we went to Metro Diner for brunch. When we ate here after Mary had died, there was only one and Guy from Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives had made it famous. Now there are five locations. I had the shrimp and grit cakes and Rick had the SOS and Mat had some kind of Megga Burger.

Then we picked up Daddy Stone and headed out toward Mayport to catch the ferry to cross the St. John's River.

Some pics while waiting for the ferry:

Joanne, Rick and Daddy Otis Stone.

The Stones---Rick, Otis, Mat.

It was $9 for the four of us and a vehicle to go across the river to the other side. A huge container ship was going by as we waited.

The Pelicans on the other side seemed to be content to hang out on the dock railing.

We stopped off at Amelia Island State Park, one of Bill Stone's favorite fishing places and where the family scattered his ashes. Met this fisherman in the parking lot. He asked us if we wanted to see what he had caught......

....the Sheep's Head Fish--it has teeth like a human.

Mat said they look similar to a Drum Fish which is excellent to eat -- and when they would catch the fish they would look to see if it had the teeth--and.....

.....if the fish had teeth like this--they knew it was a Sheeps Head and would throw it back.

It was here that Rick recounted the story of going to Uncle Woodrow Stone's in Georgia catching 70 cat fish for the family get-to-gather, and making 2000 hush puppies in a big cauldron. Rick and Deb stirred the hot oil in the cauldron, going in opposite directions so the hush puppies would float across, flip over and be taken out - - they made about 2000 in about an hour. Someone requested a recipe for these in the Columbus Dispatch and Mary submitted the recipe for 2000 saying that it needed to be cut down for smaller portions. Mat said he ran across the article and has it somewhere. Daddy Stone remembered the name of the river and how to spell it ---- Altamaha.

Next, to Ferdanino, nice old buildings and looked like a nice sea-side town to get to know over a few days. Then a stop to actually walk down to the Atlantic! Saw a huge cactus and a couple of 13 year old kids, Justin and Casey who had just finished surfing and were heading home for supper. My, what different upbringing I had growing up in land-locked Nebraska.

Rick, Mat, Otis. What a good looking familiy those Stones are.

I love how there are so many public boardwalks down to the ocean from the street.

Headed back, stopping for some boiled peanuts at a roadside stand for Otis. The recipe:

Soak the peanuts overnight. Drain, put new water over and bring to a boil. Add salt, one cup of salt to each gallon of peanuts. (He did 5 gallons at a time.) Simmer until done - could be one to two hours but keep taste testing to see when peanuts are done. If you spit them out and say "yuck" they aren't done.

Next, we just barely caught the ferry back in order to get to Safe Harbor Seafood Market in Mayport to eat supper. Our tradition up to this point is eating at Singleton's in Mayport. New tradition. I had the bangin' shrimp - -not as good as Bone Fish Grill, Rick had scallops - - yummmmmm, Daddy Stone and Mat the Grouper.