East Coast Intracoastal Waterway

Besides our unplanned stop, there was a lot of interest along the way.  The east coast of Florida is very different from the west coast in several ways.  First, it was settled much earlier.  Henry Flagler brought his railroad and hotels down this coast bringing about popular spots for the New England rich to have a place to play in the winter.  Many of the places along the waterway are truly estates with acreage instead of the typical cheek-to-jowl development of the west coast.  Being older, the east coast is also much more crowded.  Hearing traffic of all types and seeing so many boats has been different for us.

One thing common to both coasts is lots and lots of condos.

This house had such a lush lawn stretching down to the shore.  

This is a boathouse, not the main house.  My regular house is not this big!

These must belong to one spoiled set of kids or grand-kids.
 Such cutevfloating playhouses.

This is all one house.  I couldn't get the panorama working quickly enough.

Bridge tenders like to have several boats for each opening so the line
forms on both sides.  You see the same boats all day long.

The Jupiter Inlet lighthouse.  

The chicks all lined up to head to the next bridge.

Several developments had planted rows of mangroves to control damage
from passing boat wakes.  Every so often, there would be channels to let
boat traffic in.

Osprey nests are all along the waterway.

Some sections of the ICW are basically canals with development to the
water's edge on both sides.

This intrepid explorer came up our scupper from under the boat back in
North Palm Beach and stayed with us for several days.

Once he became so used to us or so hungry that he wanted to join
us in the cockpit, we sent him back to his watery home.