Category: Explore With Me

5/20/2025 0 Comments

479) Guana River SAVED - for now...

Sometimes we need to listen to the bonnethead sharks of the world.

Hey there fellow dreamers. This channel is all about our dreams in this world. And one of my dreams has always been to see a sea turtle - out in nature, in the wild. We've seen plenty of nests, but never the actual turtle. I never knew if it would ever actually happen or not. But thanks to you all, it finally happened. I don't know if I'll ever be the same, or if I'll ever live it down lol.

Anyways, thanks for joining me on a walking tour of beautiful downtown St. Augustine, Florida for our motivational Monday livestream! The sun rising over Matanzas Bay is quite a sight to behold, and I must say - a great way to start the week.

We covered a lot of ground together yesterday, both literally and figuratively. And I definitely need to recap here in case you haven't caught the stream yet, because as I mentioned, we covered a lot of ground. Beyond the sunrise itself, here were some of our sights and [12] agenda items:

1) Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, and walk around the exterior of the structure.
2) Fort or Castle ??
3) Low tide birds and creatures
4) Paid Parking kiosks downtown St. Augustine
5) Avenida Menendez / State Route A1A
6) Front of the Best Western, the Hilton, plus a historical marker
7) Front of the brand new Saint Italian Restaurant
6) 'Vacation Mode: ON' = new matching family vacation tees option available in my Merch Shop
7) Discussing potential 'St. Arrrrrgustine' merch lol
8) Setting for my children's book revealed
9) The EXPLORE Act - became law on January 4, 2025. H.R. 6492 - from the 118th Congress (2023-2024). A fabulous update for filming and photography for life in the modern, digital age, and geared specifically toward content creators and social media in general. Previously, filming inside National Parks was not allowed - without a permit, fees, and quite a cumbersome process, with much advance planning.

The EXPLORE Act now allows content creators, and anyone at all of course, to bring the sights and sounds of America's beautiful National Parks to the world much more easily, through social media, without having to go through the permitting process, paying fees, and planning far in advance. Weather, for me, being my biggest concern. I can just imagine actually booking (let's say roughly a month or two in advance) a filming visit, and then a massive Florida thunderstorm ruining the outing. So this just wasn't ideal for me on a personal level to plan a visit to bring this content to my channel in the past.

Personally, I am so excited and happy this law was passed, and I love the law as much as its name. EXPLORE is what we do on this channel. We go on adventures - together.

And now we can add national parks into our content. I believe showcasing the natural beauty of our planet Earth is integral to helping keep our planet safe, clean, and habitable for future generations. Visibility, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, and learning about the creatures who call that particular place home, helps others appreciate how amazing our natural world really is. And in today's day and age, we do need content creators who are willing to film or photograph National Parks and publish to social media so everyone can continually see, and learn about, the natural world and history around us. And I do think the EXPLORE Act will help us all do just that.

And believe it or not, the greater Jacksonville area has many National Parks to visit! So, we will be adding those into our content library in the near future - another video series. And I can't wait to take you to our first National Park visit.

I will be putting out a Community Poll, and YOU will be deciding what site we visit first together.

10) The final subject was about the Guana River in St. Johns County - and I saved that for the end of the stream after we concluded our walk, because you know I like to talk. If you haven't watched the replay yet, I covered the fact that this Wednesday, May 21st, about 600 acres of state owned land along the beautiful Guana River and in a preserve land trust, was potentially going to be approved as a land swap with a company named Upland LLC, for other land scattered throughout the entire state of Florida.

The good news is that in the middle of the night, again, last night I found out the agenda item was set aside - for now. So the people of St. Johns County, and from much farther away, helped save the Guana River Reserve - for now. I say 'for now' because I am learning, and I remember, that last year when a similar instance (not necessarily a swap, but a potential development) was very close to being allowed to proceed at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine Beach. I then learned that state preserves are not as preserved as I always thought they always would be. And that instance led me to find there was a similar instance 5 years ago, where Guana River was in need of saving. This means, in my opinion, it will need to be saved in the future, once again.

I did go out to the property in question yesterday, and was able to grab some film (from vantage point of the road paralleling the land parcel). I'll definitely get it posted on the channel, just for whatever the future holds for this preserve.

I do not believe this is the last of this matter, and I believe the people of this Earth will need to continually help advocate and protect what remains of our state preserves. This was not private property. This is state owned land in trust to be preserved. And just personally, I do find it ironic that this all happened right when I learned about the EXPLORE Act, as a measure to help bring our beautiful National Parks to more people through the eyes and lenses of content creators. And also ironic as I had planned to tell you yesterday that the setting of my children's book takes place in what I like to call 'Wild Florida' - all the natural wonders of the state's landscape, from the ocean and the beach, to the salt marsh, the intracoastal, the swamps, the creeks and waterways, the St. Johns River, and into downtown Jacksonville.

11) Lastly, as we were discussing our beautiful planet Earth, and the potential habitat loss for alligators, turtles, snakes, birds, and many more creatures... We were then greeted by more creatures. And yes, it was a shark who came to say hello to us as I was ending our stream. I firmly believe this shark wanted to add his input on the subject matter at hand.

Sometimes, I've learned, Earth's wild creatures are much smarter than we tend to give them credit. And sometimes, we need to listen more to the bonnethead sharks, the egrets, the pigeons, the amazing alligators, and the magical sea turtles of this world.

12) And yes, a precious sea turtle came right up to me and said hello after our stream ended yesterday. I'd dreamed of such a moment sincerely for eight years. And this one, I did catch on film.

Love you,
Christine

#walkingtour #staugustine #florida

SHORT - Castillo de San Marcos - bird watching in St. Augustine 5.19.25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3gujZDlEA&t=2794s

This video was filmed LIVE on Monday, May 19, 2025 in St. Augustine, Florida.
Video 610.
#birdwatching #staugustine #florida

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