mickey916
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
April 21 - Giving the Stuart/Jupiter Area Another Try
Since breakfast is not included at the Courtyard, we had to continue our donut quest by stopping by Jupiter Donuts. This place has smaller donuts and a huge cinnamon roll. We simply had to get both. Here is the cinnamon roll with a lip balm for size reference.
This cinnamon roll was not only gigantic, it was absolutely delicious! The dough was fresh, the cinnamon sugar was plentiful and the sweet glaze topped it off nicely. I would recommend getting there early as they do sell out and trying the cinnamon roll if you're ever near a Jupiter donuts. We were outside eating this when a man sent his wife back in to get one after seeing it and they were all sold out!
We also ordered six mini donuts (clockwise starting in upper left corner): cookies & creaam, butterfinger, heath bar, coconut, M&M, Reese's peanut butter). All of these were chocolate cake donuts with chocolate frosting and different toppings.
These donuts were all pretty good but nothing that really stood out as a "must get". The cinnamon roll is where it's at! We ended up making two days' breakfast out of these treats!
After our hearty breakfast, we went to the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, Florida. This is a small non-profit wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary. Admission is by voluntary donation. We truly enjoyed seeing all of the rescued animals and learning about them. We spoke with a volunteer at length and learned about panthers and mountain lions. We saw all kinds of animals. It was a great stop!
We then stopped at Loggerhead Marine and had a picnic lunch of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. We opted not to go in the facility but took a long walk along Juno Beach all the way to the pier.
Yet another beautiful day!
We also visited Dubois Park which is a nice area for picnicking and swimming and has free parking.
We stopped by the Jupiter lighthouse but we were too late to take a trek to the top.
This would probably be better at high tide. Parking is free but there is a suggested donation of $2 per person to go to the preserve. Also be aware that the beach closes at 4:30 . We saw a poor family lugging all their beach gear and children down only to be told by a ranger that they closed in a half hour.
As we drove back to the Courtyard for the evening, we went down this street with impressive trees.
After our disappointing dinner the night before, we decided to walk over to a nice little restaurant area across from the Courtyard. There were many options to choose from but we decided to give Blaze Pizza a try. We've never tried the one in Disney Springs but have seen good reviews. We decided to share a Caesar salad.
This was very good. It had nice slices of parmesan cheese, crispy croutons, and a tasty dressing. We each decided to build our own individual pizza on high rise dough. I ordered mine with red and white sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, banana peppers, and oregano.
My DH ordered his with red/white sauce, mozzarella, feta, pepperoni, meatballs, ham, spinach, red pepper, and sea salt.
We were very impressed by the whole experience. The process was very efficient, the employees were all working very hard and the pizzas were very tasty. And, we noted, as opposed to the previous night's dining experience, there was a worker going around with individual disposable wipes cleaning all the tables. Overall, this was a much better dinner.
We headed back to the Courtyard to watch some Bob's Burgers episodes as we awaited the arrival of our DS-26. After I had planned our trip, our oldest son mentioned that he had a week's vacation he had to use before mid-May or he would lose the time. I suggested he join us for a portion of our trip. He chose the Fort Lauderdale/Miami/Keys part. We're so happy he was able to come along on part of our travels.
His flight was due to land at the Palm Beach Airport at 11 pm. Unfortunately as seems to happen all too often there was a "mechanical issue" (i.e. likely no flight crew) and he didn't end up taking off until after 11 and landing at 2 am. We picked him up then and drove the 45 minute drive back to the Courtyard Port St. Lucie/Tradition. In hindsight, we should have stayed that night somewhere closer to the airport, since we were checking out that next morning and heading south anyhow. It just never occurred to me back when we found out he would be joining us.
Up next, the three of us venture down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami before heading to the Keys.
