Hey Guys!! Are you ready for Part Two? While we spent a good portion of our time exploring distilleries, that’s not all we did while we were in Kentucky! I know that’s what you were thinking! ;-P
We stayed at a small RV park right outside of Bardstown, KY. It was just close enough to everything to be convenient and just far enough away from everything that we didn’t feel like we were in town.
Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. The place where he was born is now a National Park. About where the cabin he was born in sat, is now a memorial. Inside the memorial you can see a cabin that is of the same time period taken from the area, but it’s not the actual cabin Lincoln was born in. We learned about Lincoln’s early years before he moved to Illinois while we were there doing the Junior Rangering. It was a nice little park and we went on a beautiful day!
We also made it to Mammoth Cave National Park where the boys got some more Junior Rangering done!
Sooo…I don’t know if you know this…but caves are really dark. I know, I know…it was a shock to us too. Ha! Just kidding. I took loads of pictures in the hopes that at least a few would come out. I tried, Guys! I really did. We signed up for a cave tour before we went. We wanted to do more than one, but apparently, cave tours are super popular and we waited too long. Bummer. Our tour group was huge…close to 100 people. We weren’t really expecting that. Somehow we ended up at the back of the group and every time we got to the next Ranger stop, the Ranger had already finished up talking. We caught the tail end of her spiel a couple of times, but not enough to really tell you about. This was the first time we’ve had that happen…and honestly…we didn’t like it. At all. We are a family of total nerds…one of the best things about the tours for us is the learning… The NPS really needs to have smaller cave tour groups.
At one point during the tour the Ranger turned off all the lights and talked to us by lantern light so we could see what the miners were really dealing with. It was DARK!
One of the best parts of the tour was the Fat Man’s Misery! Nicholas had no problems with this super narrow section of the cave. And Guys, it was really narrow.
Right after the Fat Man’s Misery is the Tall Man’s Misery where even I (at my 5’1″ …with the right shoes on…height) had to bend over. It’s hard to see, but the guy in the picture was the guy right behind me during the tour. He had to have been close to 6’4″ and had a really difficult time with both the Misery sections. He was nice enough to pause and let me snap his picture. This cave tour is not for someone who struggles with claustrophobia.
We’d only been in one other cave and then a lava tube when we did this cave tour so we didn’t really know what to expect with Mammoth Cave. We would like to go back sometime and do some of the other tours that we missed out on. Maybe if we go during the off season the tour groups will be smaller?
Bardstown is a pretty small town, but we did find a couple of foodies. In the left picture above is a Southern Burger with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes. Now, you might remember I had something similar to this in Charleston, SC and it was pretty darn amazing! I had high hopes for this Southern Burger…it was decent. It would have been a lot better if the pimento cheese wasn’t so sweet. Honestly, it left me wanting to go back to SC and get the other burger. If you look at the mess of stuff in the right picture…you’ll see what is called a Kentucky Hot Brown! And it’s pretty darn good!! It’s hard to tell from the picture above, but it’s an open-faced sandwich with ham, turkey, and bacon. If you get the chance to try one, take it!! You won’t regret it!
Are you ready for some pretties?! I took quite a few pictures of pretties, but I’ll just share a few with you!
I love the colors of the one in the bottom right picture!!
Hey Guys!! We’re interrupting our regularly scheduled blog post lineup to bring to you a special post about our #eclipse2017 experience! If I added this post to the end of the post que y’all wouldn’t see it until October sometime. I thought y’all might like it sooner rather than later.
I’m not going to get all scientific on you and explain what an eclipse is and what happens and all that jazz. No science class today. If you don’t know and want to…there are tons of places you can research it! ;-} This is just a recounting of our eclipse day experience for anyone who’s curious!
We traveled to the Omaha, NE area to visit with some friends so we were very near the path of totality.
Our day started at an extremely early 5am. For those of you who know us or have followed along for awhile…y’all know just how early this is for us. So, so…early!! And it was raining. Rain is not how I had envisioned our eclipse day starting off, but I remained steadfastly hopeful that the clouds would clear at the right time.
National Parks are kind of our thing. We can’t get enough of them. So, we thought it was fitting that we watch the eclipse at a National Park that happened to be in the path of totality! We ended up at the Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska with about ten-thousand of our closest friends. We arrived super early and actually got a parking spot about 3/4 of a mile from the park on a dirt road in between fields of corn. The city of Beatrice, NE and the National Park did a fantastic job of organizing the chaos. We arrived at the NP right after 8am and the parking was already turning into a nightmare.
We weren’t the first ones there, but we were early enough to have a decent choice of spots. We wanted to be close enough to the stage to have some entertainment, close enough to the food trucks in case we got hungry, and Porta Potty Lane wasn’t so close we could smell it but it was close enough if we needed it.
We claimed our real estate for the day, the boys got started on their Junior Rangering, and we checked out our eclipse glasses to make sure they worked. The NPS created a special booklet, patch, and badge for the eclipse! What?!? Our little Junior Rangers were so stoked until we found out the Park had run out of the booklets the day before. What?! But! They gave them the regular Junior Ranger booklet for the Park and told them they’d still get all of the eclipse goodies on top of the usual badges. Score!
The boys finished in record time. We were a little nervous the NP would run out of the specialty patch and badge. The boys are officially Eclipse Explorer Junior Rangers now!
Our little area of the NP was starting to fill in. It was still pretty early here. Close to 10am. We decided to grab some food so we would miss some of the later lines and so we wouldn’t be fumbling with food when the show started at 11:37am.
See the three orange shirts in the photo above? They were with a school. They staked out a huge section of real estate near us for one of the schools. They spent a good hour shooing people out of their space. It was kind of funny to watch. They got all kinds of reactions. Everything from total acceptance to out right irritation.
Around 10:30am the Color Guard came out and the National Anthem was sung.
Aaannnnd…then the clouds rolled in. We were so bummed and really starting to worry we wouldn’t be able to see the show.
I’m guessing it was one of the news stations getting video for the evening news in the helicopter. I didn’t have my good camera out yet because of the clouds. I was afraid we’d have a downpour and even though my camera is weather resistant, I didn’t want it all set up if we had to make a mad dash to some shelter.
Speaking of my camera…Guys, I totally procrastinated with eclipse prep. I realized too late that I don’t have a good lens for taking up-close shots of the sun…and…I couldn’t find a solar lens to save my life. After all of the searching (we searched everywhere and anywhere that might have something) and dead ends, we found the stuff to MacGyver together something that would allow me to take photos of the eclipse without ruining my sensor or my eyes. I’ll admit…it looks a little trashy. But I couldn’t care less…just wait until you see the pics it got me.
We could see the rain coming. We hoped it would just skirt around us. It was close to the start of the show when the rain caught up with us but, we’d come prepared. We’re like the Boy Scouts…always prepared.
We rigged up some solar filters for the boys’ phones too. Again, I know it doesn’t look the best but Guys, it worked and we spent very little on something we would use once. We knew they’d want to take pictures and videos of the eclipse, but we weren’t sure if it would ruin the sensor in the camera. We got a batch of the bad solar eclipse glasses (the ones that were recalled) and figured they’d probably be good enough for a phone so I cut the eye pieces out and used electrical tape to fasten them to the cases. When the boys wanted to take shots of totality they just slipped the cases off.
I’d downloaded the Solar Eclipse Timer app a few days before. It worked great! It would talk to me and let me know before each stage of the eclipse happened so we could try and watch for it when the sun wasn’t covered by clouds. You can see in the photo above that first contact was at 11:37 for us.
We missed first contact by a few minutes, but the clouds parted enough for us to see what was happening. It’s hard to tell that there was still some very thin cloud covering in this picture.
The handy dandy app let me know it was almost time for totality. It really was a great help in keeping track of time and stages of the eclipse!
Bill Nye the Science Guy came out right before totality to share in the moment with everyone. We had no idea he was going to be there.
Confession: I took the “solar filter” off of my lens before it was officially safe. With the cloud cover that we had…I kind of figured it’d be ok. I still didn’t look directly into the sun while snapping the pic. I was struggling to keep my lens in focus. Remember, I didn’t have the right lens or the right filter for the eclipse.
I was starting to panic that we’d miss it because the cloud cover was getting worse right over the sun. The crowd…all 10,000 of us…groaned when the sun got covered by the clouds.
I still had my “solar filter” off messing with my camera when the clouds parted and we caught sight of totality. Guys…when the clouds parted the whole park burst into cheers. It was amazing! I think this will be one of the memories we talk about for years. We could have found some small out of the way spot to experience this eclipse but we wanted to do it at a National Park. And, I’ll admit…I was super bothered by the sheer number of people that kept showing up. We’re not into crowds. It’s not our thing. But Guys, the crowd…all 10,000…the collective groans and then cheering when the clouds parted…it all really added to the overall experience.
I’d just gotten my camera back into focus and aimed at the right spot. I didn’t get any good shots of the crowd during the show. I was too busy trying to get a decent shot of totality. I did get some video with my phone though…so I’ll add that at the end of this post!
Totality was over and most people started to immediately leave. We didn’t mind the mass exodus. We stuck around trying to get a few more shots of the rest of the eclipse, but the clouds were being difficult.
Eclipse 2017 was pretty much done here. You can make out a very thin smidge of the moon in the lower left edge of sun in the photo above.
We packed up our stuff and headed over to the Education Center on the other side of the NP to catch a special lecture from a NASA scientist. And to find a bathroom that didn’t have 200 people waiting in line for it. I’d guess 3/4 of the people at the park had left or were trying to leave by this point, but there were still a few thousand milling around. The lecture was very cool. It was about our planet…not just about the eclipse. The huge globe was interactive and was in constant motion. Our little science nerds loved it! They were in since nerd heaven. Ha!
After the Education Center we were done! We started the trek to the car only to run into these guys. It was close to 4pm by this time and the eclipse had been over for about two hours. All of the people you see in the photo above were standing in lines to catch the shuttle buses back to wherever they’d parked. That 3/4 mile hike back to our car suddenly didn’t look so bad.
We stopped at Hickory Road BBQ & Catering Co for a celebratory meal of smoked meat. We enjoyed everything we got! So good! If you’re ever in Lincoln, NE it’s definitely worth a stop!
We ended up with some pretty cool loot to go along with all of our memories of the eclipse.
The National Park Service even had a special cancellation stamp made for the event! We collect cancellation stamps at every National Park we visit. Sorry the photo is a bit blurry…
We ended our day with some friends. Ben & Jerry. All in all…I’d say our #eclipse2017 day was a success! We’re already planning for the next eclipse! Who wants to meet us and have a big eclipse party?!
You will now be returned to your regularly scheduled blog post.
#eclipse2017
p.s. It took me six different states to finally find the Keep Caramel and Cookie On flavor of Ben & Jerry’s.
We had the busiest, best week in the Traverse City area!! This might turn into a really long post…I’ll try to keep it to a reasonable length…no promises though.
The first thing we did when we got to town was head to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore where the boys did some Junior Rangering.
We had a new experience at this visitor center. For the first time in…I honestly can’t tell you how many National Parks/Memorials/Monuments/Battlefields/Forts/Historic Sites we almost left without getting the badge/patch. The boys were finishing up the booklet and one of the Rangers told us it was closing time and we needed to leave. When we asked about the Junior Ranger books he was very unapologetic and completely uncaring. It was time to go…we needed to get out. So, on our way out we quickly mentioned it to another Ranger there and she very nicely and quickly gave the boys their badges/patches. It didn’t take long. We didn’t insist on the swearing in ceremony that usually accompanies the badges. But, it left a bad taste in our mouths. If this had been the first time doing a Junior Ranger Program…we might have just quit. I would hate to see someone stop doing the Junior Ranger Program because of a Ranger’s bad attitude. The boys have learned so much through this program! All of the other Ranger’s we’ve ever met in all of our travels were the complete opposite of this one Ranger. I hope he has better days ahead. Now, that being said…check out the cool patch/badge!
I’m not sure what you picture when you think of Michigan…this is not what I pictured. This gorgeous blue lake was a shock to us.
The day we went it was super windy. I think we all came away from our hike a little smoother from being buffed out by the sand. We had sand everywhere, but none of us minded. The views were too pretty and it was a wonderfully sunny day!
We were surprised by how much green there was covering some of the sand dunes. During our cold and windy hike we learned about the whys and the whats of it all. I’m trying to keep this post semi-short…so I’ll not go into all of the scientific details.
It was tricky getting pictures with the sand blowing so hard. If you look closely at the edge of the sand in the right picture above you can see the sand blowing away. I had to wait to snap a quick picture in between the gusts of wind. We could have stood there and taken in this view for hours even with the wind, blowing sand, and the cold temps. We kept saying, “Look at the color of the water!”
If you can believe it, there were people in the lake surfing! Guys, it had to be close to freezing in the water. I’m getting hypothermia just thinking about getting into that water.
It looks like some forgotten island somewhere. It’s hard to believe that’s Lake Michigan! I do believe Lake Michigan is our favorite of the Great Lakes! The lake was beautiful in every single view we got of it!
If you like lighthouses and beaches then Michigan is definitely a state you need to visit! It was so very postcard perfect!
We found a coffee house called Higher Grounds Coffee who roasts their coffee in store. We went in for a tour not really knowing what to expect. We’ve toured distilleries, breweries, tea plantations, chocolate houses, cheese factories, chip factories…but we’ve never had the opportunity to tour a coffee roaster. Our tour guide, Jennifer (what a great name!), was super nice and extremely knowledgeable about the entire process. You can see a bag of green coffee beans in the right photo above. This is how Higher Grounds gets them from several different growers. Jennifer explained how the founder (Chris Treter) of the company went to Mexico as part of his post-graduate internship. He worked closely with and became good friends to a community of coffee farmers while in Mexico and really got a good look at the poverty these growers live and work in. When it was time for Chris to leave he wanted to find a way to keep helping the coffee farmers. When asked, the farmers told Chris that he could sell their coffee to help.
Chris went back to his home in the US and started selling coffee, but he didn’t stop there. He wanted to help his friends back in Mexico get out of poverty. He wanted to make their lives better so he found ways to give back. Higher Grounds has helped bring water to communities that had to walk miles each day to reach a fresh source of water. That might not sound like a big deal, but can you imagine what you could accomplish if you suddenly had an extra 5 hours a day? Can you imagine having to walk a few miles to get a glass of water, brush your teeth, or bathe?
After Jennifer walked us through the entire process from getting the beans to roasting them, she brewed us two different kinds of beans. So, here’s the thing…I don’t drink coffee. Not even a little. The two members of our family who do drink coffee enjoyed the coffee tasting immensely. The other two who tried it…well…they tried it. Ha! Jennifer taught us how to properly brew coffee to insure we get the same taste every time then she taught us how to slurp. Yup, you read that right! Slurp. You need to slurp your coffee so you can taste all the coffee has to offer.
We had a great time learning about and trying coffee! Higher Grounds Coffee is a great company. You can find it in some stores, but don’t worry…if it’s not offered in a store near you, you can also order it online! This company is actually making a difference in the world. Our world would be a better place if more companies cared enough to change the lives of those who can’t change it themselves. Go to their website and order some coffee!!
We love to hit road trip spots like this! Fun, quick memories!
Those are cherry trees in the left picture. I was shocked by the sheer number of cherry trees in this area…until I found out that the National Cherry Festival is held in Traverse City. It should come as no surprise that the World Record Cherry Pie was made here. Nicholas was in cherry heaven!
You could pretty much find cherry anything here. Cherry jelly, cherry salsa, cherry popcorn, cherry candy, cherry ice cream, cherry cake, dried cherries, spicy cherries…I kind of feel like the shrimp guy on Forrest Gump. ;-P We walked away with a few yummies!
Speaking of yummies…let’s talk foodies! We found a place called Slabtown Burger. It has this burger that’s stuffed with cream cheese and jalapenos and…bacon. It’s my new favorite out of all 40 states! Y’all…this burger is ah-mazing!!
Nicholas has a thing for flavored popcorn. We love to support local shops so, of course, we ended up with a couple bags!
Jerl and I snuck in a date night! This fried pickle was an appetizer. It was surprisingly good! It’s a pickle spear wrapped in Swiss cheese, ham, and a wonton wrapper then deep fried. It was sooo good! I think we’re going to make these ourselves! I see you eye-balling the left picture…it’s a six layer cappuccino cake with mocha frosting. You can’t tell, but it’s huge!! Jerl and I got half of it down before giving up. Don’t worry…we took the rest home where the boys happily devoured it. I have a feeling we’ll be talking about this cake for years. We were really surprised by all the foodies we found here!
I think all we have left are the pretties! There were tons of pretties around!
We enjoyed the park we stayed in. It was mostly empty and was big enough to get some descent walking in!
Abraham Lincoln thought that Vicksburg was “the key” to winning the Civil War. The Vicksburg National Military Park has a 16 mile road that winds through some of the major battlegrounds of the Siege of Vicksburg.
One of the cool things that the NPS offers at these battlefields is an audio tour of the park. There are usually a few different ones to choose from. We always get the longest, most detailed one. This time the longest one was two and a half hours. It took us over five hours to complete the whole driving tour. We get out at each stop and look around. Talk about it. One of the times we stopped and got out to look around we found some hidden canons.
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Along with the audio tour we got this great little booklet. In the picture above you can see one of the stops. At this stop we learned about the Shirley House. This house was caught in the middle of a siege. The army dug a “honeycomb” of shelters all around the house during the battle. The house is still there today and so is the “honeycomb”. The shelters have all fallen down and been cleared away, but the land is still scarred from the battle.
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The Illinois Memorial was the biggest memorial we saw. So much thought goes into each Memorial. On the Illinois Memorial there are 47 steps that lead up to the entrance. One for each of the 47 days of the Siege of Vicksburg. Inside the Illinois Memorial was this gorgeous seal.
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We’ve been to several different battlefields, but this was the first time we found a tunnel!
We learned about the different types of artillery. You can see in the pic above that the opening isn’t smooth. It has notches. These notches are super important! They allow the artillery to go farther and with more accuracy.
I think, perhaps, our favorite stop on the tour was at the USS Cairo Museum where we learned about the Ironclad River Gunboats. On December 12, 1862, the USS Cairo became the very first armed warship to be sunk by a mine. They weren’t called mines at that point. They were called “torpedos” or “infernal machines”.
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The NPS has restored bits of the Ironclad and installed walkways that allow you to really get inside and see the guts of the boat. The USS Cairo came equipped with 13 guns, including 3 large 64 pounder Navy smoothbores. Two and a half inch plate armor made of charcoal iron is what covered the mid section of the boat in order to protect the vital guts of the boat.
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There was a model in the museum to show what the USS Cairo looked like. The USS Cairo sank in 12 minutes, but no lives were lost.
I did find a few pretties. I don’t know what tree this was, but it had pretties all over it.
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We really enjoy the battlefields. We learn so much and it’s such a great way for the boys to really get an idea of what took place there. Instead of just reading about it in a book while sitting in a classroom, they get to walk around the grounds it took place. I didn’t go into extreme detail about each stop, but hopefully I’ve intrigued y’all enough to go visit the Vicksburg National Military Park!
We made it to Mississippi! We spent two very busy weeks in Vicksburg, MS! I’m going to be breaking our time here up into two separate posts.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 miles long and snakes it’s way through three states. We didn’t get to explore all of it, but we got in around 122 miles of it! I know, I know…how interesting could a parkway be? Well…pretty darn interesting when it’s sprinkled with historical stops! This natural travel corridor was used for centuries first by animals, then by Native Americans and then when people would catch rides on boats down the Mississippi River to sell their wares. They would then walk the travel corridor back home.
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The natural travel corridor that would become the Natchez Trace Parkway goes through the traditional homelands of the Natchez, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations. One of the stops on the NTP is called Emerald Mound. Emerald Mound is one of the largest mounds in our country. It stands 35 feet tall and is 770 feet by 435 feet at the base and covers 8 acres. There are two secondary mounds that sit on top of the primary mound making the total height come to 60 feet. Emerald Mound was used as a ceremonial center for the local people who lived in nearby villages, but abandoned the mound in the late 1600s.
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Mount Locust Inn and Plantation is one of the oldest structures still standing in the area. The Mount Locust story starts in 1780 and stretches all the way to 1944. The National Park Service started restoring it to it’s 1820 appearance in 1954.
In the late 1700s boatmen (also known as Kaintucks) were taking their wares down the Mississippi River in their flatboats. At that point the best way to get home was to sell all their wares and the boat then walk back up the natural corridor that we know now as the Natchez Trace Parkway. Mount Locust is right about a day’s walk from Natchez. The travelers would ask the owners of Mount Locust for food and a place to stay for the night. Eventually, the family added on a separate, four room, two story building behind the main house.
We didn’t get to explore the all of Mount Locust due to some bad weather. We would like to eventually go back and see it all.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s the growing number of travelers on the corridor tramped down the rough trail into a clearly marked pathway. On some parts of the pathway where the ground was soft, the travelers wore down the trail and made the “sunken” sections you can see in the pic above.
We made it all the way to mile 122 and the Cypress Swamp! There’s a nice little boardwalk where you can walk right out over the swamp.
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Not far from where we stayed sat the remains of Windsor Plantation. Windsor was built between 1859 and 1861 and was the largest antebellum house in Mississippi at the time. The plantation once covered over 2,600 acres. It had wrought iron staircases and was four stories that housed 25 rooms, each with its own fireplace. The plantation was an important landmark along the Mississippi River. Mark Twain wrote about it in his book “Life on the Mississippi”. The Windsor Plantation survived the Civil War only to be burned to the ground by a party guest who was smoking in 1890.
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We also made it to the Mississippi SCB! Check out the gold coated copper eagle on the dome! It is 8 feet tall and 15 feet across!
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Check out the inside of that dome! *cue wondrous music* This is one of the best domes we’ve seen in a while! And…if that dome isn’t enough to wow you…check out the stained glass in the Senate Chamber. The pics not the best. We weren’t allowed down on the floor so I had to lean out and get the shot from the public gallery. Not to be out done by the Senate Chamber, the House Chamber has its own stained glass dome. We weren’t allowed on the floor again…so the pic is kind of weird, but you get the idea of how awesome the domes are.
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The Mississippi SCB has some very nice details. I love these light fixtures. Y’all know I have a thing for staircases…check out the wavy balustrade! You can also see some more stained glass at the top. We really enjoyed the Mississippi SCB!
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We had some spectacular sunsets while we were in MS!
We spent two weeks in the South Miami Florida area. This post is going to be a big one, guys!
Our very first night in the area we decided we should try some Cuban food. Y’all know we love to try the local flavors. We found a spot called La Carreta. I kind of wish we hadn’t. Cuban food is kind of…awesome. We spent the whole two weeks there wanting more Cuban food.
Our main focus in the area was the Everglades National Park. It took us three very full days to see what we wanted and we still didn’t see it all.
We started our Everglade exploration in Shark Valley where the main thing to do is take a tram tour. I was skeptical. The tram tour is extra. But it was the only way to really see this part of the park unless you want to walk the 15 mile loop…with all of the gators…and the heat. Um, no thanks. Can you spot the gator in the photo above?
The tram tour is guided by one of the National Park Rangers. Our Ranger braved the muck and the gators to teach us about the sawgrass prairie. She went out there bare foot. With the gators.
She brought handfuls of the soil and the periphyton (the stuff that floats on the top) for everyone to feel. Littlest wasn’t impressed with the texture and slime of it. Ha!
We saw tons of birds.
Please don’t ask me to name all of the birds we saw…
our ranger named them all…but, I’ve slept since then.
And we saw plenty of gators!
These guys were laying right by the road where the people who didn’t want to do the tram tour were walking. Right. By. The. Road!
We took an airboat ride. This place is one of only four companies allowed to go right into Everglades National Park!
I could put up tons of the pics I took while on the ride, but sometimes a video does the job better. So here’s a little peek into our airboat ride through the Everglades National Park.
The airboat place had a restaurant that served gator and frog legs. We had to try them. I’ll be honest, I wimped out trying the frog legs. I just couldn’t get pass the frog part. But the gator was excellent!
We spent an entire day making our way to the Flamingo Bay part of the Everglades NP. We stopped and did some of the hikes on the way down and some on the way back. If you go…take bug spray. They were really bad during one of our first hikes. We forgot to spray down for that first hike, but you better believe we didn’t forget on the second hike!
We saw several trees we hadn’t seen during our travels yet. The red barked tree is a gumbo limbo tree. We also saw tons of mahogany trees.
We made it all the way down to Flamingo Bay right about lunch time. We stopped by the marina there just to check it out and was rewarded with our first salt water crocodile! And he was a big one!
We also got our first look at a manatee! They kind of look like a huge floating potato.
I took this shot quickly as we were leaving the marina area. I didn’t notice the crocodile in the bottom right corner until I was looking at the shot on my computer.
We’d heard there was a campground down at Flamingo Bay so we went to check it out and scout for future trips. We found this great place for a picnic. It was pretty deserted there.
We stopped by the Royal Palm area for the last hike we wanted to do. We got there and noticed tons of these guys. Then we noticed there were tarps on most of the cars there.
Apparently, the vultures are destructive.
The NPS provided tarps and bungee cords for everyone to use while in the area.
We also made it to Biscayne NP. This NP is mostly underwater. We did get to walk the one small trail at the Visitor Center.
We had to be quick since the little spit of land the trail takes you out on was disappearing as the tide came in.
We were treated to a storm cloud and a rainbow while we were making our way off the little spit of land.
We were in the Miami area for Christmas. Our Christmas tradition is tamales. We searched high and low for Mexican tamales and came up with a big fat nothing. Nadda. But we did find this place. El Palacio De Los Jugos. This Cuban market is awesome!!
Our Spanish revolves around food items, but that didn’t help us here
because we weren’t familiar with everything here and there weren’t any labels. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones there who didn’t fluently speak Spanish. We got some of this and some of that. All by pointing and gesturing. We were pretty confident that we were in the right place because the line went out the door. Everything we got was absolutely excellent. We ended up with some Cuban tamales with some fixings for our Christmas dinner.
While we were looking for Mexican tamales, we asked around at the RV park we were staying in. One of the ladies in the office offered to try and find some for us and when she couldn’t she offered to bring us some that her mom was making. I should mention here she’s from Mexico. We were thrilled with the offer, but unsure if she would follow through. The day after Christmas she delivered with about a dozenhomemadetamales. Guys, they were the best tamales we’ve ever had! I meant to snap a pic of them but they were devoured before I could think to stop and take a picture of them. So, you’ll just have to take our word for it. They were wonderful!
Since we’re talking about Christmas, I’ll mention here what we did on Christmas. We started our Christmas morning at Miami Beach.
We weren’t really impressed with Miami Beach. There were tons of jellyfish and more trash than I like on a beach.
We got there early and pretty much had the beach to ourselves for awhile. Right about the time we were ready to go, the crowds started to come out.
We stopped by a fruit stand called “Robert Is Here” one afternoon.
It’s an avocado. I sat a lemon and a key lime next to it so you could see the size difference. We bought one. We haven’t eaten it yet, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or not. But it is huge!
We got suckered into buying some of this fruit. I’m not sure where this guy is getting his cotton candy, but he needs to find a new place. This fruit was nothing like cotton candy. It was kind of a slimy gel texture that made me want to go brush my teeth. Mr. Man and Littlest both liked it.
We also bought one of these. It’s not ready yet, so I can’t tell you if we got suckered again. I’ll let you know.
We did find some really good Mexican food.
A good friend of mine met us at El Torro Taco! I got the plate above. It did not disappoint! So. Good! It was so fun spending time with another of my HP friends! *waves to friend and her fam* Her kiddos and my kiddos are all about the same age and into the same nerdy stuff. They all hit it off. My boys have already asked when we will see them again. It’s been fun this year meeting up with so many of my HP friends!
There are flower stands all over the place. People also sell them on the street corners.
Are you ready for some pretties? The pic above isn’t the best, but I wanted to share it anyway. The purple flowers and the bright orange/red seed pod are the same plant! Whhhaaattt…. mind…blown…
I took so many
pictures of pretties here.
I could have done a post
on just the pretties.
We love this area. We’re already trying to figure out how soon we’ll be able to come back…and spend more time.
Hey Guys! It’s 2017!! Happy New Year!! We thought it would be fun to look back on some of our favorite memories of 2016 with y’all. These are in chronological order and not in rank order. We couldn’t all agree on what order they should be in.
We started 2016 off at White Sands National Monument. This is still one of our favorite National Parks! We had the best time sledding down the sand dunes!
Big Bend National Park had to make the list. The diversity of the landscape here was amazing and beautiful. The vast open expanses of land made us feel so small. We left so much unexplored.
We can’t think of Big Bend NP and not think of our border crossing into Boquillas, Mexico! The boys still talk about riding the burros. It was definitely an experience none of us will forget.
We enjoyed New York more than we thought we would. Old Fort Niagara is on our list of our favorite Forts.
Niagara Falls is awe inspiring. The sheer force of the water as it goes over the falls is breathtaking.
The lobster in Lubec, ME was a favorite for everyone. Being able to go right down to the fishing boat that caught the lobster earlier that day and pick out the lobsters we wanted was so cool.
Acadia National Park has so much to offer. The views were spectacular!
The Cape Cod National Seashore was everything we’d heard it would be. Beautiful beaches and tons of people. We would like to go back during their off season.
We were all surprised by how much we enjoyed the Newport Mansions in Rhode Island. The personal stories and history really made it all come alive.
Some people call Littlest, Panda Boy. He loves pandas and had been looking forward to seeing one in person at the National Zoo ever since I told him we would be going. I think he asked me every week when exactly we would be going to the National Zoo.
We loved all of the Monuments and Memorials in Washington DC.
Kitty Hawk, NC was another surprise for us. We thoroughly enjoyed this area and hated to leave it.
The Biltmore was a bonus this year. We didn’t plan on going to see it, but Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench into our plans and sent Hurricane Mathew up the East Coast. We had to flee Kitty Hawk and head inland so we headed to Ashville and the Biltmore.
Boone Plantation was something I’d been looking forward to for awhile. We really enjoyed the Gullah Geechee aspect of it.
Driftwood Beach in Georgia is still the most unique beach we’ve been to. It was so fun to walk up and down the beach and play around on all of the driftwood.
We saw quite a few Forts in 2016. Fort Castillo de San Marcos in the St. Augustine area of Florida made it to our top five.
And…of course, Universal Studios made it on to our list of 2016 favorites. #potterheadsrule
Everglades National Park left an impression on all of us. We loved the diversity of animals and ecosystems we found here.
We’ve had quite a year! It was really hard for us to pick our favorites.
I hope y’all had a wonderful 2016 and will have an even better 2017!
Hey Guys! We spent one week in the St. Augustine area of Florida.
This was our first stop in the state! Bring on the warm weather!
We had a ton of things on our to do list, but for some reason we had an off week. We only made it to two of those things and both of them were National Park Forts. The first one we made it to was Fort Matanzas National Monument. You can see it in the photo above. That’s about as close as we got to it. The Visitor Center was open and we were able to go through some of the Ranger Talks, but the dock over at the actual fort was damaged during Hurricane Mathew. So, that part of the Monument was closed.
The boys were able to work on the Junior Ranger badge and learned some handy knot tying skills.
There was also a musket demonstration.
The other Fort we went to was Castillo de San Marcos. This is probably in the second spot on our list of best forts.
Several of the rooms were decorated with things that would have been in them during the time the fort was being used.
There were secret rooms…
and some pretty cool doorways. Interesting shape, right? Makes you wonder what they were bringing in and out of that room that required a door in that shape.
Fort Castillo de San Marcos was a free roaming fort. We were allowed to look in all the nooks and crannies and take our time. It was wonderful.
We got there later in the afternoon and it was early evening by the time we were leaving. We could have stayed longer, but they were closing for a special ticketed event that night.
We stayed in a cute little RV Park while we were there. They did a wonderful job of decorating for Christmas. I loved the lights at night!
The RV Park also had wonderful view. This wasn’t too far from our front door for the week.
We were so bummed that we didn’t get to experience any more that St. Augustine had to offer. I’m sure we will go back sometime and hit all the neat things we missed.
The Brunswick area consists of a bunch of little islands all hooked together. I’d been looking forward to this stop for awhile.
One of the main reasons I scheduled this stop was to see the sea turtles. We went during the off season, but we found the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where we could learn all about sea turtles and even get to see some of them. The main focus of the GSTC is to rehabilitate the turtles and get them back into their natural habitat. They also take in any straggler hatchlings and keep them until they’re big enough to head out to sea the next year.
You can go in and look at the tanks with their patients. There are charts for each patient that tells why they’re there and the steps being taken to help them. We got there right before their last tour and got to see them feed the turtles!
We found another fort to mosey through. This one is Fort Frederica National Monument.
It was worth the trip just to see all of the old oaks and Spanish moss. The fort itself is mostly gone, but they’ve got a few foundations they’ve found and there are records that tell them where everything was and who owned what. We enjoyed walking through the grounds. I would definitely recommend it!
The Junior Ranger program here was one of the boys’ favorites so far. In the pic above you can see them with the bag that’s given out with the Junior Ranger booklets.
The bag contained various items and instruments used to complete the booklet.
We also got to play some pub games that would’ve been found during the 1700s. We’ve decided we need to make one of these.
The boys earned four badges and one patch. I somehow missed getting one of the badges in the picture. Of course, it was the coolest one…because it was a little different. I’ll try to get a picture of them together again and post it up on our Instagram.
We also went to Tidelands Nature Center where we got to touch an alligator.
The boys were impressed the set of chompers on this guy.
We also got to see this little stingray up close!
We found two very cool beaches! The first one is Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island. It was so fun to climb around on all of the driftwood. It was also a great picture place. We got some good family shots at this beach.
The other beach also happened to be on Jekyll Island, but for the life of me…I can’t remember the name of it. It was a great beach…not too many people there.
So…it doesn’t look like much. It’s called Brunswick Stew. I’ve seen it since Maine, but didn’t try it until North Carolina and I’ve been hooked ever since. I thought it only fitting that I had a bowl of Brunswick stew while in Brunswick. It starts with smoked meat. I’ve had chicken, pork, and beef…any and all combinations of the three. It always has corn and usually lima beans. From there it varies. The best I’ve had was from High Cotton in Kitty Hawk, NC. Hands down the best. I’m going to have to try to make my own version of Brunswick stew!
We stayed at a great little park called Blythe Island Regional Park. It was awesome! Nice big spot, pull through, full hookups…they even offered cable at no extra cost! We would totally stay there again. This park also had a healthy community of squirrels. And boy howdy…those squirrels loved to tease our cats!! It was extremely entertaining!
I even found a few pretties! Love these pink flowers with the Spanish moss and the oaks!
That’s all we had time to do. We could have spent at least another week just exploring all the different beaches and forts in the area!
We spent a week in the Savannah area. When I planned our loop this year, I was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of hiking opportunities. We’ve spent most of our time during this loop exploring cities (big and small). Cities aren’t really our thing. We prefer the wilds. But, when you’re trying to see all fifty states…well, there are states known for their great hiking and there are states known for their history. I’ve come to realize that most of our loop for this year has been spent on learning history and going to cities because we felt we should see them. Savannah is one of those cities I felt we needed to see.
Savannah is known for its beautiful parks (all 22 of them) and its cobblestoned historic district.
We only went to two of the parks. They were both shaded with oak trees covered with Spanish moss. We, along with many other locals and tourists, enjoyed walking through them. Savannah is smaller than I’d thought it would be. It had that small town, homey feel where time seems to slow down and suddenly everyone is addressed as “honey” or “sweetie” and no one’s a stranger.
We found the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was beautiful inside and out. One of the big touristy things to do in Savannah is take a carriage ride. We opted against it. I’m sure the history and info given during the tour is worth the price but we like to go at our own pace. I can’t be rushed when I’m taking pictures or we find something interesting we want to investigate.
We took a stroll down by the river where all of the shops are. I’d looked ahead of time and had two places I wanted to visit. Now, one of the questions we get asked all the time is about souvenirs. Do we get them? What do we get? Where do we keep them? How do we decide when to get one? We get a lot of questions about souvenirs. We don’t really get many. We simply don’t have room. And honestly, I’m more interested in food anyway. If I get something it’s more than likely going to be something I can eat. We do get a shot glass from each state and I pick up postcards from various places we go.
It may come as no surprise to y’all that one of the souvenirs I’d already decided I was going to get from Savannah was some pralines. They were soooo good! I’ll be making my own over the holiday season sometime. Jerl got something called a gopher. It reminded me of a Texas millionaire. It must have been good…his eyes kind of slid up to the back of his head and glazed over during his first bite. I, quite happily, stuck with my pralines.
We also hit up the Peanut Shop where we sampled all of the various flavors (there were soooo many flavors!) of peanuts before making our decision on which to buy. And we definitely bought some.
The best thing we did there was visit Fort Pulaski National Monument. The boys snagged another Junior Ranger badge here.
Fort Pulaski was damaged during hurricane Mathew so we couldn’t just wander around it. We had to stick with a guided tour. Y’all know how I feel about having to hurry up. I was at the end of the line trying my hardest to take my sweet little time without holding everyone else up. Fort Pulaski was great! Seriously, if you have the chance to go…do it. It’s been set up to represent what it would have looked like while it was occupied so there are several rooms with furnishings.
During one of the times the fort was in the hands of the Union, some of the soldiers decided to leave a little…graffiti. It’s still there.
While most of the fort has been reconstructed and restored, some of it is has been left in ruins.
The wall was left to show the damage a cannon could do. We would have liked to spend more time poking around, but we had to stick with the tour and the tour had to be out before the next one could go in.
Let’s talk food. I’d initially planned on eating at Lady & Sons…because…well…Paula Deen is the queen of southern comfort food, right? But, when I looked up the reviews and then the price. If I’m going to pay that much to eat, the reviews had better be outstanding and not just mediocre. So, we drove by it and waved at all the people inside eating what we can only assume to be an overpriced, ok meal designed to bring in all of the tourists. Sorry Paula.
We ended up going to a place the locals go. Sandfly BBQ. Everything we had was great and the price was very reasonable. Now, I will tell you, the meat was fantastic…the sides were super sweet and very salty. But the meat was spot on!
