Haley 4 National Lampoon Vacation

So...it's been awhile, but we are on another family adventure.
This time we are heading West. This song bring back some memories, what about you?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NZ04BG7TfA

So we started off this afternoon and we've made it to Ohio.

We challenged the kids to come up with state fun facts they could share as we entered each state.

Here's a few fun facts about Ohio:

• Did you know that 7 presidents were born in Ohio?  
• Did you also know that women used to wear dull leather shoes, so that guys couldn't see the reflection of their underwear? (I wonder which person found that fact interesting :)
• The state fruit is a tomato.  
• The state bird is a cardinal.

Thanks to Bob for praying that we'd listen to Country music.  We happened to find ourselves on a few country stations and started laughing.  How could we be listening to this.  It wasn't so bad.  What's wrong with us!

We found this cool treasure at a rest area.  Anyone ever done geocaching?  Well this is a rock with a website on the back.  We take a picture, track it and re-hide it.  So that's what we're doing. I love cool things like this.  Thanks to whomever is creative and starts treasure hunting projects. Thanks Northeast Ohio Rocks.

Hana's been asked to plan stretching and physical activities at each hasty rest stop.

I know you all are desperate to know where we're headed.

Well some of you may know but the rest of you will  have to follow the blog. 

Happy Trails...

John Pennecamp State Park, Florida & S. Carolina BBQ

 We decided to stay in Key Largo, Florida one more day.
The sunrises and sunsets were captivating, the warm water was luring and wearing bathing suits, sandles and discovering new creatures each day was captivating.
We all couldn't resist.
So our day consisted of a wonderful breakfast made by amazing father and husband Captain LOL.





We hastily headed to John Pennecamp State Park which was just 4 miles down the road. http://pennekamppark.com/
They had glass bottom boat rides, scuba tours and snorkel gear that you can rent or buy.  We decided to do snorkeling right off shore.  Next time we visit we'll do a tour of the live coral reef which is 3 miles out from shore.



We spent the day on a guided tree walk learning about native Florida trees.  Then we snorkeled for several hours and swam in the 70+ degree water.  Oh the cool things that underwater views lead your imagination to.  TLC13 said, "there's a whole other world under there."  In fact over the summer she started writing a story about an underwater world that was inspired by her fresh water goggle views.  Maybe this Florida water experience will feed into her continuing her story.










We met some wonderful people along our way.  We found this great ice cream shop with a super friendly owner.  If you're ever in Key Largo be sure to stop at Mr. C's Ice Cream they have two locations on either end of Key Largo and all the ice cream is made on-site.  Yummmmmmy!  "No shoes, not shirt, no problem."

As we pack up to depart early the next morning, some feel ready and some of us feel resistant.  Knowing that as we head north we will need to put on layers.  I held on as long as I could wearing a wool sweater and sandles, until I was pumping gas and my toes were shivering.

Honda Fit carried a family of 4 comfortably!

We drop 12ish hours that morning on our way home.  We knew we'd have to stop to sleep for the night,  but we were out on a limb as to where we'd stay.  Well, thanks to our new smart phones we were able to estimate our ending time an location.  Find hotels in that area and make some calls to find out price and availability.  Thanks to Capt. LOL we found a Comfort Inn for a wonderful price with the most friendly staff.  They had a pool, a fitness facility and a laundry room.  Perfect!

Now for dinner, we are in the Carolina's, we have to eat Carolina BBQ.  Oh my, if I could describe the deliciousness of the food we discovered, I just can't...  You have to check it out yourself.  I'll tempt your taste buds with a picture.  It was a wonderful buffet style with super friendly Carolina folks.  I downed two plates and regretted it later, but oh my, ribs, chicken, fish, hush puppies, rice with chicken and gravy, sweet coleslaw, peach cobbler and of course sweet tea.  A wonderful last night to our return destination...HOME!

We found the sky line that ended the sunny climate and began the cloudy, cold climate. This may not be factual but it was our joke anyway. 

 

Paradise in Key Largo, Florida

Florida Nature Viewing App is the bird app that my wonderful husband put on my phone.  Check it out if your ever in Florida and have an interest in birds.

Day in Paradise!  Literally we found paradise!
First thing, to kick off the day, was coffee, but then we went kayaking.  We had complimentary use of kayaks at the Sunset Cove Beach Resort in Key Largo, Florida www.sunsetcovebeachresort.com.






There were two tandem kayaks we had use of.   So we set off on yet another treasure hunt.  Little Dotcom created mini aquariums with various creatures she found. Among them, a tiny sea star, a jelly fish, a baby horseshoe crab and a huge sea slug that tall TLC found.







Little Dotcom really wanted to bring these little creatures and their ecosystems home and create a salt water aquarium at home.










We saw an invasive exotic species, green iguana. I thought they were a native iguana until I read at Pennecamp State Park that they were invasive.

As we continued to kayak and observe sea and land life along the Buttonwood Sound.  Dotcom reached into the shallows to collect creatures for her water ecosystems.  She found a Cassiopea jelly fish and she attempted to pick it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassiopea







Do you know what happens when you try to pick up a stinging sea creature?  More than likely your going to get stung.  Well that's what happened to this little curious girl.  She was shocked and slightly disappointed, that she suddenly dropped it.  She tried to retrieve it again with a paddle but it was too slippery. She finally decided that she would leave it be.

After our amazing kayaking trip we attempted to drive towards Key West.  We stopped at a beach called Annie's Beach.  We saw a small octopus about 28"-30" in diameter.  What an amazing sight, right on the beach, hidden under a rock, an octopus.  It became a little angry after it was being poked at and grabbed from it's dark, hiding lair.  It eventually released it's ink and it changed it's color from brown to green then pink.  It became one angry curled tentacled, beaked, inking sea creature.  Not to be reckoned with.  We all just observed from this point.

After a short time of walking in soft, squishy white sandy goo that shaped each toe crevice.  Both girls were stung by something hidden in the watery, muddy depths.









So we drove back to our paradise to watch the sunset.  To our surprise there was a manatee (AKA: sea cow) right off the dock.  So amazing and exciting.

A sea cow coming up for a breath after munching on sea grass.

That evening after dark we cold see below the lit up docks.  We saw a blue crab swimming, a horseshoe crab crawling and a lobster walking.

What a wonderful filled day with lots of live treasures.

A cute, quick lizard that was in the screened porch of our cabin.

The beautiful turquoise water of the Keys.

Good night sunset!

Alligators Galore

As we left our wonderful cabin in Everglades City, Florida.  We ventured along Rte. 41 through the wild Everglades.  We saw tons of birds that I can't identify. Captain LOL downloaded a Florida bird app.  Such a cool helpful app.

 We came upon several back country access roads and some had camping. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be to sleep in a tent with alligators, snakes, lizards and goodness know what else is out there.  We found a great place to stop about half way across the Everglades Park.






There a was Big Cypress National Preserve where there were 50+ alligators of all sizes for us to observe.  They were both swimming and sunbathing on the banks of this area.  A nice place to stop with a wonderful helpful national park ranger.

We stopped in Homestead, Florida along the main road there were farm stand vendors that were selling fresh mangos, bananas, papayas, avocados and many other things.

Little Dotcom decided to prepare us a wonderful fresh fruit plate.  







We trecked our way farther south to Key Largo. We found a wonderful cottage with a kitchenette right next to the beach, with live music and tiki huts to relax under. Sunset Cove Beach Resort.  It's affordable, in walking distance to a CVS, 4 miles from Pennecamp State Park and about 4 miles from a raw, fresh seafood restaurant and market.

Our adventures continue.  I don't want to depart this sunshine paradise.

Everglades City, Florida

We drove a few more hours South to a place just across the street from Everglades National Park.  Glen Haven has these fantastic cabins and boat rentals. http://millersworldeverglades.com/ 
We arrived just before sun down.  There's a tall look-out tower that looks over the Atlantic Ocean and we were able to watch the gorgeous sunset.  We also felt the first bites of mosquitoes. 

Today was a blast.  We've all come up with Secret Agent names: Dotcom, TLC, OMG and LOL. Maybe we should call them "texting agent names".  Anyway we gained a Captain today. Captain LOL learned how to drive a boat for the first time.  He's now sunburned and loving it.  We took a motor boat through the 10,000 Islands of the Everglades that led us out to the ocean. 



 

We saw birds of all kinds, storks, ducks, a bald eagle, hundreds of white pelicans on Indian Key Island.  Most exciting of it all was the amazing dolphins that were close enough to the boat we could almost have touched them.  Siera, oops, I mean TLC, spotted the first dolphin.  All of us were astonished.  They were right there, showing off their dorsal fins and their diving skills.  So amazing and beautiful.  After watching the dolphins for quite awhile our Captain LOL drove us back to the head of the Island where the white pelicans were. 
 


He parked the boat and explored on this island that TLC wanted to name Treasure Island.  We found amazing, complete whelk shells and were yards away from the pelicans.  Until...Holy itchy attack of the mosquitos.  I felt like we were in the movie African Queen.  The islands name was then changed to Mosquito island.

Captain LOL has decided he needs a boat and could get used to sunny boating days on a regular basis.  Mrs. OMG has decided she could live road tripping it on a regular basis.  Little Dotcom will join any outdoor adventure group as long as there's some movie time.  Tall TLC has decided dolphins are the most amazing creatures in the world.

Thanks to the Oyster Restaurant in Everglades City for letting me set in the dining room, tap into your wi-fi and drink a glass of wine. http://oysterhouserestaurant.com/

What a great, affordable place to visit and explore.  So many amazing things to see and do.

Since I don't have a printer I'm having to do hand written clues for each days adventure.

Thanks to my wonderful husband who took charge of the dishes so I could blog and who gave me to space to complete today's blog.
Thanks for your support Captain LOL.

Tomorrow we head down to Key Largo for yet another adventure and to celebrate New Years.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium & Stump Pass State Park

Well you could either go to Disney and see your favorite Disney character or you can venture to a neat rehabilitation aquarium and see Winter from Dolphin Tale.  http://www.seewinter.com/


 What a wonderful, modest facility with otters, sea turtles, dolphins and a tank with nurse sharks, sting rays and several other fish.  Winter, their dolphin, has become an icon.
We learned about the damage that fish nets can cause to lots of sea creatures.  Some of the sea turtles they have at their facility have damaged hind legs due to entanglement in nets.  One of the otters was partially paralyzed and can never be release back into the wild.

One thing I found most interesting was that dolphins skin is super fragile and sheds a layer every few hours.  A prosthetic company created a special, soft, stretchy gel material to make a prosthetic tail for Winter; who also lost her tail due to entanglement in fishing ropes.  In order for her prosthetic to not damage Winter's fragile skin it had to be firm fitting but not hard, sharp or too stiff.  Many humans today are also using "Winter's gel" which is allowing for more comfortable fitting prosthesis.

The movie has made Clearwater Aquarium become somewhat commercialized.  I think they could sell more educational materials in their gift shop.  The overall experience and facility was really very nice.
We spent about 3 1/2 hours there.
They do offer another tour where you can take a boat or a shuttle to where exhibits are all set up strictly from the movie.  Unless you're into that sort of things, it was a waste of time.  We all really enjoyed ourselves none the less.

Then to close out the day we had to take an adventure with Bilbo Baggins.  We went to see the Hobbit IMAX 3D.  We had just finished reading the story as a family.  My philosophy has always been, read the book first and then watch the movie.  Books often times include much more detail and fill in the spaces that can be overlooked in a movie.









Since I've missed a day here and there, I'm including our next days adventure also.  We went beach combing, swimming and sunning.  Not just any old beach combing, shark teeth searching.  We found so many wonderful treasures as we walked down towards the peak of Stump Pass State Park.  What a beautiful beach with lots of sharks teeth, fish teeth, coral, sea rocks, shells.  It was amazing to be barefoot walking on the sandy beach of sunny Florida.

Anyone looking for a winter get-a-way, this is the place to be.  The Sunshine State.

Most of us Haley4 were craving some fresh seafood.  So we found this wonderful open air restaurant called Sharky's.  There was live music, a pier to walk on, a beach to stroll upon while you wait for your table.  What a great place with delicious seafood.

I failed to mention that we were fortunate to stay with a wonderful family who lives near St. Petersburg, Florida.  Thanks for hosting us Argawal family.  Thanks for taking the kids to see the alligators, pick fresh grapefruit from the trees near by and for the experience of fire ants.  Your hospitality has added great memory and happiness to our trip.

Hana and I discovered this silent night creature in a bush at Sharky's.  He was cute with big frog eyes and whitish coloring.  I need a Florida animal ID book.

Happy Dec. 29th from Florida, bare feet, tank tops and ponytails. 

Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina

Hi there,

We traveled about 9 more hours today!

 We stopped at Huntington State Park for a short walk where the salt marsh and the fresh water area were separated by a road. There were huge birds, white, brown, and gray. I spotted some familiar birds cormorants, mergansers and then others that were not so familiar. Storks, herons and several others. This state park has a small but wonderful lab building that had species of the area. Turtles, horseshoe crabs, seahorses and of course an alligator skull that says:

 We saw a place where they were rehabilitating oyster reefs.  They were all over this brackish area.  It was quite amazing to see.

 Siera chatting with the little turtles.













Hana couldn't resist touching the horseshoe crabs and the sting rays.

This was a nice spot to stop, I highly recommend it. Huntington Beach State Park, just outside Murrels Inlet, South Carolina. It looked like a nice spot to stay and camp.

Driving and driving we crossed the boarder into Florida, everyone was napping so I cheered for joy in silence. We spotted more palm trees than an of us have ever seen. We also spotted a license plate from Alaska. That's a first. Pretty neat!

We are looking for a nice treat of seafood and other fun explorations. I'll keep you posted on our daily adventures.

We happily arrived at our final destination with some friends near St. Petersburg.  Grateful to be out of the car and into another wonderful home where we could have a nice visit and rest our heads.