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.

Christmas on the Road

How to incorporate Xmas tradition with a holiday vacation? No xmas tree, no lights and no white Christmas (except for the white foam left behind on the beach by each wave).

The one request my children had was to receive their stockings.

So that's what we did.

We loaded their stockings full of treats, both for the road and for xmas day indulgence.

We also gave them each something they could do, a project for Xmas day. Making sure it could be a  road friendly to-do.

Watching the sun rise was amazing. With our balcony facing the ocean we were able to see for miles out to the open sea. We watched the sun peak and blare it's radiate head along the horizon.

Even though the air was chilly, some of us chose to put our feet in the salty haven or pulsating waves.

We found a couple dead jelly fish, an injured duck and many friendly people who were also out for a holiday morning stroll.

Relaxing and napping was necessary. Swimming in the pool and relaxing in the jacuzzi was mandatory. Walking on the beach both morning and after dark with a flashlight was required.

What a fun day!

We Found the Sun!

 

We found the sun today!  It shown so bright and warm it was wonderful.

We had a relaxed travel day.

We incorporated into our day a couple road games.

Thanks to www.TheDatingDivas.com, I came across this free printable state license plate game.

We have seen license plates from NC, SC, Maryland, Vermont, Colorado, Georgia and more.  It made our 4.5 hour drive fun and interesting. 

No amount of electronics will deplete the joy of songs in the car.  I highly encourage old time songs or new ones for that matter, but singing together as a family reminds me of being a kid.

 

 The #4 Clue that we gave today led to the idea of swimming, sun and beach side.
The guesses were pretty right on.
We arrived a little late to our destination but we could hear the ocean waves.  That sound is magical.
This is on our balcony.  Such excitement from our girls.

Beach combing with a flashlight is a necessity. The wind was chilly and so was the water but excitement took over all senses.  Nature treasures are priceless. 

Merry Xmas everyone.  I hope your holidays are magical and memorable just like ours.

Clue #3 - Emerald Adventure

The girl's couldn't guess from this clue that we were going Emerald Mining.  Could you have?
It was fun anyway, it made them all think and they made lots of guesses.

We drove for a short ride today to Hiddenite, NC where we went gem mining. http://www.hiddenitegems.com/mining.html. 
Siera really wanted to find an Amethyst, she did.  Hana found a great piece of Emerald.  It was lots of fun.  We all have quite a collection.  Rubies, Garnets, Sapphires, Moonstone, Quartz Crystals, Rose Quartz, Emerald, Mica and many others.

Here's some pictures of our adventure.  This was an affordable adventure.  We could have spent more but were happy with our $5 buckets.  The rain stopped for our gem sluicing. 

Math on the Road

Math on the road can be really fun and handy.
My wonderful husband, came up with another way of keeping the kids involved in this adventure South.  We set up a daily budget, keep receipts and subtract through the day from our starting amount.  The kids took turns recording our expenses. Their awareness of how much it costs to fill the gas tank, how much it is to buy subs all became a reality.
We then rolled over the left overs into the next day. 

 

We had a long drive of 12 hours into the Tar Heel State of NC.  It rained most of our driving time.  Thanks to Red Box and electronics for keeping the kids entertained.  I had an amusing, comical road partner who sang songs from the 70's, 80's, 90's.  He was my personal stand up comedian and radio.
So thankful for a lovely day of happy travel.

We arrived at husband's cousin's house for a relaxing evening of hospitality.  Thanks Brian and Vaishali for letting our kids hang out and be goofy and for your holiday hospitality.

Searching for the Sun

This x-mas we are mixing things us a bit.
The past two years we've wanted desperately to leave the cold Northern temperatures and travel South for some warmth, beaches and sun.

The kids have finally been convinced that this is a super-fantastic idea.

So, how do we make Christmas, Christmas, without the tree with lights, and the presents on Christmas morning?

Here's the plan.
Each day the kids will open an envelope with a slip of paper in it that tells, hints or suggests the adventure that the day holds.  This was my husbands idea.  Love it!

I'm having fun writing them up, adding little picture clues, attempting my poetry and rhyming skills.

Intent

This blog may evolve over time but for now, I'd like it to include all the amazing adventures we go on as a family and the ways we learn at home.

I often find myself searching for motivation and ideas for general home learning but also for places to travel to, both near and far.


I have found that adventures to Gettysburg, Williamsburg, Washington, DC, beaches of NH and NC, Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY, Historical downtown Philadelphia and more have offered my children a whole world of experience that can't be gained through memorization or reading a book.  The personal travel experience is priceless which allows our family to learn together through adventure.

This school year we have been focusing mainly on Dissecting, Civics, Art & Writing.  Throughout this blog I hope to pass ideas, suggestions, and encouragement onto you and your family as you home school, choose curriculum and look for ideas.  I would also love to hear from you in return with your reflection and experiences.