All good things must come to an end...Goodbye 2012

Not only New Years Eve but also the also the last day of one of the best family vacations we have had this year, (FL-DC-CT-FL). The upside of driving over flying is you can stop wherever and whenever the tempting road sign beckons. Here we stopped in at Santee State Park in South Carolina. We were so taken with this gorgeous park, is now a potential future camping venue, only a 6ish hour drive from home! Hello 2013!

A little snow is better than no snow....

And the boys can't wait all day for the projected 5 inches of it but right now there is enough to start those forts and snowmen.

Rock or Boulder?

Whichever doesn't really matter. But seriously where else can you stroll down a path in the woods and all of sudden there she is....A gigantic stone jutting up out of the ground, begging to be climbed. Just not by me, although to be honest I was tempted...Another day perhaps.

Technically, even if barely, it is a White Christmas!

Our 3rd day in a row hiking Day Pond but today we were blessed with some snow which made it all the more interesting. Boy stayed home while me and my honey walked off our Christmas supper.

Christmas Eve; Hiking Day Pond

Hiking with friends in Day Pond State Park...they don't make woods like these in Floida.

Ode to a brand new 12 year old!

Mason? He's almost as tall as his mother, smarter than anyone in our house and the kind of superbly brilliant and talented young man who can become anything he wants. I don't know anybody with a bigger or more passionate heart than our son. Happy Happy Birthday Mason!

TailGating Swindal Family Style

This is Tillie K Fowler Regional Park in Jacksonville, right across the street from NAS. An excellent spot to stop, eat supper and also nabbed us 3 L'boxes too! We used to kind of do this in the station wagon but a truck gate down makes the best table on the go.

Nantahala Gorge Zipline

Ziplining in the Nantahala Forest (Bryson City, North Carolina). Been wanting to do this for 4 years and now we can cross that off the bucket list!

Road To Nowhere

The Road To Nowhere starts on Lakeview Drive in Bryson City NC (Great Smokey Mountains National Park). Make sure to pull off at one of the lookout points for a breathtaking view of Lake Fantana.

Six miles in and the road ends at this 1200 ft man made tunnel.

We got about a third of the way in and was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

This is the story of The Road To Nowhere, "A Broken Promise". Back in the 30's & 40's the government and TVA  was busy busy busy making plans and flooding valleys. One of the promises made here to the displaced families was that a road would be made providing access to the old family cemeteries where generations of ancestors had lived, died and were buried. By 1969, 6 miles were completed before the project was abandoned. All is good though now. The county got $52 million buckaroos in 2010 and the rest of us got a fabulous place to spend an afternoon hiking and letterboxing!

Last day of summer camp, what now?

Forget Camp Mom...One week of Surf Camp w/RonJon, One week of VBS, TWO weeks of Marine Biology Camp w/Brandon and THREE weeks of Nature Camp w/Susan. The bar has been set high!

The 5 weeks of camp with Susan and Brandon alone culminated in a whopping 25 field trips, these pictures from the last one, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Supper by Perigee Moonlight

I totally did not want to leave....How come we don't live at the beach?

Happy (bike) Trails!

Do we? Don't we? Do we? Don't we? Do we? Don't we? Do we? Don't we?
That is the question we ALWAYS ask ourselves when off on an out of town letterboxing adventure. If we bring the bikes, sure enough we won't use them....If we don't bring the bikes, sure enough we will beat ourselves upside the head for not bringing....We did the RIGHT thing this time!

Linear Park, Palm Coast FL, absolutely fabulous and don't forget the bikes!

Horseshoe Crab love...

Horseshoe crabs getting busy on one of the island beaches in the Indian River.

Pop Pop and Mason resting in a cove, the Indian River was super choppy and not particularly conducive to kayaking today.

Been 16 years since Jon and I have been kayaking with the manatees and they are still just as beautiful and mysterious as ever. We had a huge bull come up underneath our kayak, which was the big thrill of the day! Not scared of falling into the drink as the water here is no more than 5 feet deep. What was scary was how scarred up his back flesh and tail was from propellers.

Cape Canaveral Lighthouse & USAF Missile Museum Tour

Made our reservation 3 months ago to do the Cape Canaveral tour today and wow, it was good, we highly recommend it!

Cape Canaveral AFB is an active military installation so everybody gets a bag check and full body wand scan.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was completed in 1868, erosion caused it to be moved inland a bit and the relocation was completed in 1894, this lighthouse has been around for a long time! Still an active lighthouse, a modern optic was installed in 1993 and the original Fresnel lens is on display up at the Ponce Inlet lighthouse museum.

First 5 stories are open, then back down you go.

Project Mercury symbol under which is buried a time capsule, scheduled to be opened in 2464.

Party of 12, your church is ready...

Nothing like a good road sign to get your attention and this one got ours; America's Smallest Church (South Newport Georgia). May be small but nothing was missing, including the most lovely small stained glass windows. Twelve could be seated comfortably in fabulous oak chairs that had a bench/footstool fold out from the chair in front of you. OK, no reading between the lines but if I wasn't already married, this is where I would want to get married!

How low can you grow?

We were jonesing for some LB's and the weather doesn't get any better than this so we mustered up the courage and headed for the urban, Orlando or Bust!. Dickson Azalea Park was our first stop for a trio. No boxes for us here today but was a really fab park and one of the reasons we love LB'ing so. You don't run across trees like this everyday!

The Palace

Gyeongbokgung is the place in Seoul where the kings resided. It was once destroyed during a war, but then was rebuilt in order to restore the central authority. This song (The Palace) is believed to have been sung by workmen as they labored. It is pompous, bold and optimistic.

Ships in the night or snakes in the grass?

One was headed north and one was headed south! All our years Letterboxing and we have yet to come across a snake...till today. And the only reason we had a camera to prove it was: #1 The Boy was entering a Nature Photo contest and needed pictures in any of the following categories: Wildlife, Environmental Scenic or Plants and #2 We were scoping out for a LB plant in an over 1000 acre park which presented a perfect window of opportunity to get said pics. OK so the boy did get a little geebed out and couldn't focus on the cute little critter so I gave Jon my camera who was just trying to get ONE good pic of the ONE snake when Lo and Behold Two of em made it into the viewfinder. Northern Water Snake we believe.

2 down, 1 to go, saving the best for last.

The best perk of Jon's new job has been the 9/80 split workweek; absolutely adore every other Friday off and we have earmarked those Fridays to be Fun Family Days...Combine that with WDW Florida Resident Days and the high 70's, and you have one very happy family!
We started off with my personal fave, Epcot. Lunch and dinner was split into 6 mini meals throughout the park. Honestly I could eat there every single day for the rest of my life.

This one is for you mum mum...

Next was Animal Kingdom, our favorite ride here is Expedition Everest but Jon & I have decided maybe not so much anymore? Of course the boy totally disagreed...

Do you see what I see? Not the "Himalayans"...Look how tall that boy is, he is silently gaining on me!

Next up is the Mouse House. Unless we slip the Studios in?

Ewww, what did you step in?

Armed with a cotton swab and directed to collect something to grow in his petri dish, the boy selected the bottom of his shoe. This is the end result after 21 days. I might add that these were new shoes, worn only a few hours.

New house rule going into effect, "Remove shoes before entering"!

Day Tripping (January 8 2011)

Been a while since we have visited St Augustine so northbound drove. No real plans for the day cept for some LB'ing and wherever the path led.

Strolling through the Anastasia State Park archaeological site where coquina rock was mined.

The St. Augustine Light.

This was Vilano Beach, a stones throw from St Augustine and one of the most interesting boardwalks we have seen.