PARADISE | THE FLORIDA KEYS

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We made it to the Keys!! What a magical place!! Our first evening in the Keys we walked down to the water - the crystal clear, turquoise water and the palm trees right on the sand. Just stunning!! We stayed at a place called The Jolly Roger in Marathon, Fl. This island is located right in the middle of the Keys. For dinner we headed over to Sparky’s Landing. This place and most all of the restraints we ate at in the Keys were suggestions that Trey’s cousin Christina gave us. Her and her family come to the Keys quite often. And, you guessed it, Sharky’s was right on the water!! There was also live music from an incredible, nostalgic cover band (played all the songs my kids no nothing about - the good stuff!!), fabulous drinks and sea food for days! We started with the crab and artichoke dip - delish!! The kids and I got their brick oven pizza for our entrees and it was all so very good! 

The next morning, bright and early we headed to Key West for a snorkeling and dolphin tour. Captain Stevie and first mate Colby at Fury Water Adventures took really good care of us on the water! They took us about seven miles off the coast of Key West into the gulf and we snorkeled over protected coral reef. I tried so hard to get some video with my cell phone that had a waterproof case over it and it just didn’t work. Unfortunately, the case had too much air in it and once I got under water the bubble of air was right over my camera. But, I will never forget all those beautiful tropical fish and the colorful coral reef!

While on Key West we had to try out another one of Christina’s recommendations, Sloppy Joe’s! Again, there was more amazing live music and delicious food! We also came across a fabulous art gallery, Ocean Blue Galleries. There we fell in love with an original Anna Sweet resin design named “Miami” that now hangs on the wall of our camper!

The rest of our days we spent snorkeling at our RV park, finding delicious food, and exploring the other islands! An interesting thing about the Florida Keys, is there are hardly any beaches. Most of the edges of island are covered in rocks, sea walls or mangrove trees. We did find one beach that we really enjoyed, Sombrero Beach. 🏝 There are not any waves and no tides coming and going. You can wade in the water all day long without getting tossed by waves. So fabulous!

One of our favorite places we went to was Robbie’s in Islamorada. There we ate breakfast under a palm tree right on the beach! The kids played in the water while we waited for our food and I had one of the best mocha lattes of my life at a cute coffee shop that was out of a camper, Charli’s!! Kinda reminded me of my fave coffee shop back home - Coffee Camper Co. in downtown Monroe!! Also, the craziest thing that happens at Robbie’s . . .You can feed the tarpon!! You can buy buckets of fish and hang out on the dock. These fish are HUGE and they eat right out of your hand. Well, they jump straight out of the water and about take your hand off while you dangle dead fish over them. So creepy and cool too!!!

The Turtle Hospital tour was another incredible place we visited! Many of the turtles were covered in tumors or barnacles. The workers at the hospital will remove them and do their best to get these turtles back into their home. Some of those sweet babies will spend the rest of their life at the hospital or go off to aquariums. We learned that 1 in 600 babies that hatch will survive! This is because they are so tiny and have many predators. Also, a female turtles lays approximately 100 eggs about three times in their mating season. Warmer temperature nest will produce Females and cooler temperature nests will produce males. The temperature climate change is producing almost all females. This is effecting how much mating goes on because there aren’t enough males and this is causing the population to go down. We learned so many interesting facts about sea turtles!

However, the most AH-MAZING encounter with Key wildlife I had was when I was snorkeling and a nurse shark swam right under my body!!!!! I had just gotten some video of the shark with my phone while it was hanging out under a tire and was heading back to the seawall ladder to get out. I was parallel over the top of the water and there it was swimming along with me!!! I was amazed and scared out of my mind!! At that time I didn’t know it was a nurse shark - which are harmless unless you irritate them. Holy moly!!! The most incredible and terrifying experience EVAH!!!! Check out that video!!

Our last dinner on the island was at Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen in Key Largo. There I had the special which was super fun!! It was a yellow snapper stuff with a greek salad! It was SOOOO good and so fun eating out of that yummy fried fish!

We ate SO much good sea food and spent tons of time in the Florida Keys Sun! What a trip this was!!!

Can’t wait for our next adventure!

 
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Ormond Beach, FL. | CORAL SANDS INN

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What a fabulous place to park our camper for a few days!! Right on the beach!! We had an incredible time at Ormond Beach, Florida at the Coral Sands Inn RV Park. We ate some incredible seafood (and sushi too), played on the beach for HOURS and made some fabulous memories. 

Some of our FAVE places were Crabby Joe’s Deck and Grill. This restaurant is located on the pier over top of the ocean. While we were sitting down eating our dinner, fisherman were walking straight through and past us to get to the other end of the pier. It was a super cool experience for us and the kids too. A few nights later we ate at High Tides at Snack Jack Surfside Eats and Drinks. It was right on the beach! When we travel to the beach, we seek out restaurants that are on the water. We want to see the ocean as much as possible while we are there! Another place we loved was Sally’s Ice Cream on Flagler Beach! The line was all the way into the parking lot and we were their last customers for the night! We made it there just in time before they closed.

I’ve been trying to do videos too! I’m no videographer but I’m doing my best to document our trip in all the ways!

Can’t wait for our next adventure!!!

 
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CUMBERLAND ISLAND, GA.

Having a blast and being silly in Saint Mary’s, Ga.

Having a blast and being silly in Saint Mary’s, Ga.

Our time in Kingsland, Ga. at the Country Oaks RV Park was nice and slow!! Our first day there we set up camp and relaxed. We woke up nice and early the next morning and hit the road to St. Mary’s. There we caught the ferry boat over to Cumberland Island. This is a dream come true!!! I visited Cumberland waaaaaaaay back in the day (20 years ago - can’t even believe I can say that!) with my high school Naturalist Club. We spent three nights camping on the island and having the times of our lives! I was fortunate enough to get to go on this adventure twice, in my junior year and then again in my senior year. I always wanted to go back and this time I got to take my entire family!!!

RyAnne is a horse lover! She has a HUGE collection of horse figurines of all breeds, she reads horse books and even writes stories about horses too! She is a fanatic! So, getting to take our baby girl to get to see WILD HORSES on an island has always been high on my bucket list! Once we arrived on the island, we all ate a snack, climbed some of those gorgeous live oak trees and then headed down he Spanish Moss lines trail. The Duck Pond was our first stop and I’m so glad we took this turn on the path!! As we came around the corner THERE. THEY. WERE!!!! The wild horses!!!

As you can imagine, RyAnne went completely bananas at their site! She immediately started naming off their breeds and spotted a foal too! Cumberland Island has always been such a magical place for me and getting to see that through our daughter’s eyes - shew! I’m just so thankful God brought us there to see His beautiful creations together!

Just past the Duck Pond we came across the famous ruins of the mansion, Dungeness. And, that is where I couldn’t stop thanking God for this trip with my sweet family. I had to hold back some serious emotions - I was overwhelmed by God’s goodness and faithfulness!! I still am!

After exploring the ruins and watching the horses, we made our way over the marsh, through more gorgeous oaks, over the dunes and to the beach!! Rocco and Olivia ran all over that huge beach while Trey, RyAnne and I took a quick nap! We were exhausted from hiking and to top if off I have a cold. So, we needed a quick pick-me-up siesta!

It was time to head back to meet our boat! Rocco was NOT happy about this! Poor baby was so tired and just had a mad face until we made it back home! He really didn’t want to leave the beach. We promised him we would go to another beach! And, we did! However, the next day, we all needed a day to catch up on “house” work, laundry and work-work!

But, the next day we drove over to Amelia Island and went to Fernandina Beach. We used public access #25. It was so fabulous!! It wasn’t crowded at all and just beautiful! We found loads of shells, shark teeth, star fish and several hermit crabs. We had a blast! We ended up spending five and a half hours on the beach with only ONE application of sunscreen - EEEK! I seriously had no clue we had been there that long. Unfortunately, we got burnt pretty bad and we are still recovering.

We were starving and the clouds and lighting started rolling in on us, so we decided to dust off the sand and head to the Salty Pelican for dinner in Saint Mary’s. It was SO good and much needed! After dinner we walked around for a bit and enjoyed being silly!

As soon as we started this trip, God put this verse on my heart. . .

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

This verse is on repeat in my head right now. I know all the plans that my family and I are making for our future but I’m so thankful that God will close doors that don’t need to be opened (even when we think they do) and bring us to His path to see His beautiful view!! EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!!! He does this over and over! He continues to open my eyes to see His beautiful signs and wonders. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how He has prepared us for things we just had no clue were about to happen! And, then I can’t stop praising Him!!

Looking forward to our next journey!!

 
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GENERAL COFFEE STATE PARK | DOUGLAS, GA.

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Greetings from General Coffee State Park!! We had a wonderful time during our stay here. We fished for hours, laughed a lot, listened to our kids complain about walking to go fishing a lot (haha!), ate delish campfire food and relaxed the hammock as much as possible! On Memorial Day, I packed sparklers and glow sticks for the kids to play with. They had a blast with them. I freaked out! I hate fireworks that I have to put a flame to! I like the kind of fireworks that I show up to and they are far away from me!

We also got to see a gopher tortoise!!! Two of them! One of them was in it’s bunker and the other was walking around our campground. Trey saw it as we were pulling out of the camp. So cool!

Can’t wait for our next expedition!

 
 

Unicoi State Park | Helen, Ga.

Y’all, we are GLAMPERS!!!! There is NO turning back now!! Trey and I have been praying about this for over a year now. We had our first opportunity to purchase a camper and hit the road last year when the pandemic started. We had just sold our home and had very few responsibilities tying us down. We chose to become home owners again and restored Two Chimneys on Cherokee. Which was also an answered prayer!! We just didn’t have it in our timeline to pan out that way! lol So, here we are, over a year later and God has answered our prayers as he always does in His beautiful timeline! Trey and I were in the market for a camper. We drove to the dealership and started checking them out for the first time. The options are incredible! We found a camper that worked the best for our family. We then called a family member who also has a camper. We wanted to make sure that my SUV had the power to pull a camper. We were concerned it would put too much strain on my car. Thankfully he was able to answer our questions and put us as ease. He also mentioned he was selling his. As we began questioning him about it’s featured we realized it was the exact layout we found at the dealership AND it was less expensive!!We purchased the camper on Thursday and by Friday we were pulling out of our driveway and hitting the road for Unicoi State Park in Helen, Ga.!! Our first night didn’t go so well. OH man! We didn’t arrive at the park until after quiet time and as we were backing our camper up a hill and trying to turn it into our site, the screeching and moaning of my car, the camper, the brakes - it was a horrible sound - we woke up a camper and she yelled some things I won’t repeat. LESSON LEARNED!! Respect quiet time!!! Unfortunately, after all that, we weren’t even able to back our camper in our site. We had to pull it in car-first. We tried to hook up the power so we could turn on the heat but the plug was now on the wrong side of the camper because we pulled in instead of backed in. We laughed so hard!! It was a mess and we felt like total dirt being so rude as we made a heck of an entrance!! Goodness!! We didn’t sleep so good that night. . .Rocco fell out of his bunk bad and hit the floor, it was SO quiet, I heard every sound, and, what the lady yelled at us upon our loud arrival, kept ringing in my head. The next morning I called the visitors center and asked if we could change locations because we were NEWBS! lol Thankfully, someone had just left and they had an opening for us. It was a much better site for us newbies! Once we got situated, we hoped out, set up and I made breakfast! Bacon, eggs and fruit. I started off cooking in the kitchen and quickly moved to the outdoor kitchen on the back side of the camper. Cooking bacon on the inside set off the smoke detector. I figured out, I could start the gas grill and set my frying pan on it. It worked but I will be bringing my griddle next trip to cook on. This will be much faster and we will save our propane gas. After breakfast, we drove to Mount Airy, Ga. to visit our niece and nephew, Haley and Brandan. Haley just graduated college and we were ready to celebrate her accomplishments! After her party, we made our way back to our site and went fishing. The kids LOVED this so much and so did we! The water was so clear we could see the fish! Although, we had ZERO luck the first fishing trip. lol The next night, Trey, Rocco and Olivia went fishing and caught two rainbow trout! We brought them home with us and cooked them on the grill - they were so delish! I had not ever eaten trout before.God’s creations are so incredible!! I loved hearing the kids going bananas over snails, woodpeckers, fish, trees, trails. . .the list goes on! This is what I have longed for - for years!!! Freedom to explore!Did we still have to take work phone calls and emails? Yes, but then we got right back to exploring with our family!Can’t wait for our next expedition!!!

Y’all, we are GLAMPERS!!!! There is NO turning back now!! Trey and I have been praying about this for over a year now. We had our first opportunity to purchase a camper and hit the road last year when the pandemic started. We had just sold our home and had very few responsibilities tying us down. We chose to become home owners again and restored Two Chimneys on Cherokee. Which was also an answered prayer!! We just didn’t have it in our timeline to pan out that way! lol

So, here we are, over a year later and God has answered our prayers as he always does in His beautiful timeline! Trey and I were in the market for a camper. We drove to the dealership and started checking them out for the first time. The options are incredible! We found a camper that worked the best for our family. We then called a family member who also has a camper. We wanted to make sure that my SUV had the power to pull a camper. We were concerned it would put too much strain on my car. Thankfully he was able to answer our questions and put us as ease. He also mentioned he was selling his. As we began questioning him about it’s featured we realized it was the exact layout we found at the dealership AND it was less expensive!!

We purchased the camper on Thursday and by Friday we were pulling out of our driveway and hitting the road for Unicoi State Park in Helen, Ga.!! Our first night didn’t go so well. OH man! We didn’t arrive at the park until after quiet time and as we were backing our camper up a hill and trying to turn it into our site, the screeching and moaning of my car, the camper, the brakes - it was a horrible sound - we woke up a camper and she yelled some things I won’t repeat. LESSON LEARNED!! Respect quiet time!!! Unfortunately, after all that, we weren’t even able to back our camper in our site. We had to pull it in car-first. We tried to hook up the power so we could turn on the heat but the plug was now on the wrong side of the camper because we pulled in instead of backed in. We laughed so hard!! It was a mess and we felt like total dirt being so rude as we made a heck of an entrance!! Goodness!! We didn’t sleep so good that night. . .

Rocco fell out of his bunk bad and hit the floor, it was SO quiet, I heard every sound, and, what the lady yelled at us upon our loud arrival, kept ringing in my head. The next morning I called the visitors center and asked if we could change locations because we were NEWBS! lol Thankfully, someone had just left and they had an opening for us. It was a much better site for us newbies! Once we got situated, we hoped out, set up and I made breakfast! Bacon, eggs and fruit. I started off cooking in the kitchen and quickly moved to the outdoor kitchen on the back side of the camper. Cooking bacon on the inside set off the smoke detector. I figured out, I could start the gas grill and set my frying pan on it. It worked but I will be bringing my griddle next trip to cook on. This will be much faster and we will save our propane gas.

After breakfast, we drove to Mount Airy, Ga. to visit our niece and nephew, Haley and Brandan. Haley just graduated college and we were ready to celebrate her accomplishments! After her party, we made our way back to our site and went fishing. The kids LOVED this so much and so did we! The water was so clear we could see the fish! Although, we had ZERO luck the first fishing trip. lol The next night, Trey, Rocco and Olivia went fishing and caught two rainbow trout! We brought them home with us and cooked them on the grill - they were so delish! I had not ever eaten trout before.

God’s creations are so incredible!! I loved hearing the kids going bananas over snails, woodpeckers, fish, trees, trails. . .the list goes on! This is what I have longed for - for years!!!

Freedom to explore!

Did we still have to take work phone calls and emails? Yes, but then we got right back to exploring with our family!

Can’t wait for our next expedition!!!

 
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