M-iss-iss-ipp-i

So we made it to beautiful Mississippi! After spending so much time on the coast, it was an amazing treat to see rolling hills and thick forests again. The campground is similar to so many at home. It's a quaint little lake surrounded by woods. There is a beach and play area and people are out tubing and skiing.

Our campsite sits right on the water . There is a dock next to us and a group of boys two campsites down. Grace and Cam fished last night and Camden is already up fishing this morning and making friends. It brings me so much joy to see my boy truly happy! He is enjoying our travels so much and hasn't complained even about the small quarters in a very long time. This is why we're doing this; to give them these moments they will never forget.

Scary Spice

My internet service was lacking the past several days so I was unable to post.  We left Georgia and made our way across Alabama.  We were suppose to stay in a state park along the Mobile Bay, but when we got there the gates were locked.  We ended up spending the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  This is the second time we stayed at a Wal-Mart during our travels and it really wasn't bad.  The Wal-Mart's are well lit and they do save us some money.  We also bought donuts for breakfast which weren't so bad either.

We left Wal-Mart and made our way to New Orleans.  We stayed in Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego.  This is on the West Bank of the Mississippi.  To get to the city we drove about 20 minutes to the Algiers Ferry which took us across the river to the French Quarter.  Driving to the ferry was interesting because we went through these areas with very dumpy shacks directly across the street from nice, neighborhood-looking houses.  We originally thought this area looked that way because of Katrina, but we later learned that this was one of the only areas not affected and it was one of the first areas opened for people to return to.

Getting off the ferry was very intimidating.  I lived in Chicago for a period of time, but my kids have never really spent time in a big city.  They've been to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., but this was very different for them.  We also didn't know our way around so we used my map app to navigate.  


We made our way to the French Quarter and walked the streets taking in the architecture and general atmosphere.  We had a wonderful dinner of catfish, shrimp, ettoufee, jambalaya, and gumbo.  I was not a fan of the gumbo, but loved the ettoufee.


We walked down to Bourbon Street, stood there, looked around, and then we moved on.  The kids were very intimidated and honestly so was I since they were there too.  Dave and I concluded it would be more fun to visit just the two of us because we could visit the different places more freely.  

As we made our way back to the ferry, the girls found a store on St. Louis Street that had beautiful masks.  They each got one as a souvenir and they looked adorable!  It was an interesting yet intimidating first encounter.


The next morning we decided to head back to explore further.  Several friends and family suggested we go to Cafe Du Monde so it was first on the agenda.  Before we even left Westwego, we saw a seafood market where we decided to stop.  There were maybe twenty vendors all selling the same thing.  They had fresh shrimp, crawfish, blue crabs, fish, and more.  We learned that many of the blue crabs in Maryland are actually shipped in from New Orleans. We made plans to stop back there to pick up our dinner.

Our next trip to the city was better.  The kids were less nervous, which allowed all of us to enjoy things more.  We stopped at various stores and we got Beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  They sort of reminded me of funnel cake, so they were a nice treat.  After we left there we walked through the farmers market and got a Shoe Sole Praline which was a huge, sweet, cinnamon-ee cookie.  It was delicious!  We continued through to the flea market and had fun visiting each of the stands.  We worked our way back to the River Walk and tried an original praline.  It was not even close in comparison to the praline's we had in Savannah.  I highly recommend trying a Savannah praline some time in your life.  If you like sugar, as I do, you will never forget the experience!


On our way back to the campground, we stopped at the fish market.  We bought crawfish and shrimp to boil for dinner.  We did learn that if you ask for "cray"fish, they have no idea what you want. Yet another language barrier.


So, we were educated on how to cook these Louisiana delights.  They do not steam their shrimp or crabs.  You boil everything in Cajun spices and you let them sit in the juices to soak up all the seasoning.  We bought our spices at one of the stands.  It was a homemade batch and the lady working at the stand told us how much to buy and how much to use per batch.  We got back and boiled our crawfish and shrimp as directed by our adviser and we let them sit to soak up the flavor.  Well, that was an eye opening experience!  We all took our first bite and suffered the burn and heat immediately.  It was scary, crazy hot!  I finally had to rinse both the crawfish and shrimp multiple times just to get them to the point of enjoying them.  I sat and popped the heads off and cleaned them as best I could for the kids.  By the time I went to bed, after showering and washing my hands several times, my skin still burned!  It was the most bazaar thing.


The next morning when we went back to buy the crabs, we found out from another vendor that we should have only used a tablespoon or two of seasoning and that we were probably told differently so we would buy the larger amount.  Gotta love how they mess with the tourist.  Seriously, a painful lesson to learn.
 

How Beautiful!

After leaving Eastbank, we drove to the Florida panhandle area.  It was a two hour drive, but we gained an hour back since we entered the central time zone.  We are staying at Gregory Moore RV resort at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. This is the nicest state campground we've been to on our trip.  We have full hook-up, cable, and wi-fi connection.  These are not typical amenities for the state parks.  Our site is right on on pond and we have our own little dock.  Grace sat out on the dock last evening and practiced her cello. There is also a pool directly across from our site and a shuffle board court.  Camden met some boys from Alabama last night and they rode bikes and played shuffle board.  I love when they have the opportunity to make friends.

Once we were set up, we rode our bikes to the beach.  The campground also offers a tram to get to the beach if you need it.  It was truly a beautiful sight.  There is a boardwalk that leads across the dunes and as we hit the crest we saw the beautiful blue water of the Gulf of Mexico.  Not only could we see the water, we also saw sand and very few people.  It was amazing.  

Grace and I took a walk along the beach.  We saw crabs in the water and we found pieces of sand dollars.  Dave set up his big kite and tried to fly it.  At one point it pulled him several feet off the ground.  Like I said, it was a very windy day. 

We came back from the beach and I made jambalaya for dinner.  Dave made a run to Wal-Mart and the kids played and watched TV.  It was another great day in the course of our trip.  We are truly enjoying the entire experience! 

Nothing but a Breeze

Yesterday we woke up to a steady wind blowing across Lake Seminole.  We also found we had hundreds of little visitors in the camper.  Black ants made their way into the camper overnight and we spent the next hour or so getting the little nuisances out!  Once we were packed up and ready to go, Dave got his stunt kite out and spent some time flying it with the kids.  It was the perfect morning for kites; the sun was shining and the wind was blowing and all our neighboring campers had already left their sites.  Just before we left, I noticed something floating in the lake close to shore.  As I approached, I realized it was a huge gator!  I stood and watched this creature float in the chop.  It was quite a sight.  The next thing I knew two Canadian geese hit the water five feet from the gator.  They landed with such impact and began splashing an squawking, trying to scare the gator away.  Eventually, they got out of the water and stood on the bank protectively watching the mother goose as she sat on the eggs.  I think if we wouldn't have been there to keep the gator off the shore, it would have been a very different scenerio. 

Where the Water Meets

 I am sitting here looking across beautiful Lake Seminole.  We are in Georgia currently, but just a short paddle across the lake and we are back in Florida.  The top of the campground is on eastern standard time and the bottom of the campground is an hour earlier.  It is a strange meeting of different times, states, and worlds.  It is where the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers flow in and the Apalachicola River  flows out.  


This morning I paddled my kayak out among the gators.  They have no interest in us and simply submerge themselves and swim off.  It's still somewhat unnerving to know they are right there.  The lake is very clear, but nothing like the water of the Rainbow River.  It's not very deep and there are grasses and lily-pads everywhere.  This is the first day we've had since the Keys where we've truly just had some down time to relax.  The entire trip has been amazing, but with only being at some places a day or two, we feel the need to constantly be seeing or doing something.  Today, we are just campers enjoying the beauty around us.

Not Your Ordinary Birthday

April 20th, a day to celebrate the birth of my eldest daughter!  What better way to recognize her 12th birthday than to kayak in a crystal clear river and swim in the head spring.  It was an amazing day and very nontraditional for the Meile's.

Grace enjoyed an angel food cake with frosting, donut holes, and strawberries and whip cream.  It was a fun, bazaar treat for all of us!  She got a t-shirt from Camden, a dolphin pendant and earrings from Lauryl, and Make-up from Mom.  Dad promised a shopping trip at one of the new places we stop.

Overall, it was an amazing day and we were only sad that it was time to move on so soon.

Some Where over the Rainbow

So this time we're in a place called Rainbow Springs. Before we actually got set up on our site we went into the camp store. I got a t-shirt with advice from a "woodland" on it. When we actually got to the site Mom let Camden, Lauryl, and I play shuffle board while they unpacked. We had fun, but Camden kicked Lauryl and my butt. He never technically won though because we all quiet when we heard something moving in the woods. No, it wasn't a squirrel, but I don't know what it was. We then came back and Mom and Dad were done unpacking so we walked down to the springs. The water was even clearer then the Keys. It was so clear you could see straight to the bottom even though it was only three foot deep. Lauryl and I swam while Camden snorkeled. After that, we went grocery shopping; how fun. Once we were done we went home and watched "Survivor". 

The next day we went down to the headspring part of the park. The water was just as clear. We actually swam! The water was freezing! Apparently it stays 72 degrees all the time; Brrrr! We all went snorkeling and it was awesome. I spotted a catfish, several big bass, and a turtle that swam five feet away from us. It was great.

After swimming, we went for a walk on these stone paths. We saw several man-made water falls and we even saw a snake. It was all very amazing. 

We got hot from hiking around so we went swimming again before we left. When then went grocery shopping again. This time we went to Wal-Mart and I got to pick out my birthday cake since my 12th birthday is on Friday. We decided to use an angel food  cake and we bought strawberries, cool whip, and frosting. Then when we came back and Mom and I made a Key Lime pie. It was easier then I thought. Just 4 steps. Today's been so much fun. Dads going to make chicken legs over an open fire for dinner. Hope they taste great..bye. 

What the Shell?

So now we're in Fort Myers and pretty close to Sanibel Island. The place we're staying is an rv resort and is very well kept and has a pool. We were so excited  to have some amenities again. The first thing we did once we were set up was go swimming. Boy, it was fun and I could actually open my eyes which I never do because I hate the chlorine. 

After swimming, we drove to Sanibel Island and Captiva. You pay $6 to cross the bridge onto the island. We didn't do much other than drive through so we could figure out what we wanted to do later.  We didn't like Captiva much. It was crowded and we couldn't find a place to park.  The shops were okay, but nothing like Ocracoke.  We did stop at "Ding" Darling and went into the visitors center. It was neat and apparently armadillo have been seen on the island. 

On our way back through the islands, we stopped at one of the beaches.  It was okay, but nothing that impressive.  The nicest part was that we finally saw waves.  Since, we've been traveling we haven't seen waves. 

The next day we did school till twelve o'clock. Finally, we got to go to the pool again. Dad, Camden, Lauryl, and I were doing a contest to see who could go the farthest holding there breath. None of us had goggles on and we were able to swim with our eyes open because the Chlorine wasn't bad.  We noticed a guy putting something from a yellow container into the pool.  Within a few minutes, I started rubbing my eyes had severe burning.  Apparently it happened to Dad and Camden and Lauryl too. I ran into the shower and did my best to get the burning out of my eyes. We flushed our eyes several times and even used an eye wash. My dad was definitely the worst. He and Lauryl were having cloudy vision so we went to a walk-in clinic. They recomended we go to the emergency room. They were great at the hospital.  They flushed our eyes and checked for coronea damage.  It was quite the event.  We were all okay minus some annoying discomfort.

Once we were feeling somewhat better, we went to Fort Myers Beach.  Camden and Daddy did some fishing off the pier and caught a flounder. Mom, Lauryl, and I went shopping. I got a cool starfish bracelet and Lauryl and I got our hair braided.  We had a great time!

After we shopped, we went down to the beach.  I couldn't believe it because the sand was so white and it was so fine like powder. We found so many cool shells and we took a long walk. We saw the sunset and we walked back as a dark storm cloud loomed over us. No worries we didn't get rained on. We did have a fun story by dad though about how he saved us by suddenly building a convenient hotel and pulled us inside. 

The next day, we were forced by mom to wake up early and go on a bike ride. We went back to "Ding" Darling and did the 4 mile loop.  It was fun and dad had a run with the law (grandma park volunteer law). We had stopped to take a trail that looped back, but dad wanted to find the observation tower. He road a 1/4 mile up the road and found the observation tower. He tried to ride back but was stopped by an older lady. Apparently, your are only allowed to ride forward not back and he was supposed to walk his bike back. My dad being sensible as he is, took about twenty steps before he decided it was silly and took off on his bike to meet us. 

After the bike ride, we went to find the Lighthouse and fishing pier at Sanibel Island. After Fort Myers Beach, we were unimpressed. Supposedly, the shelling is better at Fort Myers Beach this season.  We went back to Fort Myers Beach and played in the Gulf.  We had fun the rest of the day.

Money Can't Buy You Love

Hey its Grace. Today, I'll be writing about our previous trip to Collier-Seminole. The park wasn't super impressive, but they did have a small park. Actually, park might be too strong of a term for monkey bars and swings. Once we unpacked, we went for pizza dinner at Little Cesears. We ate in the car as we explored a place called Marco Island. We quickly realized we were out of place when our rusty old truck passed brand new Lamborghini's, or our modest little camper sat quietly below the extravagant hotels. Yes, we were in a very ritzy area. 

We obviously wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time, so we got out of the truck and attempted to walk around a hotel. We soon realized it was pointless since you could only get there if you were a resident.We managed to peek over the hedges enough to see the water. We didn't get to touch this vast body of water, but we saw this little piece of the Gulf between the horizon and the hedge.

As we were walking back to the truck, we passed two teenagers who made it apparent with their glance that we were very out of place. I believe it was because my dad had on his wonderful combination of socks with crocs. 

The next day we went to Naples. It was slightly less ritzy than Marco Island and we had a good time at the beach once we found parking.  It was an okay beach. Camden enjoyed fishing off the surf and we saw a dolphin swim right up into the waves just a few feet from us.  It was definitely better than trying to go to the beach at Marco Island.  At Marco Island you had to pay before you entered the parking lot.  We weren't sure if we wanted to stay since it had been rainy earlier in the day and we didn't get there until 5pm.  We asked the attendant if we could just pull in to assess things and she got really snotty. She did not want to even let us turn around in the parking lot to leave, and said we could just back out.  You could almost see the snot in her nose because of how high she held it.  We of course just decided to leave  and go back to Naples.  I can't say it was my favorite place to visit and was ready to move on to the next place.

Swamp people

Hi its Grace again. Today I'll be write about some of the previous days of our trip. On our way north from the Keys, we were suppose to stay in this campground in the city, but it was scary looking. Mom made some calls and arranged for us to go to Gator Park instead. When we arrived and set up, we talked to a very friendly gator park resident. He told us about the park, the gators and the pythons; yes, pythons! Apparently, there is a big problem because they're invading Florida.  We also learned there are three very poisonous spiders within Florida. A brown recluse (my mother found one in the camper and smushed it), a black widow, and some other spider I can't remember. 

So after thoroughly being scared, we decided to go to Shark Valley for a nice walk. We talked to a ranger man who showed us several pictures of the pythons. We saw one that swallowed a 75 pound deer!  So even more freaked than ever, we walked down a paved trail. We were very scared of the gators even though we were told several times they weren't aggressive. Crocodiles are aggressive and in the southern part of the Everglades. Of course, there aren't  any crocodile in that area; how reassuring. 

We walked a short way and came across our first gator. We backed up trying to obey the rule of staying 10-15 feet away from any wildlife, yet realizing we were on a five foot wide path. I turned around to the wilderness on the other side and there was a gator on the other side! I managed to squeak this fact out to my dad and we hurried down the path. We saw several other gators and we were scared of all of them. My dad had this brilliant idea, (apply sarcasm thickly) to walk along an unpaved side trail known as the Otter Hammock. It would have been neat if we weren't worried about finding a python in the trees, gators under the bridge, or panthers in the brush; how fun. We then decided to walk back along the paved trail and spent the rest of the day locked in the camper. 

The next day, we decided to take a drive around the area. We checked out several air boat tours and then we returned to Shark Valley. This time we took our bikes. There was only one new rule to follow. You were only allowed to ride the path counterclockwise so you could see the tram tour coming and stop. At the beginning of the ride, we were still scared of the gators, but pretty soon we realized they didn't care about us. It might be more interesting if you wrestled them, as I told my dad several times.  At one point, we stood five feet away from one.  

By that point we were getting tired, but we couldn't turn around or we would be going clockwise. Finally we reached the... halfway point! We had come seven miles and had eight more to go!!! Uughhh. Dad told us to get our second wind, then our third, then our fourth! I'm pretty sure I was only given two. It was pretty weird though, now that I think back on it. On the first leg of the trip it was mostly swamp, but it deteriorated into my image of Africa. Tall half dead grass, random clumps of trees, sickly looking pines, and random pools of water. I'm guessing it floods there but at that point it just looked really weird. When we finally get home I did something unexpected. I went to bed! 

The last day in Gator Park was really fun! Not just because of the air boat ride (more on that later), but we were also getting to know what was in the park. There were peacocks, an extremely friendly gator who would come when you called, and several ducks? The air boat ride was awesome too. We saw a couple gators, but they almost felt staged after our day at Shark Valley. No, what was really cool was the air boat. The way you would go through the marsh it was like a roller coaster. You would twist from side to side almost as if the boat would tip. So cool! We then sadly had to leave of for a new place. I would have preferred to sleep; I was exhausted from all the fun!

Biking through the Everglades

Today we got up and went back to Shark Valley in Everglade National Park.  This time we took our bikes.  We rode down the same path we walked last night.  We saw so many alligators along the way! We saw gators with the same frequency as squirrels back home.  We learned pretty quickly that they have no interest in us.  They sun themselves and hang out in the muck, but even when they're a few feet away they have no desire to eat us.

As we rode and admired the scenery we realized there was never a bend in the road.  After riding at least an hour and a half we came upon an observation area and bathrooms.  I asked a tram driver how much further we had to go and was informed that we came 7 miles  and we still had 8 miles to go to get back!

So, the Meile Family got hydrated, had a few snacks, and mentally prepared for the 8 miles ahead of us.  We kept a pretty good clip considering we had already rode 7 miles in 80 degree heat mid-morning.  It was exhausting, but the kids were real troopers.  I was so very proud of them.   After the ride we ate lunch at the Miccosukee Indian Restaurant. It was another amazing day!

TO THE GLADES

We had a wonderful time in Marathon and only regret that we had to leave so soon.  We spent yesterday doing more of the same things we did the days prior.  We rode our bikes to Pigeon Key again and got several more coconuts.  There is nothing like eating fresh coconut straight from the tree.  

The kids and Dave rode their bikes at the skate park.  We saw several iguanas and Camden was blessed to see a dolphin up close.  We had stone crabs for dinner.  They are an expensive, delicious treat!

We left early this morning to head back to the mainland.  It only took about 2 hours to get our planned destination.  This was another moment of great revelation.  Apparently city parks are not even in the same ballpark as State Parks.  We were not comfortable staying at the campground we were suppose to so we did some scrambling and quickly came up with an alternative.  

After having breakfast for lunch at Denny's we drove 45 minutes further and found a hook-ups at Gator Park.  There are no amenities here like a bath house, but it far beats the first place we stopped.  We just need to be a little careful because we are right in the Everglades and there is swamp a few feet behind our camper.  No letting our dog Dempsey out around here.  He would potential be gator food if he'd make it past the otters or burmese pythons that have come to inhabit the area.  Geeesh...I am sort of wondering why we left the Keys.


Once we set up camp, we took a drive to see what things were around us.  We stopped at Shark Valley which is one of the entrances into Everglade National Park.  We saw an alligator and snake before we even got to the parking lot!


We spent some time talking to a ranger at the park.  He was very informative.  We learned about the invasion of the pythons as well as anaconda and other exotic snakes over the years.  We thought he was joking until he showed us pictures of the pythons found within the park.  It was definitely a little creepy!
We also got advice about encountering the alligators and he shared information about the poisonous snakes in the area.  


All that being said, we decided to take a nice friendly stroll down their walking path.  Dorothy has nothing on us; lions and tigers and bears ha!  We had the potential for gators, pythons, and panthers...ohhhh my!  Yes, I said panthers.  Apparently there are about 150 American panthers left in the Everglades.  Not a likely threat as they are nocturnal, but still a presence.


So, we began our walk down the paved path beside the swampy canal wondering what we might see.  Not even a hundred yards into the walk, Dave and the kids noticed an alligator to our right.  As they cautiously backed away from the large gator, Grace managed to squeak out that there was another gator on the other side.  After we all realized that they were not remotely interested in us, we continued on our walk.  


We saw numerous gators and a variety of birds on our walk.  We went down a side trail that took us through a thick overgrowth of trees.  That was pretty freaky and again had us remembering Dorothy in the forest before she met the lion only we saw a gator and were ready to get back to the paved path.

I still can't believe we are here in the Everglades experiencing these things first hand.  I am excited to see what tomorrow has in store for us.  Stay tuned!

Visit our facebook page or website http://meilemiles.shutterfly.com/  to see pictures of our day.
 

The Keys

The past few days have been amazing.  We were less than impressed with the Key Largo area.  Snorkeling was fun, but John Pennekamp park was a mad house of people and that's just not our thing.  Once we got to Marathon we were much happier.  The park where we are staying is super nice and everyone and extremely friendly.  We are located about a quarter mile from the 7 mile bridge which is a very historic area for the Keys.  Outside of the fact that our steering column in the truck is broke, all has been going well.

Our first night here we watched the sun set from the bridge and it was simply breath-taking.  Today, we road our bikes across the bridge to Pigeon Key.  It was a neat little island they now use mainly for educational purposes.  

We all tried our first green coconut at Pigeon Key.  We found some laying on the ground and an intern told us to try the milk from them because they are particularly sweet.  It was so delicious!  The meat isn't good in the green coconuts but the milk is amazing.  It's just the opposite as they sit longer and turn brown. 

Yesterday, we rode our bikes a total of about 10 miles since we have to wait for the truck to be fixed.  We rode to the beach and ate lunch.  There was a cool park there too.  The white sand and blue water is beautiful, but there are no waves!  I also expected more beaches. It seems like there is plenty of water access but not many beaches. 

Last night we enjoyed an amazing dinner at Sunset Grille.  I got a mahi grilled in jerk seasoning with a mango salsa and garlic mashed potatoes.  It Rocked!!!! The kids swam in the pool and we listed to music as we sat on the deck and enjoyed our meals.  A totally cool place to say the least!


Today we went for a drive to see the other keys and we made it down to Key West.  It was a cool place to see.  We didn't stop or stay very long, but we were there long enough to notice all the roosters roaming around the town.  Key West seemed like a cool place to go if you don't have the kiddos along. 

When we got back to the campground, I took the kids over to their game room to join in the Easter egg painting.  Tomorrow they are planning and Easter egg hunt for the kids.

We are all enjoying ourselves very much and we would definitely come back here.  I think, after driving through the other keys, that we made the best choice by staying in Marathon.  Islamorada also looks pretty nice and I would consider checking it out sometime.  Camden is particularly fond of it here and is already asking when we can come back.

Snorkeling

snorkeling

me snorkeling

Hi, this is Grace writing again.  Yesterday we were in Key Largo and the highlight was snorkeling.  I loved being on the boat ride. I haven't been on a boat in forever and it was amazing! After about a half hour, they anchored the boat and we went snorkeling. 

We saw several striped grunt. It was yellow with turqoise stripes through it. We also saw barracuda. They pretty much left us alone but they still made me uncomfortable. We saw these periwinkle tangs, emerald green butterfly fish with odd splashes of yellow through them, these checkered colored ones, and even this big black fish. We saw a spiny lobster, a sea urchin, and tons of coral! The current was pretty strong and the water was only four feet high in some places and the coral sometimes two feet high. This wouldn't be a problem except that you weren't allowed to touch the coral or anything else on the reef. 

barracuda

When we went home from the boat ride we checked out Key Largo. To tell you the truth it wasn't that amazing. The best part was Mrs. Mac's restaurant. It was a family restaurant that served beer and everyone showed up dressed up. The food was good though and we bought a key lime pie. Did you know that the key lime pie originated in the keys do to shortage of cows? With the invention of sweetened condensed milk the people of the keys mixed their limes with the milk and thus the key lime pie!  We also spent $3.50 on whipped cream. It was really tasty whipped cream! 

visitors center John Pennekamp

The next day was mostly spent around the area. We saw the visitor center.  It had a huge aquarium where we could better identify the fish we saw snorkeling.  I also learned the difference between the american crocodile and an alligator.

Jumping off the dock

After we packed up, we spent an hour going to Marathon. Its really great here! We went over to a little beachy area where there was a dock on the ocean and it was fun jumping off. There were two other kids there.  They happened to be from the Philadelphia area. We went for a walk on the old 7 mile bridge and watched the sun set.  

view in Marathon

pool at Sunset Grille

On our walk back to the campground we came to a place called Sunset Grille. It had a pool so the kids could swim while the parents enjoyed their drinks. It was so much fun and the water had these lights that changed color! Today was so much fun. So far, loving Marathon. Plan to write again soon, from Grace.

Lovin Sebastian Inlet

my flounder

Hi this is Camden!  I wanted to tell you about my time here at Sebastian Inlet.  We have been doing a lot of fishing and we've caught several fish.  I caught a snapper, a flounder, another little flounder, a red drum but we couldn't keep him, a sea trout, and a bunch of little sea robins. 

We got up early to fish off the pier and caught something with the first cast!  We fished for a few hours and then came back and had breakfast.  Mom made us sausage gravy!  Dad did some work and we got some things done at the camper and then we went back to the bait shop to stock up.

We came back to the park and visited the Fishing Museum.  There was this nice guy there that showed us around and taught us the history of the inlet.  He was funny!  After that we went back up to the beach.  I went fishing from the pier again and my mom and sisters went on the beach and in the ocean.

see the manatee below

There were 4 manatee all around the pier.  My sisters got on their snorkeling gear and got close to one of the manatee.  They said it was too cloudy to see anything though.
 

I fished a lot.  I even forgot to eat lunch!  Mom made me eat a sandwich later in the day.  After I ate, I got my snorkeling gear on.  I saw a flounder under water and I found some cool shells.  I swam really fast.  I also saw a seahorse.  It was a good day. Then we came home and dad made dinner.  We had all the fish we caught and they were delicious!

catching bait with dad

the wood stork

At sunset we did more fishing but this time we went to the inlet.  I saw a starfish and some cool birds.  One kind was a wood stork.  One of the wood stork tried to eat our shrimp bait.  We didn't catch anything but the guy next to us pulled in a huge flounder.  It was an awesome day!!!!

Florida fishin

Hi, this is Grace again. We're down at Sebastian Inlet, Florida and it is awesome!!! Yesterday, we drove most of the day from Georgia. We got to meet up with Grandmom and Granddad for breakfast at a Waffle House. They were leaving Florida as we were entering the state.  I must say the Waffle House has the best breakfast ever and they're cheap. 

When we got to Florida we set up our camper. It's getting easier and faster since we know what we're doing now.  As soon as we were done it began to rain.  Boo hoo! Nice thing about an island is the rain  was over soon. Once it cleared up, went down to the beach and hardly anyone else was there.  Lauryl and I played in the water but didn't get too wet. After, we all came home, relaxed, and fell asleep. 

When we woke up, or may I say when I woke up (I slept in a little bit late) we went fishing on a pier. We only caught a few and none of them were keepers. We saw a sea turtle.  He was bigger than we're used to in Pennsylvania but I'm sure he was smaller than other ones. We also saw a manatee and he swam right up to the pier and Lauryl totally freaked since she wrote a paper on manatee's. 

Later, we walked down to the beach. We all snorkeled and my dad fished a little. Snorkeling was so great! I saw a whole bunch of cool shells and some little fish.

Eventually, we went back to the camper because the sun was too high and we didn't want to get burned.  Also, we were all hungry.  Dad made us bacon and egg sandwiches and then we went shopping. I was so excited because we found a small fruit market. We got peaches, grapes, pears, strawberries I could go on forever. It was so awesome!!!!  Than we went to Publix. My mom was pretty impressed they didn't have the reward cards hubba-bulluba and she liked how helpful everyone was. Definitely loving the southern personality. Then dad dropped Lauryl, my mom, and I off at a tidal pool. Lauryl and I went snorkeling and it was really cool if you swam near this isle of rocks. There were small minnows, rock fish, sheeps head, and some other fish I can't identify. If you crossed over the rocks there was an inlet. We saw a single dolphin messing around there. It was pretty cool. 

 

Dad picked us up and we went fishing again but still didn't catch anything. We all came home and dad and Camden left right after for a walk. While they were walking we were terrorized by a raccoon! It kept stealing our dogs food and we were too scared to scare it off. When Dad and Camden came back they had several mullet with them. I guess they had good luck with the cast net.  Overall, Florida's been pretty awesome. Can't wait for the rest of the trip.