Just around the corner is the 44th Annual National Shrimp Festival, which is a great excuse to travel to Gulf Shores, Alabama. The National Shrimp Festival is October 8th – 11th. It’s free to get in thanks to Zatarain’s as well as a host of other sponsors. The festival takes place right in front of… Read More »
A few weeks ago Rob and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Alex had a soccer game in Gadsden, AL, so we decided to make a day of it and head on up there. When I was googling free things to do in or around Gadsden I found James D. Martin Wildlife Park, which said… Read More »
During our 4th of July trip to Chattanooga one of the days we went to Tennessee Aquarium. When Rob and I first got together and even after we had Drew, we enjoyed spontaneous weekend road trips. Chattanooga was one the cities we would go to on those quick little jaunts. Chattanooga’s Tennessee Aquarium was my… Read More »
Over our 4th of July trip, we decided to go to Cloudland Canyon State Park, which is located in the northwest corner of Georgia about 25 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee. This Georgia state park covers 3,485 acres on the western edge of Lookout Mountain. Rugged landscaping and views of Sitton Gulch Creek, which splits the… Read More »
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Alabama Tourism. The opinions and text are all mine. When I moved to Alabama 19 years ago, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be moving to a state with such rich history, beautiful terrain, and diverse culture. Whether you’re a mountain man… Read More »
On our way up to LaFayette, Georgia for our 4th of July trip we stopped in Rome, Georgia for lunch. Downtown Rome is really a quaint little place with lots of cute stores and restaurants. A friend of Rob’s recommended a couple places to eat. We ended up at Schroeder’s Deli. We had Calzones and… Read More »
One of the things on our to-do-list while in the keys was to go to Bahia Honda State Park. The afternoon after spending our morning at sea, we had a few hours to spare. We decided to go check out this highly regarded state park. After entering the park we turned and headed to the… Read More »
On New Year’s Day, we woke up early and stopped in at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast before hopping on a charter boat for a half day on the open seas. Yes, that loose end of spreading Dad’s ashes had finally come and I’ll have to say I was a mess while eating breakfast. We… Read More »
Key West is such an interesting place with so much character, history, and uniqueness to experience. When we were in the Keys, we spent New Year’s Eve morning in Key West. This post is just to highlight the 4-5 hours we spent exploring this alluring city. I plan to come back and write a few… Read More »
A few weeks ago, we were near Gadsden, Al looking for something to do, so I went old fashion and pulled out the atlas. I found a place called Noccalula Falls and wondered what that was, so we pulled out our phones and Googled it, where we found this link: Noccalula Falls Park We decided… Read More »
Another must see and do while in the Florida Keys is to visit the The National Key Deer Refuge, which is located on Big Pine Key and No Name Key. We made a stop on Big Pine Key on our way back up to Marathon from Key West. click on map to enlarge click on… Read More »
After an exhilarating airboat tour in Everglades City, we headed towards Shark Valley, which has an observation tower that provides amazing panoramic views of the heart of the Everglades. click on map to enlarge Right before arriving at Shark Valley (Stop #1), we stopped at Miccosukee Restaurant for lunch. This is a restaurant on the… Read More »
We arrived at Captain Jack’s to get tickets for our airboat tour. Before going there we stopped at the convenient store for some breakfast. I saw Zinger’s and was quickly taken back to the times my Dad and I would stop at a 7-11 and I would get Zingers. Anyway, we got over to the… Read More »
We left Naples and arrived in Everglades City a little after 2 p.m. and checked into the Everglades City Motel. When we were looking for places to stay in Everglades City there was only 3 or 4 motels, none of which seemed super nice. We booked this one, because it had really good reviews and… Read More »
After leaving Sanibel Island, we continued south for a stop in Naples. Naples has lots of metered parking along the streets as well as some parking lots. We probably drove around for a good 30 minutes looking for a spot as well as gawking at the beautiful homes. We were about to bale when we… Read More »
We arrived at Sanibel Island and we were starving. We wanted to stop at a local place so we ended up at the Sanibel Cafe, which is in the Tahitian Gardens Plaza on Periwinkle Way. You could already tell we were visiting an island that has as abundance of shells, since all the table were… Read More »
On Day 4 of our Florida tour, we woke up from our restful night at the Hotel Indigo got packed up and got ready to site-see the area and then, head further south.
After eating a lovely dinner at Capone’s, we went back to the hotel as the kids were itching to swim in the pool. We stayed at Hotel Indigo, which located in the beautiful River District of Fort Myers. The pool is on the roof of the hotel, and Rob and I enjoyed looking around, as… Read More »
On Sunday morning of our Florida tour, we got up and took Gramma and Granpa out for breakfast at Susie’s Grill. We dropped back by their house to finish gathering up all our stuff before to Fort Myers. We got a couple family shots as well. Here’s a few scenes along the way including a… Read More »
On the 2nd day of our Florida Tour 2014, we took a little break from visiting with Gramma and Granpa and went to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, home of the Real Live Mermaids! That morning Granpa told us the story of Newton Perry and how he invented the breathing hoses that are used for… Read More »