Florida Keys

We spent New Year's Eve driving down from the Everglades through the Keys. I thought this sign was pretty cool!

And I discovered the best thing about Florida when we stopped for gas (I texted this to my sister with the hobbit voice "It comes in pints?!" in my head and she sent me back the exact GIF I was thinking of. Soulmates man.) 

I was a little nervous about our hotel in the Keys; I'd read about a million reviews of it but you never know, right? We stayed at Marriotts/Hiltons the rest of our hotel nights on this trip but in the Keys on NYE hotels were running anywhere from $800-$5000/night in Key West, so we decided to stay in a kind of mom-and-pop place in Marathon, about an hour out of Key West. And all the reviews said this was such a gem so I booked it and I ended up wishing we'd been there for a week, it was awesome! The room itself was really nice, but the real winner was that by the pool (which we never used) it had access to this waterway (and there were complimentary kayaks there which we also didn't use) and there were MANATEES. 

Our room opened directly onto this area and at first I was like oh wow, so cute. 




Lovely little bit of water here to launch your kayaks or bring your boats in...

And then we saw a manatee swimming under us!!

There was a guy hosing off his very nice boat after a day of fishing (they also had a really nice fish-cleaning area and Luke loved that) and the manatee swam right over and started trying to drink the fresh water from the hose. We were all totally enchanted and came over to watch and the guy's wife started talking to me (she didn't really speak English and I don't really speak Spanish but we made it work) and then she told him to give the manatee a drink so our kids could watch. They were SO nice and so delighted to see how excited we were, they said this is a daily thing for them and couldn't believe we don't have manatees in Indiana (they might have thought we said India...not really sure). But the manatee was totally up out of the water wrapping its lips? Mouth? Face pieces? around the hose and sucking water straight from it, getting a backscratch from the guy, etc. 

Seriously so amazing to watch! They said that this manatee and its family are regular visitors (there were "slow for manatees" signs everywhere). 

There were also roosters everywhere and we had a brief moment of wondering whether we'd be woken up by them too early and then remembered HAHA we are leaving at 3 am. 

And lizards!!

Then we drove over to Bahia Honda state park to watch the sunset. (We were planning to swim but bacteria levels were too high, apparently.) 

So we just kind of waded. 

And we watched the sunset go down from the old bridge. It was so beautiful! And as the sun sank below the horizon the whole area went crazy and people were blowing on conch shells, beating drums, etc. (Neil said the sunset party in Key West the next day was WILD but I honestly have zero recollection of it, I think I was just so wrapped up in misery because that's when we were repacking the car.) 

Then we went back to our hotel, sat on the dock and ate cheesecake, and watched all the fireworks. Happy New Year!

 

Blue Springs manatees

After we left Savannah, we took (another) detour on our way to Miami so that we could see the manatees at Blue Springs State Park. Guess who else had the same idea, everyone in Florida. 

We waited about an hour to get into the park but (I think!) it was worth it! So so cool, there were over 600 manatees in the river the day we were there. At the very beginning (photo just above) we saw a couple of manatees and we were very excited and watched them FOREVER and then thought maybe we should walk a little further. 

And wowza there were so many manatees the closer to the springs we got!! (When it's not manatee migration season you can swim in this river and scuba into the cave where the springs come out.) 

Basically the manatees swim up the St Johns river in search of the warm water that bubbles up out of the spring (which is a couple hundred feet deep). 

We walked to the headwaters of the river and I LOVED the scenery along the walk. 

Felt like Jurassic Park. :-) 

And the manatees were incredible!! 

I seriously could not believe that we were seeing so many manatees so close (haha, then as always happens on trips like this, we had a really fun manatee incident in the Keys that was mind-blowingly awesome, but that deserves its own blog post). 

Just sooo many manatees. And so many babies swimming with their moms!

Look! Baby manatee!

Such a cool experience and absolutely worth a visit if you're in the area!  

Spring break

For spring break this year we went to Santa Rosa beach on the Florida panhandle. The morning we left it was 23 degrees so it felt pretty heavenly to be able to bask in the southern sun!

Last year we were intending to go to Florida as well, but the pandemic struck and we cancelled our reservations just before we would have left, so it felt very full circle to be here on spring break, fully vaccinated. 

A quick bathroom stop (I think this was our only one!) that had me rethinking our plans to drive straight through...someday I want to go to the space and rocket center! (This was the Alabama welcome center; they also had a huge rocket in the parking lot.) 

We had the cutest little rental totally surrounded by palm trees...it looked so idyllic and picture-perfect! 

It had balconies from every possible angle and one particular one off the living room overlooking a lake, where Matthew spent a LOT of time hanging out with binoculars trying to spot an alligator (there were no alligators, but we did not want to ruin his fun!). 

I loved the walk to the beach every morning. 

We drove down on Friday and went to the beach right away. When we got up on Saturday, it was pretty chilly (maybe mid-50s? PERFECT running weather; I ran 6 miles along 30A and just marveled at all the beauty) and then we decided to go hiking at Topsail Beach State Park while we waited for it to warm up a bit. (Sidenote: I am REALLY proud of myself bc I worked out every day that week--usually I start strong on vacations and fizzle hard. The cooler temps definitely helped; by the end of the week when it was actually beach weather I thought I was going to dissolve into a puddle by the end of my run.)

I loved this hike so much!! We learned a ton about all the different plants growing along our path and talked animatedly about how different they were from other places we've hiked. 

We speculated a lot about all the reasons why pinecones here look so different from pinecones in Montana, and Luke found the fattest pinecone possible and then posed with his patented pinecone face...



We looked diligently for the alligators that frequent these inland lakes, but no dice. 





And then we hiked down to the actual beach and had a pretty blissful little interlude there chasing waves and listening to the Saturday morning session of General Conference. I was chuckling at one talk that said "wherever you may be, whatever the circumstances in which you are listening" because I thought these circumstances ROCK right now!

So I took a picture to commemorate that exact moment and here it is. 

Then we rode the beach trolley back to our car and changed into swimsuits at the house so we could listen to the second session at "our" beach. 

On Monday our friends arrived! 

Every morning the big kids started out digging a giant hole; I do not know why. 

Three of the dads boogie-boarding (poor Andy started to go out and his one-year-old son just went ballistic crying for him...),

I took a picture to prove I was there! I meant to get a picture with my friend since we both wore the same suit that day, but...I never did. I'm sure we will have plenty of chances this summer!

Matthew spent four hours one day floating around in this tube digging for clams with his "tiny toesies." It was soooo cute. 

Tons of Oreos--the best beach food!

Basically how we all felt at the beach after pandemic winter, haha. 

We had a bonfire one night, which was so fun!

I asked Isaac to snap this photo of the moms one day--this is the first one he took; the rest are a progression of Luke looking like Godzilla (he's right behind my shoulder in this one). 

I made a quadruple batch of gauffres de Liege (aka sugar waffles) one night and this was the only thing big enough to knead the dough in.

Adults dinner one night--it was AMAZING to have weather warm enough for outdoor dining and we took full advantage of it! This was such a fun night and we had a great time together. 

The reason for the daily hole becomes clear!!

Jules looking about six feet tall--this girl is growing so fast. 

I snapped this one of Matthew curled up next to Abigail--he kept squirming closer and closer to her trying to get warm and I loved her expression. 

Matthew half asleep in my arms--the first few days it was pretty chilly in the morning/late afternoon!

The three little boys--they were SO adorable!

The older kids spent a lot of time at one or another of the beach rivers, catching crabs and little fish. 

 

Such dreamy sunsets, and such a lovely week!