Dave had an important orthodontic conference and he got to go to Boston! He's been wanting to go to Boston for years now. The other 4 of us didn't get to go. But I thought it a great opportunity to see the last part of Florida I've been wanting to explore.
I normally wouldn't go camping alone, and I've bypassed other trips because I didn't feel comfortable with it, but this time I felt we would be just fine. I packed up the van and the kids and we headed off to Apalachicola, which is on the Gulf Coast, the western side of Florida. It was a beautiful 6 hour drive. We passed through Tallahasee, the capitol, which is so pretty with rolling hills. Then we headed south through small, and extremely Southern looking towns down to the Gulf and took a scenic highway that paralleled the coast to our destination, St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. The views were so picturesque I couldn't get enough of it and my photos don't do it justice. Often times living here in the South I find myself feeling like I'm right in the middle of a novel like The Secret Life of Bees.
We arrived to the campground in the evening and took a quick jaunt down to the beach to check it out. Very nice! Then we ran back to set up camp before the sun went down. Amazingly I was able to set up the huge awkward tent by myself. The boys kept busy gathering kindling for the fire and chasing cute beach mice into the bushes. We started a mighty fine fire and roasted hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows later. We were having so much fun despte the fact that I'd forgotten to pack flashlights and our bug repellent ran out after the second spray.
When we couldn't take the moxquitos any longer, we hopped into the tent and told stories, each taking turns. Boy was it muggy and the kids were a bit uncomfortable as their sleeping bags and pillows felt a little damp. But we were able to drift off to sleep anyway. It was so pretty looking out the window at the moon and the silhouettes of the long leaf pines and hearing the insects and frogs and owls!
In the morning, sadly, it was overcast. At least it was still warm so we got in our bathing suits and walked over to the beach. There is always fun and exploring to be had at the beach. The waves had made a small 2-3ft. cliff in the sand and the boys loved breaking it down and falling off it and climbing up it. After a few hours relaxing and playing we went back to camp, packed up and headed out to explore the small fishing/oyster town of Apalichola.
I liked Apalachicola. We saw historical old homes, grungy fishermen, fishing boats, oyster restaurants, funky eclectic shops, rusty and delapidated buildings and docks and a few tourists. Here are some photos that give a feel for the town:
The drive home was enjoyable and I took more pictures. There was this random clearing off the side of the road where some amazing old automobiles had been left. There were enough of them to make 2 half circles. Take a look:
All in all, another wonderful trip with my 3 wonderful little boys! They are amazing travelers and such good sports, not to mention so fun to be with. Speaking of good sports, remember the 4th of July trip last year when all 5 of us spent a hot night sleeping in the van in Pensacola? Well lately they keep asking me when we are going to do that again. They think sleeping in the van is fun! I love them!
Dave got home safely from Boston the next day and his trip had been enjoyable as well. Hopefully next time around though we'll get to go to Boston with him and he'll get to go camping with us.
(One thing I hadn't suspected on this trip was that my cell phone would be out of range. Oops. Dave knew we had gone camping but I was sure he was freaking out not being able to get ahold of us. Because of that we were a little pressed to get back into an area where the phone would work to let Dave know we were alright and having a blast. We got back into phone range and I was able to listen to all of Dave's frantic messages saying he was about to call the police. Luckily that wasn't necessary and he hadn't done so yet!)
3 comments:
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Haven't heard from you guys in a while--hope everything is going great! Tell Dave that my braces came off last month, and now I am rocking the retainer.
TTFN.
You are awesome! I can't believe you did that by yourself. Sorry we didn't make it on that one with you! Thanks for all your help lately... you've saved me multiple times this month!! I owe you big time! Hopefully I can make it up somehow...
oh, you went to apalachicola? that is where we went on the "failed to meet up with you" trip. i liked the town and wish i could have spent more time there. did you see the wooden flamingo? did you go into the, oh what was the name? a historical house. my kids dug it. we stayed on st. george's island. i was, we all were, sad it didn't work out for whatever reasons i have now forgotten.
but we really liked that area. and the sand on those barrier islands was so strange. it felt plastic. and sometimes sounded plastic, too. wish i could have set up our awkward tent and camped out with you and your boys with my kids.
oh, that would be fun.
props to you for venturing so far and having a great trip with your boys.
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