On our way to Panama City this weekend, we saw this humongous cloud of smoke billowing out of the National Seashore. We almost turned around to hit the Interstate because we thought that whatever the smoke was coming from was probably going to keep us from moving through the area quickly. At the last minute, we decided to forge ahead. We soon found out that it was a controlled burn site. Behind the clouds of smoke, you could see the sun trying to shine through.
The following pictures were taken on March 8–still in the tail end of winter in most states. It is on days like this that I love living in Florida. In the middle of the winter, it can get colder than you would think and in the dead heat of summer walking out into the humidity can make you feel like you just stepped into a shower with your clothes on. However, in the middle of October when many cities are getting their first sleet or snowfall and at the beginning of March when most people are still trying to dig out of their homes wondering when it is ever going to end, something magical happens on the Gulf Coast.
The weather is absolutely beautiful. Blue skies with puffy clouds. Slight wind. Whitecaps on the waves. Powdery white sand. No jellyfish. When we woke up in the morning, we knew we had to hit the beach. The water was a little cold but it didn’t stop the kids from jumping right in. It was such a beautiful day and we can’t wait to head to the beach next weekend!
Thanks to Debbie at
Delicious Baby for hosting Photo Friday. Check out other great travel photos every Friday!
The Intelligent Travel Blog at National Geographic Traveler introduced its Peeps in Places Photo Contest. Now those of you who know me, know that I judge springtime by when the peeps appear on the shelves. I have been able to wean myself over the years, but now that I have children of peep consuming age the habit is trying to peep in!!! This is right up my alley. As soon as I read about this photo contest tonight, I started thinking of all the great places I could take my Peeps! It reminds me of the Flat Stanley challenge. Where would you take your peeps?
Midwest Guest maintains a blog about “mostly midwest meanderings”. Her photographs are beautiful and her articles make me want to travel to the one area of the United States that I haven’t been to yet…the Midwest. She is an avid geocacher and writes about her adventures trying to locate the spots. Some of my favorite articles:
Fishing and hunting paradise in Dundee — I had recently seen a tv show about Cabela’s when I read this post and it was great to read more information about the store. I would like to see how it compares to a Bass Pro since that is all I have been to.
Photo Friday — Lighthouse — I love lighthouses and fell in love with these beautiful pictures of a snow covered lighthouse. For some reason (could be the fact that I am from the south where we never see snow!), I don’t associate snow with lighthouses so it is a funny contrast to me.
Photo Friday — Parade — My son loved these pictures of the parade preparations in Chicago.
Recently I came across a website called Hillman Wonders of the World. I looked through the list and realized that although I have done much traveling, there are so many things I still have left to see…and that is only from this list in particular! Here are the wonders that I have seen:
#40 — Louvre Museum
#80–Yellowstone National Park
#83–Matterhorn
#86–Eiffel Tower
#89–British Museum
#92–Yosemite National Park
#97–Neuschwanstein
#99–San Francisco
9 out of 100…not a very good percentage! Now, the 1000 Wonders of the World list on the same website…that is another story. I think I have seen about 50 of those…still not a great percentage though! Looking at this list makes me want to start planning another big trip…unfortunately it isn’t in the works for this month… That being said, Daddy J and I have some travel plans. Together, we are going to Panama City, FL to visit family. Josh is headed to hike another portion of the Appalachian Trail. I can’t wait to get the pictures back from that trip! How many wonders have you seen? What is on your list to see next?
While I have been trying to meet a deadline at my “real” job, I have been working 14 hour days and have had to take a week long hiatus from my unpaid bloggy blog. I’m baaaaaack!!
For Photo Friday this week, I am breaking out some pictures from the vault! Last summer we headed to Wyoming (see related posts about Hell’s Half Acre and the buffalo of Yellowstone). We visited Cody, Casper, and Yellowstone, as well as Denver, CO. On our way back to Casper where we were visiting family, we stopped in a little town called Thermopolis for a driving break. At this point, the kids had been in the car for 16 hours straight with a hotel break in the middle…Yellowstone is HUGE (that will be another miserable post later this week…let’s just say we will always rent a minivan from now on!). Thermopolis was right in the middle of Casper and Cody. Thermopolis is famous for their hot springs and dinosaurs. They are still completing archeological digs and finding dinosaurs in the land. We took a break to wander through the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, modest but full of information. The Dinosaur Center would probably not keep a teenager busy for more than 20 minutes, but my 2 and 4 year old had a blast! It only takes about 30 minutes to walk through the exhibits. You can pay a little extra to take a bus tour to the dig sites. We decided not to experience this because our children might have disowned us if we put them back into a moving vehicle at that point. There is a very small cafe where we enjoyed a soda and let the kids play on the rocking Triceratops! It was a nice break and the kids were very happy the rest of the way to Casper! We drove along the Snake River for most of the last leg home.
Real teepees along the Snake River! Probably not real, but Seth thought they were cool!
