In February, I stayed in Suffolk, Virginia for two weeks with my daughter, niece and nephew. We had a blast exploring the area. One of our little side stops was the Yankee Candle Flagship store in Williamsburg, Virginia. After exploring Colonial Williamsburg, we got back in the car and decided to make a quick stop at the Yankee Candle Flagship store. It is set up like a small mall inside. There is a huge Yankee Candle store where they have every scent you can think of. If you are with the kids, bypass the browsing to the back of this area for the Candle Dipping Station. You can choose a candle to dip in different colors.
You can also create wax hands! Each of the kids chose a candle and had so much fun dipping it into the hot colored wax.
Afterwards, we wandered through the Christmas area (which doesn’t hold as much allure in February as it probably does in November!), used the restroom (which was one of the cleanest we saw on the entire trip), and bought some of the best caramel corn I have ever had (they give free samples too!).
Visiting the store is free. The smallest candle to color yourself is $2.99 so a trip to the Yankee Candle store won’t be too expensive. The store is near Colonial Williamsburg so it would be a good quick stop before or after your visit there.
Florida has many beautiful state parks. They are covered with large beautiful trees, blooming flowers and winding boardwalks that take you into areas that make you think of fairies and wood sprites. We bought the Real Florida Passport and we love to visit the different state parks and collect our passport stamps. We make the drive from Pensacola to Panama City fairly often to visit family. Whenever we are driving Highway 98, we see signs for so many state parks along the way-seven state parks total! When we make the trip to Panama City, we always try to stop somewhere along the way to visit something new. This time we stopped at Eden State Gardens.
Eden State Gardens is a beautiful state park located about 30-40 minutes from Panama City Beach. Eden State Gardens has a rich history in lumber. It was the home to the Wesley Family. The beautiful home, painted a brilliant white, has a gorgeous wrap around porch that will make you want to invest in one of those Cracker Barrel rocking chairs! Can you believe this beautiful home and 10.5 acres was purchased in 1960 for only 12,500 dollars?!
She then put in another million dollars to convert the home to an antebellum home. She wanted the home for her extensive collection of Louis XVI antiques. After 5 years and failing health, she gave her home and antique collection to the state of Florida.
While visiting, we wandered around the grounds for awhile. It was a nice walk to Tucker Bayou. The kids loved to walk the pier.
All I wanted to do was sit on this bench. All. Day. Long!
The gardens are absolutely beautiful and although many plants and flowers have not bloomed, the Camellias are out in full force. According to the state park site, the Camellia peak bloom is in March so we timed our trip beautifully!
There is a nature trail…
and it is a beautiful setting for a wedding. My daughter spent fifteen minutes watching the “princess”!
For other suggestions on things to do near or around Panama City, visit me at Traveling Mom or explore my other posts here on Two Kids and a Map.
Stop by Delicious Baby to see where others are traveling this week!
Besides writing for this blog, my Pensacola with Kids blog, and my new family craft blog, I have decided to add to my writing plate to help improve myself as a blogger and hopefully a writer so that I can get those darn book notes dusted off and get back to work. I recently joined the Traveling Mom Blogger Network where I will be blogging as Southern TravelingMom at least once a week. When you get a chance, I would love a visit from you over at TravelingMom. Leave me a comment at one of my first two posts:
This is the only photograph we have from our visit to the National Geographic Pirates! Exhibit at the Nauticus in Virginia Beach. The exhibit was amazing but unfortunately there were NO PHOTOGRAPHS ALLOWED! I saw one woman (immediately after they told us no less than 3 times that photographs were not allowed) try to snap a picture as soon as the entrance opened and she was all but tackled to the ground! I am over exaggerating, but she definitely was strongly reminded to put the camera away or she would be asked to leave with no refund.
There have been many other events where we were disappointed there were no cameras allowed…watching the elegant Lipizzaner stallions in Austria, checking out the monster truck jam in our southern hometown (hey, don’t make fun of me…my son loved it!)…
Instead of being irritated that I can’t capture my son’s face when he sees that first monster truck roar out into the stadium, I snap a picture before and after we go in and enjoy the time spent with my family learning and experiencing something new.
Where are your photos taking you today? Stop by Delicious Baby to travel around the world from your desk!
I have been missing from this blog lately. I have no good excuses except that I am lacking motivation and that lack of motivation is growing exponentially this month because spring has sprung. I dusted off my flip flops, broke out my tank tops and shorts, and am enjoying the beautiful weather we are having here in not so sunny Florida. Luckily even though it rained all night, it was gorgeous today. As I was going out to the car this evening, I realized that THEY ARE BACK! Who is “they” you might ask? As Little S would say, “the buggies and the froggies are back mommy!!!” Around December, we start to notice that all is quiet in the neighborhood. I am sure the sounds go away gradually, but what usually happens is that all of the sudden we realize that it is silent! Then a few months later at the first warm week the noises come back and get louder and stronger each night. The chorus will be so loud that some nights you walk around the house because you swore you must have left a window open. Either that or some little buggies have taken up residence in your house!
The video is dark because, well, it is dark outside when the bugs and frogs come out!! They will get much louder over the next few weeks. I will post another video then!
We are linking up to Debbie’s site, Delicious Baby, for Photo Friday so be sure to stop by and see what other travelers are talking about!
