My 3 year old daughter can spy a carousel a mile away. Before the carousel is even in sight, it is like she has a 6th sense…the carousel sense. She can hear that distinct sound that immediately makes you think of carousels. She can see the beautifully painted “horsies” spinning around in a circle. We have been on carousels all over the world, however this is a perfect time to remind myself that I need to sit down and organize years worth of digital pictures that are in folders with names like Mem Card 1 or New Folder217 instead of Washington DC and Vienna, Austria! Of the many carousels we have been on, here are a few of the pictures that I could find!
The carousel in Washington DC on the Mall (and possibly the fastest we have been on!)
Little S can find carousels in shopping malls too! This is the carousel at Pier Park in Panama City Beach, FL.
Did you know there was a carousel at Downtown Disney? We have been to Downtown Disney three times but this last time was the first with my daughter. I hadn’t seen a carousel before, but she has no problem finding it! (And this is probably the slowest carousel we have been on)
This carousel in Hampton, Virginia is located next to the Virginia Air and Space Center. We were leaving the museum and much to my surprise my daughter took off towards this building. That is her at the very front!
This is what we found inside the building!
Carousels, parks, and water features are things that my kids can spot a million miles away when we are traveling. What do your kids always tend to locate?
Stop by DeliciousBaby to see where everyone else is traveling this week!
When my husband and I were still dating, he took me to Panama City to see his stomping grounds. One of the things that I remember most about that trip was running through the Gran Maze at Coconut Creek Family Fun Center like teenagers…heck…we were barely in our twenties at this point! Now that our kids are old enough to enjoy exploring the maze, we took them out there during our Easter visit.
A little fun fact about Big and Little S — they love mazes. They can complete a maze quicker than you would imagine, like a little mouse sniffing out the cheese at the end of the maze! We have been to several corn mazes and ran around for hours. They are ecstatic when we go on a road trip and I bring out a new maze book and when we go to out to eat they are hugely disappointed if the children’s menu doesn’t have a maze on it. We knew they would love this and it did not disappoint!
The Gran Maze at Coconut Creek is about the size of a football field. They change the maze around on a regular basis so even if you go often, it is different!
The object is to enter the maze at the starting point and then work your way to four different stations, punch your card and then find your way out of the maze.
The quickest completion time on the board was either 9 or 15 minutes (I am sorry…I can’t remember!). We completed it in 54 minutes. We did pretty well but got stuck in one section and seemed to be going around in circles. And circles. And more circles. Eventually we found our way to the next station but only after Daddy S did some reconnoitering.
Throughout the maze are these funny little signs that also help to tell you if you are still going in circles!
At the very end, Little S gave up. Luckily all around the outside walls of the maze, you will find doors so we made our escape through there and headed up to the observation tower to watch Big S, dad and grandpa finish the maze.
I believe the maze is open at night as well making it a little bit more difficult and spooky. We liked the fact that the maze walls do not go all the way to the ground making it less claustrophobic than a corn maze. At Gran Maze, children under 6 play free so this was ideal for us. We got to explore a Panama City attraction and only purchase adult tickets. I advise you to have water, sunglasses and a hat with you if you are completing the maze. It gets HOT in there. We were there the first weekend in April and by the time we were finished we were all sweating! I can’t imagine what it is like in July or August.
This post is part of DeliciousBaby’s Photo Friday. Be sure to stop by and see where everyone is traveling.
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!
When we travel, we love to get family photos of us in each destination. We recently did a photo shoot in a hotel room because the weather wouldn’t cooperate while we were visiting family we hadn’t seen in a long time! Most of the time we take the pictures ourselves but sometimes we splurge on a photographer. Daddy J and I have decided to renew our vows when we go to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary and this is one of the times that we will splurge on a professional photographer (we are currently searching for one so if you have any recommendations please let me know!). I want to capture those moments as we renew our love for each other on a beautiful beach at sunset.
When we were in Panama City recently, we had family pictures taken by Adria Peaden Photography at Oaks by the Bay. Daddy J’s mom wanted pictures of the whole family since all of her kids would be in town. I usually get my pictures back and hate them. I hate the way I looked…the way my hair was blowing…the way…well, you understand! These pictures are absolutely amazing and I was so thrilled with the results! If you are going to be in the Panama City, Florida vicinity for a family vacation and are looking to get family pictures made at the beach or a fun park, take a look at Adria’s website. I think that you will like what you see and want to book her immediately! She has some amazing beach wedding pictures up, adorable baby pictures, and stunning pregnancy photos, too! Here are a few of my favorites from our photo shoot in Panama City. Thanks so much, Adria!
Stop by DeliciousBaby to see where other travelers are this week!
This photo shoot was paid for by a family member. The recommendation is based solely on my experiences and opinion with no outside influence.
In December, I was tagged by both Amy, at The Q Family Adventures, and Corinne, at Have Baby Will Travel, to participate in Tripbase’s 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets.
“The aim of this game is to unite travel bloggers in a joint endeavor – to create an amazing list of top travel recommendations across the globe to share with the entire online travel community.”
How fun! I have had so much fun reading everyone’s best kept travel secrets so far only, when I got tagged, I couldn’t think of anything to write about. Then, the holidays came and left and I still was not coming up with any brilliant ideas. I decided to talk about something I love: the Florida’s Panhandle.
When you think of taking the kids to Florida, the first city that usually pops into your head is Orlando for Disney and all other wonderful things Mouse. However, just a mere 5 or 6 hours north and to the west you will find a treasure trove of amazing spots to take the family!
1. St. George Island, Florida - St. George is a 22 mile barrier island with beaches as white and pristine as you imagine the Gulf Coast to be. Ride into Apalachicola for some of the most amazing seafood, namely oysters, that you have ever had. Even though it gets chilly in the fall and winter, St. George Island is a fantastic place to take the kids year round. Let them run up and down the beach and hike through the miles of wetlands and forests that surround the area.
2. Marianna and Chipley, Florida – Even people from this area will laugh when they read this. Why do you have Chipley and Marianna on this list? What is there?!?! Many people don’t realize that off of I-10 are two real gems. These two cities (about 25 minutes from each other) are homes to our two favorite NWFL state parks: Florida State Caverns and Falling Waters State Park. Grab your tent and air mattress and take the kids camping. They will love wandering through the nature trails and cooking dinner under the stars. Spend time in Marianna exploring the small caverns and then head to Falling Waters to camp (camping at Marianna will be closed through April for renovations) and to see Florida’s tallest waterfall (usually a just a trickle!) and some of the coolest sinkholes around. My kids were fascinated with the fact that the ground just disappeared! Make sure you grab the Florida Passport and get it stamped while you are there.
3. Panama City, Florida - Not Panama City Beach, just Panama City. We have been traveling to Panama City every 6-8 weeks to visit family for ten years. The beach is fine but if you are coming to the Gulf Coast for the beach, there are other beaches that we love. To be honest, I went to the beach for Spring Break when I was in college (so cliched, I know!) and maybe one time after I got married?! In Panama City, stop by the Bay County Junior Museum to learn more about the area. Take a walk through St. Andrew’s and while you are there watch the sunset and look for horseshoe crabs. Stop by Cahall’s for some of the best chicken salad I have ever had. Ever.
Thanks so much Tripbase for allowing me to participate and share three things I love about the Florida Panhandle!
To continue this fabulous TripBase Blog Tag, I would like to tag Amy at Atlanta With Kid, Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish, and Victoria at It’s a Small World after All.
And if it isn’t against the rules, I am going to write about my three best kept travel secrets about Pensacola over at my Pensacola with Kids blog!
Thanks for letting me participate! I look forward to reading many more travel secrets!
In the past couple of weeks, I have read some great blog posts about mamas giving their kids the camera. We often let our kids take pictures on our trips, but I have never posted any of them. When we went to Shipwreck Island in Panama City this weekend, we gave our kids the disposable waterproof camera. Before I knew it, they had clicked through all 27 pictures! Other than some unsavory pictures of me in a swimsuit (that I promptly burned after developing), he got some pretty good pictures! I am knee deep in packing for our road trip (where my two children and I set out on our own for a short visit with friends in preparation for the major trip up the East Coast on our own again!) so for now I will just share the pictures of our adventure. It is Photo Friday after all! I will post a review later on next week about our experience at Shipwreck.
Big S’s pictures
Little S’s picture
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