Slackers

Well, between limited WiFi access and a hell of a lot of fun I have completely neglected my blog. We'll play a bit of catch-up with some help in the very near future. In the meantime, a quick update. All is well and we've been having a blast! We holed up in Tampa for a few weeks with a side trip to Naples then St Pete. Visited Hamish, his wife Sarah and met their baby Kai. The visit to St Pete was to see Elliot who got married on June 1st. Sorry we weren't able to make it to the wedding but the time we spent was great. We left Tampa a few days ago and drove to Cape Canaveral to visit Kennedy Space Center. Haven't been there since I was a child and it was still super cool to see huge rockets, launch pads and the building currently housing two space shuttles. The full-scale Saturn 5 was awe inspiring. Cannot imagine being strapped to that thing at launch. Hit St Augustine for two nights then off to Jekyll Island. after that on to Savannah. It is a super cool town and we walked for miles. The squares are so nice to visit in the summer. We stopped by a visitor's center (highly recommended anywhere you go) and found out that Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were throwing a free concert at Forsyth Park so we grabbed the beach chairs and hung out for a few hours. It was fantastic and we took the local scene in. Next stop was Hilton Head where our friend Scott offered his sisters condo to us. Lo and behold, it's a 3 bedroom condo on the island - on a golf course and a short bike ride to the beach. SCORE!!!! We ran all over the place here and checked things out. The beach is super nice and the difference between low and high tide is at least a pitching wedge. We had to move our camp three times as we were being inundated with the sea. This morning we got up at 5:30 to bike to the beach for the sunrise. The bike path is along the road but under some beautiful trees and we got there early enough to take some pre-sunrise pics and ride on the beach. Along the way we saw turtle tracks and investigated further. We found a fresh loggerhead nest and I stuck sticks in the sand to mark it and we were trying to figure out who to notify when a cart rolled up and two people got out to do some research. They found the nest with a probe, extracted an egg and marked the nest with tubes and tape. This was the 81st nest of the season on the island. We happened to visit the turtle sanctuary on Jekyll Island and we'll fill you in on those details in another post. Needless to say it was fascinating. Time to run for now - headed off to visit Harbor Town for the sunset!!!!

Honeymoon Island State Park

Don't know how we did it, but we got dad to the beach!

Wow! Is Destin beach nice...beautiful beaches everywhere. Never been here before for some reason. Ran in to an old school buddy and his dad yesterday and had a great visit. Staying at a state park tonite and headed to Tallahassee tomorrow then on to Tampa.

Nawlins

My last experience in this city was mixed. I was here with dad and a few other buddies when Ohio State played LSU for the national championship. We had fun on Bourbon Street for two nights until game day when the Buckeyes got their asses handed to them by the home team. I couldn't wait to get out of town. Fast forward to 2012 - our friends Estafania and Mike moved to New Orleans from Denver and we dropped in for a visit. We were able to get a real tour. The trolley car took us to the Garden District where we walked near Tulane University then through the park to Magazine Street. We had lunch then came back into town to visit the French Market. Hit Harrah's Casino for a bit then it was time for dinner. We bypassed Bourbon Street for Frenchmen Street where the locals hang out. Saw HBO filming an episode of Treme' then had the best fried chicken at the Praline Connection while the storm hit full force. Once the rain stopped a group of musicians started playing on the street corner. They played for well over an hour and even had a battle across the street. What a show! We then walked down the street to another bar where it was a version of open mike night. There were people everywhere on stage just jamming away. All in all a great day in Nawlins. I feel better about this town than I did before.

Now it's time to hit the road again. Florida is next up. Perhaps the Gulf Island National Seashore near Pensacola?

Sam Houston Jones State Park

We finally made it out of Texas! We drove 944 miles to get through that state. Not much to see but the seashore was fun. We took a ferry from Padre Island the the mainland. There were several ships and we drove right on one without waiting and got out of the truck to look around. Ambereen asked if she should make sandwiches for the ride and I looked up and we were docking! The whole trip took like 5 minutes. Louisiana was a refreshing change of scenery. The fauna was so different than what we're used to. We stopped at the welcome center and found a nice walkway that meandered through the swamp. Our drive to Sam Houston Jones State Park was easy and we found a nice camp site. There was a river next to the park and a swamp / bayou right next to us. The noise at night was deafening! Who would believe that little green frogs could make such a racket? We cooked the pork tenderloin with spices and veggies and had a great dinner. A camp robber showed up at night and made off with what was left of our loaf of bread. Ate every last crumb. Got up early and packed everything up for the drive to Nawlins.

Padre Island National Seashore

Drove to Padre Island where we stayed at the National Seashore. Our camp site was on a sand dune close to the beach. We saw the nearly full moon rise and it was so bright at night you could almost read by the light. I'm glad we stayed at the campground as they had bathrooms and showers. I must be getting old as those amenities are more and more desirable! Had a fine cigar and a beer to relax.

We went for an early morning drive on the beach but it didn't compare to what we'll have in the Carolina's so we decided to hit the road. Our goal is to get out of Texas.

Texas

Carlsbad caverns-super cool place to visit. I posted pics from my last visit 5 years ago and you can find them in my earlier posting. Not much has changed since my last visit ;) Drove to Ft Stockton TX and camped in a RV park last night. Beautiful sunset and woke to songbirds. It was an oasis in the desert. Met a crazy dude in the campground. Crazy I tell ya! Driving to Padre Island today and we will camp on the beach tonight.

Day 1 of our trip brought us to Brantley State Park

We camped on the edge of a lake just north of carlsbad caverns.It was the most peaceful and quiet campsite.

BMT wildlife

This morning we saw a fox searching for breakfast. He seemed interested in Saki for sure...then we got home from dinner and our neighbor told us to watch out for a moose out back! Super cool..

Riviera Maya - Sandals (November 2011)

We had a wonderful time visiting Mexico last fall right before Thanksgiving. We went to an all-inclusive Sandals resort for a week and enjoyed the beach, pool and swim up bar. We had access to hobie cats with free lessons but when we went there all of the instructors were busy so when they asked if I knew how to sail I said "sure". Next thing I know we were being pushed out to sea. And I had no clue what I was doing. It took me a few minutes to navigate my way a hundred yards off shore but the wind was taking us pretty fast. I managed to turn around and was trying to teach myself how to tack when I saw a boat moored off shore. It was a parasailing boat owned by the resort. As if it was guided by an unseen hand our hobie cat started tracking right towards the other boat. I started yelling and a head popped up inside the boat - his eyes grew quite large as he realized there was going to be an impact soon. BAM! I hit the hull of the boat with both hulls of the hobie....and bounced off. I managed to maneuver around it while yelling "sorry!" and we were off again. All in all it was hilarious. A side note on parasailing - the next day we were on the hobie cat again (yes, they let us take it out again. Apparently an hour sailing means one is certified or something.) and I saw a couple parasailing when the male fell through the harness and was hanging upside down about 100 feet above the water. The captain quickly powered down and they slowly dropped to the water and I tried to get to them to make sure they were OK but another power boat made it first. The beach at Tulum was incredible! We went on an excursion in the area and rappelled into a cenote then swam in an underground river. We went on three zip lines then got on a crazy 4 wheel drive ride. Good times......

4 Pass Loop (July 2011)

Last summer we went on a backpacking trip called the 4 Pass Loop through the Maroon Bells Wilderness area near Aspen. We took 4 days to hike the 4 passes (each over 13,000 feet) and got to experience some great back country hiking. While we didn't see much wildlife, the wildflowers and scenery made up for it. On the first night we camped next to a large beaver den and when I got up around 2 am I heard a beaver slap his tail in the water to warn the rest of the clan of my presence. It was really loud! We were lucky with weather and found some cool camp sites. It was an awesome trip....

Silverthorne, CO

Well, it appears as though the time came and went for me to make another change. I left my most recent job at the end of 2011 and moved to Silverthorne to be a ski bum for the season. I couldn't have picked a worse season weather-wise, but it's been a blast nonetheless. I realize that I've let this blog die a slow death over the past two years and I've come to regret that as I've embarked on several fantastic adventures. I'm going to include updates on past trips for nothing other than my own memories and recollection. Maybe you'll stumble on to this and enjoy some of the posts. If so, good for you!