June 30 - Sunny Isles - Last Full Day

It is our last full day in Sunny Isles.  The morning was overcast with storms visible in the distance.  We hung out in the condo - watching the storm, watching the drawbridge open and close, watching TV, and getting some laundry done. 

After lunch it was time for the beach.  Albert and Rachel did some more snorkeling.  Emily, Albert, and I played with the Waboba (a ball that bounces on the surface of the water like a skipping stone).

Then Emily, Rachel and I hit the pool and hot tub.

After dinner, we walked to the gelato place on the other side of the bridge. 

Now we are home for the night - another great day.  Tomorrow we check out, spend our last hours hanging out for this trip, and then Albert and I fly out on a redeye from Miami to Madrid.

June 29 - More Sunny Isles

Another day in paradise.  We spent the morning at the beach.  Everyone spent some time snorkeling - we saw lots of fish.

After lunch,  we played phase 10 at a poolside table.  It was quite warm.  I am pretty sure that by the end, Albert was willing to do whatever it took to end it - regardless of who won.  As soon as we finished, he bolted upstairs to the air-conditioning.  The girls and I cooled off in the pool.  Later, as the clouds rolled in and it started to cool off, Emily went to work out while Rachel and I warmed up in the hot tub. 

Then it was time for a "logistics" trip.  We needed to move some things from the condo down to Rachel's house so that there would be room in the car for all four of us and the remaining stuff when we check out on Sunday.  While we were on the road, we ate dinner and did some shopping.  After dropping everything off at Rachel's, we went to CHILL-N for some nitrogen cooled ice cream.

Finally, we headed back to the condo - and I went out for my walk.  I am really enjoying having everybody together.  It is hard to believe we have been on the road for 19 days already - it is even harder to believe that in 48 hours, we will be on the plane to Spain!

June 28 - Still in Sunny Isles

We picked up Emily in the middle of the night - it was late, but I was really happy to see her - it was well worth the late night trip to the airport!

This morning Rachel and Albert and I went to the beach.  The water was warm and clear.  Lots of little fish nipping at our feet.

After lunch we all played dominoes on the balcony and watched a thunderstorm roll through.

Then this afternoon, Albert and Emily went snorkeling at the beach while Rachel and I went to the pool.  Then we all went to the hot tub.

After dinner Rachel and I went for a walk and then came home and had peaches and ice cream.

You may notice that we did not drive the car today - what a luxury.  

June 27 - Sunny Isles

After a lazy morning at the hotel, we picked up Rachel and made our way to one of her favorite restaurants - The Salty Donut.  If you are watching your carbs  - or prefer to limit your sugar intake - or believe in a high protein, lowfat breakfast - you should give this place a pass.  If you are trying to test the limits of your ability to function with high blood sugar - this is it.  We each had a massive doughnut,  and we enjoyed them thoroughly.

Then we spent some quality time walking through the Wynwood Walls.  If you are ever in Miami and are looking for something free to do for an hour or so - this place is amazing.  It is a celebration of  high quality graffiti and street art.  There are 3D pieces, carvings, paintings, collages, .... There are wall size murals and smaller prints..... some of the collections are in galleries and others are outdoors.

one of many great pieces by Peter Tunney

a full outdoor wall

a piece of one of my favorite paintings

carved door

As we were walking around the Walls, we received a message from Emily that her flight was delayed.  Now any of you that have kept track of Emily's travel woes will know that we fully expected this message.  She has the worst "on time flight" luck of anyone I have ever met.  She is now due to come in at around 12:45 am tomorrow.

This afternoon we checked in to our condo in Sunny Isles (north Miami) and went grocery shopping.  Mmmm delicious peaches.  If you could smell and taste these right now, you would be wildly jealous.

Tonight we are hanging out at home - watching the Mariner's on TV from our condo on the 23rd floor.  

Tomorrow - no plans - 🙂

June 26 - Florida Keys

The day started in Key West.  We visited the Florida Keys Eco Discovery Center and checked out the southernmost point in the continuous forty-eight. 

Turtle Model at the Discovery Center

Then it was time to head back up the keys.  We stopped off to check out a couple of beach views on Marathon Key and had lunch at a small diner before heading up to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  Once at the park, we went out on a snorkel boat - the water was pretty calm and we were able to go out and visit the Christ of the Deep Statue.  We saw lots of colorful fish and a spotted eagle ray.  The visibility was good and the weather was awesome.

After snorkeling we drove back to Rachel's house and then walked to one of her favorite restaurants where we met a couple of her friends for dinner.  We are now checked in to our hotel.  Another full day - we are not setting alarms for tomorrow morning... maybe sleep in??  Tomorrow night Emily arrives and we check in to our condo for a few days  - our last stop before the trip to Spain!

June 25 - Key West

We picked up Rachel and headed down Highway 1 to Key West.  It was a beautiful drive, but you could see some of the damage from last year's hurricane season.

We ate lunch at the same restaurant where we ate with mom, Tom and Emily the last time we were here.  Then it was on to the beach.  We snorkeled at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park Beach.  The water was a little murky so we didn't see too many fish, but the water was warm and the weather was great!

Then it was time to check in to the hotel.  In addition to a great pool, we enjoyed Corn Hole.  There are also hammocks, a hot tub, and giant Jenga - as well as a poolside bar and food truck.  Now this is a vacation spot!

Finally this evening, we took the hotel shuttle downtown.  We went to Mallory Square to watch the sunset and then ate at a restaurant on Duval street.  

Today we walked about 8 miles, snorkeled in the ocean, and swam in the pool.  We had a great time, but now I am ready for bed.  Tomorrow, a few more activities in the keys and then back to Miami.

June 24 - The Villages to Miami

We left Mom, Tom, and The Villages this morning and headed south.

We stopped off in Indiantown to visit Marilyn and Lew and cat Merlin.  They were celebrating their 46th wedding anniversary and to celebrate, they made us a wonderful turkey and stuffing lunch.  I am pretty sure we got the best end of that deal.  In addition to the great lunch, we shared stories.  To be fair, theirs were much more interesting (some involved being escorted by machine gun).  Although we had some bumps and bruises along the way to get our visas for Spain for the year, at least we were never detained for 8 hours and strip searched - yikes!!

After a few hours in Indiantown, we made our way down to Miami.  We got a quick tour of Rachel's new digs and then went out for a late (by our standards  - not by Spain standards) dinner.  We did a little catching up before dropping Rachel back off at her place.

Albert and I spent some time walking around the University of Miami campus (after the turkey lunch and eating out with Rachel, we had plenty of fuel to burn.)  It is hard to believe that it was nearly six years ago that my mom and Rachel and I visited the UM campus for the first time.

Now Albert and I are tucked in to our hotel for the night - tomorrow - Key West.

June 23 - The Villages

Another day of relaxing in the villages.  The day started with a trip to the neighborhood pool.  It is an adults only pool (which in this neck of the woods means 30 and over).  Luckily, we all qualify with room to spare.

Then a great lunch - mmmm crab soup and crab cakes.  Tom had a gift card from his daughter Virginia from father's day, and we reaped the benefit.

After a short rest, I took a long walk and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine.  Then I made a small batch of caramel corn.  And for the second night in a row, we all lost to Tom in cards.  

Tomorrow, off to Miami with a stop at Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Lew's house.  

June 22 - The Villages

The morning started off with Albert going for a run and me going to watch Donna and my mom play tennis with a group of local ladies.  It was quite warm and humid - typical Florida June day.  I even got a chance to play for a short time as a stand in for one player who ended her court time a little early because of the heat.  What a fun, supportive, forgiving (thank goodness) group of women.

After tennis, Mom and I picked up the boys (Albert and Tom) and went to lunch.  Like many folks in The Villages, we opted for golf carts instead of a car for the short trip to the restaurant.

Golf carts in The Villages range from standard electric carts like you might see on any public golf course to crazy gas powered, four seat, custom machines made to look like fire trucks/sports cars/antique roadsters.  

This afternoon, we invested a little time and money in our own car - making sure it was ready for the year in Miami.  

Tomorrow is another day in The Villages before hitting the road again.  

June 21 - Atlanta GA to The Villages FL

We made it to Florida.  Our camping gear is stowed in my Mother's garage and we can actually fit four people into our car again. 

As soon as the car was unpacked, I left with my mom, Tom, Donna and Roger to go see a musical about male midlife crisis.  It was a  comedic two man show.  The actors were talented and the script was funny - so even if the topic was unusual (songs about overusing viagra, wanting a Harley, your first colonoscopy, not being able to pee, being called grandpa, getting invited to join AARP, etc.), we had a good time.

Then we met up with Albert for dinner - it was nice to be with family and friends and having a great meal.

After dinner, Albert and I went for a nice walk.  Lots of small animals (birds, ducks, bunnies) in this neck of the woods.

So now we say goodbye to the longest day of the year.  Tomorrow, we spend the day in the Villages.  No packing/unpacking for a couple of days!

June 20 - Horse Cave KY to Atlanta GA

We packed up all of the camping gear for the last time for a year.  I know how time flies - so I bet it will seem like no time before we are unpacking it again next summer. 

We stopped in Nashville where we walked around downtown for a while and then met Anne (a friend's daughter from Walla Walla who has a summer internship in Nashville.)  We went to a restaurant that had a sign that said "a banana has 105 calories, a shot of whiskey has 80 calories, choose wisely."  I chose a catfish po boy that probably had 600 calories - so there.  Good thing we walked around town for the hour before lunch.

We made it to the Eastern time zone and are now in Atlanta. Except for a great dinner in a Mexican restaurant with Scott (a high school friend of Albert), we didn't really stop to see anything in Atlanta.  We have traded forests and lakes for palm trees and pools for now.

 Tomorrow on to Florida.  Our last state before leaving the country. 

June 19- Mammoth Caves

It is campgrounds like this that make me glad I can make it through the night without a trip to the bathroom.  The facilities are nice, but who decided that the bathrooms should be close to the RV sites (HELLO - most of them have their own bathrooms) and far far away from the tent sites.  Alas.

This morning's hike was in a beautiful part of Mammoth Cave.  It is also very cool (literally - 54 degrees) to be underground as summer rages on above.  We didn't see any bats, but we did see some very large cave crickets.

During the break between our morning and afternoon cave hikes, we did a couple of short above ground hikes around large sink holes.  My favorite part was the information signs.  They are both informative and a fantastic excuse to take a break.  At this stop, I take a quick picture and then suck air as we have just climbed roughly 10 billion steps.  (I said roughly.)

The afternoon walk was in a completely different part of the cave and included a tight passage named "Fat Man's Misery" - I can assure you that this is not part of the advertisement for this tour.  There was also a rather long unnamed passage that the people behind us dubbed "Tall Man's Misery", luckily, I was short enough to stay upright for most of that passage.  Sadly, Albert may need advil for his back after his extended hunch.

Tonight is the last night in the tent for a year.  I will be a little sad to pack it all away tomorrow, but I am looking forward to being back in a bed for a while.  Tomorrow - on to Atlanta.

June 18 - St. Louis MO to Horse Cave KY

Man the states go fast on this side of the country - today we hit Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.

We stopped off at Mammoth Caves National Park this afternoon and did some above ground hiking.  It is so nice to be back where there is humidity and no wind.  On all the trails you can see signs of the caves below.  We have reservations for two hikes tomorrow into the caves.

At the campsite tonight we are surrounded by fireflies.  I will resist running around and trying to catch some to put in a mason jar - but that is mostly because I ate about 10 pounds of pulled pork (maybe a slight exaggeration) for dinner, and I mostly want to climb into the tent and sleep.

Sadly we didn't get to meet up with Elizabeth today - I wish we had realized earlier how close we were going to be so that we could have planned better.  

Tomorrow - mostly underground.  I can't wait.

June 17 - Salina KS to St. Louis MO

We left Salina Kansas this morning.  It was so windy in the night, the back right corner of the tent blew off the tent stake.  Luckily, we are heavy enough that the tent didn't manage to move too far. 

The campground had an all you can eat pancake breakfast, but we opted out.  We decided that since the day would mostly be spent in the car, we didn't need quite that much "fuel" to get us started. 

Before coming to the hotel where we are spending the night (yipee a real bed and no wind), we stopped at Aunt Judy's house where we spent a few great hours with family and friends - there were 10 people there in addition to us - and a couple of dogs....

It was really nice to spend time just playing, laughing, reminiscing, and of course eating.  The saddest part of the evening was having Chris (my cousin) cheat at yahtzee and still come in last place. 

In the hotel, we realized that our planned travel tomorrow will take us directly through the town where Elizabeth (one of Albert's stepsisters) lives with her family.  We are hoping to meet up for a late lunch.  Then on to Mammoth Caves.

June 16 - Estes Park to Salina, Kansas

Well we made it to Kansas.  I am happy to report a very uneventful day - 500 miles from the Rocky Mountains (where we somehow managed to avoid visiting the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which may in fact be a crime) to the pan flat Kansas.  Even the plants are flat - but I think that is because it is so windy that everything weaker than a tree has blown over.

We did laundry tonight and met a nice couple who are on a two month trip around the country in their small RV.  They are from Tampa, FL and brought two five gallon buckets of mangoes from their home tree that they have been giving out to friends and folks they meet in their travels.  Woo-Hoo we made the cut.  Beautiful fresh fruit for breakfast tomorrow.

Tomorrow - on to St. Louis.

June 15 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is awesome.  With days like this, I will have no trouble getting my steps done.  We saw waterfalls, lakes, epic mountains, cool wildlife and people from all over the world.

I must admit that it almost seems like cheating when I see the number of people hauling children of all ages up the same trails that seem difficult to me as I haul only myself.  Front packs, backpacks, resting on shoulders or hips - I am not sure how they do it.  I am always happy during the second half of the hike when my water bottle is nearing empty and I don't have to carry those couple of extra pounds. 

Our last hike of the day was a short steep climb up to 12000 feet.  I am sure the scenery was beautiful - but I basically only looked at it when we were at the bottom and the top - during the climb and descent, I mostly watched my feet to keep from ending up in the Estes Park hospital.  I did stop and take one picture on this last climb.

One perk of being this wallflower is that it doesn't have to climb to get to this beautiful alpine meadow.

Tomorrow - we leave the mountains and make our way to Salina, Kansas.

June 14 - Torrey UT to Estes Park CO

Today was mostly driving from Utah to the great state of "every mile of highway is under construction" - otherwise known as Colorado.  We did order Dominos pizza from a restaurant down the highway and pick it up as we passed through (Thank you to the Heins for this "fast food while traveling" tip.)

Our campground is in Estes park which is situated directly adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park - where we will be hiking tomorrow.  For tonight we walked around Lake Estes.  We started at the Estes Park visitor's center.  At first we started out together - but after some concern that the car may not have been relocked after Albert went back for a sweatshirt, Albert went back to the locked (ugh) car and then started around the path in the opposite direction - he was nice enough to turn around and finish the loop with me when our paths crossed.   Now the question of the hour... did he really think the car might be unlocked or was he just looking for a reason to have some alone time on his evening walk?

As I walked along the north side of the lake, I noticed that the public path ran between two bodies of water.  The lovely lake to the south.

And a rapidly moving stream to the north that kept the public away from the golf course.   I had never seen a golf course with a moat before.   I wonder if they have barbed wire around the tennis courts?

Now, off to sleep.  Tomorrow more hiking. 

June 13 - A Day in Capitol Reef

Well after a full day of hiking and scenic driving through Capitol Reef national park, we left the refried beans and tortillas in the cooler and went out to eat.  Up until now, every meal on the road has come from the food we brought with us from Walla Walla.  Now don't get me wrong, I like peanut butter and jelly, tunafish, hot dogs, refried beans, and powerbars as much as the next guy, but it was nice to sit down inside and have dinner come to us.  I have never been so happy to eat green beans.

The hiking today was awesome.  Sadly, it is hard to capture the magnitude of the canyons and rock formations and the deep blue of the sky.  So, I have included below a picture with Albert standing at the base of a canyon wall (yes that is him at the tip of the arrow) for context. 

We also managed to see a number of petroglyphs.  Nobody really knows what they mean (there are lots of theories but not corroboration).  My theory is that this one means, "I have an idea."

I prefer ideas like "Let's go out to dinner" to ideas like "Let's hike 9 miles in 98 degree weather", but both turned out ok.  And, I think they were both my ideas...

Tomorrow, we are off to Colorado.  

June 12- Eden ID to Torrey UT

Today we made it to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.  The views all day have been great...

The scenery outside is nice too.

We are staying at a private campground about 10 miles outside of the national park.  We did a short hike after we set up camp.  Albert is currently out running - I figure we are doing a ranger led stargazer hike later, that seems like enough exercise for one day; so I am blogging instead.  

Plus, the people watching from our campsite is awesome.  You can silently thank me for not including a photo of the group of elderly gentlemen that just walked by in speedos.

Tomorrow a full day in the park.  It is supposed to be 97 degrees.  Maybe a few laps around the airconditioned visitors center for our afternoon hike.