visit with the feather family.

YAY! I am FINALLY sharing with you our visit with my bestie & her family: Christina, Scott, Maggie, & Allie (the pup!)  The Feather family lives in Tampa (about a 2.5 hour drive from us) and we couldn't be more excited to share a weekend with them!  We had only one thing on our agenda: enjoy our time together!

Christina and I went through school together, even managing to go to college 15 minutes apart, and I am thrilled that we live in the same state again! Over the years, we have experienced many new chapters in our lives so it was awesome to finally meet her sweet daughter, Maggie (who is 2!)

We spent most of the weekend hanging out, catching up, and playing with Mags. Saturday morning started off with swim lessons at the Seal Swim School.  Inside this cute little school was an "observation deck" for parents to watch their kiddos through the glass.  It was PACKED so we managed to find a seat on the front row...bad idea! This was the first lesson Maggie would be having WITHOUT Christina in the water so as soon as she figured out that mommy wasn't with her, poor Mags would cry and look up to the window to see if she could find her. Christina immediately moved, but I managed to get some good action shots!

still in shock...

no tears...doing well! 

good job Maggie!

mommy kisses....all is well. 

I think she's over it...so adorable.

After lessons, we headed to lunch and then went for a long walk around their neighborhood.  They live one block off Bayshore Boulevard and it's gorgeous! The area reminded me a lot of when I lived in Oakwood in Raleigh with Kimberlee and Kristen, except it's right on the water.

Bayshore Boulevard

gorgeous neighborhood

exhausted

We also experienced the most amazing frozen yogurt place - Yogurtology.  It was super swanky, had the most incredible flavors (I got Salted Caramel) and you could put an entire oatmeal cream pie, brownie, or other cookies at the bottom of your cup and pile on the goodies!  Clay always laughs when I use ultimatums, but this is the best froyo I've ever had in my life. Thanks Finn. :)

Since it was Cinco de Mayo weekend, we went to the Green Lemon for our Mexican fix and it was so good! Fun atmosphere, great food, and awesome company!

After dinner, we headed over to their neighbors house for their Kentucky Derby party.  I got these cute shots on the way.

How cute is Maggie's festive dress & glittery shoes?!? She's a fashionista already!

Sunday, we took Allie to Davis Islands Dog Park & Beach...and this was the most extravagant dog park I've ever seen. It's got a huge fenced in area and lots of places to sit down and hang out. Allie had a blast of course.

Feather baby  #2 is on the way!

precious.

We had a great weekend & can't wait to meet your new baby girl in July! We love you! 

wild adventures.

Nope...this post isn't going to be filled with crazy things we've been doing.  It's literally the name of a theme park in the middle of nowhere in southern Georgia (Valdosta) about 45 minutes from our house. I'd say it's comparable to Kings Dominion in VA - lots of roller coasters and a water park.

We decided to get season passes for a few reasons:
1. On random, nice weekends when we have nothing planned, why not drive up and spend the afternoon riding roller coasters or going to the water park?
2. Season passes included summer concerts featuring Alan Jackson, Scotty McCreery, Charlie Daniels Band, CCR, and Pat Benetar. Again, why not right?  (We've had a hard time finding upcoming concerts and shows because it's SOOO hot in the summer...this was our best chance!!)
3. They were WAY cheaper than a day pass to Universal or Disney...but we will go to those eventually.

Our first ride...the Mouse Trap! 

LOVE coasters where your feet hang

This coaster was my favorite, the Boomerang.  It started by pulling you all the way up the hill backwards and then releasing you forwards, upside down through loops, across the dip in the front of the photo, more upside down loops, then pulling you up the hill forwards...then doing it all over again backwards. 

We ALWAYS have a great time together!

yakity yak...

It's been about a month and a half since we've bought our kayaks and we have really been enjoying them!  We've had 5 trips so far and this post is filled with photos and info!

Trip #1: Alligator Lake 

For our first trip we decided to go somewhere with a boat ramp to put in easily.  We also wanted calm waters so we could get used to being in the kayak.  I learned very quickly how to manage taking pictures and killing spiders without tipping over...whew!  Thankfully that did NOT happen out here...hence the name of the lake! We saw 4 gators that day...and I'll have to say it's a little scary when you're right there IN the water with them.  We also discussed the option of keeping a knife in the boat just in case they came after us so we could stab them. HAHA...can you imagine what that would look like?!? I immediately opted out of that.  I would say our first experience was a great one though :) 

 

Trip #2: Ichetucknee Springs River Basin

For our second trip we headed to the Ichetucknee Springs (seen in previous post here) with Ryan and Melissa.  I'd say the worst part was carrying the kayaks to the river.  We immediately figured out that we would need to make or buy a kayak cart (with wheels) to pull them on instead of carrying them. 

When we finally got in, we were in awe at how beautiful the area was.  The water was so clear, just like the springs, and the weather was perfect. We were on the river for about an hour when we saw some other people who asked if we had seen any manatees yet.  MANATEES?!?!?  So of course after this we were on the hunt to find some because neither of us had seen one up close and personal before. Little did we know we would find 7!  

Someone else that day had told us that they swim up from the Gulf of Mexico because they are looking for warmer waters and the Springs are 72 degrees year-round.  It was seriously amazing...we stared at them for a long time and I took so many pictures!

The first pair!  They were HUGE and didn't mind us being so close.

before I snapped this, the larger manatee came up for air and snorted at Clay.

enjoying the scenery

FOUR in a pod!!

One of my favorites!

Memorable day! 

We had such an awesome second trip! We weren't sure if we'd be able to top it!

Trip #3: 10 miles!

This trip took quite a bit of planning but we pulled it off nicely! We drove about 30 minutes South and went down the Santa Fe River.  The 10 miles we kayaked were between two boat ramps so we drove both cars that day. We dropped the kayaks off at the first ramp, both drove to the second ramp (about 10 minutes) and parked the truck, then drove my car back to the first ramp where we took off.  

All along this part of the Santa Fe there are tons of natural springs. We stopped at Rum Island to check it out. It was a beautiful day and lots of families were having picnics and grilling out.  I only got a few photos this trip because we were paddling quite a bit and knew we needed to keep a steady pace so we wouldn't be out there forever! Some parts were really shallow and rocky so it took some patience and concentration not to get stuck and tip over! 

It was so peaceful and quiet....until we came upon a bend in the river where the noise level of people talking and laughing continued to rise.  As we came around the bend, we saw hundreds of people tubing, boating, and swimming for about a mile.  There were so many people it was insane!  There were tents set up all along the riverbank and it literally looked like we had stumbled upon a bunch of spring breakers. We found out it later that it was called Ginnie Springs.  We are planning on going there this summer to go tubing! 

Rum Island

Ginnie Spings 

Trip #4: Santa Fe River (different part)

For our fourth trip we found a different boat ramp to explore around on the Santa Fe. This was a shorter and more private trip for us. No one else was on the river in this area...which ended up creeping me out a little bit but it was fine. We headed one direction down the river and then turned around to go through O'Leno State Park to see if we could see the sinkhole where the river goes into the ground.  

As we got closer to the park, we encountered a HUGE tree that had fallen across the entire river and the only way go continue was to squeeze under a little part on the kayak or get off on the bank, go over the tree, and get back in on the other side. Clay fit under but I couldn't. His seat back is completely flexible so he could lay back and glide under the tree. My seat back has a hard plastic backing that was stabbing me in the spine so I couldn't lay down flat...ugg! I attempted several times to try and get out and go around but I couldn't find anything to pull up on and the bank was pretty steep. Disappointment. We turned around and headed back but it was still a fun trip.  

Google Image of the sinkhole

A full post on our fifth trip to Cedar Key to kayak in the Gulf will be coming soon!

beautiful st. augustine

One Saturday in March we headed to St. Augustine to spend the whole day exploring the city. For part of my birthday present, Clay bought us a sunset river cruise so we decided to fill the day with sightseeing. It's about 2 hours or less from our house so we figured we could fit in plenty for a full day and drive back.   

Our first stop was a cute little breakfast place called The Gallery Cafe.  It was family owned and operated and yummy!  Great start to our day! Now, I did not take the photo below...it was jam packed and we were lucky to get a seat under the Joker.  

Next stop, Castillo de San Marcos. Just a little history: It's the oldest masonry fort in the US, originally constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695.  The British, Spanish, and Americans all made changes to the Castillo before it was finally retired in 1900 and now serves as a major tourist destination. 

After Castillo, we headed across the street to ultimately find a sports bar to watch the NC State/Miami game (boo...State lost.)  We walked around downtown for a few hours and went into so many random shops and eventually got ice cream before our sunset cruise!

Ponte Vedra Beach

Our sunset cruise was scheduled for around 5:30 that night.  It was nice to relax and see the view from the water. Here's the Castillo again...

<3

Another little history lesson: We cruised on by the 280 ft. Great Cross, the tallest freestanding cross in the western hemisphere. In 1565, a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed on the shoreline, planted a wooden cross, and celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving on American soil (where it stands today.) It represents the beginnings of Christianity and the founding of America's oldest city - St. Aug's!

The Great Cross

To end our lovely day, we drove to an amazing restaurant called Caps on the Water for dinner.  I had been there once before when my childhood best friend Christina used to live in Jacksonville. This place is incredible and a must-do if you are ever in the area. It has a huge outdoor seating area that overlooks the Intercoastal Waterway and has some seriously yummy food.

We got there around 8:30/9:00 that night so it wasn't the best time to take photos. We had oysters as an appetizer, I had a deliciously seared wasabi-sesame encrusted tuna steak with spinach and Clay had vanilla & horseradish encrusted tilapia with veggies. NOM NOM NOM...plates were definitely cleaned.

Thanks Google images for the following:

                         

What a great day!