New Orleans Anniversary Trip

June 19th-21st 2015

Let’s go to NOLA! Our 28th anniversary was approaching and I thought, “Why not go to New Orleans to celebrate?” When our kids were young we went to NOLA several times and always had fun, but we hadn’t been back since way before Hurricane Katrina. So we packed up and hit the road. NOLA is about a 5 hour drive for us so it didn’t take a super long time to get there. We had booked a reservation at Pontchartrain Landing RV Park/Marina. I did not take the following picture.

Here are the pros and cons of this RV Park. 

Pros: It’s on Lake Pontchartrain so the scenery of the lake is beautiful. The sites are clearly numbered and getting around the park is easy. It is located near the city so that’s a definite plus. There are 125 RV sites in a variety of price ranges. They offer free cable tv, wi-fi, restaurant, self service laundry, playground, pool and dumping station. 

Cons: It’s located at the end an industrial road. So you feel like you’re driving out into no man’s land. Especially on the weekend which is when we stayed there. All of the roads of the park are made of crushed concrete making it very dusty and hard on an RV filter. The posted speed limit is 5mph and trust me you don’t want to drive any faster than that because of the ensuing dust. The bathroom is a portable. I did not go in it but it looked very well kept from outside. 

After we had settled in we drove to the city to do some sightseeing and some shopping. We had lunch at Cafe Maspero. www.cafemaspero.com. Good food and our waitress was very nice and gave us lots of info about the city. We then went off in search of a souvenir for our grand daughter. David wanted to buy her a voo-doo doll but I thought that wasn’t the best idea. We finally decided on a New Orleans t-shirt. After shopping and sight seeing we returned to the RV to relax and shower for dinner.

Here comes the best tip I can give you from this trip. Parking in the city can be as expensive as $30 a day. To overcome this here’s what to do. Go to Harrah’s Casino. Park in their parking garage. Go into the casino and get a free rewards card. Place your rewards card into a slot machine and play for at least 30 minutes. You can choose the penny slots, put in $1 and play as slowly as possible making that $1 last 30 minutes. Be sure that the card is in the machine for a minimum of 30 minutes. You can of course play longer if you like and use the higher value machines. Once you are finished remove your rewards card and pocket it. There are scanners placed around where you can scan your card to make sure it was in play for 30 minutes. Now leave your car parked at the casino and walk the city. You can leave your car parked there for up to 24 hours for free by doing this. Once you are ready to leave the city pick up your car and drive to the exit of the garage. Show the attendant your rewards card. They will scan it and see that it was in play for at least 30 minutes and you will not be charged for parking. By doing this we not only got free parking but we walked out of the casino with an extra $14 in our pockets. 

For dinner we stopped in at Huck Finn’s. www.huckfinnscafe.com David had the Taste of New Orleans which is crawfish etoufee, jambalaya and red beans & rice served with french bread. He loved it! I had the Blackened Shrimp Salad. MmmmmmHmmmmm!

The next morning we slept in and laid around the RV playing with Hercules. David made himself a big ol’ breakfast of eggs over medium, bacon and toast.

Then we were off to the city for more sight seeing. We found street parking near the French Market. The French Market is an open air market much like a flea market. It goes on for 6 blocks! What makes this place stand out is the food section. So many different kinds of food to eat and sample. Gourmet, local, unique. This place is massive and wonderful. I highly recommend making this part of your trip. On the way back from the French Market we passed Cafe Du Monde. Oh, how I wanted to stop and get a beignet but the line was literally around the block. So I had to settle for this picture. 

We then made our way to St. Jackson’s Square. From here you can view the incredible church, the Mississippi River and untold street musicians. 

We made our way back to the car then took a drive down St. Charles Avenue. The mansions on this street are so beautiful! It would probably have been a better idea to walk to get better pictures but even driving it was amazing to see.

After St. Charles we set out to find Anne Rice’s house in New Orleans. I did a quick google search for the address and we found the house at 1239 First St. What a beautiful house. I’ve read most, if not all of her books so this was a real treat for me. Side note: Have your read The Witching Hour? I’m not saying it’s true but the house next door to Anne’s literally could have been the inspiration for the Mayfair House. I unfortunately did not get a good picture of that house. Here is a picture of me standing in front of Anne’s house though.

After leaving Anne’s house we stopped at Lafayette Cemetery #1. Very interesting. We even found a Weber buried there.

We were now pretty tired and in need of a nap so we headed back to the RV and relaxed. Later after our nap we got dressed and headed back into the city for the evening. We left the car at Harrah’s once again and walked around for a bit but we were still pretty tired from all the walking earlier so we settled on a place to eat pretty close to the casino. We chose Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. www.gordonbiersch.com This place was very unique. It’s an actual brewery and the food was so good. I had shrimp & lobster tacos. I couldn’t tell you what David had. :)

After dinner we were pretty wiped out and knew our trip was coming to and end. We went back to the RV and tried to recover. The next morning we bid a fond farewell to New Orleans. We had had a blast and were ready to get home to start planning our next trip. And spoiler alert: It's gonna be a BIG one!

Unicoi State Park Georgia

April 2nd-5th 2015

This year we did something we hadn’t done up till now. For some reason, (I think it’s because most of us now have some type of RV; travel trailer, camper or full on coach and camping is more comfortable) we decided to plan a family camp trip in the spring and it was scheduled for the first weekend in April. We chose Unicoi State Park near Helen, GA. The following picture was not taken by us. We failed to take a picture of the park sign on this trip. :(

We arrived on Thursday and set up camp. It was a little bit rainy and chilly so we set up as quickly as possible and then hung around insider he RV for a bit till it cleared up some. Then we explored the campground. 

Below is a couple of maps showing the campgrounds and amenities. It’s a beautiful, if very hilly campground. This first one shows the Unicoi Lake area:

This next one shows the campground map:

On Friday we hiked the Lake trail. It is an easy 2.5 mile hike around Unicoi Lake. Beautiful views of the lake and forest. There are other trails to hike here as well. Ranging from 1/3 of a mile loop to 5 miles one way. There is even a 7 mile mountain bike trail. They require an annual pass to bike this trail. We did not do this but David wanted to so bad. Here's just one of the views of the lake from the trail:

Here's a picture of David, Hercules and I:

And a short video of our hike. Yes, we are silly hikers. lol Check out Faith in the back when the video first starts. Silly girl!

Later that day we did something I’ve never done before: zip lining. Wow! What fun! We booked with Zip N Time right outside of Helen. They encourage reservations, which we had. We arrived, suited up and then piled into the back of a truck and was driven to the zip line site. We all took turns zipping from tree to tree. 

I’ll admit I was very nervous my first time. It was not easy to step off that platform but I took a big breath and jumped and OH! Wow! What fun, flying through the trees. After we zipped between about 5 different trees, of different heights we were then taken to one of the longest dual zip lines in the US. The great thing about this zip line is it’s so long and you can ride next to a friend. So much fun! I couldn't post a video of David and I riding it but check out this video of me on my very first ride. 

For more information about Zip N time click on the following link. You can also find them on FaceBook. Just search for ZipNTime. We highly recommend these guys.

http://www.zipntime.com

Saturday we went to Anna Ruby Falls. Well worth the 1/2 mile hike up to the falls. I’ll be honest. David and I love waterfalls and will more than likely tackle most hikes to see one and Anna Ruby does not disappoint. Easy hike along Smith Creek so there are views along the entire hike. My sister was on crutches for this hike so I’d say all can handle this one. Here's a picture David took of the falls. You can see me in the bottom left corner taking a picture also. :)

Later we went to Helen, GA and walked around. It’s like a little village. So cute! We did a little window shopping, bought some very expensive fudge, people watched and took lots of pictures.

The next day it was time to go home. Another adventure had come to an end. We had had a good time with family and had all done something new and exciting. Time to get back home and start planning our next trip.

Blue Springs State Park, Florida

February 23rd-27th 2015

We decided for our first trip of 2015 to go see the manatees. The best time to view manatees is in the winter when they swim up the rivers to the warm springs. We booked at Blue Springs State Park Campground and hit the road. Not long into our trip we realized that there was a problem. The RV started to hiccup periodically and it got worse the farther we went. It soon became obvious that we were losing power and eventually we could not drive faster than 50 mph. We called some experts during the drive and stopped, purchased and installed a new fuel filter but it didn’t help. A drive that should have taken us around 7 hours ended up taking us more than 12 hours. 

When we finally did arrive it was after 7 pm and the park was closed. We had not been informed to let the park know if we would be arriving after 5 pm so when we got there the gate was closed and locked and we did not have the code to open it. We were tired, frustrated and worried and now we couldn’t even get into the campground. I got out of the RV to go look on the building to see if there was someone we could call. Another camper pulled up behind us and finally, after David explained our situation, gave us the code. We were finally in the campground but now had to find our campsite in the dark. They do not have numbers on posts like most campgrounds do so we were pretty clueless as to which campsite was which. Luckily I saw a sign that said Campground Host and I went and knocked on his door and he told us where our campsite was. We got the RV parked and soothed ourselves with a late steak dinner and then went to bed. We’d deal with all of the problems in the morning.

The next morning we set up camp and then David made some calls and set an appointment for a mechanic to come out and look at the RV. Meanwhile we decided to walk over to the spring and see the manatees. Oh! The manatees! They are so interesting. They come up the St. John’s river to find the spring that bubbles up warm water. They are slow, graceful creatures. We just stood and watched them for the longest time. They’ll float near the bottom of the river for awhile and then they’ll come up for a breath of air. So interesting to watch.

Below is a video. The manatee comes up, takes a breath, rolls over then takes another breath before returning to the bottom of the river.

The campground has 51 sites which are within walking distance of the spring. Each site as water and electricity hookup but no sewer. There is a dump station available. Pets are welcome, thank goodness because Hercules goes everywhere with us.

Most of our time here was spent watching the manatees. If you’d like to see them go to  Manatee Cam  Save the Manatees have installed cameras and you can watch live streaming video of the manatees. There is also a house/museum on the property. The Thursby House. This home was built by Lewis Thursby. This was an official stop on the St. James River. It is an interesting self guided, free tour. 

The day before we left we crossed the street and did a portion of the Spring To Spring biking trail. This trail is 3.3 miles one way and was a very pleasant, easy bike ride. It is completely paved and mostly flat so not a lot of having to huff and puff uphill. You travel through palmetto and pine trees. We left the trail and took a dirt path out to a point on a lake and it was a very beautiful peaceful resting spot. Be sure to wear your tick repellant because this place crawls with ticks. David and I both found ticks on us when we got back to the RV. 

When it came time to leave, the RV was in serious need of some major repairs so we had to have it towed to the Cummins Orlando. Below is a picture of it being towed.

We stayed at the Cummins factory for several days then decided to go home until they completed the repairs. A week later we returned to Orlando and picked up the RV and took her home. Even with all the challenges we faced this was still a fun, enjoyable trip and we couldn’t wait until our next adventure.

Disney's Ft. Wilderness

November 10th-13th 2014

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a Disney addict so it isn’t any surprise that one of the first places we decided to go in the RV was Walt Disney World. We stayed at Ft. Wilderness, Disney’s campground, and like everything else Disney does it is superb. Campsites range from $49 a night for a tent site to @ $85 a night for premium RV sites. If camping in a tent, pop up or RV is not in your Disney dreams you may consider the cabins at Ft. Wilderness. They start at @ $335 and sleep up to 6 people. They are fully equipped with a kitchen and air conditioning.

We arrived around 3 pm, when the sites are ready for occupancy. We set up camp and then went to check out the campground. We were not disappointed. The bathrooms (called comfort stations) are immaculate. What I really loved about the bathrooms was the showers. They are tiled individual “rooms”. First you step into a small dressing room with a locking door. There is a bench to set your towels and other items on and hooks on the wall for your clothes. Then you open the shower curtain and step into the actual shower. Anyone who’s ever showered in a camp shower where you either had to set your stuff down on the wet floor or leave it out unattended on a bench can appreciate the awesomeness of these showers. The showers have great water pressure and you won’t end up with a cold shower.

There are a couple of camp stores, swimming pools, campfire area, horseback rides, biking, boating and several restaurants including the wonderful dinner show Hoop-De-Doo Musical Revue. Book as early as possible as this show sells out regularly. The campground is dog friendly and offers a dog park. Just please let the cast member you talk to when booking know you will be bringing a pet. They also offer a nightly campfire and sing along with Chip & Dale.

After checking out the campground we headed off to do what we came here to do and that is THE THEME PARKS! First stop, the Magic Kingdom since we had dinner reservations at The Crystal Palace. To get to the Magic Kingdom from Ft. Wilderness you must take a bus, which takes you to the marina where you catch a boat that will bring you to the front gate of the Magic Kingdom. We were pushing it time-wise but we made it to our dinner reservations in the nick of time. We had dinner and got to see all of the Winnie the Pooh characters. They came to each table and we got to take pictures with them. After dinner we came out of the restaurant into the middle of the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. There was singing and dancing in the streets and snowfall and up on stage in front oft he castle was Anna, Elsa and Olaf leading the celebration. We didn’t have tickets so we took a couple of pictures and then made our way out and back to the "home".

The next day we went back to the Magic Kingdom. We had lunch at Tortuga Tavern which is probably my favorite counter service restaurant in the park. Then finished our day riding all of our favorite rides.

On day 3 we went to Hollywood Studios. Of course we rode my favorite ride, Tower of Terror 3 times, lunched at 50’s Prime Time Cafe, took a last picture with the sorcerer’s hat which has since been removed. Then we jumped back over to the Magic Kingdom and I finally got to experience a Disney tradition that I had, up to now, never experienced. The dole whip. And yes, it was delicious and refreshing! 

We then went back to the campground and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Later we went down to the campground beach and watched the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. They play the music through speakers so it’s a pretty good show. Check out the last picture in the next collage. The reflection of the fireworks in the lake looks like Cinderella Castle.

Our last day at WDW we spent the morning at Animal Kingdom. Saw the animals on Kilamanjaro Safaris, rode Mount Everest twice and had some sweet treats. Then we headed back to the campground and hung out with Hercules for a bit. Later We went to Downtown Disney for dinner and then, believe it or not we jumped on a bus and rushed over to EPCOT because we hadn’t gotten to ride Test Track yet. It was worth the rush to get there in time.

The next morning it was, unfortunately time to head for home. Disney vacations come to an end so quickly, don't they? We loaded everything up and hit the road for home. Here’s Hercules enjoying the ride on the dashboard of the RV. We were tired but happy with our stay at Disney’s Ft. Wilderness, but I can assure you I am already planning our next Disney vacation.

Chewacla State Park

October 10th-12th 2014

We were so excited! The RV was finally ready! It was October and our annual family camping trip was fast approaching. Since 2003 my sisters and I (along with our families) have gone on an annual camping trip every October. For most of those years we camped in a tent. As we have gotten older we have graduated from tents to a pop up camper to now, the RV. We chose Chewacla State Park in southeast Alabama near Auburn. Actually a lot of Auburn fans stay at this campground when attending Auburn University football games. 

Plans were made and we were off for a fun-filled family weekend. This was about a 4 hour drive for us so we left early. We arrived and chose our campsites and started setting up camp. One of the first things we always do on our family camp trips is decide which campsite will be used as our central gathering area. We had 3 campsites, side by side. There was an area just behind the campsites where we were able to move our fire ring to that was perfect for gathering around the campfire. We set up the picnic tables between two of the campsites and voila! our dining area was set up.

After campsites were completed we went for a walk to check out what the campground had to offer. There are stone cabins built by the CCC back in the 1930’s. You can rent one of these if camping is not your thing. There are 36 full hookup campsites and 10 primitive sites. They also offer a group camp area. Lake Chewacla is beautiful and great for fishing. There’s no boat ramp but you may bring non-motarized boats such as canoes or kayaks.There are several hiking trails, which we love and they have wonderful mountain biking trails. We were really impressed with these trails and tried them out even though we are casual bikers. It was interesting watching the serious bikers come through though. If you like mountain biking I highly recommend this park. We didn’t use the bathrooms very much since we have one in the RV but from what I remember it was relatively clean.

Here is a link to Chewacla State Park:

http://alapark.com/chewacla-state-park

We biked down to the lake. Hercules, our Yorkie fur baby rode in the basket and he enjoyed the ride as much as we did. There is a playground there and the kids, big and little play around on the playground for a bit. After dinner we got our campfire going and David, who is our family “ghost” story teller told us some stories. Since our first family camp trip David has entertained us with these crazy stories that were meant to be scary but always ended up being funny and they never ended, they just continued on at the next campout. As soon as it's dark and the campfire roaring the kids yell out, "OK Uncle David tell the story!"

The next day we did a big hike. I’m not sure which hike it was but we hiked through the woods to a rocky river with a small waterfall. This was a more challenging hike than what we usually do on these camping trips. We usually just do a walk through the woods but this hike had a lot of hills so a lot of up and down hill. But the river with the big boulders was fun and we love a waterfall of any size. 

That night we attended a bonfire hosted by the campground. They invited everyone to tell a ghost story. It was mostly children who told stories. They got to hold the flashlight while they told their story. The hosts didn’t rush them and the kids had a blast telling their stories to a captive audience. After the kids had told their stories the hosts told us a story about a crazy woman, who dressed in red who had lived in the area many years ago and caused all kinds of mischief. As the story started to come to an end we realized that the crazy lady dressed in red was crouched on a rock in our midst, listening to the story. If gave the kids a fright and was the perfect end to a mid October evening.

On Sunday we went to the lake and rented canoes and paddle boats. It was a beautiful day and what fun it was to paddle around the lake. Even Hercules loved riding in the canoe. The boats rent for $7 an hour. The lake isn’t huge so an hour is ample time to tour around, view the waterfall from the lakeside and just have a a good old fashioned time before returning the boat. You can also swim in the lake. It’s swim at your own risk with no lifeguard. They have a pretty cool diving platform that the kids we observed seemed to love. 

On Sunday it was time to pack up camp and head out for home. We had had the perfect weekend. Camping, biking, hiking, boating and ghost stories. We were ready to go home and start planning our next adventure.