Enjoying Our Dash

We spent a few days in the desert with some family and had an awesome time. There are so many beautiful things in the desert. We went to the Desert Botanical Garden and saw some really cool stuff. If you are ever in the Phoenix area, put this on your list of things to do. You can find more information here —->>> https://dbg.org/ . The butterfly house was really cool. There was also some amazing glass sculptures as well. Another interesting stop was Taliesin West, a Frank Lloyd Wright property. This was the winter home and laboratory for Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentices. More information can be found here — >> https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/ We can’t forget about the beautiful golf courses all over the Phoenix area.

We have been to Panama City Beach many times. Every time we go, we pass the sign for the Florida Caverns State Park. I have wanted to go there for years. Unfortunately, it is too far away to make it a day trip and we never feel like stopping on the way to or back from PCB. Well our last stop on our trip put us 25 minutes from the park. When I realized we were that close, I knew we had to go. This park was also in the path of Hurricane Michael in 2018. As the sign says, in a few hours, Hurricane Michael destroyed 90% of the tree canopy at the park. The Caverns were just amazing. Again, all of the rain caused the entrance to the caverns to be flooded, so they had to alter the tour slightly. You can see in the picture below the water on the floor of the cavern. The stalagmite (up from the ground) and the stalactites (from the top) were just amazing. There are so many beautiful State parks in Florida. Get out there and see them. Learn more about ‘The Real Florida’ he...

At our last stop we visited a couple of the Florida State Parks. The first one was Torreya State Park. Here they had a number of trails to walk. Unfortunately, the week before we arrived, the area had seen significant rain fall and many of the trails were flooded. We were able to walk around the campground and even saw a couple of yurts that are available for rent. This area of Florida was hit very hard in 2018 when Hurricane Michael, a category 5 hurricane made landfall at Mexico Beach just south of the area. The damage is still evident as we walked around the park. At this park, we also found the Gregory House. This house was build in 1849. It was originally on the other side of the Apalachicola river in Georgia. You can read more about the history here –> https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/tour-gregory-house. It was moved and rebuild on the Florida side of the river in 1935. It currently sits high on the bluff over looking the river. Amazingly, the house s...

We had a chance to check out some really nice hiking trails at the University of West Florida. They have a great system of trails for hiking and another section of trails just for mountain biking, all on the campus of the university. We didn’t get a chance to check out the mountain bike trails, but I’m sure they were just as great as the hiking trails. Cole wanted to provide a PSA for everyone out there. When you go hiking, always bring water with you.

We spent a few days in Louisiana on our way back from Texas. We saw a beautiful full moon and some great sunrises. We passed though Baton Rouge on our way to the campground and saw a Drago’s restaurant. For those who don’t know, Drago’s is a restaurant in downtown New Orleans and they have the best chargrilled oysters we have ever tasted! It was a little too far to go back to Baton Rouge once we got to the campground. We didn’t want to leave Cole for that long. Instead we found a place called Dons Seafood close to where we were. You gotta love the Google search ‘chargrilled oysters near me’! So off we went to Dons. We were not disappointed! This place definitely gave Drago’s a run for their money. All you chargrilled oyster lovers, check out the pictures below. The camera did not add 10 pounds to these oysters! They were huge!

These are the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico. These are the sun setting over the Colorado River.

So one of our readers had a request to see some pictures of me. Why I have no idea, but here you go! See I really am on this trip!!