Category: outdoors

6 min read

On the Road outdoors

The Florida Keys: We love you Bahai Honda State Park

Jenn

6 min read

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6 min read

Road tripping is in my blood. Some of my favorites childhood memories are roadtrips with my family. One particularly memorable experience was when our family vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama…

Road tripping is in my blood.

Some of my favorites childhood memories are roadtrips with my family. One particularly memorable experience was when our family vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama suddenly, due to an unfavorable weather forecast, took a detour to the Florida Keys. I mean what is 800 miles except two days more driving?

I hope our boys remember the six days we spent in the Florida Keys as fondly as I remember childhood vacation.

We almost skipped visiting the keys because the Florida State Parks, which are significantly less expensive than private campgrounds, were booked solid. The private parks are $75 a night and up during peak season. Being the ~~obsessive compulsive~~ determined person I am, I checked the Florida State Park site for cancellations 3-5 times a day. Persistance paid off and we got four nights at Bahai Honda State Park. I was ecstatic.

Brent and I agreed Bahai Honda State Park is one of the most beautiful campgrounds we have ever visited with miles of uncrowded beaches surrounded by aquamarine water. It has to have the best beaches in the keys. You can still see and walk out on the old Bahai Honda Bridge for a stunning view of the island. The bridge was part of the Overseas Highway built by Henry Flagler and finished in 1912. One of the ranger talks was a retelling of the railway’s history by “Henry Flagler” himself (an impersonator). It should be noted that the bridge from Calusa beach makes a stunning backdrop for some of the most gorgeous sunsets I have witnessed in my life. In. My. Life. Dramatic? Yes. But true. I’m still dreaming of those sunsets.

We enjoyed wading out to the sandbar located at Loggerhead beach where I found a large hermit crab living in a conch shell. The boys and I sat in the shallow water for nearly an hour waiting for him to come out of his shell. I named him “Hermie” which Thing 1 informed was “generic”. Humph. Thing 2 was in paradise, quite literally, as he charged down the sandbar, searched for bits of coral, and made “drizzle” castles out of sand.

One evening, we drove over to Big Pine Key to visit the National Key Deer Refuge. The refuge is home to the Key deer which is an endangered animal that only lives in Florida keys. We didn’t have to look long or hard until we spotted the small deer grazing in lawns. We drove a little further out to No Name Key, yes that is it’s name, and found Key deer wandering along the edges of the road. Don’t worry everyone was driving really slow. The deers, living in close quarters with people for many years, have lost their fear of humans. This isn’t good for the deer but let’s be honest, it’s good for a 9 year old animal loving boy. We were delighted when they came up and sniffed our hands. I’m quite certain it was my Snow White-like charm that drew them near and not hopes of food.

Bahai Honda is about an hour’s drive from Key West. We spent the afternoon walking around the streets of Key West taking in the sites, sipping coconut water, and dodging spring breakers smoking cuban cigars. I very much wanted to go into Ernest Hemingway’s home but due to being on a budget, I settled with a picture and my imagination. Our walk ended at Mallory Square. The sunset was less than spectacular due cloudy weather but the street performers more than made up for it. Our favorites were The Catman of Key West who I remember being mesmerized by when I visited Key West as a kid and The Red Trouser Show. Thing 2 was chosen as an “assistant” for the The Trouser Show proving he may have a future as a street performer. Our evening ended with an excellent dinner of Cuban food El Siboney which I still crave.

The one thing the boys wanted to do in the Florida Keys was snorkel. Unfortunately due to windy conditions, the snorkeling trips led by the states parks had been cancelled. We were about ready to give up when John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park had a campsite cancellation the day we were leaving Bahai Honda. (It pays to have a touch of OCD.) We decided to stay one more night in the keys at John Pennekamp hoping conditions would change and there would be a snorkeling trip in the morning.

Our last morning came and at 8:00 am, breath held, I called the snorkeling tour office to find out if they were going out to the reef. They were! After a week of cancelled tours, conditions has improved enough to snorkel. The boys were thrilled. I was scared. Scared of barracudas, sharks, and sting rays. As it turned out I should have been scared of getting seasick. I spent the majority of the time curled up on the boat deck wishing I would have been eaten by a shark. It was worth it though because the boys had a wonderful time.

Our Florida Keys Experience in a Glance

Where We Stayed:

Bahai Honda State Park – Private spots, gorgeous beaches, internet service with Verizon and AT&T, close to Key West. (Our favorite of the two campgrounds) They have snorkeling tours but it’s a longer boat ride out to the reef.
John Pennekamp State Park – Very well maintained campground (the showers were nicer than the ones at my house), great mini-aquarium, very professional snorkeling trips, internet with Verizon and AT&T. There is a beach but it isn’t nearly as beautiful as the beaches at Bahai Honda.

The Highlights:

Key Deer National Refuge on Big Pine Key
The Catman at Mallory Square, Key West – A must see especially for cat lovers.
The Red Trouser Show at Mallory Square, Key West
Snorkeling at John Pennekamp State Park – I recommend going with the state park snorkel tours as they send someone out to check the conditions of the sea and visibility. In the very least call and find out if they are going out. If not then it’s unlikely that you will be able to see

Where We Ate:

El Siboney – (On Key West) Loved. This. Place. Very affordable and worth every minute of the wait.
Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen – (On Key Largo) Very good but a bit pricey for what it was.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Big Pine Key on Dwellable

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2 min read

On the Road outdoors Pets & Animals

Day 54: “Visiting with” Longhorns

Jenn

2 min read

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2 min read

We made it out of Texas. Almost. First we had to find some Texas Longhorn cattle. You see the other day Thing 2 and I decided we wanted to see…

We made it out of Texas.

Almost.

First we had to find some Texas Longhorn cattle.

You see the other day Thing 2 and I decided we wanted to see some Texas Longhorn cattle close up. So I went online to look for nearby ranches. We started calling around asking if the ranches allowed visitors. One phone call (from Brent) went like this.

“Hi. My family and I are from California and we are looking some longhorn cattle. Do you have any that we could come and visit with?”

Pause.

“You don’t do anything like that? Oh okay. Well thanks.”

Mistake #1 – “from California”, i.e., weirdos

Mistake #2 – “visit with“, i.e., WEIRDOS

Who visits with cows? Weird Californians who live in a RV that’s who. He might as well asked if we could have tea time with the Longhorns. ” Oh but it’s organic green tea full of antioxidants.”

However, as it turned out, there was a quaint Longhorn ranch right next to our campground. It was a bed and breakfast, Front 30 Ranch Guest House, run by the friendliest retired couple. They even smiled politely when I asked if they minded if I did a workout with the Longhorns because working out with longhorns is much more acceptable than visiting with longhorns. Very gracious folks indeed. They walked us out to the pasture while the boys made friends with their dog, Abbey. We didn’t get to pet the Longhorns (Abbey made them nervous) but we got closer than we had ever been and had a nice “visit”. We also enjoyed visiting with the owners who shared how they had built and cultivated the ranch themselves.

Front 30 Ranch is lovely, almost as lovely as the couple who runs it. Large rolling meadows stretch into the surrounding cedar forests. The guest house with its inviting porch overlooks the serene pastures of the Texas Longhorns. It almost makes me wish we didn’t have our RV. This would be the perfect place to come and relax at Lake Texoma. Our boys would have happily stayed all day and so would have we had we not had to get on the road to Oklahoma.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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1 min read

National Parks On the Road outdoors

Day 16: Yosemite National Park

Jenn

1 min read

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1 min read

Majestic. Breathtaking. Awe inspring. Is there a way to describe the beauty of Yosemite National Park without sounding cliché? El Capitan reaching violently towards the sky. Half Dome ,austere, keeping…

Majestic. Breathtaking. Awe inspring.

Is there a way to describe the beauty of Yosemite National Park without sounding cliché? El Capitan reaching violently towards the sky. Half Dome ,austere, keeping watch over the valley. Bridal Veil Falls unapologetically crashing through the forest.

Today, we enjoyed Yosemite National Park. We stopped at vistas, hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls, explored bridges, went on a ranger walk, observed mule deer, and watched Half Dome glow bright orange at sunset as the moon rose behind his stoic face. Magical.

Of course, for every moment of magic there is the pinch of reality. When we told the boys we were going on a ranger walk they protested. Thing 1 saying he “could learn all this on the internet.” Sigh. They ended up enjoying themselves (for the most part), learned a few things, and earned their Jr. Ranger badges.

So far the hardest part of our trip is accepting that we can’t see it all. I could spend a month exploring the wonders of Yosemite but the road calls, new adventures await, and there is work to be done. 🙂

Love and Laugher,
jenn

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6 min read

On the Road outdoors

Overcoming Fear at Point Sal

Jenn

6 min read

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6 min read

I heard the sound of a harp digitally strumming from a distant land of the awake. I felt Brent’s warm body shuffle next to me. It was 6:15 am. Realizing…

I heard the sound of a harp digitally strumming from a distant land of the awake. I felt Brent’s warm body shuffle next to me. It was 6:15 am.

Realizing that it was the alarm, I asked just to be certain, if it was indeed the alarm. One can hope. I told Brent I was going to stay in bed and he could go alone with Matt. He insisted I come.

Fifteen minutes later, I was wedged in the crevice between the bed and the closet nervously searching for my clothes. Getting to your things isn’t always easy in an rv but digging through plastic drawers of black pants for a particular pair of black pants when your nerves are on edge is a test of character. I got dressed and shuffled across the cold sidewalk to the house where Brent had prepared scrambled eggs and black coffee.

At 6:50 I headed upstair to wash my face thinking I have 10, probably 20, minutes to get ready. Not so. Matt showed up 10 minutes early. We piled into his van and headed off to Point Sal. I settled into the front seat excited and nervous for my first ever mountain bike ride.

Bikes scare me.

This explains why I haven’t owned once since I was 10 years old. Once when I was riding along a country road in Indiana a car drove by and the side view mirror hit my forearm leaving a long red cut from my elbow to my wrist. They didn’t even stop.

But the real fear comes from when I was in elementary and my little brother fell on his bike in the back yard. The details are now fuzzy in my mind but I remember it like this. My brother was riding around in the backyard when he fell going down a slope behind the garage. The handle bar hit his stomach. There was a red mark but the skin wasn’t broken. Thousands of little boys fall on their bikes every day so there didn’t seem to be reason for much concern. However, my parents watched him for a few hours and noticed he was getting more lethargic. They took him to the emergency room. He ended up being in the county hospital for a week getting sicker and sicker. Why they didn’t do a ct scan right away or whatever it is they do to see what was wrong I don’t know. Maybe because it was a small hospital and they didn’t have the right equipment. Maybe the ct scans didn’t exist back then. I dunno. I remember visiting him and his little pale body lay motionless in the hospital bed with tubes coming out of his nose, mouth, and stomach. All from a simple bike crash that didn’t even break the skin. After a week, he was transferred to a children’s hospital where they discovered he had a punctured pancreas. They removed a part of the damaged organ and he came home almost a month after the accident. Just a little bike ride down a slope in our backyard.

Today, I was going to face my fear of bike riding and hit the trail. I was nervous to be sure but I was also excited. Brent used to love riding his mountain bike in the hills of Santa Barbara and for years I’ve dreamed of finding the courage to join him.

We parked the van and unloaded the bikes.

It was still cold from the night but the morning couldn’t have been more beautiful. The sun was still barely above the mountains casting golden rays over the hills. Matt and Brent gave me a few instructions and we headed up the old fire road. Soon after we started, I realized that they were right and my seat was too low. I wanted to be able to touch the ground with my feet. However, my legs were getting thrashed and we hadn’t gone very far. Raising my seat gave my legs an immediate relief and we continued upward. Every turn surprised us with a new view seemingly more magical than the last.

We reached the top and started our descent toward the beach. They adjusted my seat and told me to put my weight back and ride my breaks if I needed it.

The road narrowed and tall reeds lined the sides of the path creating “a tunnel”. Broken reeds poked up through the old asphalt like spears. They boys rode up ahead of me and I “sat back in the saddle” lost in the exhilaration overcoming a fear and of the ride itself.

The road narrowed again to a “single track” and I took a deep breath determined to continue on my bike. I went as slowly and as carefully as possible trying to avoid deep grooves where the earth had been washed away. At one point, I got off my bike and walk down the loose rock. No shame in using my head.

We parked and continued by foot down the hill to the remote beach.

The sun had warmed the day and we walked along the sand each in our separate thoughts.

I found a dancing starfish. (Yes, I know they are technically called sea stars.)

And I decided to dance with it.

We saw dolphins. There was an abandoned dirt bike under a cliff. One can only imagine how it got down there.

The day was perfect yet there was work to be done so we headed back up the trail toward our bikes and began our ascent. Back on the rough single track I fell. I slipped off the back of my bike pulling it onto me and landing in the tall reeds. Ouch. But I lived and continued by foot to our meeting place.

I headed up the next part of the trail ahead of the boys because I knew within minutes they would catch and pass me. They did.

Halfway up I realized I was going to half to walk and half ride. It was quite a blow to my ego but a relief to my legs. What goes down must go up when mountain biking. I continued walking and riding until we reached the peak.

After a short rest we started down the last phase of the trail. We adjusted my seat and took off. The boys again quickly disappeared ahead of me checking in every so often to make sure they hadn’t lost me off the side of the mountain.

Exhilaration.

The wind, bumps, curves…all of it, but especially the thrill of overcoming fear, made my cells buzz with the thrill of living.

Love and laughter,
Jenn

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1 min read

Family on the Road On the Road outdoors

Avila and an Old Friend

Jenn

1 min read

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1 min read

Today, the boys went with their grandma Noni to Avila Valley Barn. Yep, we are still at Brent’s parents. I’m thinking we should just stay here for the year and…

Today, the boys went with their ~~grandma~~ Noni to Avila Valley Barn. Yep, we are still at Brent’s parents. I’m thinking we should just stay here for the year and I’ll make up stories and find pictures on the internet to post instead.

Thing 1 took a bunch of pictures at Avila Valley Barn with his new camera. This kid is a go-go gadget just like his dad. He saved up to buy his first Mac at 10 years old and he doesn’t use it for video games. He uses it to research whatever it is he is “interested” in at the time. Be it rvs or Kirby vacuums.

I was bummed Brent and I didn’t make it to Avila. Goats are my favorite animals. (Don’t tell my cat.)

Instead, Brent worked and his oldest friend, Matt, (they went to preschool together) came over to tune up our new from Craiglist bikes. (THANK YOU Matt!!!) Matt also gave me a mini-lesson on bike maintenance. My last bike was a white Schwinn with a banana seat and basket. I was 10 so I’m a liiiittle rusty. I’m also a little crazy because my first long ride since I can remember (maybe ever) is going to be up and over a mountain! Tomorrow morning, Brent, Matt and I are going to Point Sal. 😉 I can’t wait!!!!!!!! I think.

Do keeping tools warm count as help?

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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1 min read

Family on the Road On the Road outdoors

Montagne De Ora and Organizing

Jenn

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1 min read

More unpacking and organizing with help from the animals. Or not. This one wanted to help. This one wanted to sleep. At least the boys got to have fun. They…

More unpacking and organizing with help from the animals.

Or not.

This one wanted to help.

This one wanted to sleep.

At least the boys got to have fun. They went up to Montagne de Oro with their grandparents. California’s central coast is astonishingly beautiful. I’ll be saying that more than once.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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2 min read

Family outdoors

Making Trail

bnims

2 min read

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2 min read

Nathanael’s Boyscout Troop is heading out for their first backpacking trip since he joined next weekend. He insisted that before he joined them in this outing we would do our…

Nathanael’s Boyscout Troop is heading out for their first backpacking trip since he joined next weekend. He insisted that before he joined them in this outing we would do our own father & son trek. So last week we made a trip to Sport Chalet for backpacks, sleeping bags & cooking equipment then Saturday afternoon we hit the trail! We ended up getting a late start (5:30) but it was only a 3.5 mile hike so no worries… right?

Our Destination was Big Cone Camp, right up the hill from the Punch Bowls – a destination I have heard about for so many years yet had never actually visited.

The first leg of the hike is just getting to the trail. You have to walk around the perimeter of Thomas Aquinas College then past some oil fields then cross a stream before actually hitting the trail.

There seem to be many small variations of the trail that have been established over the years and I think we sampled a good many of them… which made for somewhat slow progress.

Surprisingly colorful “flora”…

We made it into camp just as darkness was finally setting in. We set up camp & had some of the best cheese & crackers ever, according to Nathanael (Laughing Cow & Club crackers for the record).

Side note: one of my trusty Vasque hiking boots delaminated 1/2 way to our destination. Thankfully I had my Vibram TrekSport. I wore them the rest of the trip & they worked great!

Next morning we made awesome breakfast burritos with Trader Joe’s chicken sausage (our fave) then headed down to check out the Punch Bowls.

Plenty of refreshing water there just waiting for a swim…

After much cajoling …

swimming!

Then for the long slog back to the car…

We got a late start back so we were hiking in the full heat of the afternoon sun.

Slow & steady did the trick. By 3PM we were having a late lunch in Santa Paula.

This was a special first backpacking trip with my boy. He kept a great attitude even when he was worn out, we were loosing light and hunger was setting in. I was proud to see his strong character shining through. I look forward to many more great wilderness treks with Nathanael.

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