East Coast Family Trip #3 - Atlantic City

The third installment of our 2013 family trip found us in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Contrary to popular belief, the sand is soft and won't stain your clothes too much from all the black stuff mixed in.

Best thing to do is to dodge all the street people, and head directly to the boardwalk.  That's what we did, and after walking past the strip club, we found ourselves at the Steel Pier just outside the Resorts Hotel (hey when you're 4 & 6 you can't read too well, and those outfits look a lot like swim suits). 
















M & M did have a bunch of fun playing in the sand, looking for treasures and building sandcastles.  These pictures are from our first night.  The next day was really rainy, so we spent most of the day in side.  We did take up some of the boardwalk, and went and saw Turbo at a movie theater.

Evidence of the rainy days we had in A. C.  Cloudy and down pours.  We went for a drive to find Ocean City, and ended up just driving for a bit.  Kalee did take the kids to the beach in the afternoon.  Kalee gave me a free pass to hit a casino. I just took a nap.

The night scenes on the boardwalk were pretty cool though. I wonder what it would have been like on a clear night, pretty spectacular I think.

In case you were lost on the way to the beach Curzan was providing some great directions.

East Coast Family Trip #2

By our third day, we were in Hershey, PA, home of Hershey Chocolate and the Hershey Chocolate World.  Besides the excellent aircondishoned mega candy store, we were also treated to singing cows.  Happy cows make happy milk.  Happy milk makes the best chocolate.

Chocolate Store and happy singing cows.  We rode the ride twice, it's free and has some really great smells!

We also booked some time to make our very own, computer engineered, custom, delicious chocolate bars.  We even got free hats and beard masks for those quarter inch long whiskers of mine.

From there we moved on to Philadelphia, where we toured around City Center, checking out the Liberty Bell, getting a drink from a drinking fountain. 

 

The Philadelphia Club, meeting place of Philly's most rich and influential for nap time and chicken salad sandwiches.

East Coast Family Trip #1

Last summer Kalee and I took the kids on a family trip to the East Coast.  We combined our yearly checkup visit in Philly with a zoom through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  Day one saw us through Des Moines and Pella, Iowa.  We ran in to a classic car show in Des Moines as we were headed to Pella.  When we stopped for some Dutch treats in Pella, we had to see the windmills and of course try on a pair of wooden shoes.

The next day, we stopped in Conestoga National Park to see the falls and each a packed lunch.  I'm glad we brought a bunch of things in the car for the kids to do.  When we did get out of the car, it was all crazy faces and running.  Marcus caught this picture of Molly.  I really love the psychedelic effect from an unsteady hand.

Gaps In Time, Summer 2013

Ok, so there's a huge gap in time.  It's not my fault, we've been really busy. Really, I swear!  We took a family trip to Philly & Atlantic City (more to come on that in future posts).  Fourth of July was at our house in '13, which was pretty sweet.  Sammy and Tommy came to visit and we all had a great time at the Living Hope carnival.

Always the ham, Steve's giving us his A-Game face, while we celebrated Robbie & Morgan's engagement over the 4th of July weekend.   Jim & Sheila were with Sarah, helping her into her new house in Spring Hill, TN.

BCMW '14 Food and Summer Fun!

We had an awesome time at the Brady-Carson-McWhorter Reunion '14.  It was great seeing long remembrances and new family!  Marcus and molly really got into the Ford Park pool in O'Neill. 

 

Palm Trees and Periwinkle

So, where to begin...  Kalee and I took the kids to Sanibel, Florida last week.  The trip started off by leaving our house at 6:30 AM to catch a flight from Kansas City to Dallas to Ft. Myers.  From there it was a 40 minute drive across town and the causeway to Sanibel Island, home of the sprawling metropolis 6,066 people.

So if you're wondering, it's true, Sanibel does have a small town feel.  One 2,000 sq-ft grocery store, 2 gas stations, and no traffic lights.


 Some call Sanibel's beaches the "shelling capitol." As a barrier island at the southern end of Pine Island Sound, Sanibel sits at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, that connects Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.  The waters around the island are very shallow, and the current is favorable to deposit large amounts of bivalve and gastropod shells on the shore.  So what's the main thing to do on Sanibel?  Go to the Beach!

The Kids had a great time.  Sand castles, shell hunting, and splashing in the ocean where the aim of the day.  That is if we could get them out of the pool. Our kids love to swim and weren't super keen on the idea of swimming with SHARKS!  Of course there weren't any, but I did see a dolphin surface once.  Speaking of dolphins, is a Mahi-mahi a Dolphinfish or Dauphinfish (or just a Dauphin)?  Marketeers couldn't decide either so it's Durado in Latin America and Mahi-mahi every where else.  No body wants to eat Flipper!

So, on Thursday, Papa took everyone on a sight seeing cruise, officially called the Captiva  Dolphin Watching and Sunset Cruise.  We saw both, plus a manatee!





Our Manatee friend was hanging out right next to the dock at the marina.  It was a good thing that we came early to the cruise slip, or we would have missed a chance to almost touch Fred over here.  I'm calling him Fred, although he could have been a she, and we would have to call her Freddie like my 5th grade teacher.  Anyway, we could have touched him, but then we would have been arrested like that lady who got thrown in jail for "riding" one.  I'm not sure how far she rode one, because Fred here mostly didn't move at all except to catch an occasional breath.







So back to the cruise...  We did see dolphins!  Jane here and her whole pod gave us a show by jumping through the Lady Chadwick's wake.  At one time there were at least ten of these streamlined bottle nosed dolphins jumping and twisting through the air. 

I'm not sure who was getting the better show with all the work Sarah and Mike were going through trying to get a picture of the kids with Papa and Lala.  Well they did get a few pictures I guess.  And we saw the sunset too.  Just as promised, Dolphin Watching followed by Sun Setting.  What  a performance!







The next day were back to the beach for  more sand castles and salt water.  This time we we actually convinced the kids to walk out into the water, and even out to the sand bar that sits about 30 yards from the shore line.  There the water depth drops back down to about 2 feet, and through the crystal water you can see baseball sized snails sliming their way across the sand.  Disgusting or amazing depending  on how you look at it.





Best part of the trip?  A bit of the Caribbean with out leaving the US of A.  Your money spends one-to-one, gas is cheep, and most people speak your language where ever you go.  Oh, not to mention you can drink the water.