Curacao

Sailing the Southern Caribbean was so much fun. One of the places we visited was Willemstad Curacao. Curacao is part of the Netherland Antilles. They speak Dutch, Spanish, English and their local language, Papiamentu. There is so much to see and do during your visit. The buildings are fun to look at because they are all painted these pastel colors. We took a snorkeling trip and were able to snorkel in the crystal clear waters and see a sunken shipwreck, as well as very colorful fish swimming all around us. On the boat ride to the snorkeling location, we were able to see some of the homes of Curacao, as well as some beautiful waterways. We walked downtown afterwards, and got a chance to see some of the local culture.

Itchetucknee Springs Float Trip

What a great time we had on Saturday floating down the Itchetucknee River! We traveled to a town called Ft. White in central Florida. When we were just about at the river, we stopped on the side of the road to rent tubes for everyone. After the guy tied them to our truck, we continued on to the river. Once inside, we walked to the south entrance because all the other entrances were closed at that time since they had reached their capacity for the day! Wow the water was cold when we jumped into our tube. As we got acclimated to the water, we started our beautiful float. The water is crystal clear, so you can see below. There are beautiful trees lining the banks of the river, creating canopies of shade the entire trip. Sometimes you could see wildlife hanging out around the banks of the river. Once in a while the kids would stop to jump from a tree branch back into the river. The float took us about an hour to complete. When we were done, we hopped out, enjoyed a picnic lunch and did it all over again. I feel this is one of Florida's most beautiful state parks.

Annual Cocoa Beach Trip

Well we just returned from our annual Cocoa Beach trip. As usual, we had a great time. Cocoa Beach is beautiful, and we stay right on the beach. It is so nice to get up in the morning and look out your balcony and see the ocean! This year we rented jet skis and both my children drove them. How exciting! We also went kayaking in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. That was nice. We got to kayak next to manatee, and also got to touch them. They are very playful, and love to roll over on their backs so you can pet their stomach's. We also got to see dolphin while we were kayaking and jet skiing. Most days were spent on the beach getting sun or surfing the waves! Went to dinner at a restaurant called Fishlips one night. The name is interesting, but the food was good. Of course we had our traditional dinner the first night at Denny's and our traditional breakfast the last day at IHop. Now we are counting down the days until next year!

Clearwater Beach

Our family loves to travel, and this past weekend was no exception! We traveled to Clearwater Beach for our daughter's beach volleyball tournament. Included in our travels this weekend, was her best friend, and beach volleyball partner!
Driving over the Courtney Campbell Causeway from Tampa heading into Clearwater was such a beautiful sight. You could see dolphins swimming in the bay and boaters everywhere! Once we arrived at our beach hotel, we decided we would head down to the pier and watch the adult volleyball tournament. It was at that time that we realized our son did not pack a bathing suit! Before we could head to the beach, we had to go in search of a new bathing suit! Once we had that, we were able to get to the beach. The sand at the beach was just like sugar! The Gulf of Mexico was beautiful! It was so nice to sit and enjoy the sound of the Gulf and feel the breeze coming off the water!
That night proved to be interesting because no one would let my husband sleep. The kids thought it would be funny to aggravate him for a while! But finally by midnight we all settled down for a good nights rest!
The next morning came bright and early. We were up at the crack of dawn to head to our daughter's volleyball tournament. Prior to leaving, we bought a gazebo to help us stay out of the sun. When we got to the beach, we opened the box thinking that it would be a cinch to put up, but as it turned out, this gazebo had to be put together! As my son said, "you get what you pay for!". Needless to say, our beach gazebo neighbors ended up putting this together for us, and it served its purpose for the day, but at the end of the day it went in the trash! We spent a lot of our day worrying if it was going to fall over from the wind! Fortunately it did hold up until the end of the day!
Watching volleyball was a lot of fun, and we spent 7 hours at the beach that day. We enjoyed dinner with friends both nights, and now we are looking forward to our next vacation to Cocoa Beach!