April was a busy month! We spent time in Florida and Alabama, and took a Caribbean cruise with some of our closest friends.
Here's a look at what we did in April!
Jacksonville Zoo, Jacksonville, FL
Island Oaks RV Resort was only about 45 minutes from Jacksonville, FL, so one day we went to explore the Jacksonville zoo!
(For a review of the Island Oaks RV Resort, see our blog entry all about that campground!)
The Jacksonville zoo is highly rated on-line and after visiting it, we can see why! It is an amazing zoo with lots of things to do! We saw a ton of animals, petted some sting rays, rode a train, and even fed a giraffe!
It was a fabulous zoo and we are so glad that we checked it out!
Picture of Darcy pretending to be scared by a fake dinosaur; a giraffe walking through a pasture; two gorillas laying down in an enclosure; a manatee eating a piece of lettuce; and Lauren and Brady posing and smiling together on a wooden bridge. (Don't be fooled--there was crying before and after this picture was taken LOL!)
Easter:
Easter was our first major holiday in the camper and our first-time celebrating Easter away from our extended family. While we missed our family tremendously, we made the best of it. We participated in several Easter activities at the campground, including decorating Easter baskets and doing an Easter egg hunt.
Back home, every night before Easter, the kids plant magic jelly beans in our front lawn and, in the morning, lollipops have grown!! That is probably their FAVORITE Easter tradition. We replicated it in the camper by planting some magic jelly beans in a pot filled with soil from the campground on our kitchen table.
Luckily, the Easter bunny was able to find us in the camper and left the kids all kinds of goodies!
Later that day, we talked to both of the kids' grandmothers and made an Easter ham dinner in our camper with all of the traditional sides.
It was a different experience this Easter, but still very magical!
Pictures show a cake with crushed oreos and yellow Peeps; Brady holding a painted Easter egg; an Easter display on a table with plastic Easter eggs and treats poking up out of a bowl; Lauren and Brady painting Easter baskets; Easter baskets on a counter filled with toys and candy; and another picture of Lauren and Brady painting Easter baskets.
St. Augustine, FL:
We had been to St. Augustine in 2019 and loved it, so we knew that we had to go back while we were in northern Florida!
Unfortunately, the day we chose to visit was a little cold and rainy, but we didn't let that stop us!
We started by doing a tour of the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. With construction beginning in 1672, Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States and was built by the Spanish to defend Florida. The British attacked the fort multiple times in the 1700s and were never able to take it. However, England ended up winning the fort another way--in 1763, Florida became a British colony as part of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. However, English ownership of the fort didn't last long. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Florida--and the fort--was returned to Spanish ownership, until it became a United States territory in 1821. (The United States used the fort as a prison for Native Americans in the late 1800s.) The fort was later recognized as a national monument in 1924.
Even though it was raining, we all LOVED touring the fort. The kids and I even crawled inside a tiny cave-like area of the fort that used to be used to store ammunition.
Brian, Darcy, Lauren, and Brady are standing on top of the Castillo de San Marcos. The sky is gray and all four of them are wearing rain jackets. Brady is holding his white can in front of him.
After touring Castillo de San Marcos, Lauren, Brady, and Darcy headed across the street to explore the stores on St. George Street, while Brian met a fellow real estate investor for lunch.
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States. St. George Street retains that old-world charm. It is a small, pedestrian-only cobbled-stoned street, lined with old buildings and stores on either side. Whether you want to tour an old schoolhouse, grab some lunch, or buy some gourmet popcorn, St. George street has it all. We spent a few hours exploring the stores and buying some treats before heading back home to our campground.
Okefenokee Swamp, GA:
The Okefenokee Swamp is not far from the Florida - Georgia state line. We took the drive and explored part of the swamp, which covers an amazing approximately 407,000 acres!!
For more information about the swamp and our tour, see our separate blog entry about it!
While we were there, we enjoyed a two-hour boat ride through the swamp, where we saw a ton of wildlife, including countless alligators!
It was an AMAZING experience!!
Darcy and Lauren enjoying the boat ride through the swamp.
A view of the swamp.
Cruise:
In mid-April, we drove down to Port Canaveral to meet some of our best friends for a Carnival cruise! This was our friends' first cruise ever and we were so excited to see whether they would like it. (Spoiler alert: They absolutely fell in love with cruising and are possibly now as obsessed with cruising as we are!!)
We took a five-day cruise on the Carnival Freedom with stops in Nassau, Bahamas; Princess Cays; and Grand Turk.
Atlantis, Nassau, Bahamas:
I am absolutely, head-over-heels in love with the Atlantis Resort in Nassau!! Brian and I have been twice before, but this was our first time taking our kids and our friends' first time as well.
Atlantis is expensive (day passes to explore the resort as a shore excursion run well over $100/person), but worth it!!
The hotel itself towers over the landscape--the coral-colored towers are some of the first things you see when you approach the island of Nassau. Inside, the hotel continues to inspire awe, with marble floors, high-end shops (think: Rolex), a large casino, a spa, and a floor-to-ceiling aquarium.
Once you get to the aquarium, you see a dark underground tunnel that leads you to the Dig--a sprawling underground aquarium complex, filled with dozens of individual aquariums, all sorts of aquatic life, and decorations meant to look like the lost land of Atlantis.
When you finally finish walking through the aquarium, you emerge into a tropical paradise. The grounds of Atlantis are impeccably manicured, filled with countless palm trees, ponds with fish and turtles, and paved pathways that lead you to the countless pools and waterslides that comprise the property.
The property is literally a maze of palm trees, pools, and waterslides. (Truly--we got lost trying to get back to the pool where we had left our stuff!) Everywhere you look is something new and fun to try.
This visit, we swam in a couple of the pools and took the kids to the kids' splash area. A few of us then went to do the Rapid River--a long river ride that covers most of the property!
Even though this was my third visit to Atlantis, I still feel like there is just SO MUCH that I haven't done there!! This visit, we did not spend any time on the private beach, nor did we check out the dolphin cove, where you can watch dolphins, or swim with them, if you feel like paying extra!
Atlantis continues to be one of my favorite places ever, and Lauren was angry when she learned that we had been there before without her because she is also obsessed with it!! Atlantis is, in a word, paradise.
Brian and our friends posing on the grounds of Atlantis in April 2023.
View of part of the Atlantis grounds.
Princess Cays:
Princess Cays is a private beach owned by Carnival, located on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. It has over a half-mile of white-sand shoreline with complimentary beach chairs and a kids' play area (consisting of a playground and a small pool).
As with all of the cruise lines' private resorts, lunch on the island is provided free of charge. When we were there, it consisted of several salads, fruits, hamburgers, juices, and desserts. The food is not award-winning, but it's nice enough to enjoy at a picnic table once you've worked up an appetite from all of that swimming!
Although there are multiple excursions available at the island (stingray encounters, renting bungalows, etc), we opted to not do anything other than enjoy the beach! We all went swimming in the warm Caribbean water, got some sun in our lounge chairs, played at the playground, and enjoyed sipping some frozen drinks. (Virgin for the kids; not so much for the adults!) We brought our kids' beach toys, so the younger kids also enjoyed playing in the sand.
Brady posing with a Carnival character swearing a life vest and swimming googles at the entrance to Princess Cays.
Brady playing in the sand at Princess Cays.
Darcy enjoying lounging in the sun on the beach.
Grand Turk:
Brian and I have always wanted to go to Grand Turk, and this was the first time we finally made it. We are OBSESSED!!!!
We debated exploring the island, but because it was a really hot day and Brady is NOT a fan of walking in the heat, we decided to just stay around the port area and enjoy the beach and free pool area inside the port.
Grand Turk is, without a doubt, one of the nicest ports we have been to. There is beautiful hardscaping in the main port area with fountains surrounded by well-kept shops. The big draw is Margaritaville, where guests can buy lunch or drinks. Next to Margaritaville is an over-sized pool, surrounded by bungalows, palm trees, and lounge chairs. Bridges let pedestrians cross over the pool to get to and from the restaurant and the beach. A DJ near the pool was playing loud music and providing entertaining commentary while we were there. It was very much a party, spring-break kind of vibe, complete with club music from the early 2000s, which made me feel more like I was back in the club for my 21st birthday, and less like a 36-year-old mother of two young kids.
We spent a lot of time around the pool, swimming, listening to the music, and reading. (Ok... I was the only person reading LOL!).
We also took the kids to the beach, and enjoyed swimming in the Caribbean water.
All of us loved Grand Turk, and cannot wait to go back!!
Pictures show beach chairs and palm trees with a large cruise ship in the background; pool chairs near a tropical pool; a book in the foreground with a pool, palm trees, and bungalows in the background; a patio area filled with palm trees and beach chairs; a large pool surrounded by palm trees; and some colorful storefronts near a fountain with palm trees in the middle.
After we returned to Florida from our cruise, we enjoyed our last few days at the Island Oaks RV Resort before starting our trek up to the northwest.
We had decided to take a route through Alabama, Mississippi, and Missouri on our way up to South Dakota.
McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL:
In Alabama, we stayed at Gunter Hill campground in Montgomery, which is an Army Corps of Engineers campground. (We will do a separate blog on the Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds soon!)
We took a day trip into Birmingham. One of our stops was the McWane Science Center, which is basically a massive kids' museum with a focus on science.
It has three floors filled with exhibits about dinosaurs, insects, energy, light, and sound. It includes a decent sized aquarium with a touch tank where you can touch sting rays and sharks. Almost all of the exhibits are interactive, and allow for hands-on play and learning.
There were multiple school field trips the morning we were there, so unfortunately it was extremely busy--enough so that even Lauren complained that it was too loud and chaotic. Nonetheless, both of our kids LOVED the museum and would have stayed there for several days if they could have!!
If you're in Birmingham, AL with kids, this is a GREAT place to check out!!
Red Mountain Park:
After we left the McWane Science Center, we weren't quite ready to head back to Montgomery, so we decided to check out the nearby Red Mountain Park, which unexpectedly became one of the coolest parts of our trip so far!!
The Red Mountain area in Birmingham had operational iron mines from 1863 - 1962, which were a major component of Birmingham's economy. Mine number 13, which had previously been filled in, was recently excavated and is available for visitors to the park (which is free) to see inside.
It was so unbelievably cool to hike through the Alabama woods, see the bright red soil, and hike to an old, formerly abandoned mine. We looked inside the gate at the mine and imagined what it would have been like to climb down into that mine for work every day!
For more information about the history of the mines, see: https://redmountainpark.org/about/
Pictures show Brian, Darcy, Lauren, and Brady in the woods; Lauren and Darcy in the woods; several pictures of old, abandoned mines; and a picture of Lauren holding a pinecone in front of an old mine.
Legacy Museum, Montgomery, AL:
The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama are museums/memorials dedicated to providing an education about the African slave trade, slavery in the United States, and the struggle for Civil Rights.
At the time we visited, admission to both places was only $5 per person (aged 7 and over), and this was one of the BEST museums that I have ever been to.
Photography is not allowed inside of the Legacy Museum, but the exhibits are simultaneously breathtaking and heartbreaking.
The National Memorial is outside, just a short drive away from the Museum, and is well worth going to. It is a haunting memorial to the victims of lynching across the United States, and contains soil from actual lynching sites.
The memorial consists of large metal poles. Each pole has the name of a county in the United States and the names of all of the known lynching victims from that county. As you continue through the memorial, the metal poles are raised increasingly high into the air until, at the end, they are hanging several feet above visitors' heads. The raising of the poles--which mimics a body being raised into the air and lynched--is haunting. On the side of the walls, the exhibit tells you some of the reasons the victims were killed, which can include something as simply as not calling a white man "sir." The Memorial is heart-wrenching and powerful, and a must-see. It is a powerful tribute to the victims of racial hatred. A tribute that is further necessary because, as the exhibit tells you, only 1 percent of lynching committed after 1900 led to a criminal conviction.
While Lauren and Brady (who were only 7 and 9 at the time of this visit) eventually got tired of spending so much time in an adult museum and wanted to go play, I think this is still a great experience for younger kids. They learned a lot and it was a great opportunity to discuss the issue of racism in the United States--both past and present.
All in all, this is an absolute must-see experience if you're in the Montgomery, AL area.
Photos show the outside of the Legacy Museum; the National Memorial from a distance; the end of the National Memorial; and a glass box at the end of the National Memorial filled with soil from lynching sites. Above the soil hang the metal posts with the names of lynching victims.
Old Alabama Town, Montgomery, AL:
Old Alabama Town is an exhibit near downtown Montgomery filled with old Alabama structures, including old houses, cabins, barns, doctor's offices, meeting halls, grocery stores, and churches. At the time of this writing, admission is $15 for adults and free for children 12 and under.
While probably over-priced given that the tour is almost entirely self-led, it was still cool to see what life would have been like in Alabama in the 1800s. We enjoyed seeing the old buildings and the old technology (Lauren was amazed by a typewriter), and the kids agreed that they would NOT want to live in a time with no internet and no iPads!
Pictures of several buildings in Old Alabama town, including some homes, a log cabin, and a grocery store. In one picture, Lauren and Brady pose together on the porch of a log cabin.
Dextor Parsonage:
From 1954-1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived at the Dextor Parsonage in Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery was the center of several important civil rights events, including the Montgomery bus boycott from 1955-1956. Martin Luther King, only 26 years old and new to Montgomery at the time, was one of the leaders of the bus boycott. The Dextor Parsonage was where he was living when he began the bus boycott and his other work that would eventually make him a leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
On our way to the Parsonage, we listened to King's "I Have a Dream" speech from the March on Washington in 1963. Lauren and Brady got to hear the famous speech in its entirety and recognized several of the states that King named in the speech as places they had been.
At the Parsonage, we saw the house where King lived for six years, and saw the library where he did his work. We also saw the indentation on the porch from where the parsonage was bombed in January 1956.
Our tour guide was amazing. It appears that most of the tour guides have direct connections to the Dextor Church and Martin Luther King or his friends and family. She told us personal stories from people who had been in the home when it was bombed, or who had seen the KKK parade around the area.
It was humbling to stand where such a great man stood. This is another tour worth doing if you're in the Montgomery area. However, note that as of this blog entry, tours are only being offered on the weekends.
Photography was not allowed inside of the house, so all we took were pictures of the outside of the home and the porch.
Outside of the Dexter Parsonage in Montgomery, Alabama where Dr. Martin Luther King lived from 1954-1960.
Photograph of the indentation on the porch from the bombing in January 1956.
White House of the Confederacy:
After the Dexter Parsonage, we drove to the nearby White House of the Confederacy. This is where Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, resided with his family until the Confederate capital was relocated to Virginia in May 1861.
Unfortunately, we hadn't checked the hours ahead of time and the White House was closed when we arrived. Nevertheless, we were able to see the outside and, again, it was cool to see such a significant piece of history.
The White House of the Confederacy, Montgomery, AL.
Alabama Department of Archives and History:
Near the White House of the Confederacy are several Alabama State buildings, including the Department of Archives and History. By chance, we decided to check out the building and discovered that it houses a really cool and FREE museum!
The museum covers three floors. Most significant for us was the kids' section of the museum and a section of the museum called Alabama Voices.
The kids' area is filled with hands on activities, including crafts, board games, and books. There were activity boxes. Each box was labeled and had a bunch of objects related to the theme inside.
I was super surprised to find a Braille box (filled with Braille books!) and Brady really enjoyed a box about cotton. It included tufts of cotton and various tools. As a blind kid, it was amazing that this entire museum was tactile, so Brady could feel and explore every single thing we found there!
Alabama Voices was a surprisingly HUGE museum of the history of Alabama. It covered from the time of the Native Americans through almost present day. The sprawling exhibit was more like what I would expect to find in a Smithsonian than in a free state museum. Since it was toward the end of the day, we didn't have nearly enough time to do the exhibit justice. It would be easy to spend a full weekend in there!
Alabama State Department of Archives and History.
The entrance to the surprisingly large and thorough exhibit, Alabama Voices.
Civil War artifacts in the Alabama Voices exhibit.
April was an incredibly busy month, and we saw and learned so much. We spent the last day of April packing up the camper and getting ready to leave. On May 1, we left Alabama and headed up to Mississippi.
As of the date of this blog entry, we are still working our way up to South Dakota. For now, thanks for traveling along with us! And let us know if you have any recommendations for must-see places in South Dakota!!
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