It was love at first sight when we pulled into Long Key State Park! We were surrounded by water, sky and everything beautiful! Ricky quickly disconnected the car while I went inside to register. We were so excited to get to our site, set up and enjoy three days of rest and relaxation!
We pulled into site #51 rather than backing in so we could see and enjoy this beautiful view! Look at that sky and water!
The campsite pictures speak for themselves! The site was sandy, level and large enough for our 13x13 canopy. We had a nice border of trees and vegetation on each side for privacy and a gentle refreshing nonstop breeze! Ahhh.....
Can you believe this panoramic water view!? All campsites are waterfront here at Long Key! If you can't be happy here, you can't be happy!
We loved waking up and being surrounded by this as we drank our morning coffee!
We were able to bicycle everywhere throughout the park and trails.
This was left behind by Cuban refugees who had entered the park illegally, showered in the bath house and disappeared.
Ricky took these pictures of the inside of the boat. They were very resourceful and obviously very desperate to flee their country. Sad.
Long Key is beautiful during the day, night or even low tide! We loved and enjoyed this lovely place so much! It's a real jewel!
Off we go to our next stop - Bahia Honda State Park for fourteen more days in paradise!
Our first stop in the Keys was in Key Largo at John Pennekamp State Park! We stayed in a full hook up site including sewer for four nights. It was nice and shady and we were able to get satellite TV reception by parking the motorhome all the way forward on our site #39 at the suggestion of our very friendly and helpful neighbor, David, who immediately came over and introduced himself. More about David later.
So here we are all set up and ready to go explore on our bikes!
Before we could get on our bikes to leave, we see this car with a lady perched up on the seat holding a beach umbrella passing through the campground. I guess there is more than one way to avoid the sun and help beat the heat!
Pennekamp has a large concession area serving grilled burgers, hotdogs and sandwiches with a shaded outdoor eating area complete with tables, chairs and free wifi! This was also the place for renting kayaks, paddle boards and booking glass bottom boat tours. Pennekamp attracts a lot of day visitors so there was always a steady stream of customers in and out of this area. This is also a great area to just kick back, relax and people watch! Pennekamp is a great place to have fun while being active!
We love trees and we could never have too many and Pennekamp did not disappoint us at all! To sit and linger for an hour or two beneath a tree with a shade can renew one's spirit and energy. God gave us trees for many different reasons!
Pennekamp has so much to offer day visitors and campers including a fabulous beach with clear water and a nice breeze!
We had the pleasure of seeing "Shy Hamlet" at the aquarium/museum here at Pennekamp. So much to do and see here!
Pennekamp is so beautiful by day or night and is home to a wonderful RV park. We walked or biked everywhere in the park. We could usually be found late afternoons on one of these two benches as the sun was waving goodbye to another day. We have had so much fun but how can you go to Florida and not have fun!
Okay back to our friendly and helpful neighbor, David. On our last full day here, David called 911 for his wife who had a sudden and severe headache with nausea. David followed the ambulance to the hospital and returned several hours later telling us that they were transferring his wife to a hospital in Miami for surgery. His plan was to go to Miami in the very early AM. He gave us a key to his camper along with instructions to walk and care for his dog. David felt like he would be back before our scheduled checkout time tomorrow. We were awakened by a knock on our door about 4 AM. It was David crying uncontrollably and saying that the doctor had called and said she didn't make it. He said "She died. I came here with my wife and I am leaving without her." Oh to witness someone experience that kind of sudden and unexpected tragic pain was almost unbearable until we realized we were the only two people he had that early morning of September. Changes can be so "sudden" and life really is as a vapor.
We are leaving Pennekamp today so heavy hearted and almost in disbelief at times. It is going to be a very quiet drive to our next stop, Long Key. David has our telephone number. I hope he calls....
We are on the road to the Florida Keys, stopping and staying in the upper, middle and lower keys during the month we will be there! Booboo is busy watching the highway while I am reclining and eating jelly beans! lol.
We decide to stop and spend the night at Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach. It was cloudy on arrival but, thankfully, we were able to quickly set up and take a few pictures before the rain started.
The campground has two loops, one being on the river and the other one on the beach. Both loops are absolutely beautiful! The river loop has lots of shade and the moss hanging from the trees just adds to its beauty! Sites #39 and #40 are the best locations and most sought after spots!
Nothing spells "summer lazy" quite like water front hammocks!
The clouds are beginning to roll in so we better make a dash to the beach/ocean side of the campground for pictures! It was pouring rain when we arrived on the beach loop so I was unable to take pictures. The beach campground is gorgeous too! There are walkways to the beach to avoid walking on the sand dunes. The only shade is your awning, but oh what a view and a constant breeze! Sites #8 and #9 have the best location!
We loved the sandy roads in the riverside loop and would have been great for walking Booboo. There are also several walking nature trails in the forest and of course the fort would be a "do not miss" if we were staying more than one night. There's also fishing and swimming in the sound and ocean available. We will definitely be back and I highly recommend camping at Fort Clinch!
The campground is equipped with bars and ramps for those who need them. The bath house was very clean, modern, spacious and handicapped friendly!
We had sweet whole kernel corn, iron enriched black-eyed peas and open faced sloppy joe mix on whole wheat bread! It was actually leftover from last night's dinner that we brought with us and sooo good the second time round!
We ended the day watching Big Brother, (Go Paul), and a rerun of Criminal Minds and on to bed. We have another travel day on the road tomorrow! The heavy rain continues and we are looking so forward to hearing the sound of the rain as it pounds the top of the motorhome! You can't get that pleasure in any five star resort! So to say what the late Eddie Rabbit sang I Love a Rainy Night!
We decided to take Ava and Claire on a fourteen day summer cruise on the Oasis of the Seas! We drove to Florida so we left a day early, stopping at the Marriott in Melbourne. All four of us were ready for a break from the car and looking so forward to a nice sit down dinner and a good night's sleep!
These two girls drug us to Moe's! lol. Not exactly what we had in mind.
We had a good night's sleep and after breakfast and a couple of hours of driving, we were in beautiful Fort Lauderdale and so ready to get onboard!
There she sits in all of her gigantic glory! She is an unbelievable beauty!
We had two connecting balcony cabins on deck 12 overlooking Central Park. It was an ideal location close to the sports deck and food! It was also very quiet making it impossible to get up before 10:30 each morning!
They spent many hours of many days flow-riding and wiping out!
Zip-lining across the ship and being fifteen stories high was so much fun!
This is your view while zip-lining if looking down! Wow!
There are so many fun and active activities on the Oasis including wall climbing!
Ice skating in Studio B was always a nice break from the water. Ava needed a little help tightening up her skates from "Pop" Ricky but that's just one of the many things "Pop" Ricky does well!
The girls went to a daily art class in Imagination Studio and then onto the Science Lab for volcano making and other hands on experiments requiring them to wear white lab coats and goggles! Royal Caribbean has a real winner with Oasis and its many venues for the "little" people!
The Oasis has a boardwalk area complete with a carousel and home to afternoon family festivals. Several games are provided including jumping rope and ring toss. Hotdogs, ice cream and candy are always available all day in this area of the ship!
The Oasis boasts several different pools with lots of seating eliminating the need for people to be "chair hogs." The girls also enjoyed late night swims usually followed by a room service snack. We found ourselves shaking our heads a lot during these fourteen days! lol.
The Oasis has a beautiful solarium area for passengers sixteen years and older. It has a wonderful restaurant in the center that offers healthy food choices and welcomes all ages to come inside to eat, which we did several times - delicious!
The solarium was also our "go to" spot for nuts and raisins to snack on while relaxing poolside! What a life!
The Aquatheatre was one of our favorite areas on the Oasis! Entertainment included the international "not to be missed" belly flop competition! "Dreams" and "Splish Splash" were superb productions of talented swimmers and divers! Ava and Claire always arrived an hour early to secure their front row seats in the splash zone! Oh to be a kid again! lol. The Aquatheatre also served as a movie theatre at night!
The Oasis was even more beautiful at night when all "lit up!" There was always a flurry of activity out and about the ship with parades, balloons and shopping!
The Opal Theatre was the setting for the forever popular stage production of CATS and it was FANTASTIC and so professionally done - amazing talent! "Come Fly With Me" was a showcase of top notch acrobats and was another FANTASTIC production in the Opal Theatre! The headliners were great and entertaining with so much talent! Ava and Claire looked so forward to the shows at night and were always front row as you can see in the pictures!
We especially enjoyed the "On Air" lounge for the super talented superstar passenger karaoke! The talent was undeniably present on this cruise and the girls were always front row!
Ava and Claire loved going to the Sabor Restaurant and it quickly became their favorite place to eat! Park Cafe had a great salad and roast beef sandwich! We had no complaints with any of the food or service. It was all good all fourteen days!
The girls had so much fun staying busy on the Oasis that we only got off twice during the fourteen day cruise. We got off at Cozumel, grabbed a taxi and went straight to one of our favorites - Paradise Beach! We paid $48 and obtained our bracelets and were provided with chairs and umbrellas at the beach, use of the pool which was so refreshing, use of clean bathrooms and showers and all of the water trampolines/toys! The girls spent a couple of hours climbing, bouncing, jumping and swimming! We then had chips, salsa, guacamole and drinks in their outdoor restaurant. We enjoyed the pool an hour or so and then caught a taxi back home to the Oasis! I highly recommend Paradise Beach when in Cozumel!
We also got off at Royal Caribbean's private island, lovely Labadee! The workers work so hard to provide the passengers with a pleasant and comfortable day on Labadee! They provided us with a picnic style barbecued lunch with several dining areas complete with drinks, fruits and desserts! There was an abundance of lounge chairs scattered under the shaded areas. It felt really hot in the sun but it was fine in the shade. Labadee is beautiful and makes for a great beach day!
We head back to the ship via the escalator - yes the Oasis is that large and has everything imaginable!
As I look over these pictures and remember all the tiny little details that makes an experience a memory, my cup runneth over with happiness. It was a busy fourteen days but oh sooo much fun! I hope that one day they will enjoy reading "my story" to their children as much as I have enjoyed living it and reminiscing when blogging! We love and adore them so much and cherish our travels with them! alwayslookforthebrightside.blogspot.com
