Christmas Trip to Florida - Everglades, Siesta Key - Part III

When we decided to go to Florida on vacation, I knew I wanted to take the boys to the Everglades National Park. The best way to see the Everglades is by Airboat. I did a quick internet search and decided to go with Capt. Mitch Airboat Tours (there are a lot of air boat tour companies called Captain "first name"!). We arrived there early in the morning and got on the tour right away. It was a little chilly for Florida weather (low 60's) but perfect weather to visit the Everglades!

I think the highlight for me was driving... flying, riding, boating... hmmm.... through the Mangrove "pathways". We did see a few alligators but lots and lots of birds!

After the airboat tour the boys got to hold a little baby alligator.

Jake was really upset with me because I forgot his go pro memory card :/ so I took the below video for him with my DSLR camera. He wasn't impressed with me!

We decided to drive into Everglade City and have seafood there. We have heard great things about this particular restaurant but were not terribly impressed especially when we saw all the frozen fish packages at the dumpster... oh well!

We then headed over to the Everglades National Park for our stamps (more on than in a separate blog post coming soon) and then Cypress National Preserve for another stamp, a Junior Ranger program and a Ranger program on Manatees.

On the way to Cypress National Preserve we saw many more alligators then we saw on the airboat tour! Oh well...

We came home late that day! And ended the day with take out and some Netflix!

The next day was our 10 year wedding anniversary and New Year's Eve! We left around 8:30am for a stroll on the beach and ended up staying until after sunset! I don't have many pictures from that day (I left my camera at home and we only used the go pro) but it was hands down my favorite day of all of 2016! The weather was perfect! The kids played all day. The food was amazing we had at a small concession... mahi mahi tacos and a frozen pina colada for me! We found some amazing shells and I even found a perfect sand dollar. The sun set was spectactular... I could go on and on! It was just perfect!

The next day we left Florida for a very long drive home to a very cold Ohio. We will be back next Christmas!

Christmas Trip to Florida - Atlanta, Homosassa, Crystal River - Part I

We surprised the boys this year with a trip to Florida. It worked out perfectly. They had no idea. Scot teased them before Christmas with hinting that we will be going skiing in Wisconsin over Christmas break and they were not amused by that idea. Christmas morning came and the very last present under the tree was a box filled with their own swim trunks, goggles, a little kayaker, a US map and a note. Here is what happened:

TOMORROW? Yes! They were so excited! We packed the car up the evening of the 25th and left at about 6 am on the 26th! We stopped in Atlanta at the Martin Luther King memorial, visited the Ebenezer church where he preached and went on to The Varsity. The Varsity is a place we have hard about before and wanted to try it out. The ambience in there was really cool, but the food was less than mediocre.

On our way down to Florida we also stopped in a large Pecan store in Georgia, where we did not buy anything with Pecan's but Licorice. What can I say... I love me some Licorice. Scot also saved a turtle running across the highway.

Our first stop in Florida was in Homosassa. Our AirBnB was awesome! Really big, lots of room for us, very pretty up in the trees and pet alligators in the backyard!

The next morning we went kayaking with manatees on Crystal River. We booked with the Crystal River Kayak Company and I can only recommend them! Everything was perfect. We ended up actually swimming with two manatees at Three Sisters Spring. The water was ice cold in there but so worth it. Finn needed a little extra warming on top of the kayak afterwards. We booked two tandem kayaks for 4 hours and including swimming and kayaking out in the bay, it was perfect timing. Jake got this awesome video of a manatee next to his kayak with his go pro.

You probably notice Finn's blue gloved hand in the pictures below. Unforunaly he burned his hand before Christmas and it was bad enough that we needed to protect it a little more, so he could swim with his Manatees (his second favorite animal btw)

During our stay in Homosassa we went to the beach. As soon as we arrived on the beach a thick cloud of fog rolled in and stayed! This didn't keep Jake out of the water... not much ever keeps him out of the water including water snakes! Anyways, while Jake swam we watched this guy catching crabs! It was pretty facinating. He threw a string with a large piece of chicken tied around it out in the water, stood really still and waited for a crab to grab the chicken, then he would slowly pull the string in until he could grab the crab. More often than not the crab would let go before he could grab it and he had to start over again.

Part II will be up soon!

Day 4 McGill's Go Up North - Quebec City

We slept in a little, got up and made breakfast for all of us. That's the great thing about airbnb's, they usually cut down the cost on eating out significantly. I don't remember what exactly happened in the picture below, but I know Finn was mad about something and Jake sat next to him and tried talking him out of it.

This will be the first day on the trip without driving!

Day 4 started with a short walk up near the Citadel (our airbnb was in an amazing location just a block away from the Citadel). You can see the amazing Frontenac Hotel in the background in the picture below. From up there we had an amazing view over Old Quebec and the St. Lawrence River.

Can you guess what is happening in the two pictures below? Answer will be at the end of the post.

The boys decided to run down the hill instead of taking the steps.

We took our time walking through the city. Stopping a lot and taking it all in. I love this picture of Jake below.

We walked down into the lower part of Old Quebec (mommy got a ride back up with the incline and the boys had to walk up the steps haha), we bought a few postcards for friends and family and started our quest to hunt for a souvenir for Jake. He got $20 from his Oma and wanted to buy one of the following: an umbrella, sunglasses or a zippo lighter. The zippo lighter was a NO from us and still not sure why he decided an umbrella or sunglasses would be a great souvenir. We never found anything on this trip he really wanted and he came home with the $20.

We watched how they made maple taffy and bought two to split between us. Glad we didn't buy more, because the kids both didn't like it. Half of mine ended in my hair... yeah which wasn't the easiest to get back out.

We decided to give the "Lapin Saute" a try. "The Running Rabbit" I... you guessed it, a restaurant offering rabbit meat.

The food was amazing and we all loved what we got. Finn got the pasta from the kids menu that came with cookies (in little bunny shapes) and chocolate milk. Jake had the poutine with rabbit. He really loved the poutine but was more into Scot's French Onion Soup, which was all of our favorite. I enjoyed a Rabbit Pate, that was really good and a small side of potatoes.

After lunch we walked around for a little longer. We ended up on the Plaza of the Frontenac where street performers are performing all day. It is really fun watching them as they are hilarious. This particulat street performer pulled me out and just made me jump up and down... that's it... only up and down and it was actually hilarious. I was very happy that the above picture wasn't with Finn or Jake because he washed the kids hands with water from his mouth... haha it was funny but all I could think was that I hope the parents have hand sanitizer with them.

Quebec is just gorgeous and the boys really didn't complain at all walking so much around. Above they are cooling off in the fountain for horses!

Finn decided that he will roll down the hill from the fortress wall and was upset with ME because he got dirty from it.

He later washed himself off in a fountain and was back to being happy again. I have a feeling these cannons have something to do with his change in mood. Jake and Finn both loved playing with them and pretending they are protecting the city from the British.

We all loved listening to the musical spoon instruments and the boys got to try them too. It was pretty cool and Jake thought about spending his $20 towards one of them but we then realized that the cheapest spoons were over $45. Yikes!

We all got to touch the famous "cannon ball" in the tree.

Later in the evening, Scot and Finn decided to go back to the music festival and listen to some concerts. Jake and I are really not that into big crowds and preferred to see a few more street performers. I remembered seeing this couple 3 years ago with Scot in Quebec and they are really great.

The performer jumped through this hoop on fire with knives. I was really glad Finn wasn't with us and got any ideas.

Jake and I strolled around the Frontenac for a little bit and watched the sunset.

Came home and met up with the other two at our Airbnb. The picture below is the entrance to the courtyard we had to drive through with our car.

Day 4 was great but we all couldn't wait for Day 5!

ANSWER! the boys caught their first Pokémon on Pokémon Go. They mainly walked around all over Quebec without whining because of Pokémon Go!!! I would call that a win - win!