There's nothing like taking a blogging break.....and then there's nothing quite like ignoring your blog either. I really hadn't intended to do that but I guess I did. But I'm here and instead of trying to play catch up for the past several months, I'll simply start with our last trip and do my best to begin again!
We returned last week from our first RV trip of the year to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Leaving Indiana two days after a major snow storm made the trip a little slower and certainly messier. Both vehicles were sporting nice coats of road salt by the time we got to our first destination of
St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park. This year we've got a new Jeep Cherokee Trail Hawk to tow behind the Pursuit. It can be towed "flat", so it took a little preparation to get the hitch, brakes and lights just the way D wanted them, but it worked great and we look forward to not having to deal with the tow dolly every time we want to take a car with us.
We really like this part of Florida and this State Park is very nice. Though it seemed like it took forever to get here! Our site was #51 and this photo was taken at sunset from the walkway to the beach. This is a popular park and we were lucky to snag a reservation just a couple of weeks before. The campsites are pretty close together but not terrible. Of course, our little motorhome doesn't take up much room so I can imagine with a bigger RV, the spacing would be more of an issue. We walked on the beach, rode our bicycles and bought seafood from a nearby market to grill. The area is known for "birding" and we also saw several deer and even an alligator. One day we drove over to Apalachicola and checked out some of the shops. The little town of Port St. Joe is a nice little destination too.
Our second campground was at
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. We had visited here before but I guess it was back when I was taking another "blogging break" so I couldn't find where I had posted anything about it. I think we were in site #84 this time, but not sure. It was nice because although this is a large park, we had no one behind us, just a road only used by the tram to the beach. This was a nice long, level concrete site with lots of tall pines around us. A beautiful park, with lots of activities (if you're into that sort of thing) and within a nice bike ride to the gorgeous beach. This area is great because there is just about every activity available - shopping, dining, tourist activities, and sightseeing. Of course, being close to Destin it's popular for spring break and families. Things were just beginning to get busy when we were there.
A few of the highlights of the week .......
We visited
Eden's Garden State Park.
Gulfarium Marine Park
Made friends with some wildlife and made use of our bicycles.
Ate very well! This was D's favorite meal, Stinky's Stew at
Stinky's Fish Camp
.
Watched the sun set on the beach at St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park.