Gulf Coast Adventure 2015

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
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Watched the sun set on the beach at St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park.

Our Maine Adventure - Part 2

Note:   I began this update to my blog several weeks ago and never finished.    I'm sure no one is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for Part 2, and probably Parts 3 and 4.  I've got so many photos that going thru them became so time hogging that I became overwhelmed and slacked off.  So I will go ahead and hit the publish button and try to get a few more on here at some point.  The mini version of chronicling our vacation is: We had a wonderful time, saw many parts of this beautiful country, took far too many photos, had wonderful food and made it home safe and sound.

Once we made it to Portland, the next morning we bypassed touring the city and headed up the coast on Hwy 1.  When we were in Maine a few years ago, we visited Booth Bay and really enjoyed the touristy town and also a stopped at Freeport to visit the L.L. Bean flagship store.  So again, we passed these towns up and opted for a side trip to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  One thing about riding the motorcycle, once we got off of the main highway we found the roads were pretty rough.  I'm sure that's from the freezing and thawing during the winters but we tried to ignore that and concentrate on the pretty views along the way. 

 The lighthouse was really interesting.  Only six visitors at a time were allowed at the top, but  I'm not sure how they could get that many!  The views were awesome and we spent some time photographing every angle. 

After a nice lunch at a little cafe nearby (the only cafe nearby :) ), we headed back up the rough  road and on toward Camden for a quick stop there.  I wanted to send a little present to cheer up our  littlest grandson who had come down with Chickenpox.  I felt so sorry for him and if we would've been home, this Grammy would've been his buddy and nurse.  Luckily, he now has Great Grandparents nearby to help.  His stuffed toy Puffin ended up being the only Puffin we saw the entire trip. Camden had some cute shops and a pretty harbor and I wish we could've spent a little more time exploring here, but we wanted to get on to Bar Harbor before dark.  

No frills, but very comfortable and friendly would describe the Bar Harbor Best Western.  The ladies at the front desk had good recommendations for dinner and found us a room where we could park the motorcycle by the front door.  The next morning we headed to Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain.  We weren't there early enough for the famous sunrises by any means (sunrise was around 4:30 am here!) but we took lots of photos and soaked in the beauty of the area.