Florida Vacation, Part 3, 4, 5

We spent Thursday morning on Crescent Beach, just south of Siesta Beach.  The littles and I lounged on the beach and played in the water while Jason and the boys walked down to Point of Rocks to do some snorkeling.  They saw some cool fish and shells and finally called it quit when someone close by fishing caught a shark.

Thursday afternoon we drove down to one of the beaches in Venice for some shark tooth hunting.  The beach was narrow and steep, with black sand and rocks, and the water got deep quickly, so it wasn’t a kid beach.  But Jason and the boys still snorkeled and we found lots of shark teeth.  We didn’t stay there too longs and sadly, no pictures.

Thursday night we stayed in Fort Myers and Friday morning we drove out to Sanibel Island. There were lots of shells on that beach, so not as pleasant as far as beaches go, but we found lots of star fish and conch shells. 

After Sanibel, we headed east along Alligator Alley and the Everglades.  And again, no pictures.  Awful! I know.  It just didn’t seem so very different from the rest of inland Florida.  Lots of trees and water.  We would have liked to take an extra day and go into the the park, but it wasn’t top priority.  We stayed Friday night in the outskirts of Miami and Saturday morning headed down to the Keys.  The water is so pretty! 

The beaches are nearly non-existent on the Keys.  The little beach we found on Bahia Honda Key was was aptly named Sandspur Beach.  I never thought I have to worry about stickers on a beach.  But here, again, it wasn’t about the beach.  It was all about the water and snorkeling.  It was so interesting though, there weren’t waves but a very swift current.  We had to have a floaty for Riggin and keep ahold of him the whole time so he didn’t float away.  If we ever get to go again, the kids need to be older.  We need a boat.  And we need to have more than a half a day to play and explore.  But we’re so glad we were able to go and experience this part of Florida.  It was a trip of a lifetime.

Seven Mile Bridge.  Pretty cool.

Florida Vacation! Part 2

After Dinosaur World, we checked into our hotel in Sarasota and then made our way out to Siesta Key.  Siesta Beach was amazing.  There were a lot of people there, but we walked a ways and found a little space.  The sand was white and cool, the water was fairly clear and so warm.  It was like swimming in a bathtub.  We brought our snorkels and the kids spent the afternoon and evening in the water.  Kolt did pretty good for being out all day.  He even sat up by himself for a while.

Kache and Riggin

Kache.  This is how he spent most of the week.

The water is perfect for little kids.  There’s hardly any surf, and it stays shallow for quite a ways.

Sunset on the Gulf is a lot more crowded than sunrise on the Atlantic, but it was still worth watching. 

Florida Vacation! Part 1

We’ve lived in Florida for 2 1/2 years now and the kids and I still haven’t seen the Gulf Coast.  So we decided to finally see what the great state of Florida had to offer.  It was a trip we’ll never forget.

On our way to the Gulf, we stopped in at Dinosaur World in Plant City.  Inside one of the buildings they have real fossils with explanations of what they are and where they were found.  At the end of the self-guided tour (the display walls were set up in a zig zag pattern) were some mechinized dinosaurs that move and roar when they sense motion.  So as you walk by this display, the dinosaurs come alive.  Riggin took off in the other direction as fast as he could, yelling, “Let’s get out of here!” 

The kids dug for fossils.

We walked around the park and read about the different kinds of dinos. 

Our favorite part was “mining” for gems.