The "real" Florida

We have enjoyed traveling the southern states so much.  The state parks are simply amazing and access to beach life has been incredible.  We don't see a whole lot of the sea up north, and when we do it isn't that warm.  Here, life is ridden on bicycles with snacks in tow and towels on the white sands.

Our view from our spot in Gulf Shores State Park, Alabama.  We sat on a lake filled with alligators, but only saw one head peek up.  They live amongst them down here which is fascinating to me.  Alligators are not our friends, I'm pretty convinced.

Frog catching was big business and the boys made the most of it.  Dr. Phil was the first, and Froggie next.

A sign in the park as we walked.  The RV is in the background

On to Fort Walton Air Force base, where there is Blue Angels practice days and the huge Naval Aviation Museum.  Lots of aircrafts to explore and climb into.  Awesome diversion on our way to Destin, Florida.

He loves this stuff.  Doesn't enjoy flying though, but still thinks he might be a pilot someday

Magestic blue angels planes.  Love these

We made it to Destin, Florida which sits on a peninsula on the tip of northern Florida.  Here we stayed at Henderson Beach State Park.  This was by far the hardest park to get into, and we had to move spots for our two nights.  Fantastic wooded area with bike trails leading to the beach walk down to the beach.  The kids were so excited that we jumped on our bikes (leaving Dad to set up camp) and flew to the beach witout suits.  They stripped down to undies and went in.

The walkway to the beach

Play, build, swim, eat, play, build, dig, swim...what a life

The water was this indescribable blue/green color.  It had some algae floating around but clear, clear waters as far as we could see.  This day, we followed what later turned out to be a manatee about 15 feet off the beach.  Just a huge dark shadow that loomed, bobbing up gracefully every once in a while. We followed him down the beach about 2 miles gathering a crowd behind us....all of us wondering what it was.  Bull sharks are frequent sea life here as well as sea turtles who are currently laying eggs on the beach.  We learned that it's a federal offense to touch a sea turtle or her eggs on the beach. 

Elise and mommy enjoying the waters

Tanner, got to love this creative child.  He duct taped his flashlight to his bike, so he could see better at night.  Even though he never rides his bike at night.  But, just in case...

Met another homeschool family of three. All girls.  Not sure why, but we keep meeting these families with only girls. They were very sweet and loved playing at the amazing new pool at the Gulf State Park. 

A view of the beach as a nightly storm was about to hit.

Happy boys exploring airplanes at the museum

Our RV has proven to be a work in progress. We had a terrible sewer smell that kept us up all night the second night in Henderson SP. We thought it was our new site, and so we immediately packed up and moved planning to complain.  However, when we parked at the beach access point (below), we noticed that the smell came back.  Since then, we discovered a busted pipe in the shower.  All that gray water was stinking things up.  Matt is such an amazing handyman, that it is since fixed after several trips to Home Depot.  I feel bad for him every time there is another problem at the wheel and beyond.

By the way, all the signs up here say, "thanks for visiting the real Florida".  I think there is some competition with the southern part of the state.  We must say that we fell in love with northern Florida.  Matt says, no allergies, beaches, warm weather, mountain bike trails....pretty close to paradise for him.

E and I relaxing on our last day in Destin