Month: January 2018

We are staying in Gatlinburg, TN in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are areas of the park that are closed due to snow & ice so we won’t get to do the hikes we really want to do – we may come back to do that later this year.

Yesterday we were planning one day here this time due to the cold, but we discovered that there is a small ski resort. So we decided to stay an extra day & enjoy some family skiing.

We rode the sky-tram up the mountain then explored the ski village before we got to the slopes. Both kids did ski school again & did great! Jamon really mastered the bunny slop & Madi did her first trip on a real ski lift & then did a green run – so proud! Drew & I also got some time to try out the blues & blacks. As Jamon said, “best day EVER” 💗⛷

We are making our way back north & starting our loop back towards home. It’s been a great start to our adventure!

We made our way up the east coast of Georgia and into South Carolina. We stopped for a short visit at the Congaree National Park. Once incorrectly named the Congaree Swamp, it is actually a floodplain and the park protects the last old-growth floodplain forest in the US – an area that once covered 35 million acres of the southeast.

More info on the Park

We arrived late afternoon & took a quick tour of the Visitors Center where we enjoyed the displays then the kids turned in their Junior Ranger workbooks to get their badges. We then took the 2.5 mile boardwalk trail through the forest. The old-growth bald cypress & loblolly pines don’t match the redwoods & sequoias of the West coast, they are massive by East Coast standards. And while I wouldn’t plan a family trip just to visit this small park, but it was a very cool opportunity to see this historic place, and such a cool ecosystem.

We are making our way into North Carolina & Tennessee tomorrow. We are planning a stop at the Smoky Mountains before continuing our journey towards home.

We spent the week at our first aviation show of the year in Sebring, FL. This is a small show but it was a good one this year.

After we got the booth setup on Tue, we spent the rest of the days in show mode. We’d get up & get Drew off to work the booth, then the kids & I would work on school in the morning. Then bring lunch to daddy & spend the afternoon at the airfield – touring the grounds, checking out any demos, and “helping” in the booth 🙂

I am grateful for all the new friends we met and how supportive, kind, and patient everyone was letting the kids be a part of the show.

Here’s some random pics of the week –

Today we traveled north from Melbourne to the Kennedy Space Center. We were all so excited after seeing the ULA launch on Friday night. We only had the one day so we wanted to make the most of it.

We started outside looking at all the rockets the powered the early space program.

Took a break to play for a few minutes.

Next we learned about current & future Mars missions.

The space shuttle Atlantis was one of the best parts! It is the actual space shuttle that flew 33 missions into space.

Waiting for the launch simulator. Jamon was just big enough to ride it – everyone had a great time!

Memorial to Challenge & Columbia, and to honor all those that lost their lives serving our important space programs.

To be honest, I shed more than a few tears at the memorial. I remember seeing the Columbia as a young child before the Challenge tragedy. Even though I was only 5, I remember the Challenger well and how sad I was. This was my first time seeing the memorial, and I was overwhelmed.

We didn’t get to do the bus tours out to the launch sites. Even though we really wanted to see the Falcon Heavy, we were all tired & hungry. We finished up the day at a great seafood grill in Port Canaveral watching big cruise ships go by.

Tomorrow we are off to Sebring to get setup for the trade show.

~Drew

Ok, so the pic isn’t much, BUUUUUT…I have always wanted to see a rocket / shuttle launch. Tonight, we just so happen to be in Melbourne, FL and there was a ULA Launch! To be completely honest, I am hoping to see the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch before we leave Florida. The Falcon Heavy test fire is supposed to happen tomorrow, but there is not yet a date scheduled for the launch. Anyway, watching the ULA launch tonight was amazing! Here is a link to the ULA launch site: ULA Launch

I set a timer before dinner so we could watch the YouTube feed and then go out watch the launch. I setup the camera (even though I didn’t expect it to take any sort of reasonable picture) and we all went out with binoculars to see it. We watched as it climbed across the sky and disappeared to the East. The only disappointment was that we couldn’t hear any sound.

Tonight was definitely a special event for me. I remember seeing my first space shuttle when I was three, only took me me 33 more years to see a space launch.

I’m sure that soon enough Cair will post some great pics of me and the kids freezing to death on the beach today, so…I’ll let you go for now and you can look forward to more of her great posts and pics!

~Drew

We got settled in a new campsite – here’s the view from the back of our camper 🌅

We spent the afternoon kayaking & exploring the mangrove covered shoreline of Biscayne Bay.

We also tried to spot some manatees out in the sea grass of the bay but the water was too murky today

Also stopped for some more park play-time after lunch

It was a gorgeous day for our airboat ride & visit to the alligator farm.

The Everglades National Park is a vast park of marshes, estuaries, and mangroves. It is the only place where alligators & crocodiles are both native.

More info on the Park

We also got some time this afternoon to play at a local park & then stop at the visitors center to finish-up another Junior Ranger badge.

Yesterday was a bit too cloudy & windy for our airboat ride in the Everglades. So today we took a quick drive into the Biscayne National Park.

This park protects the marine life of the coral reef & is 95% water.

More info on the park

We toured the visitors center then finish up our Junior Ranger activities. We stopped to play in the sand & made some friends from France vacationing here for a few weeks.

We are going to try again to do the airboat ride tomorrow then maybe do some kayaking in the Biscayne Bay on Wed.

Got a lil morning swim before we load up & head out of the Keys