Swamp tour - last of Florida vacation pics

Last pics from vacation that I'll share, at least for now. These were taken at Black Hammock Adventures Air Boat Rides on Lake Jesup which boasts to have the most alligators in any lake in central Florida. This was such a fun day, I've always wanted to take an airboat ride and we finally found one that was a good fit for us. Actually in all it only took four hours from the time we left the condo to the time we got back. I would love to take a longer ride sometime.

I love the swamp. I have always loved spooky things and the swamp seems spooky and peaceful. One of my favorite movies is Passion Fish, it's based down south and has great cinematography of the swamps there plus I love the story. Now that I think about it there are quite a few movies I love that have swamps in them, like The Gift and The Skeleton Key. I know there are more.  I am also addicted to the show Swamp People and The Glades. Of course who didn't like Swamp Thing!

I was concerned about skeeters, since they think I'm a buffet, but honestly, I think we have more mosquitoes in Indiana than I encountered in the swamp or Florida for that matter.

We were posing next to these beautiful parrots and all of a sudden they screeched and I thought they were gonna eat us up! It was so loud and scared us all... lol.

So right away I could tell photographing the scenery was going to be difficult because of the railing but I managed to get a few good ones. The birds were beautiful and so diverse.

We got to see baby alligators in the wild. These were just born in July (it's now September). Captain Joel told us this was her 2nd batch of hatchlings this year.

This is a bird coming out of the water. I thought Daryl was gonna jump out of his skin when it surfaced! haha  He thought it was a snake but first it startled him splashing out like that.

Unfortunately, Asher was not a happy camper. He hated having to wear the life jacket and the ear things he had to wear to cancel the noise, they're not on him at the moment. I thought he was sea sick for a moment, but he's just pouting.

So here is "Firecracker" the baby alligator we got to pet and hold. I was thrilled but Asher refused to hold him. He did pet him though.

I wanted to leave you with a photo that I liked and altered a bit. Spooky, the way I see a swamp :) These trees were amazing. We have a cypress growing next to our lake but you gotta admit it's the moss that adds that special touch. I wish we had that moss up here, I love it.

Ok, no more boring vacation pics (for a while!) haha... thanks for playing along and reliving my vacation with me. Enjoy the day!

Florida Day 2,3,4 and 5!

Day 2, 3, 4 and 5 all neatly wrapped up here. We basically did more beach time but we did bowl one night and then day 5 we went to Disney World's Magic Kingdom for the first time with Asher.

 The hurricane that was way out in the ocean (Maria) had sent us lots of nice big shells that aren't normally easily found. I always take shells home, some day I'll do something with them ;)

 Remnants of sand castles...

Another fine beach day, lots of beautiful sunshine. Later in the week the jellyfish forced us away from the ocean.

 

 There was a funeral procession of sorts one day. I noticed people all lining up and walking into the ocean who were all in normal clothes and not swimsuits and then I noticed they were tossing flowers into the sea. I know it's kinda morbid but I was fascinated by it. I of course immediately thought of my mom and how she just loved the ocean. This would've been something that would have made her smile too. It was touching. Then my mind travels to so many dark corners and I had to direct my attention somewhere else.

Bowling turned out to be fun for the kids... and I swear the longest set ever.

So day 5 was Disney and Asher honestly wasn't that thrilled with it but he did like the roller coaster Thunder Mountain and the water ride Splash Mountain. He was too small for Space Mountain which was fine, because the first things we got on was Stitch something and he was scared to death when the lights went out. I kept telling him it wasn't real, but he was terrified the poor baby. The one thing I thought he would really like, Swiss Family Robinson, was closed for remodeling. We had about 4 rides stop on us, things just were quitting left and right. They are already celebrating Halloween there so they closed early at 7pm and you had to have a special ticket to get in for that (high dollar $$), so we missed the fireworks which we were really looking forward to, but we were exhausted by then anyway.

More for the last remaining days coming... Oh and if you're just reading this and wonder where the first day is, see it here. Thanks for visiting and reminiscing with me :)

Day 1 of Florida Bliss

My vacations to Florida usually start out like this. Ocean breeze in my nappy hair and no tan on my face. Who knew that it was summer just a week before in Indiana? By late August/early September I suddenly develop a no care attitude for color on my skin. While I think I look better with it, I just don't care. Especially now, since Mom died of skin cancer almost two years now (gasp! 2 years?! wipe tears) But me with my fair skin knows that it's not safe and I always wear sunscreen and have little Asher accustomed to being slathered with it. He knows no other way, thankfully.

So this is Day One...

Ahhh... a tradition for us is to hit the beach first thing, even in the early evening as this was our first Friday and Asher is eagerly running to fetch a bucket of sea water for the very first sand castle!

So this is pretty much my view through out my beach side vacation... I love it. If only you could see the book in my lap, tea at my side and grin on my chubby little face =)

Soon, the cousins start to arrive. Bliss for Asher as I call this frantic happiness. Luckily, he has two that are right about his age, Emma and Abigail ~ two sweet little sisters. So far, we've all vacationed together for years here. What fun memories I hope they will have. At least I have a zillion photos if they don't.

Time for searching the sand to see what the sea along with the help of Hurricane Maria has churned up for us to find!

Exploring and still searching... running here and there. Squeals and shouts abound.

Treasures are quickly discovered. Happiness is found in a sleepy little town called New Smyrna Beach just south of Daytona on the east coast of Florida.

Stay tuned for Day two :)

Back and Ready to Yack!

I'm back and ready to yack! I am downloading 414 pictures from our Florida trip that we just got back from late last night. Actually, I'm surprised I only took 414. I kept thinking, I'm going to post something tonight while I was in Florida, but it just never happened. We kept busy and I was exhausted every night.  I apologize for just disappearing like that! I don't like to announce we're going on vacation for obvious reasons. I had all kinds of things I wanted to share, but it would in turn let it be known we were away.

It was an exhausting trip back, more than normal. We got caught in two traffic jams, one in Atlanta from roadwork and the other right before Chattanooga where there was a terrible wreck involving one truck hitting a bridge support. I'd say they added almost two hours to our normal 13 hour trip.

I've missed 2 Paint Party Friday's and have missed reading all my favorite blogs so I'm ready to get back in the groove refreshed and ready to create some art! I've read some art books and eye candy magazines to recharge my creative batteries. But, right now I've got a lot to unpack and loads and loads of laundry to do so I'll save my stories for now. But I'll be back with my Florida thoughts and pictures :)  I know it's just want everyone wants to hear about... hahaha!

Paint Party Week 25

Paint Party Friday has arrived again. Today I have another work in progress called "Forest Floor" done with metallics and a couple pics of the now finished and framed "Water for Elephant".  See the post for Water for Elephant here.

Forest Floor stage 1

Forest Floor stage 2 work in progress

Forest Floor stage 2 close up work in progress

I was so inspired by one of the paint players last week that I had to go outside and pick up some leaves and create a painting with some natural stamps. I learned as I created and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I have lots more to do to this painting, it really started out as just playing but now I have more of a vision for the piece and will share it as soon as I finish it.

Water for Elephant - finished

Water for Elephant - finished and framed

Thanks for looking :) check out all the Paint Players for inspiration and fantastic eye candy!