I thought I would start 2 slide show series from my trips to the East Coast both in 2018 and 2019. I did a similar post on my other blog (see https://rjanimalvideos.blogspot.com/2020/04/holiday-park-florida-pictures.html), but I thought I would create some slideshows as well. These slide shows will cover the entire 2 trips to the east coast and back. Obviously, there are too many photos to do in one slideshow, so I will be breaking them up into several slide shows, starting with the Florida segment (both for the 2018 and 2019 trips).
In the 2018 trip, my parents actually drove to Florida in February and went to a navy reunion in Pensacola followed with a cruise to the caribbean from Fort Lauderdale. I stayed behind initially, but on the day they got back from the Caribbean, I flew down from Seattle and met up with them in Fort Lauderdale and from there, basically we went on a road trip all the way to Washington DC and then back across country to Snohomish Washingon with various pit stops along the way. In the first slide show is the Florida leg of the trip. After flying to Fort Lauderdale (about a 7 hour flight from Seattle), I met up with my parents and we drove around Fort Lauderdale for a bit before heading to Weston Florida and stayed in a hotel there that night (even had a fox sighting too near the Flanigan's Restaurant, most likely a red fox I saw). We had a busy day the next day. Got up, had breakfast (the hotel we stayed at offered free breakfasts to the guests), and went on an airboat ride at Holiday Park going through part of the Everglades. Even had some alligator sightings (along with other animals) too. We don't get alligators in the wild here in Washington State, so seeing alligators in the wild was a new experience for me. Sure we get bears, cougars, coyotes, and even wolves in some spots (especially eastern Washington north of Spokane as well as the North Cascades National park) here in Washington State, but we don't get alligators in the wild. Oh it was nice and hot when we were there too (definitely a change from Seattle where it was cold and rainy, even snowed a few days before the trip), so the warmer climate did take some adjusting to.
At the end of the Holiday Park boat ride, we got in the car (wasn't able to stay for the alligator show due to time restraints) and drove to Orange Park Florida and visited some old friends from Illinois: Matt Bleich along with his family (Wanda and Auggie). He is also married and has some kids, so I got to meet his new wife Candice as well. Used to hang out with Matt more often when I was still living in Illinois (prior to moving to Washington State in 1994). Eventually my family and I moved to the Seattle area in 1994 (first the Silver Firs community near Everett and eventually my current house in Snohomish). He visited me a few times and I even flew out to Illinois one year (back in 2000) to visit Matt and his family (even went on a camping trip to Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin too). Eventually Matt and his family moved to Orange Park Florida, and he got married to a woman named Candice and they have some kids and some dogs too. They invited us over for dinner so we visited them in Orange Park. Eventually we went back to the hotel and the next day we got back on the road and headed to Georgia and ultimately Charleston South Carolina. Will post about that leg in the next video / post.
I do admit that the Florida segment was pretty short and if I had my way, we would have spent a few extra days in Florida (maybe even see downtown Miami or Key west), but that will probably have to be something for another trip someday (God willing of course). In the 2019 trip to Florida, things were somewhat different (will post about that at some point), as I flew into Jacksonville that time (with a short layover in Charlotte North Carolina along the way) and visited Jax Beach and St Augustine that time around. Didn't visit the Bleichs that year (wanted to, but those plans never materialized as we had other plans that time).
Well, that is all for now. Stay tuned for the next video.
By the way, this trip officially marked my first time visiting Florida since moving out to Washington State. I do recall at least 2 trips to Florida when I was a kid (used to have a grandfather on my dad's side that lived near Venice, Tampa Area) and even visited DisneyWorld on both of those trips, but that was a long time ago, and those times we only stayed along the west side of Florida, so visiting the east side of Florida (Ft Lauderdale, Weston, and Jacksonville area) was a new experience for me. By the way, Interstate 95 doesn't really offer views of the Atlantic ocean between Ft Lauderdale and Jacksonville, so if you want to be closer to the water, well you can always go either highway A1A or highway 1 instead as scenic routes. Sure they are longer, but it is an option if you aren't in a hurry to get to Jacksonville.
Comments
Post a Comment