Spring Break 2015!!! I am still determined to get a tank-top tie-dyed SB shirt one year, but I guess we’ll have to keep that dream on hold! (Side note: speaking of tank-tops, I really did see a guy walking through New Orleans on this trip wearing a tank that said “Swole Patrol.” Come on, man!) Anyway, let’s get on to the camping highlights (and lowlights).
Kelly-> On our way! Both kids do really well in the car, basically because its all they've known with all of our Texas trips. I would LOVE to say I am the mom that plays games and reads books in the car but lets be real... As long as Carter has a device of some sort, snacks, milkshakes in this case, and a good nap then we are good to go! Caroline has her moments but we just keep handing toys to her, and so far we aren't killing her brain cells with devices! Look at the weather lineup for the week- can't get any better than that. #aviators
Tuesday morning finally got here and I finished loading the truck about 11:00am. Yes, that’s right … I said truck! HUGE development! My dad was overly gracious enough to allow us to borrow his truck for the trip! It was so nice having something that could easily haul the camper, and that looked good! :) It’s pretty rough on a man’s pride when he is setting up his camper in the woods while his minivan is parked right next to him. Needless to say the truck upped my “tough woodsman” persona. ***Along with his beard that he has kept since Christmas as I challenged him to be the principal with a beard! -Kelly Anyway, we left about 12:15, made good time, arrived around 5:30, and then the fun began … oh wait, I mean then it all fell apart…
The truck:)
***Reminder if you are reading this, our purpose of this blog is to help us keep track of details... good, bad, and UGLY. Until we are able to upgrade to a camper trailer, its probably never going to be smooth. But hey makes for a more interesting blog right?! -KC
If you have followed our past adventures you know that the first evening/night is always brutal for us. I’m not sure why we are cursed on the first night but that just seems to be how it goes. We rolled into the park and moved to our site. It wasn’t bad looking but it also wasn’t what we were hoping for. We had a few more trees and a little more seclusion in mind. With most state parks, you can simply drive around the park, find another spot, and then let the front office know the next morning. WIth this knowledge in mind, we drove around the 6-7 loops and surveyed what was open. Of course, Kelly and I had much different thoughts on what was acceptable. I said this spot and she said that spot … and we danced this routine for about 20 minutes until we both said (almost simultaneously), “you pick!” ***Actually I am pretty sure I yelled at one point "Don't freakin go to spot #7" KC We settled on a spot that was about 200 feet from our original reservation, but this one backed up to the woods and seemed to provide more tree coverage. (Tree coverage is important to us pop-uppers because we prefer not to run our AC on full blast all the time. It is much better if you are in the shade and can zip open the screens of the campers. Much much more pleasant that way.)
***What is there to argue about choosing a spot you might ask? Is it shaded (especially in the summer)?, but are those trees bringing bugs? Is there a fire ring/pit? Picnic table? Close to the bath house? Level of privacy?! Proximity to the playground. Important stuff!!!
***What is there to argue about choosing a spot you might ask? Is it shaded (especially in the summer)?, but are those trees bringing bugs? Is there a fire ring/pit? Picnic table? Close to the bath house? Level of privacy?! Proximity to the playground. Important stuff!!!
Next, I rolled down my window to begin backing into the spot. It seemed like the moment I cracked the window that about 15-20 gnats entered and took up residence on my face. It happened quickly so I rolled up the window and thought nothing of it. Big mistake. Me, Kelly, Carter, and Caroline then got out of the truck to begin the set up process and found ourselves in WWIII with these special bugs people call “no see-ums.” As Kelly says, I certainly saw them because they were all over my daughter’s hair! ***To say the least. Caroline just had a blow out, so between trying to change her diaper, keep her hands out of it, keep her from rolling over, keep the bugs off of her hair, face, and diaper... as well as off my face. You get the frustration! Donald laughed about it all weekend and kept mocking me saying "I'm going to claw my face off!" I must admit that this was one of the most stressful and difficult moments we have had camping. The bug spray was in the camper, so to get to it I had to finish the process. Kelly was debating whether or not to get the kids back in the truck, but then we realized the bugs were in there too. All in all, we were losing, and doing so badly. We walked quickly, made odd movements with our bodies, slapped at our legs/faces/arms/heads/anywhere these bugs may attack, and cursed these bugs we weren’t supposed to see. A nice man from Maine who was parked in the spot next to us had quite a laugh watching us fight off these pests, all while holding a bug zapper and a citronella candle. Thanks for sharing…
Alas, the camper was set up and the bugs were retreating, kids were coated with bug spray and had long sleeves and pants on. It was still daylight so the bad stuff was over and we were about to have a great vacation. I had one more hook-up on the camper and we were off and running! I connected the hose to the camper, turned on the water, ran inside real quick to make sure the faucet worked on the sink, and was greeted by a floor full of water. What????!!!! Why?????!!! I ran (some say I was a lightning streak, but I guess it’s debatable) to the faucet to turn it off and then immediately began drying the camper. I’m still not sure what’s wrong with it but we’ll find out as soon as the mechanic tells me it’ll be about $300 to fix. Joy.
While Donald was setting up and dealing with everything- we headed to the playground which was great! If you can' beat the bugs join em! Sidenote- when Carter gets really focused he sticks his tongue out, which is evident in quite a few pictures posted on the blog today!
The night ended with no more tragedy, and surprisingly enough the kids slept perfect on night one. We all went to bed around 9:30pm and woke up ready to go at 7:00am. After enjoying coffee and muffins, Carter and I walked to the front office to check in. I politely told them we had landed in a different spot and she politely told me I would have to move. What????!!!! Why?????!!! Is this really necessary??? This would have made a great April Fool’s joke since it was April 1 but the park wasn’t into joking apparently. So … we loaded everything up, semi-closed the camper, and moved 200 feet to a location we weren’t happy about.
Everyone must know about these muffins from Costco- thanks Lisa! As you can see about as big as Carter's face and you get a dozen for about $7. I LOVE cooking on there trips and doing different things, but this was pretty nice having these every morning.
As I re-set up the camper in another spot, a nice man named Phil and his grandsons (ages 6 and 4) watched the process and held a conversation with me that brightened my mood. We talked about many different things, including his 35-year career as a firefighter in New Orleans. He then introduced his grandsons to Carter and they became instant camp friends! Carter spent the remainder of our trip looking for his buddies and wondering when they would be coming back to our camper.
Carters buddies!
Next, we decided to head out to the beach for the first time. Phil told me earlier to turn left out of the campground and drive about half a mile to find the best beach spot. He was right because we were able to find a nice stretch of sand for the kids to play on. Carter and Caroline had an absolute blast. They played in the sand and the water, which was surprisingly not too cold. Carter built many sandcastles while thankfully Caroline did not try to eat any sand. It was a lot of fun for us to watch them enjoy the beach so much. After about two hours of sun and sand we headed back to the camper for sandwiches and naps. I took a little bike ride down the park’s nature trail and found a cool pavillion right on the marsh. Full disclosure: I saw gator tracks in the mud and got pretty scared that there was a gator nearby watching me and waiting to chomp me as I left the pavillion. I ran pretty quickly back to my bike and then pedaled like a champ out of that trail. :)
Carter being Carter and Caroline being Caroline! They could stay out there forever!
Carter is ALL about running and how fast he's getting! So there were a lot of races this trip! I lost this time;(
That evening we went into town to get some necessities at Wal-Mart and then landed at the camper for a simple evening. Since we basically stay in a mini-room together we all have to go to bed at the same time. Tonight it was somewhere around 9:00 and once again everyone slept through the night pretty well.
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| A look at us hangin at the camper |
Top left to right- Carter just hanging out, Caroline pretending like she eats well- because she doesn't. At all. Bottom- Caroline and I had a great bike ride. Our extravagant dinner of turkey sandwiches. We did NO fun cooking this trip bc we decided not to pack food to save packing space. Big mistake- won't do that again. Our grocery bill was huge with necessities so we did not buy extra and no fun cooking. This has been Donald's dream that we don't do anything extravagant but how much fun is that?! Last pic- this tetherball has been the greatest purchase! It has helped a lot during both kids 18 month wandering stage! Keeps them entertained:)
Day 3 of this journey was set for a trip to New Orleans (one hour drive)!! I spent some time with Phil the day before and he set us up with a solid plan for parking and for seeing as much as we could in a day. Kelly and I had both spent time in the city but were looking forward to seeing some things together with the kids. We knew we wanted to go to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets so we parked and made it to the cafe about 11:15. It was, as usual, packed. Getting the double jogger into that place without hitting someone was brutal but we made it happen. We all managed to get powdered sugar everywhere and it was a blast!
This sweet man sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to the kids. They loved him!
Next, we moved across the street to Jackson Square and took a few photos. But, our real destination was the Insectarium on Canal Street. It is an entire musuem dedicated to bugs! Since Carter has had some bug phobias we decided this would be a good way to conquer a few of those fears. He and Caroline did great and even had the chance to “pet” a few roaches. Early in the museum visiti, Kelly made a snide remark about how nasty roaches are (which is true) and Zack the Insectarium worker overheard it. He took it upon himself to shed a little light on the intricacies of their wings so as to gain some more respect for the roach, and as he said “prevent (Kelly) from providing bias on this boy.” Man, this dude loves some bugs. All in all, the bug museum was a good call. We all enjoyed it and happened to learn a few things as well.
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| Top left- leaf praying mantis Cool right?! Below that is Mr. Zack who completely called me out when we walked past the hissing cockroaches. I was telling Carter we don't really need to look at those, they are gross! Well Mr. Zack said now hold on just a minute before you bias this young man (too late!). Then he proceeded to get out the cockroach and show us its "cool" butterfly wings that allow it to fly. Hissing cockroach that flies. Awesome. Pic below that is the cockroach motel! And the bottom pic is the attempt of me wanting a good pic with my sweet kiddos before we left. They were clearly over it! |
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| The roach motel YUCK |
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| They love eachother |
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| Carolines little butterfly buddy in the butterfly exhibit. By far the best part! |
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| Carters still watching the butterflies |
We made it home from NOLA around 6:00 and set our sights on a late evening beach run! This was our best decision yet because it was an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was setting, the breeze was pleasant, the water was calm, and the moon was full and on its way up. All in all it was a perfect evening. The kids ran and played more than they had the day before and seemed to really be free and enjoying themselves. We loaded up for the camper about 8:00, stopped for brief showers/rinse-offs, and then put everyone down about 9:30. This time everyone slept well except me! There were a lot of wind gusts during the night and the camper seemed to be in a constant state of shaking. For some reason I was the only one affected! I think it was equivalent to sleeping in a flight simulator but Kelly disagrees. :) ***** OK Donald seems to mix up who slept on what nights. So to set things straight- Caroline had a deep relentless cough the first two nights. And since we are basically in one room divided by curtains I didn't sleep much the first two nights and Carter has his share of sleep talking the first night. Donald does not have recollection of these first two nights- so no I don't have too much pity while he was sleeping in the "flight simulator"???. Third night I actually did sleep while knowing we might blow away because I was that tired. But the kids mostly slept well all trip and lets be honest that's really all that matters to make the trip a success!
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| I was clearly excited about my new tripod and self timer remote! Love it! Caroline- give Daddy back his glasses, he can't see! |
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| Blue-Eyed Girl |
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| Couldn't decide which I liked best! |
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| Some teenagers were hanging out when we got there and left before we left. After they left we noticed they were drawing crosses in the sand for Easter and wrote our kids names in the sand because they heard us playing. Dear Lord, please oh please let our kids be like this when they are teenagers! Train them up in the way they will go and even when they are old they will not depart from it Proverbs 22:6! |
Day 4, our last day at Buccaneer, started with the usual wake up and muffin enjoyment. We quickly got dressed and went straight to the beach for a few final hours of fun. It was just as a fun of a morning as we made more sandcastles and memories. The kids have really taken to the beach and water … it’ll be fun for future beach trips!
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| Hot mess! |
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| Sandcastle racetrack |
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| This is the result of asking for a good pose! |
As always, taking down the camper is not fun. It is stressful and causes me to sweat more than I would like. ;) See ya next time!
Rating: After much consideration, we give this park a: 8.9 Our location wasn't private or shaded, but lack of trees helped with the bugs. Pretty far from home (the way there took us 5.5 hours, on the way back 7+ because of traffic. Different parts of the park were more private than our location. Not all had firepits or picnic tables. Great playground and 2 minute drive from the beach (which was pretty empty during the times we went) took this up pretty high! Also had disc golf course and nature trail. Waterpark will be open in the summer.
