photo friday: ochlockonee river state park, fl

by GBK Gwyneth Posted on 11 May 2012
ochlockonee river - 4 apr 2012

For our Gulf Coast Spring Break trip, the girls and I spent two nights camping at Ochlockonee River State Park. While this park did not meet our spring break criteria of being near the beach, it was the closest I could find after waiting until March to plan our trip.

After slamming on the brakes and almost missing the turn in, we drove to our assigned site and set up — we never saw a ranger or actually registered with the campground. After two nights at an RV-centric campground, it was nice to come to a quiet (but full) campground of a mix of tents and trailers. The facilites were excellent, but the squirrels were persistent, even the white (not albino) ones.

And were we ever glad to have brought our bikes! Chloe biked all around the campground, then we went for a couple of longer rides on the “scenic drive”. The freedom to bike and bike made it spring break perfection for Chloe.

Though there is a swimming hole and boats for rent, we stayed out of the water, preferring to bike and explore.

foggy morning - 4 apr 2012
white squirrel - 4 apr 2012
scenic drive - 4 apr 2012
river - 4 apr 2012

This is an entry for Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday.

Posted in Camping, Florida, Parks and Farms, photo friday | 1 Comment

not trip planning

by GBK Gwyneth Posted on 10 May 2012

For the first time in what seems like forever, I am not in trip-planning mode. I’m not studying maps. I’m not searching for what I want to do while “there”. I’m not looking into lodging.

Camille finishes classes next week; Chloe finishes school the week after. And, because of finances/vacation being drained by our trip to the Bahamas and moving, we have no big summer adventure planned. Last summer, we spent 5+ weeks on our epic trip out west. The summer before was our adventure to Turkey. 2009 was 2+ weeks in France. 2009 was 2+ weeks in Japan. And so on.

But this summer, beyond spending time at the cabin and a trip to St. Louis, I have nothing planned. Nothing. In some ways, it is a relief to not be stressed about the planning. On the other hand, I miss the excitement of getting all the plans pulled together.

I really do love to travel. But April, April was rough. The few days we spent at home were mostly filled with trip preparations. And I’ve yet to recover from it. I just don’t have the energy to work on planning something else at the moment. And I need some slow weeks at home to get organized. And simply think. And get back on track with exercising regularly.

Perhaps I’ll get a head start on planning for Summer 2013. Hopefully by then we’ll be a little more recovered from our move. And all that regular exercise will have paid off and make it possible for me to knock a big item off of my bucket list.

Hadrian's Wall

(Somehow the fact that I’m procrastinating packing by writing this slipped my mind. I am, in fact, supposed to be getting ready to go to LEAF tomorrow. It’s not an epic adventure, but definitely an annual camping trip that we all enjoy.)

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