Miami, Ft Lauderdale and Key Largo

Week three in Florida we made our way to the Atlantic side of the state to Miami! I thought it was warm in Tampa and Venice but, the heat was turned up in Miami! The ocean was Caribbean quality blue and warm. Matt and I explored the beaches from Ft Lauderdale down to South Beach and all the way down to Key Largo.

In Key Largo we took a boat out to the reef and snorkeled the day away! It was so fun to see pretty coral, fish and my favorite- a turtle!! We went out with Reef Roamer and it was very affordable and fun. I didn't get any snorkel photos but I did get a photo of one of the best RV spots I've ever seen-

We only spent a day in Key Largo and there's so much more to see in the keys! I hope we make it back again another time.

In Miami we walked up and down the beach in front of all the south beach hotels. It was beautiful! One afternoon to everyone on the beache's surprise 3 manatees swam by. A dark mass started swimming parallel to the beach and everyone on the beach got up to see what it could possibly be. I thought it might be a shark but it was too big for that. Finally the dark mass surfaced and three manatees popped their heads out of the water to get a breath. It was neat to see the manatees but even better to see a whole beach full of people get up to watch something swim along the beach.

Everyone looking at the manatees! Look at that beautiful water!!

Here is a pup after a swim on south beach, it was pretty cute!

Our campground was in Ft Lauderdale and we found a church to go to for Easter. We released butterflies after the service! There's a monarch in that triangle I'm holding!

We loved south Florida and there's still more down there to see! Hopefully we can visit again and soak up some more of that beautiful sun! We are now headed north for Savannah GA!

Tahoe Tuesday

Do you see this pink toy? It's my favorite toy and I've played with it everyday since I came home with Matt and Michelle.

Well, yesterday I got a new toy and it is absolutely my favorite! I loooove feathers and this toy not only has lots of feathers but it makes bird chirping sounds when I play with it! I played with it all day and it made me so so sleepy after playing so hard.

Sooo sooo sleepyyyyy.

Venice Beach

Florida is such a great state because of all the pretty coastline! It's a wonderful state for RV'ers because campgrounds are plentiful and the beautiful beach is never far away.

The most unique thing Venice beach has is tons of shark teeth!! 

We read online that you could easily find shark teeth on the beach so, we went out and tried it. We found maybe 30 teeth per hour of looking and it was really fun to find them! The teeth you find in Venice (which is the shark teeth capitol woohoo!) are fossils of shark teeth which makes them over 10,000 years old!!

After our first day of shark tooth hunting it was pretty hard for us to do much else. I snorkeled a little but we mostly went to the beach everyday and hunted for shark teeth. The beaches were again beautiful with pretty water! One day while beach combing a few dolphins swam by! We also saw stingrays almost everyday swimming up and down the beach, doing flips and entertaining the tourist.

One day when we arrived on the beach there was a huge volleyball tournament going on.  Probably 50+ games all going on at once, mostly 2 on 2, and they were Good!

When we weren't at the beach we enjoyed going to a farmers market, the yummy produce is finally back!

And I made beignets for breakfast. Did I mention that we fell in love with beignets while we were in New Orleans?  We also bought a small deep fryer in New Orleans.

While in Venice there was a blood moon. Did you go outside to see it? During the day the sun did something strange too, check out the ring around the sun!

Lastly, the RV park we stayed in was full of Park Models which are pretty much mobile homes that snowbirds live in for the winter. If you don't know, a huge population of people that live in Canada, the Northeast and the super cold northern states migrate south to Florida to escape the cold each winter. Most of these folks are retired.  They come when the weather at home gets cold and go back when it starts warming up. They live in RVs or park models. It looks like such a happy way of life!  People really take care of their little homes with nice landscaping and decorations.  Here's what a typical park model looks like.



Even if you can't come live in Florida when the weather gets too cold it's nice to know that there is a place in the USA that is warm pretty much all the time in case you need a vacation. Come back in a few days to read about our trip to Miami!

Beach Bum Central - Clearwater Beach Florida

Matt and I have dedicated the month of April to exploring the beaches of Florida. I haven't been great at keeping the blog updated with our current location because I've been a little busy exploring the sights and sand around Florida. I've become somewhat of a beach bum and think I need a banana daiquiri every night after dinner.

After leaving the Florida Panhandle (which we love and have been to many times) we headed to Clearwater Florida which we had never been to before.

The beaches in and around Clearwater are beautiful!! There is blue water and white sand. What else matters? It's pretty and tropical. Oh and the sea shells are great there too! We picked up lots of pretty swirly shells.

If you ever watch Beach Front Bargains on HGTV, this condo was featured in the Clearwater episode!  We completely just happened upon it while walking the beach, recognized it immediately.

Stay tuned for more of our beach adventures later this week!

Tahoe Tuesday

Sometimes I'll be sleeping soundly in my bed-

Then all of the sudden I hear a camera take my picture. It's like every time I sleep I get my photo taken!

Sometimes I get sooooo hyper that I just loose control and do what Matt and Michelle call "the Halloween Kitty".

And sometimes I'll be hiding in a bag which I love to do and someone will shake my food bag. I always emerge from wherever I am when I hear my food bag because I love food!!

Thanks for stopping by and seeing my many facial expressions this week!

Sun N Fun Fly in and Airshow

Sun N Fun! Wow what an experience! Matt has always been an aviation enthusiast and he's starting to turn me into one too.

Fly ins and Airshows are such a unique experience. It's a place where you meet seemingly normal people own some sort of airplane and fly it for fun! It's also a place where there's an airshow which included airplanes doing dangerous but entertaining flips in the air and jets roaring across the sky doing things I never thought a jet could do!

The Blue Angels performed at the airshow, talk about igniting my American pride!

The day started early. We arrived at Sun N Fun around 8:30 am. We walked around all of the personal aircraft. We saw all of the home built aircraft (people build their own planes and then use them, who would have thought?).

Somebody built this plane in their garage and now fly it around!

Notice the airplane over the Fiat? This trailer was pulled behind a motorhome. Talk about having all the toys with you!

Next we walked around all of the military planes.

Then we checked out the booths and vendors.

Personal jet for sale in case you need a jet.

Next we enjoyed lunch. Then we sat down to enjoy the airshow!

The crowd watching the show.

Airplanes writing in the sky!

Notice the huge explosion at the bottom of the photo? The war planes did some faux bomb dropping for the crowd.

After the airshow we walked around a little more watching the light sport aircraft take off and land.

We had dinner and then went back to our seats for the night airshow which consisted of planes flying in loops with fireworks shooting off of them and a fire works show! We left Sun N Fun around 11pm! It was a long fun day in the sun!

Have you ever been to an airshow? I'm sure this won't be our last!

Tahoe Tuesday

Hi! As you can tell from the last blog post, we're in Florida! Matt and Michelle keep going to the beach without me. I keep getting in the cooler in hopes that they'll get the hint that I'd like to go too!

Until they let me come to the beach with them I'll keep playing with my toys-

Thanks Aunt Dorothy for my toy!

And sitting like a little human in the chair.

30A is A-Ok!

Have you heard of 30A? It's a section of beaches in the Florida Panhandle on HWY 30A. This is a stretch of perfect, cute and picturesque little beach towns with a mixture of brand new housing communities and a few older ones. Overall the area feels like vacation. I saw a t-shirt that said "I Crave 30A". I can see why this stretch of Florida beaches is a vacation mecca for many people!

After leaving New Orleans, Matt and I drove across Mississippi and Alabama hugging the coast. It's fun to see how the coast changes from swamp land to the beaches of Biloxi back to to a mixture of swamp and beach in Alabama. On our drive we saw 2 alligators just off the side of the road in Alabama!

We arrived to 30A and Matt's parents met us there. Here are some photos from our time in 30A-

A snow cone out of an Airstream in Seaside. This is a size small by the way!

Pretty Beach!

One of the new housing developments. The area is beautiful and the houses are over the top.

This guy has a water jet coming from his feet and the jet ski is following him around. It's alot more minimal than jet packing but would probably be alot harder to stay in the air!

Panama City Beach

Matt's parents enjoying some Korbel on the beach.

Pretty New Orleans Style home! I'm currently obsessed with New Orleans style after going there.

Some local art

After the beaches of 30A we're rounding the panhandle of Florida and heading to the Tampa area to check out the beaches of Clearwater!