Our whole family loves the Florida Keys, I hope to retire there one day with a boat. We have travel down at least once a year. Usually we drive and that way we can take all of our gear, fishing stuff, skim boards, etc. We have also taken the Autotrain down from Washington D.C. and you can read a review of that here. In the past, we have helped many of our friends with their vacation planning to the Keys and so I decided to finally go on and post my list of favorite places.  I would also like to say that I am not affiliated in any way with the places I am recommending.

These are as you drive down from Miami -

Sunshine Market on Tavernier Key - This Cuban gem is on the left as you are driving down to Key West in a yellow building. The coffee is wonderful and the to-go foods are great.

Home Away Islamorada/Tavernier Vacation House - We loved renting this house, it was beautifully decorated, had an amazing kitchen, we could park our boat right out front and the owner is a delight. We have rented several times through both Home Away and VRBO and we have had a great experience each time.

Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant at the huge Bass Pro Shop on Islamorada - The food is very good and it is a beautiful location to take photos at sunset. It is also fun when they feed the tarpon, grouper, and HUGE lemon sharks that come right up in the middle of the dockside restaurant to eat. The Bass Pro Shop is also amazing and they give great fishing advice.

Robbies of Islamorada- It is great spot to hire a fishing charter, go out on their night time party boat, and their largest attraction is allowing people to feed GIANT tarpon from their dock. There are also cute little open-air shops.

Indigo Reef and Coral Lagoon on Marathon- We love staying here too. You can park your boat right out in front of your townhouse, they are beautifully decorated, have wonderful linens and great kitchens. If you sign up for their emails you can get significantly discounted rates.

Bahia Honda State Park - This my daughter’s favorite place on earth! The beach is beautiful and one of the only real beaches in the Keys. It is perfect for skim boarding. The fishing from the jetty under the Seven-Mile Bridge is also fabulous!

Big Pine Key Deer Watching - You can almost always find some of the endangered tiny Key Deer on back roads at dusk.

On Key West -

Mangia Mangia - A restaurant with great Italian food that has been there since we honeymooned in 1993. It seems to be a little more of a local place and away from the craziness of Duval Street.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park Beach - This another gem of a beach in the Keys. It is very clean and you can snorkel right from the beach.

Mel Fisher Treasure Museum - Who doesn’t love treasure? The Mel Fisher story is wonderful and well worth going to see first hand.

Truman Annex - The homes in the Truman Annex are the epitome of the Florida Keys to me. It is one of the most charming neighborhoods in the U.S.

Parrot Key Resort - These are great townhouse style vacation rentals that also have wonderful linens, great kitchens and are beautifully decorated.

The Mermaid & the Alligator B&B - This B&B is another great example of Key West architecture. We even stayed here on our honeymoon in 1993.

Natural Bridge is an amazing rock bridge that soars 20 stories above your head. Its formation is believed to have begun when a cavern collapsed and left a stone expanse that was slowly carved out by water from the Cedar Creek. If you find yourself traveling through the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, you’ll want to make a stop at Natural Bridge to see this wonder of nature.

When you arrive at Natural Bridge don’t let the parking lot fool you. A large billboard, a plastic sculpture of a cowboy riding a dinosaur and a building housing a wax museum, will greet you. Tickets for Natural Bridge are purchased inside the welcome center, where you will also find a large gift shop. With tickets in hand, you head down stone stairs beside Cascade Creek to the entrance of Natural Bridge and the creek-side trail.

The walk under the rock bridge is breathtaking. It’s hard to believe that a creek really carved away this much stone. During your visit, take the time to continue down the trail to see the Monacan village complex. The Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia has constructed a living history village that highlights life as it would have been 300 years ago along the Cedar Creek. After our visit to the village, we continued to walk down the trail even further on our way to Lace Falls. It was quite a walk down and back, but it was beautiful day and the kids had a great time playing on the edge of the creek as we enjoyed all Natural Bridge had to offer.  Below is also a little snake we saw along the way.

I went with my extended family May 13th-15th to the annual reenactment of the Raid on Martin’s Station. There are similar events at the park all summer long and almost every month throughout the year, but the this is the biggest. Wilderness Road State Park is in far southwest Virginia. The park is 310 acres that lie beside the Wilderness Road, a route carved by Daniel Boone in 1775 that followed a buffalo migration trail and opened America’s first western frontier. Martin’s Station is a replica of a colonial frontier fort that was on this site in 1775. Park officials brag that it is the most authentically reconstructed fort in the United States. The three-day event has more than 500 re-enactors, including Shawnee and Cherokee warriors (who were my kid’s favorite) and men, women and children (who were adorable) settlers.

I had never been to a reenactment and I wasn’t sure what I would think, but I knew my kids would love it. I think there is something for everyone. My father has a sincere appreciation for the authenticity the reactors strive for in everything they do and really enjoyed sharing that with us. Other than the other visitors to the site and the cars in the parking lot, there is nothing modern to be seen. It was a wonderful step back in time that brings history alive. Even the coffee shops and vendors in the 18th century Market Fair, serve on tin and there is no plastic anywhere.

My children and my nephew absolutely loved the Indians, their camp and watching them creep through the woods and across the field during the raid. They even told my dad, whom I think would enjoy being a re-enactor, they would dress up and come along to more of these if he would join the Indians. But, I don’t think he’s ready to join sides with the Indians just yet.

My mom, sister and I loved seeing how the re-enactors authentically prepare their meals in their camps. I think it’s a secret contest amongst them to see who can have the best food. A group of about 9 men had ribs, pies, greens, stuffing and salad. They were the winners in the secret contest that day! Although, I think there wives must have helped with a lot of prep before they got there.

I could also appreciate how authentic the camps were. There were no air mattresses, mosquito netting, or coolers anywhere. I have since found out that the coolers are hidden in crates. The men in the first picture below have an actual birch bark canoe they made.  One of the re-enactors told us how the night before that had to get cosy under a lean-to belonging to two people they had never met before during a sudden rain storm. I think I would only be happy camping in the actual fort, maybe!

The two reenactments of raids of the fort were enjoyed by everyone. You see the Indians sneak through the fields, capture the women caught outside the fort (of course!), fire original muskets and a cannon, burn down sections of the fort, and negotiate the return of the women.

I know there are reenactments in many places but the beauty of Wilderness Road State Park and Cumberland Gap is amazing. The town of Cumberland Gap is also very charming. There is only one restaurant, Webb’s Country Kitchen,  that serves great country cooked meals (we ate there 4 times that weekend) and it is quite funny to see the groups of re-enactors there having dinner. Early one morning, my four year-old nephew peeked out the window of our hotel only to see an Indian in the parking lot!

The iris comes with a lot of history.  The flower dates all the way back to Greek mythology.  It was believed that the Greek goddess Iris was the messenger of the gods and the link between heaven and earth.  The word iris itself is the Greek word for a rainbow.

And, irises really do come in almost every color possible.  There are different shapes and types, as well.   You’ll find bearded iris, Siberian iris and my new favorite the Japanese iris. They are very easy to grow and typically bloom in the spring.  Take a drive around town or out into the country and you’ll see them growing.  Blue irises are the most common, but they also come in white, yellow, maroon, orange and black.  Look for plants to add to your garden at your local nursery or farmers’ market.

Near Sumter, SC is the beautiful Swan Lake Iris Garden.  The lake is home to all eight types of the world’s swans including swans from Asia, Australia, England and South America.   Every Memorial Day Weekend they celebrate the Sumter Iris Festival.  The 3-day festival includes concerts, an art and craft show, a golf tournament, a flower show, a food tasting, the crowning of the Iris Festival king and queen, and a number of contests and kids activities.

Last weekend I trekked with my entire family down to Cumberland Gap, TN to see a reenactment of the Raid at Martin’s Station. I will write about the raid in a few days, I need to sort through the 500 pictures I took! While we were at the ranger station, one of the park rangers told me about a great hike with kids a few miles up the road to a large cave with a 1 meter round skylight in the top of the cave. My son overheard him and was dying to check it out, unfortunately I only had my Dansko clogs with me. The trail was beautiful leading up to the cave and except for having to be very careful not to roll my ankle, not a bad hike in clogs.  I loved seeing the running cedar growing all along the trail.

I was shocked when we got to the cave how big it was. It was great to listen to a school group of kids who were thrilled to crawl around in the dark. I would have been fine to have hiked up there in clogs, had I had not decided to crawl around in the dark cave. I managed to step into two feet of very cold water in a lake in the cave. I had a very squishy shoe for the rest of the weekend.

It was a great hike in beautiful weather that I am so glad we decided to take, even if one of us didn’t have the right shoes.

Tip- if you want to hike on top of the cave and crawl in through the skylight, as you are looking at the cave from the outside, hike up from the left side and it is a very easy hike.  My kids loved it!

Spring flowers are blooming everywhere.  There are wildflowers, daffodils and poppies in parks, backyards and along back roads across the country.  There are also many, many kinds of flowering trees.

Here in Virginia our native trees, the wild pear, redbud, and dogwood, are all in bloom.  A slow drive through town and out into the country provides an even greater assortment of blooming trees. There are star magnolias, weeping cherry and orchards full of peach, plum and apple trees.

I have been carrying my camera around with me to capture some of the blooms in their full glory. Here are a few of my favorite flowers from trees.

We are only a few weeks away from “Historic Garden Week” here in Virginia.  Each year, in early spring, amazing gardens are opened to the public to visit and enjoy all across the state.  Gardens tours include historic plantations, well known Virginians’ homes, brand new gardens and lovely old neighborhoods in cities all across the state.

This year, Historic Garden Week is April 17th through April 25th. There are more than three-dozen garden tours in cities and communities across Virginia to choose from. There are country gardens, modern gardens, huge gardens and pocket-size gardens, as well. If you live in Virginia, make sure to set aside a whole day, because it is hard to see more than 4 gardens in one day. If you don’t live in Virginia, now’s the time for a special trip to the Commonwealth.  You’ll get to enjoy the peak of Virginia’s springtime color in amazing gardens from the mountains to the ocean.

After being inspired by Cathy’s story about teaching her children to snowboard, I took my kids to Wintergreen for the last snow of the year and their first adventure in snowboarding.

One of the tips Cathy gave me was the importance of kids wearing helmets when they are snowboarding.  A doctor friend had told her that he could fix broken arms and broken legs but a head injury was a whole different matter.  Cathy let me know that the regular snowboard rental fee didn’t cover helmets, but that I could rent them from the resort. I thought I would save a bit of money and bring the children’s skateboarding helmets for them to wear, instead.   But as I was headed out the door my husband said that we should rent the helmets from the ski shop.  Boy was he right.

I now have a much better understanding of why different sports have different helmets.   The snowboarding helmet looks a bit like a motorcycle helmet. It fits snugly to the head and has a protective part that comes down around to cover the ears.  The back of the helmet is lower on the head and the front comes down to just above the eyebrows.  A skateboard helmet sits on top of the head, a bit like a bowl. A friend told me that a skateboard helmet should fit firmly enough to have a child lean over and have the helmet stay on – even when the chinstrap is not tightened.

Towards the end of our snowboarding day, my son was feeling more confident than his new skills allowed and he lost control, heading really fast down the slope.  He slammed into a wooden fence hitting his board first and then his head.  After the ski patrol had looked him over and sent him on his way, I saw the gash the fence had left in the very front of his helmet.  Had he not been wearing the snowboarding helmet, I would have met the ski patrol at the hospital.

I now fully appreciate that a snowboard helmet is for snowboarding and a skateboard helmet is for skateboarding.  The right equipment for the right sport!

I think this year I was even more excited to see all of the bulbs start to sprout and the days get warmer. The snow was a ton of fun, but after while it was just turning into a cold long winter.

For those of us on the east coast, remember this?

As I was working around my yard today, I remembered that last spring I had felt very clever taking pictures of all of my bulbs and where they are located. I had planned last fall to fill in with more bulbs and to try to divide some of them that no longer seem to bloom. Unfortunately, last fall I forgot all about planting and dividing the bulbs. This year it is in my calendar and I am not going to forget. Here are a few of my photos, let me know if you try it too and how it works out.

I also have to brag a little. I have been meaning to build for a very long time, or rather have my husband build, a small rock retaining wall near my driveway. Well, today I did it while he ran an errand and it only took me an hour or so. I wish I had a before photo of what a soupy mess it used to be there.

My kids had been given kites for their birthdays over the years. We have quite a collection, but I admit that we have never really flown them. That is until now. All it took was one windy day, a nearby field, two kids and four kites and we had our own kite-flying day.

Now, this could also have been a tearing-streaming-down-the-face day, but luckily it wasn’t. Well it almost was when my daughter held up her beautiful box kite to take a good look down the center pole. That’s when the wind moved the kite and it poked the center pole right into her eye.  She wasn’t hurt at all and actually laughed at herself.  I was so glad, because I never saw that potential injury coming.

All in all it was a fun day. And if you are wondering why four kites. I thought if it wasn’t fun we would surely lose one or two and then…. ta da, all the kites would be gone. But instead, the kites came home with us to be enjoyed another day.  Maybe we’ll head to one of the nearby kite festivals and try our luck, again.

44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival

Annual Georgetown International Kite Festival

National Kite Month Kickoff

Go Fly a Kite at the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center

Southern Oregon Kite Festival

Check out these images courtesy of the 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival!