USS Alabama, Mobile, AL.

While driving along the coast, we noticed a large battleship in the port of Mobile, AL. We craned our heads to see why it was there, only to notice some strategically parked tanks and airplanes too.

“Can we visit that ship?” Dear Husband asked as I consecutively searched my phone for the answer.

“Yup, we can, it’s the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship, but there is more on their site and it looks highly recommended from other links.”

“Do you boys want to go see it? We don’t have but a second to decide, the exit is right here,” we asked the boys rapidly.

“Yes,” they cried and we made the exit just in time.

We figured this would be a few hour stop on our way, the perfect break from a long drive. We were anxious to see the ship first, and with “map” in hand we boarded. The map was actually numbers that correspond to painted arrows throughout the ship. That ship was huge and everything looked really similar so frankly we got quite confused often. White or black pipes overhead, metal doors, tiny signs, more pipes, more doors, and so on. We’d poke our heads into rooms, look for clues about it’s purpose, find it on the guide and move to the next room.

This ship housed 2,205 enlisted men and 127 officers. This tank was truly a floating city. Not only does it have everything for battle (guns, torpedo storage, drilling rooms, etc), but it has everything to support the people needed to fight (laundry, mess halls, bedding and lockers) and everything needed to run a ship (engines, navigational equipment, etc). This ship blew my mind. In fact, it took two solid hours to see most of the ship.

We did locate the machine shop. I wanted to make sure the boys saw this room because my father served in the Navy at the tail end of Vietnam. He was a machinist who learned his lifelong trade aboard his ship.

Afterwards we needed to regroup. Really we needed to just sit. We still wanted to see the USS Drum, a submarine, the tanks, and indoor aircraft display. We started to look at the aircraft, but decided the submarine and tanks were more up our alley at this point. Time and energy were waning.

Fortunately, the USS Drum submarine was so small it took maybe 20 minutes to walk through it. It was like one long railroad car, but pretty darn short being that the men lived here full time. I feel truly sorry for and thankful to the enlisted men who served in these quarters.

We wrapped up our visit by walking Mack through some unique tanks and popped in the car tired and inspired. The perfect moods for some lengthy driving. The boys had plenty of Lego builds in mind.

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Yarn Along: 1000 Places to See and Spirogyra Mitts

Joining in at the Small Things blog for Yarn Along today.

Knitting: My fingerless mitts are five years old and I’ve loaned them to the boys so often, they are pretty beat up. I decided to use some yarn stash and make a new pair for myself. I used Spirogyra, a sort of shell like pattern with a thumb piece too. I held two strands of yarn together to get the white/tan blend. They fit wonderfully. I love having the thumb piece. My other pair just left an open hole for the thumb. Plus, I think this pair is a bit more “womanly” which I like.

Reading: I picked up 1000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Shultz for us to thumb through while traveling. I was hoping we’d get some ideas. It’s well organized by clustering the states together geographically. A lot of the places we’ve been to or new of, but I did find out about Cody, WY which looks very interesting! It reads that the Buffalo Bill museum is the Smithsonian of the West. I just love reading about new places, envisioning them, and seeing them in person. Have you ever been to Cody? What fabulous places have you been that we need to see?

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Disney World, Orlando, FL.

We went back and forth on the possibility of this stop through the years. We almost brought the boys here four years ago, but literally turned east instead to the Smoky Mountains. Still, it would come up once in a while. Should we? Shouldn’t we? It’s expensive! Is is worth it? What could we do instead? When we sold the house in February, Dear Husband said, “We’re going to Disney World!”

We made reservations by the hair of our chinny, chin, chins, as we ended up here during Spring Break. Neither of us had been to Fort Wilderness before, but 29 years ago my parents brought me to Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Dear Husband’s family brought him to Disneyland in California a handful of times. We knew what to expect, but time changes things, so we were anxious to see Disney through our adult eyes.

We signed on for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and one day of rest in between, four nights total. We arrived right at check in, 1:00 PM, so we could eek out a little more exploration at Fort Wilderness on day one. Straight away we biked to the boat dock to make sure we knew where to go in the morning. That is where little fella got a lizard on his leg and was excited and freaked out at the same time. The only way to Magic Kingdom from Fort Wilderness is via boat….yes I was really scared I’d get sick. Right nearby we located a very small arcade to which Dear Husband indulged the boys. We also tried a park, found the pool, looked through their stores, and took the boys on their first canoe rides (where we saw an alligator on shore!!!!) That night we showered and packed our water backpacks with snacks, water, a first aid kit, thin coats, and little else. I decided to leave my Nikon behind because we wanted to be agile. We also decided to purchase our meals in the park and just bring in a couple of granola bars.

Magic Kingdom.

With our magic bands proudly displayed, we woke up early and waited in a small line for the first boat of the morning. I took a load of ginger and told myself the boat would be fine (I’ve done countless boat rides before, Key West just really messed me up.) I WAS fine, we all were, and we arrived in time to see the characters open the park. Mickey and friends (the old school ones) aren’t really part of my boys lives. They’ve not seen the cartoons and don’t know the characters from books either, but it was still fun to see. Upon entry to the park we headed to the test track first, for our older son, the race fan. It was in Tomorrowland.

I’ll spare you the details of the day, but I will mention little fella did Space Mountain and was proud. The food carts are better priced than the restaurants. Fast Pass is freaking awesome when you use it (our magic bands came loaded with three that day) and freaking awful when you don’t have one and you watch those people (sometimes us) breeze by and think, “oh great, my wait just got longer…! When I was the one walking by, I felt awful, but not enough to wait. Also, Magic Kingdom is still the same, and Tomorrowland felt very yesterday. We did enjoy the day, but I don’t anticipate returning.

Disney Springs.

We promised the boys they could get one souvenir from the Disney property. We set that before we arrived. Dear Husband thought we’d take the boys to Disney Springs, their mall/shopping zone, via monorail (so they could try it) and bus. The bus ride was miserable because it had to stop at a water park first. I didn’t know the lay of the land and it just dragged on and on. By the time we arrived at the mall we were all pretty cranky. We headed for the Lego store, Star Wars store, and lunch. We walked out with Lego sets that would have to fit into the trailer, and smiles. We ended up taking a much shorter bus ride back which preserved our better moods. Then we did the shower/prepare routine for the next day’s park.

Animal Kingdom.

I was happy to read Animal Kingdom closes earlier than Magic Kingdom because I was getting worn out from long days. Animal Kingdom was built in 1998 (yay, the year we got married!) and was very impressive. They open the park with macaws flying overhead, beautifully. Our plan was to race to the Mount Everest roller coaster and then, you know, wander, eat, look at animals, and such. We had a looser plan this time.

Expedition Everest’s waiting area is so amazing that I was sort of sad we didn’t get stuck waiting, but only sort of. It’s like a museum dedicated to mountain climbing and Yeti myths. It also had Nepalese temples to weave through, loads of prayer flags, and lots of miscellaneous mountain climbing paraphernalia. It was beautiful. Dear Husband is not a roller coaster guy, so the boys sat behind me. The coaster started very calm, but man alive that sucker got awesome with stops, backwards twists, and an amazing shadow of a yeti that “breaks the tracks.” We LOVED it. Little fella screamed the entire ride, these short, repetitive staccato screams. His brother had his fingers shoved in his ears and I laughed. I’ll never forget that coaster ride.

From there we wandered, enjoyed doing some Wilderness Explorer activities (caw, caw, roar), and met Dug and Russell from Up. Little fella yelled, “squirrel” because Dear Husband paid him $1. Dug froze. Super cute. We also saw the Nemo live show which was beautiful.

I loved this park most. The animals intertwined with ethnic foods, costuming, Wilderness Explorer activities, international shopping, and colorful shows was all beautifully orchestrated. I would absolutely return to this park.

Fort Wilderness Campfire.

Later that night little fella said he wanted to go to the bonfire movie in the campground. I was exhausted but couldn’t say no. We all biked over in time to hear some campfire songs. Little fella even got to stand up front with the crowd of April birthdays. He loves that sort of thing and beamed proudly. We were treated to The Muppets movie which was darn good. My older son got sleepy and headed back with Dear Husband but little fella and I stuck it out to the very end.

Here are my random tips:

Bring your bike if you are doing Fort Wilderness, it’s very large.

Use Disney’s transportation, it’s easier, even though that one bus ride killed us.

Get to the park when it opens and head to the ride you want to do most of all. We headed to the roller coasters both times and waited under 30 minutes.

Look to eat at carts if you want to save money. We found fabulous egg rolls in Magic Kingdom for $2.85 each and they were meal worthy. I saw hummus and veggies for $4 at animal kingdom after we, sadly, spent $10 on a single serving of pizza.

The day we left Disney we drove north to get back to some reality. This Key West/Disney World leg had me in a sort of euphoria, but the bill does not.

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Key West, FL.

We drove to Key West three times. It is about an hour drive from Marathon, but is such a hub of shopping, eating, and activities, that it was worth it. Not to mention, it’s THE southernmost point. It would be silly to not go the extra distance to make the claim. (My deepest apologies, this post is ridiculously long, but I can’t figure out what to trim. I tried to bundle it by topic in the order we did them. I just thought three separate Key West posts would be overkill.)

Pie.

Our first trip we booked an evening glass bottom boat tour. We arrived a bit early so we could stop in for Key Lime pie (dipped in chocolate and on a stick to boot). I’m not really a Key Lime pie sort of person, but the chocolate gives it a nice sweetness, and frankly the pie was very good. The employee (owner?) was incredibly nice. He came over to ask what we thought and explained how Key Lime pie must have a certain tang. He then took time to answer our question about how to get to the “90 Miles to Cuba” buoy. I bet that poor guy gets asked the same thing time and again, but he was nice enough to not act so. We headed on foot, in a bit of a rush, to make that 14 block jaunt.

Chickens.

On our “hurry up let’s try to get there now” mission I noticed chickens…. out front of the post office. I giggled, looked around to see where they belonged, and tried to keep pace with Dear Husband. I noticed more chickens, and we noticed chicks. It started to dawn on me that chickens are wild here. I’ve never been to Key West before and didn’t even do research before we headed in, so they surprised me.

I did read locals can get annoyed and humanely trap them for relocation on the mainland at ranches where they act as pest control. I’m not going to mention how odd that is, considering the amount of chicken most likely shipped in as FOOD for the restaurants and hotels in Key West, but I digress. Anyhow, I liked seeing them alive, for sure. They add a very unique feeling to the bustling town full of traffic, people, and bicycles.

Glass Bottom Boat Tour.

We started to realize we couldn’t make the 14 blocks. So we turned around and hustled back to the dock for loading. Too early. We had 45 minutes to wait, so we meandered around the docks, through Mallory Square (saw more chicks) and had some pizza. We thought it would be good to invest in some seabands too. Finally, we docked and looked down through the glass bottoms. That was truly interesting.

The weather was rainy for a short stint, but we got lots of dry time on top of, in front of, and in back of the main boat inside area. It was beautiful looking at the turquoise water ahead, waiting for our glimpse at the third largest coral reef in the world. When we stopped, we sort of drifted across the coral as the tour guide pointed out the names of the fish we saw (and someone mentioned they spotted a cell phone, to which the guide replied that was not funny!, to which they replied, it was NOT a joke), why we need to save coral, and so on. The boys dangled their feet and listened to the presentation. Well, little fella didn’t make it all the way to the end, but he did pretty well. Meanwhile, Dear Husband was feeling a little, shall we say, seasick? Then, I was feeling a lot seasick. I did NOT hear the whole presentation, instead I hunkered down in the back of the boat and tried to pretend the boat and my stomach weren’t spinning out of control. I’m so happy my poor children didn’t feel what we felt. It was miserable and didn’t go away until after we docked and I sat down for a bit. Dear Husband ran and grabbed some Dramamine, which tasted so completely awful it shocked the seasickness right out of me. I did see some coral and enjoyed at least half of the tour so I call it success.

Parasaililng.

The second trip to Key West was to get on another boat. It scared the living daylights out of me. I took two pills to prevent seasickness and the coral reef misery feeling.

We are not a thrill seeking sort of family, however, little fella decided we should parasail when looking through our local “things to do” guide. I read it was the lowest price in the whole country, which made me think, well, if we were EVER to parasail, now is that time. We told him we’d go for it…. before that first boat ride. After, we asked him if we could pass to save our stomachs, he cried. I wasn’t about to have everyone blame me for not trying, and truly I thought it would be fun. We booked it.

Parasailing is awesome. I have never felt like time stood still more than the moment we were up in the air. It felt like we were on a gentle swing. I felt like we weren’t moving at all, but saw the boat below zig zagging madly back and forth while we floated like a bubble above. Little fella and I got to ride together and go first, Dear husband went with older son, last, after a few others.

I hate this, but Dear Husband and I were very sick, again. I held it together for a long time, and took another pill while on the boat, but yup, it didn’t work. We vowed we needed a break from ocean vessels for a while. It was still worth it. (Oh, and we did snap that “90 Miles to Cuba” pic before the boat ride.)

Air Show.

Our last day in the Keys was on a hot tarmac at the Navy base for an air show. (Dear Husband read the show coincided with our final day there and it was free! Heck ya.) We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales, a woman standing on the exterior wing of a plane IN FLIGHT, (YES, she was!), the Firebirds, and the Blue Angels. It was hot, there was a sliver of shade where everyone elbowed each other for room, and the boys asked when it would be over. Then the Blue Angels wrapped it up and impressed happiness back into us all.

Key West is beautiful, bustling, chicken-filled, bicycle-busting, high-end shopping filled, people-loaded, and full of things to try. I loved it. I didn’t want to leave. Then I remembered we had reservations at a fun place where dreams come true….

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Grassy Key RV Park, Marathon, FL.

After that mosquito ridden festival in Everglades it petrified me to open the windows in the Keys. Seriously. I worried that just across the water the mosquitos couldn’t be any different. Fortunately I was wrong. In fact, we spent a few nights outside playing games by the bay. Perhaps that is why I love the Keys so much, because I came off a terrible experience, but I’m thinking it has a lot to do with the Keys just being so beautiful and unique.

My first impressions were good ones. Slender islands lend to beautiful views while driving, on both sides in fact. The businesses are beachy but not particularly worn out or run down, something I see a lot of in beach destinations. Plus, with so little room for buildings and stores (that whole slender thing), it’s not overly crowded with shopping. All this is fantastic because that water is turquoise marbleized with deep blue and mesmerizing. It’s all I wanted to look at.

Our campground, Grassy Key RV Park, was around $100 per night (off season its half that.) We knew we’d have to pay out because the state parks here book out a year in advance and we of course booked in February when we sold the house. Frankly, after Everglades, I was okay with that. Having a little wifi, water, a swimming pool and great laundry facilities was a-okay by me. It very much helps when the facilities are top-notch and clean. The distance to the pool was mere footsteps and with so few campsites in the whole campground it felt quite like we owned the place. Money well spent.

The pool sucked us in. After one visit to Sombrero Beach, we decided we quite preferred the non-grassy/non-rocky bottom of the pool anyways. With so much pool time the boys became super swimmers. We’ve done our share of swim lessons, but this week in the pool just made it all click. They both progressed so quickly that they were happily swimming the width of the pool and underwater by the end of our visit. Maybe it’s that broken air conditioner that had us in the water more often than not. The swimming progress was a fine development.

We also spent time waterside playing ladder ball and reading under the tiki hut. We discovered iguanas and cormorants and happily watched them watch us. The campground was tiny, and oddly all rock, but so pleasant I was grouchy to leave. Apparently I rambled on too much about our campground. Yikes. Expect more Keys from me, I’m not done praising this fabulous destination.

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Iron Men.

Knitting time has changed. I used to get a few rows in throughout the day (on good days) and a few rows at night when we watched movies. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Now, I get solid knitting time while Dear Husband is driving and sometimes no knitting at all for many days when we are parked and exploring.

Last drive I finished up some Iron Man Mitts for the boys. They requested one hand with repulsor and one without. I guess the real Iron Man’s repulsors hide until in use, so they wanted to have that effect.

Little Fella has an Iron Man mask that Santa tucked in his stocking this past Christmas. When his mitts were done he was giddy. He said he needs a hat, vest, and leg “things” next. Whoa boy-o, I’ve got a few other knits planned, but if I do keep adding bits for him it would be one heck of a Halloween option.

While we stay at Grassy Key RV park in Marathon, FL I anticipate very little knitting. There is a saltwater pool that’s as warm as bath water and hardly full. Plus the beaches, Key West, and some other fun plans. Perhaps when we head back North I’ll be ready for another Ironman project.

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Everglades National Park, FL.

It’s a shame. I wanted to like the Everglades. I wanted to see alligators for my boys and to walk the Southernmost Florida shoreline to make it worth the 45 extra miles into the park. We reserved the “better” campground. I am certain many people like this park, love it even, but for us, it was a disappointment.

We pulled in near 7:00 PM and headed into the trailer for a good nights rest. What we got instead were so many freaking mosquito bites while running from the truck to the trailer and then bites through the night that the boys were actually crying. In between reading a few sentences of Percy Jackson, I would smash a bloody mosquito on the ceiling of the trailer. I thought I got them all. Ha! Somehow we fell asleep but awoke to a terrible thunderstorm around 5:00 AM and of course more mosquito bites.

Day two we were groggy, but we tried to be cheery. Perhaps the mosquitos was a freak thing? We headed over to the Flamingo Visitor’s Center via bikes. The boys got their Junior Ranger booklets, we talked with helpful, kind rangers, and learned that crocs and manatees were likely just around the corner. We saw two crocs straight away and a handful of manatees. We headed back to the trailer. It was really hot so for our old dog Mack we decided to turn on the air conditioning.

We slept that night so well. It was reassuring. We awoke, showered, and then our air conditioner broke. We opened up every window and with the breeze it was fine. The big mission of the day was to see alligators. We were told to drive to the entrance (I think it’s 40 miles) and go to Anhinga Trail. Dear Husband decided to drop us at the visitor’s center at the entrance while he had a miserable time getting the oil changed in town a handful of miles away. Mack had to tag along so he wasn’t stuck in the trailer which might have gotten too hot. We stuck it out at the visitor’s center for a couple hours, watched the movie, paid way too much for some frozen bananas. We moved in and out of the center for entertainment. Our most fun find was a grey catbird that loved us. He sat right behind our bench and tweaked his head this way and that to see what we were up to. We took a million photos of him. With our lingering I was also talked into purchasing a saltwater croc toy for little fella’s upcoming birthday. (He was happily munching my knit bag.)

The mosquitos, heat, broken air conditioner, no park, no laundry facilities, and lack of seashore wore on us. That night we killed umpteen mosquitos only to awake to Dear Husband vacuuming them in the early morning hours. Did I mention there are a lot of mosquitos?

I looked around at other campers and wondered if they were having fun? Our neighbor left Easter morning saying there are too many mosquitos and there was nowhere for the kids to play. I envied them. There is a huge note stating “no refunds” on the campground kiosk. I bet they get asked all the time.

This is not a park to dwell in. I LOVE National Parks and biological diversity. I LOVE that I can say we took our boys to the only place in the US where crocs and gators coexist. But, I wish we drove in and out the same day. This was no place to linger.

I suppose I need to point out some interesting reasons to visit here after my list of complaints. The co-dwelling of crocs and gators is pretty cool. The terrain looks like what I imagine Africa would look like. It’s this long grassy prairie with unique birds atop trees with waterways hidden between. Little Fella was giddy when he saw the crocs and gators, something I’ll never forget. While perusing the visitor’s center store I found a book about Guy Bradley. That was the name of the bike trail we rode on. Turns out he was murdered by a one-eyed Civil War sharpshooter because he wanted to protect the birds here. I want to read more about that story, that was crazy. Finally, this National Park houses a missile site that pointed towards Cuba during the Cold War. Turns out President Kennedy put the facility in AFTER the park was created, which I found very intriguing. Not everyday does a preserved National Park become an Army base.

My best advice about the Everglades is don’t make reservations, they have LOADS of spots and people leave every day from annoyance. Better so, drive in and drive out in a day. See the critters and move on. Lingering didn’t do us any favors. In fact, we lost sleep and had vultures on top of Tracy. No joke. I swear the vultures new our lives were being sucked out of us.

My texts to my best friend were desperate and sad. “Too many mosquitos.” “My son looks like he has the chicken pox.” “We saw a gator!” She summed it up quite well, “Even though it kind of stinks, the experience alone is awesome.” While I sit in an air-conditioned campground clubhouse in the Florida Keys, I agree, but I wouldn’t have bought it a couple of days ago!

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Top of Georgia Airstream Park, GA.

Dear Husband mentioned an Airstream only park in the Georgia mountains, in the Chattahoochee National Forest. I said that sounded downright fabulous. So we went.

Top of Georgia Airstream Park is open to all Airstreams year round for a phenomenal cheap rate, just $20 per night. For that rate, we got a full hook up site just in front of a beautiful mountain stream. The park has adjacent hiking, is in the thick of lots of state parks, waterfall hikes, near the Appalachian trail, and full of friendly enthusiasts. The boys played at the park, enjoyed horse shoes and they even watched a few movies from the DVD library.

When we checked in, we were asked how long we were going to stay. We were ready to fork over our money, happily, and the volunteer said to just wait and pay at the end. My older son said we should just stay, then we’d never have to pay. Heck ya, love that kid’s humor… or wisdom!

The park is well cared for and the rotating volunteer hosts friendly. In fact, anyone who pulls in is friendly. If you EVER get a chance to stay at the Top of Georgia Airstream park, take it. We are so glad we did. I doubt this is our last visit here.

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Anna Ruby Falls, GA.

“But, you promised after yesterday we would have NO more hikes,” was the fun start to our Anna Ruby Falls adventure. Actually, he snapped out of it quite quickly when I then promised I’d talk to him about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on our ascent. He just saw the movie on his tablet this week. Alas, this is diverting too quickly.

Back to the falls. Of all the hikes we did in the Chattahoochee National Forest, this was the loudest. High Shoals is loud when descending, but Anna Ruby has gobs of water thrashing just aside the paved trail. It’s roaring, rushing, carving, and was a great final hike for the area. We learned it’s a Cove Forest, basically, that we were hiking through a ravine, hence the water sloshing just aside. We were rewarded for our uphill climbs with two falls, which was unexpected. They were really huge too. Tall.

This short hike had us up and back within an hour. The boys got some Smoky Bear booklets, pencils, and other paraphernalia from the visitors center which brings back old commercials. Dear Husband and I chanted in unison, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” I’m sure there was some eye rolling in the back seat. Alas, they celebrated our final hike in GA for now and we went back to Tracy to tidy. Our stay was fabulous, but we are moving on.

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Yarn Along: Cabled Blanket and Percy Jackson.

Joining the Yarn Along today at the Small Things blog.

Knitting: I’m progressing quite well on my Cascade Eco Blanket. I’m finding the pattern has the perfect blend of mindless and “pay attention” knitting. That’s kept my interest quite well. I adore the yarn but am finding I keep needing one more skein. I hope when it blocks it isn’t some gargantuan giant-sized blanket, but I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.

Reading: I rotate in Phillippa Gregory’s historical fictions about past royalty and am currently reading The Virgin’s Lover. It’s about Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, who is married to another woman, but wooing the Queen. I read so many of her titles and love them fiercely, but I don’t want to bore you, so I included Rick Riordan’s second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters. I’m reading this one to the boys at night, and we all look forward to it. Every night I hear, “Can you read just a little bit more?” I’m not sure when I’ll stop reading to them at night, but I do know we aren’t ready for that yet. I find I love reading their titles just as much as my titles and I’m not ready to give them up.