Blog
Gulf Shores, AL
Campsite: Gulf Shores State Park
Dates of stay: Nov. 19 - Dec. 2
Every time we leave a place we love, it seems to replaced with another great find. Gulf Shores State Park, Alabama, is hands-down, the best state park we’ve stayed in so far. We were told ahead of time that we were lucky to find a spot here, and once we got here, we see why. We booked quite a few weeks in advance, and secured two weeks at site 117. We were right off the main road, and central to many of the activities going on.
Tom planned our drive from Carrabelle to Gulf Shores along the coast, so it was an extremely scenic drive as compared to the interstate route. Lots of water, bridges, marinas, and also lingering damage from Hurricane Michael interspersed with lots of new construction. It’s baffling to us, because it all has the potential to get completely destroyed with the next horrible storm, yet the beauty of the area and ties to the community are the reasons people stay, I’m certain.
Gulf Shores is located about 15 minutes from the border of Florida, and we passed through “Flora-bama” a tacky, touristy, picture-taking opportunity area (that we’d return to in a few days for oysters). When we arrived to the Gulf Shores area, we started to encounter lots of high rises and beach front properties along with the restaurants and shops that seemed built for tourists. And then all of a sudden, nothing but pristine sandy beaches, sand dunes, and scrub. There is a massive area - about 6,000 acres of preserved state park property. After the Deep Horizon oil spill, the state was given $70+ million to restore the area. The state park itself boats a Nature Center, beach Pavilion, Learning Center, restaurant, cottages, a beautiful swimming pool, tennis courts, amphitheater, a pier, Shelby Lake, a parkour course, playgrounds, miles of paved biking trails, a butterfly garden, bouldering area and more miles of boardwalk throughout the park. The campground has 500+ sites, that are very well maintained and spaced out well. There’s even a little commuter bus that goes around the park in case you need transportation to the different areas.
One of the things that we really appreciated was the daily programming by the Nature and Learning Centers. We were able to cover Life science for two weeks here! We took classes on snakes of the area, constellations, skates and rays, and beach creatures (class on the beach where we learned about all the different shells and the creatures that live in them). One day we took a guided nature walk with one of the naturalists, and learned a lot about the plants and trees in the park, although failed to see any wildlife even though there are supposed to be gators and snakes in these parts.
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We arrived here on a Friday, and as Fridays are pizza nights, we found a place called Papa Rocco’s. We did takeout, and had a little time to kill before our pizza was ready for pick-up but there was a musician setting up for that evening and we learned he was one of the singers from The Platters - the artists behind my parents’ song (Only You). I introduced myself and said we’d be back the next night, as he was also playing on Saturday. When we returned with Owen the following night, he recognized us and upon request, we asked him to play the song so we could FaceTime my parents which they got a kick out of.
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A few days later, my parents joined us and Owen gladly packed up his belongings so he could spend the next week with them! They’ rented an AirBnB right on the beach, so it was nice to spread out and have a real kitchen to cook in over Thanksgiving. Most of the meal we picked up from the market, but Tom grilled up ribs and we also did shrimp that we had picked up in Carrabelle. So it was a bit of a mashup meal, but Tom still did the traditional baking of the pies - pumpkin and apple this year.
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We spent the next few days enjoying all that the park had to offer, riding bikes, walking the beach, and picking up shells - lots of shells. Mom, Owen and I had art class one day which involved using the various shells to make angel ornaments for our respective trees. We found a couple of fun places to eat, including The Ruby Slipper (originally started in New Orleans), Flora-bama for chargrilled oysters and oysters on the half shell, Doc’s Seafood (the original “local” one), and we checked out the onsite park restaurant - Woodside - which had excellent food and live music.
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Tom, Owen and my dad spent a day at the Naval Museum in Pensacola, as well as a day at the USS Alabama in Mobile. I was a little museum’d out on this front so took the opportunity to spend some time with my mom. We checked out the shops and restaurants at the Wharf and did a little Christmas shopping, and also spent more time at the beach.
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Sad to say goodbye, we spent the next few days enjoying the sunsets from the pier and the beach, finishing up a few trails that we hadn’t yet biked, kayaking, and catching the holiday laser show at the wharf.
We could easily spend a couple 2-3 months here and might have to figure out how long term camping works at this park!
Carrabelle, FL
Camped at: Sunset Isle RV Resort and Marina
Dates of stay: Nov 1 - 19, 2021
We got lucky here….found out about a private rental through a group on Facebook, and we ended up staying for nearly three weeks in this lovely waterfront community. It’s a small sleepy fishing village, located among Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” - little development, small town feel, and beautiful areas to walk, hike and fish. We really “settled in” here, and even started to get to know the locals. We discovered Carabelle Junction, the ONLY coffee cafe in the area and enjoyed many a morning coffee here. Owen and I secured a non-resident library card at the library, and frequented that place for good internet and movie rentals. Not bad for $10. We discovered the local seafood market and found some of the best musket dip for lunch! But one of the biggest highlights was befriending Don and Karen England, who were kind enough to extend their hospitality during our stay there. Don even took us out fishing one day, and we caught multiple, beautiful Redfish - which proved to be the best dinner we’ve had on this trip so far.
We also went to the lighthouse in town a couple of times, which is a focal point of this area. One our first trip, I ran into Linda - a local yogi teacher who was starting up classes there. I was fortunate enough to take in one of her classes while in the area, and that added to the “localness” of our trip.
We also did some great hikes in this area - one of them, through Tate’s Hell State Forest - had it’s own little version of hell for Laurie - nearly stepping on a five foot black snake, curled up in the path!!
We also discovered a couple of local festivals - the Seafood Festival in Apalachicola, and the Musket Festival in Sopchoppy. Apalachicola is an amazing little town - basically a bigger Carabelle - but the food and shopping is better. I also found a great little Farmer’s market near Bee Inspired Too, which is a great little shop that I fell in love with. We also loved The Apalach Outfitters store! Most fun of all was the Chocolate Shop - good coffee, and massive amounts of desserts to choose from. The Grateful Dead inspired interior coupled with the bread and chocolate vibe definitely channeled my brother for me.
We spent Veterans Day at the local WW2 museum, as this part of the country - the Carabelle beach in particular - was used as a training group for the D-Day invasion! So much deep history here, and it was great to be able to really experience this and take it in. We also ventured out to St. George’s Island for the day, but the red tides had somewhat of an impact on the air quality, so we didn’t spend too much time here.
Overall, we loved the quietness and sleepiness of the area. At our RV park, we also got to know Fran - a local woman from the area, who had lots of stories to share with us.
We are pretty sure we’ll be back along the Forgotten Coast someday, and hope to find it untouched when we do!
Fiesta Key - Layton, FL
Stayed at: Fiesta Key (Thousand Trails campground)
Dates of stay: Oct. 9 - 23, 2021
Owen’s YouTube video of Florida Keys HERE
We spent two amazing weeks here and still have so much left to see and experience, although we enjoyed a slow pace here - which I think must be the best way to enjoy the Keys anyways. We really liked our campground, which is part of the Thousand Trails family. They led us to a spot that was practically oceanside, and a great place to be able to launch the kayaks. Hot here - which is great, as the pool is amazing and the time at which we visited is not high tourist season so at times, we had the place to ourselves. There is also a great oceanside swim area, from which we saw dolphins swimming just offshore. The campground also has a marina, and we indulged ourselves by imagining how much fun it would be to have a boat to explore the area.
During this trip, I learned about a great feature in Trip Advisor. I’ve used TA for years, but somehow, never knew that you could assign places to go on specific dates within a specific trip. This was a great way to track where we went, what we did, and when. So if you’re interested in knowing about what we’d recommend, check out my Florida Keys plan on Trip Advisor. A lot of these places were heavily influenced by suggestions from my cousin Eric, who is extremely well traveled in this area. Everything he suggested was amazing - from the Turtle Hospital to Hogfish Bar & Grill. And there were plenty of places we didn’t even make it to!
During our time here, we met up with another family who had a boy Owen’s age, so it was great for them to be able to pal around for a week together. They are also a “fulltime” family, and we’ve been meeting more of them as our trip goes on. One family we met here had eleven children - although “only seven” of them were traveling in the RV with them! As they say in the south “Bless their heart.”
Cape Canaveral, FL
Kennedy Space Center - amazing! Spend at least an entire day here, if not two - completely worth it and also take advantage of the free, short tours offered throughout the day. This place has something for all ages.
We took many walks on the ocean - it was steps away from our campground (Jetty Park). Would definitely stay at this campground again and hopefully we would get lucky enough to see a shuttle launch.
Jacksonville and St. Augustine, FL
We had a fun time in Jacksonville, FL. We got to see family and we also went south to St. Augustine. I made a great youtube video of Jacksonville and St. Augustine, if you want to watch it click here. We also went to the St. Augustine alligator farm and we got to see them feed the alligators. In St. Augustine we also went to the St. Augustine lighthouse.
Savannah, GA
We arrived at Skidaway Island State Park - hands down, our favorite campground to date. Wide open spaces, tons of great biking and hiking trails, and an awesome interpretive center and camp shop that curates lots of local arts and crafts. Owen made a great video of the trails, interpretive center and campground here. We took the opportunity to marvel at all the massive live oaks, dripping with Spanish Moss from their limbs. Don’t touch the moss though - they have tiny little bugs in them, known as chiggers. The moss was originally used a long time ago to stuff mattresses and pillows - thus, where the origin of bed bugs came from! Interesting fact - this plant actually has no relation to the moss family. In fact, Spanish moss is a bromeliad (part of the pineapple family). But so pretty to look at, especially when there’s a slight breeze.
Tom has spent time in Savannah before and knew that we should take a history tour. We decided on this trolley company, who offered hop-on hop-off tours. Our first ride of the day was EXCELLENT as they had a tour guide, Gertrude, in period costume that did all the narrating. She was worth the price of admission alone. Later in the day when we hopped on, the driver was also the guide, and it wasn’t as entertaining or detailed, yet still informative. It was tougher near the end of the day to catch trolleys (they weren’t running on time, so lucky that it was a nice day and we still had the energy to walk). All I can say is that it really is worth taking a tour of this city to really appreciate the historic homes, the statutes that line the boulevards, the history of the cemetaries (the union soldiers actually hid out in one of them, disrupting many of the crypts). Some other highlights of this visit included:
Watching the massive container ships on the river going out to sea
Discovering Byrd’s Famous Cookies (the lemon were the best! although Owen loved the cupcake flavor
Strolling by the Waterfront, and checking out the JW Marriott - it was almost like a museum, filled with massive crystals and stones
We also checked out Isle of Palms, and had our first dinner outside on the ocean! We’ve really enjoyed both Charleston and Savannah, and would’ve loved two weeks each here.
Dates of stay: Sept 13 - 17
Next stop: Jacksonville, Florida to see the Healy side of the family
Charleston, South Carolina
So much to love about Charleston - the weather, the views, the history (although there is a lot not to love too on that front). Charleston has been on my list of places to see for many years and we scheduled 6 days here although we could’ve spent more. Of course, on our first day, we had to visit the ocean, as we finally made it to the Atlantic coast! Owen has been fortunate enough to dip his toes into the Pacific, but not the Atlantic. We headed to Folly Beach, which wasn’t too far from our campground. Splashed around for a bit and then headed to a local spot, recommended by the friendly parking patroller.
The next day was rainy! As in LOTS of rain - street flooding type of rains. Thankfully the Jeep kept us moving. This happened to be a good day to tour Patriot Point’s Naval and Maritime museum, hope to the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, the USS Laffey (WW2 destroyer ship) and the USS Clamagore (Cold War era submarine). We spent all day here and Owen’s YouTube video has a lot of video of our visit. The aircraft carrier has seen a ton of action in many different wars but most notably in WW2. The tour of the carrier is very well done, and the memorial part of the museum is a must-see as well. Bring a lunch - not much for food options here and you’ll want a whole day (especially if you’re a history buff and enjoy these types of visits). I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
We did not take a walking tour of Charleston, which is something that is probably a good idea for a future visit….however, we can’t do everything on this trip and we really wanted to explore the area on our own time. We walked through the Charleston City Market, which is more or less a place pandering to tourists these days. There are some homemade artisan items of interest, but for the most part, seemed like regular merchandise you could really buy anywhere. The atmosphere was fun and the building itself is the original public market from 1807, where the initial goods were meats, vegetables, fish, etc. A popular attraction, but we didn’t spend much time there.
We did seek out the Old Slave Mart. This museum tells the story of the slave trade in Charleston from 1856 - 1863. I’d recommend reading more about this building here, as this level of detail wasn’t really included in the history books. The museum is housed in the original area where the individuals were put on “display” for auction to the traders, called the “Showroom.” These individuals were African-Americans, uprooted from the countryside and brought to this showroom - often resulting in the destruction of families as they were often separated due to these events. If you haven’t watched 12 Years a Slave, this movie brings to life what happened in these showrooms, and how families and individuals were traumatized. Although the importation of slaves ended in 1808, a network of local and regional slave traders kept American slavery very much alive.
Charleston was a major city in the US for selling and reselling slaves. “Ryan’s Mart” as the Old Slave Mart was known, was built in 1856 and actively sold people for SEVEN years. The last person sold here walked through the doors in November1863. The price of a person varied. Often slaves were divided into different classes, and these were the going prices in 1860:
Number One Men ($1400 - $1500)
Second rate or “ordinary” men ($1100 - $1250)
Number One Women ($1275 - 1375)
Second rate or “ordinary” girls ($800 - $1100)
In 2007, that value would have been $36,000 for a Number One Man., and $21,000 for second rate girls.
During our time in Ninety-Six, I met a woman who went to Charleston a lot, and she told us “You have to go visit the bench by the bay on Sullivan’s Island.” Supposedly, this very simple and non-descript bench signifies the place where over half of the individuals from Africa initially passed through into North America for purposes of the slave trade. At this part of the individual’s journey, it was known as the “middle passage.” Originally, the individuals were put onto the boats in Africa - in horrible living conditions (it is estimated at least 1/3 of the people died in transport). The first passage went from Africa to Europe. From Europe, to North America (middle passage), and then from North America to South America. We went looking for this bench, and there isn’t a large shrine or signs noting its significance. In fact, it sits under a shaded tree not too far from a large parking lot, which is used for the Fort Moultrie National Park site. Personally, I thought it was a very moving place to be as we took in the history of all that happened here.
While we were in this location, we also visited Fort Moultrie, which is known in conjunction with Fort Sumter - the place where the Civil War battle broke out in June 1861.
While we took in a lot of heavy history, we also enjoyed the beauty of what Charleston had to offer including the Pineapple Fountain, the beaches and wandering around the historic districts. We also really enjoyed the campground at James Island County Park - and Owen made a great video to prove it! Start at 25:50 to see the park, although he includes a lot of footage from Patriot’s Park and Fort Moultrie in the video as well.
Dates of this trip:
Next stop: Savannah, Georgia!
South Haven, MI
This was our last stop in Michigan and it was a pretty good way to wrap up our trip in the state. We stayed at the Van Buren State Park, which was quite a bit larger than Orchard Beach (over 200 sites). Even though we had made reservations back in February, this campground was already so booked that the only way we could stay for the next four days was to book one campsite the first two nights and then another campsite the last two nights. Thankfully, they were right across the road from one another so we didn’t have to move too much. We encountered some pretty uneven ground at that first spot, and it took Tom about five tries to get it just right (which he finally did), but we needed a major assist from the chocks below the tires on the right side of the rig. As he was maneuvering the RV into place, it had quite a bit of a lean to it and Owen kept exclaiming “it’s going to tip over! it’s going to tip over!” That would’ve been something to write about. We recommend avoiding site 110.
We were excited to have visitors that first evening! Tom’s childhood friend, Chad Milne and his wife Donna, drove over from the Madison area to spend the evening with us, which was about a five-hour trek for them. We had a great evening catching up, enjoying an amazing steak dinner on the Blackstone and sitting around the bonfire. Once again, great weather and no bugs. The next morning, we all went out for a hike and had the opportunity to climb the sand dunes in this location. Hot and sunny (and steep), these were more challenging than Sleeping Bear. They led down to the state park beach, another solid spot for swimming, wave jumping, and body surfing.
Tom had a few calls that morning, so Owen and I headed into South Haven, the central part of town. There’s a cute downtown area that also leads down to the Marina and the main public beach. What a great part of town - gorgeous views, boats coming in and out of the marina, the lighthouse on the end of the pier - everyone was out enjoying the weather and the summer vibe. The thoughts of “I could live here” crossed my mind, but I’m sure the idea of it is likely akin to living in Door County in the summertime. Heavy tourism season for sure.
During our time here, I went to the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market and found most of our groceries for the week. While we’ve definitely had to seek out places like Aldi and Walmart for a few essentials, we are trying to shop locally as much as possible. Owen discovered that South Haven is the “Blueberry Capital of the World” and this is not hard to dispute given the number of markets dedicated to fresh fruits. Now I’m trying to find a couple recipes to use up all these blueberries we have before they go bad!
We had a pretty chill week here - Owen and Tom spent a lot of time rolling around in the big waves in Lake Michigan, we did a number of hikes on the sand dunes and in the surrounding trails and also biked into town one afternoon on the paved bike path that took us directly from the campground into downtown South Haven (4.5 miles one way). The plan was to get ice cream but instead of getting melting ice cream there was a meltdown and we decided it was best to try another day…
The excitement for that campground happened on our last evening there. A massive tour bus camping vehicle came into the area close to where we were camping and promptly got stuck - the soil around here is really sandy, and a hazard for extremely heavy and long rigs, that need room to maneuver. Along with the rangers, the camp hosts, and plenty of onlookers, we watched as the driver tried to free his wheels from the ground but to no avail. They eventually had to call a tow-truck, which must have come in the middle of the night as it was already getting dark when this was happening and they were gone in the morning. Felt really bad for them, and also grateful this did not happen to us in our first spot - it could’ve!
We were treated to a gorgeous sunset on the beach on our final evening, thankful for all we’ve seen and experienced in Michigan. We had no idea how much we would love it and are pretty certain we’ll be back sooner than later.
Manistee, Michigan
August 13, 2021 - Finally updating the blog; Laurie burned through a ton of data (accidentally - see hangups/hiccups below) and we’ve had to save the remainder for the “essentials” - work and school! Goes to show how much we take our internet at home for granted….
We rolled into Manistee - staying at Orchard Beach State Park - on a early Saturday afternoon (July 24). We’re all getting pretty efficient at camp set up, but had a minor issue at this spot which involved no working electrical. But the rangers were super efficient and had it working within the hour. Owen had already done his due diligence on the park and discovered that there was a trolley that stopped by that afternoon, for anyone interested in a 45-minute tour of the city. Tom and I were tired from being on the road but we obliged and we were so glad that we did, as it gave us a really good overview of the city and took us to parts that we might not have discovered on our own. It definitely helped us plan out the next few days. And as we were the only ones on the trolley at that time, it was like our own private little tour with our guides, John and Jim.
Side-trip excursion: It’s worth noting that prior to arriving in Manistee, we had stayed at a Harvest Host location the night before (Iron Fish Distillery). We had a little time to kill before we could arrive in the State Parks (check in isn’t until 3 pm), so we were close enough to the Sleeping Bear Dunes area that we thought we could tag that area in the morning before heading down to Manistee. That required an early wake-up time (6:30 am), and it was drizzling a bit, so we threw the rain gear into the Jeep. As we got closer to Sleeping Bear Dunes, we also got closer to the storm. By the time we arrived at the “Scenic Drive” area, we were enveloped in a downpour! It was also kind of funny because we were the only ones out there at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning! The rangers weren’t even out to take our admission fees. For me, this was reminiscent of a Conn family adventure, for sure.
We drove into the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes parking lot (again - solo), except for a couple of rangers gathering up garbage and recycling. It was still pouring, but because we live by a mantra of “There’s no bad weather, only poor clothing choices” we suited up in our waterproof jackets and went hiking. Now these sand dunes are MASSIVE - many miles - and boast some pretty impressive inclines and declines. The rain was a warm rain, and actually compacted the sand, which made them easier to climb. We had the place to ourselves, and actually, had quite a bit of fun. We figured we hiked about 2 miles, but never did make it to the lake - it was still pretty far away, and we encountered a number of false summits. At times it kind of felt like we are on the planet of Tatooine…(so.much.sand)…
Hungry and wet, we decided it was time for breakfast and found a great spot in town at the Good Harbor Grill in Glen Arbor, MI. Tucked into a small community, it was a busy and popular spot. After that, we headed back to the RV, where the sun was just starting to come out. We broke down camp and headed to Manistee. On the way, we also had time to swing through Traverse City, a picturesque Marina town situated on the west arm of the Grand Traverse Bay (part of Lake Michigan). We made lunch (in the RV in the Walmart parking lot), unhooked the Jeep, and headed to a park at the marina to have our lunch there, and walked down Front Street - another fun area with shops, restaurants, etc. Places such as “Peace, Love and Donuts” and the “Arcade Cafe.” We’ve been told that Traverse City is a must see, and while we didn’t see too much of it, it does seem like a great place to visit. Finally - on to Manistee!
Manistee is known as the “Victorian Port City” and is historically recognized for its prominence with the early lumber trade industry. Supposedly the US government “went to war” with Manistee in the 1800s as they were concerned that there was too much clearing going on with the forests. There are beautiful Victorian homes and buildings throughout Manistee, and the tour is a great way to learn more about them and the families that built up the city.
Manistee is also located on what is known as the Gold Coast of Lake Michigan (east side of the lake). While we couldn’t access the beach at our campground due to the erosion, there were a couple of beautiful beaches within a 5-10 minute drive of us including
North Beach - More private, smaller (with some gorgeous homes on it)
Fifth Avenue beach: This seemed to be the “main” beach with the most traffic, parks, bathhouses, and places to buy ice cream treats (of course we did), and we spent the majority of our beach time here
The beaches are amazing - clean, pure sand bottoms and the lake isn’t even that cold. We’ve been extremely fortunate with the weather on this entire trip so far. And really, no bugs!!!! The sunsets from our campground were also quite special.
There is a good downtown district, with a mixture of gift shops, coffee shops, restaurants, book shops and a museum. We particularly liked The Outpost - combination of a great coffee shop and lots of great outdoor wear and gear. There’s also a riverwalk that goes for about a mile on the RIVER where one can dock their boat. We had dinner one evening at TJ Pub’s (one of the oldest establishments in Manistee) and during our hour-long wait, enjoyed the walk along the riverwalk. There were a couple of other restaurants right on the water that we didn’t get to, but those looked fun as well (these were Bluefish and Fillmore, for posterity….)
Per a recommendation of other campers we met, we headed down to Luddington (about 30 minutes from Manistee) to go to the Historic White Pine Village as well as the Maritime Museum. The White Pine Village offers a living-history tour of late 19th century - early 20th century pioneer homes and establishments. All the buildings (some original) contain thousands of artifacts and archives detailing life at this time, and also the agricultural and lumbering industry. The Maritime Museum was really well done, and had exhibits highlighting the car ferry industry, the lighthouses, and of course, lots of information about shipwrecks, of which there have been over 5,000 in the Great Lakes in total. Of course, we had to make an ice cream stop after our museum visits and found the perfect stop - The House of Flavors (chocolate chip cookie dough for Owen, black cherry for me, and strawberry for Tom). We also went on a quest for a boogie board here, as Owen wants to body surf the Lake Michigan waves - and we’ll likely find many other places along the way to put it to use.
We got pretty comfortable in Manistee, as we stayed for 5 days and it included a lot of beach time, work and school time, exploring and even some Olympics viewing by the bonfire a couple of nights. Also - lots of laundry. Right across the park from us was the Beech Hemlock Nature Trail, which offered up about a 30 minute trail run for Tom and I, and even allowed us to see about 10 deer on the trail.
Owen wants me to note that I had to get a new phone while in Manistee because I had cracked the screen pretty badly right before our trip (not to mention it was 8 years old) and it was time for an upgrade. However, I mistakenly used our “RV Wifi” to do the update and transfer all my photos, videos, apps, etc - and it used up 75% of our data for the month. He is not letting me live it down, because it has severely cut into his YouTube time.
Other than that, a pretty successful stay in Manistee.
People met along the way: Friendly couple from (near) Detroit camping with their grandkids. When I pulled out the Jiffy Pop, they mentioned they hadn’t seen that since the 70s.
Hiccups and hangups: No electrical at first, but quickly remedied. Laurie using up 75% of the data plan for the month (and it just kicked off) - Owen keeps reminding me of that.
Dates of stay: July 24 - 29, 2021
According to Owen…
Manistee was fun. We went to the beach on 5th Ave. On the first day we got to Manistee, we rode the trolley around town.