go hike a mountain

I know we haven’t updated in a while, but we haven’t been doing much. We’ve been in Florida since late February and have been waiting around for my dad to come home. His arrival date was pushed back a few days, then a few more, until he finally came home 10 days after he was supposed to! We’ll be spending time with him and my mother and making our way back to New Bedford after, stopping at a few places here and there. Our only real plan is to visit my sister and her family on the way back and to attend a 2-day adventure expo in Washington, D.C. Here is a summation of the last couple of weeks.

March 1, 2008

We woke up early and loaded up the car for an 11-mile canoe trip down the Blackwater River. The canoe rental and parking cost us $63 in all and the guy running the operation was kind enough to not charge us for Lola (TJ’s dog) because it’s normally an extra $5 per dog. While we waited in the parking lot, she ran into the woods to find sticks for us to throw but most of them were bigger than her and she couldn’t drag them out.

There were several other groups of people taking canoe trips as well and we all had to ride on benches in the back of a very large pick-up truck.

When we got to the drop-off point, the boys picked out a really good canoe. It was fiberglass instead of metal and it had comfier seats.

We pushed off from the shore without flipping and made it under the first bridge without any major problems. When we were about 100 yards away from the bridge we heard someone behind us take a dip in the river when their canoe toppled. We were a little worried we’d do the same because Lola was walking back and forth in the bottom of the canoe, and although she’s a small dog, the little shift in weight made a big difference in steadiness.

We stopped at a few beaches for breaks and changes in rowing position. Lola had fun running up and down the beach and eventually swimming around in the water looking for sticks we threw for her. We forgot to bring a bowl for her to drink from so we had to use a ziploc bag.

Jesse was the best at steering us in the back seat.

We finished the trip in about 4.5 hours. Now we’re thinking about canoeing up north in New Hampshire and Maine.

March 2 - 7, 2008

Not much went on throughout the week. At some point, we drove to Pensacola to have dinner with TJ at a little pizza joint called Ozone’s. The restaurant is located in the first level of what used to be a hospital. TJ told us the kitchen was the morgue. Pretty creepy. We roamed around the upper levels of the building a little. It’s mostly been turned over to offices. We also saw Be Kind, Rewind at the Rave theater in Pensacola. And we hung out with the dogs a lot. Here are Sheila and Stanley being sweet on each other.

Sheila and Lola are almost inseparable when TJ brings her over now. They take turns chewing on things even though there are many toys to choose from.

March 8 - 9, 2008

My mom asked us to dig a couple of stumps out of the yard while TJ was around to help. Stump #1 wasn’t that big of a deal. The roots were easy to dig out and the tree itself hadn’t grown much before it was chopped down a few years ago.

Stump #2 took several hours of work to remove. Jesse and I spent about an hour just digging out around and underneath the roots. TJ later came out to help whack at some roots with the axe. The boys finally resorted to using a chainsaw to separate the roots. The only problem was that the roots were growing downward as well as outward. If they hadn’t cut some of the top of the stump off, it would have been as tall as me when they took the whole thing out.

Here are Sheila and Lola being buddy-buddy again.

And Stanley just looking weird.

March 10, 2008

This day we decided to drive out and visit Florida’s highpoint, Britton Hill. It was only a 1.5 hour drive from my parent’s house. It’s in an area called Lakewood and there is actually a nice park and a few hiking trails devoted to the area. A stone marker stands at the highpoint.

This was our 21st highpoint and was cake.

March 12, 2008

TJ, Jesse and I woke up early to drive to New Orleans to roam around a few hours and later attend a New Orleans Hornets game. We found some parking in a central location and walked about 20 blocks to the end of the French Quarter to find the French Market. We had sandwiches at a little pub. Jesse had some kind of chicken and red sauce sandwich that he said was quite good. Mine had ham, brie and apple slices. Yummy.

TJ realized not long after we started walking that he had worn the wrong shoes. They were new and they were rubbing on his heels since he didn’t wear socks, so we had to hunt around for flip flops before we could do anything else.

We walked down to the waterfront to check out the river.

We poked around Jackson Square and stopped for cafe au lait and beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde.

Walking around, we passed a clothing boutique that a bulldog was guarding.

Those are all the photos of our trip to New Orleans because we ended up leaving the camera in the car during the game. We weren’t sure they would allow it into the arena and didn’t want to take a chance with having to walk all the way back to the car if they didn’t. The Hornets played a great game and the crowd was very pumped about their team. They won by 25 points. We left the game at about 10pm and had to drive all the way back to Navarre because TJ had to work the next day.

So, that’s about all that’s happened in the last few days. We’ll try and post again before we leave Florida because internet access might be harder to get from here to the end of our vacation. Hope everyone is well, but please let us know! (Leave a comment.)