Alex and I have gotten a ton of rain this last week. Actually, just over the entire weekend and today and forecasted for the rest of the week. Yesterday we had one sunny day, cold, but sunny. Continuous rain throughout the day is so lame; especially when you're traveling and your vehicle is an old rickety VW van. Ugh. On top of the rain, it has been really cold, as low as 32 degrees. What happened to all that warm weather we were having???? Oh yeah, we decided to head north. I forgot about that little part; silly me:/
Rain used to never really get me in a bad mood, but ever since this trip across the country, I dread the rain. It makes me really negative and grumpy. It's hard for me to look on the bright side of things when it's all gloomy and wet outside. When it rains, Alex and I are either stuck in the stuffy van or we are mooching some free wifi at the nearest coffee place. We watch a lot of movies or TV online to let the time pass. Or we rent movies at the nearest Red Box. By the way, Red box is awesome! Rent a movie for one dollar a night and you can return the movie at any Red Box in the ENTIRE COUNTRY, as long as it's returned within 24hrs. Pretty cool.
So, over the weekend we went to Columbia, SC. It's the capital of South Carolina. It seems like a town with a lot of potential. We didn't really explore it very much because the weather was sooo bad. It rained practically the entire day Saturday and stormed all night. And I mean STORMED! Lightning and thunder out the wahzoo! Then Sunday it rained all day long!
Columbia, SC State Capital
Side View of the Capital
We tried touring the State capital, but it is closed on the weekends:( The outside was pretty. Beautiful gardens and statues. We walked around the downtown area for a bit and then found a Starbucks to hangout at for the rest of the day/weekend:).
Sitting at a bench in the Capital Park
Statue of George Washington. His Cane broke when the Union army burned the city during the Civil War
Capital Gardens
One of the Statues on the Capital grounds dedicated to the Daughters of the Confederacy
On Monday we said goodbye to Columbia. Sorry I don't have much to tell you about Columbia. Bad weather can really gyp you out of a great experience. Like when Alex and I were in Laguna Beach. It rained the entire time we were there, as well. I'm sure Laguna Beach is a great town, but we didn't get to experience it's greatness, only the dreaded rain and threats of mudslides. Man, I'm sure creating a ton of memories while on this crazy adventure:)
We have spent the last two days in Myrtle Beach, SC. South Carolina's number one vacation destination in the state. I read that 13 million people come here every year to vacation. And for some reason I can't understand why. It is by far the most cheesy, gimmicky, cheap motel feel "resort" area I have ever seen. It is worse than Miami. You can find every fast-food chain in the nation here and hundreds of cheap box motels with that ugly green and blue pastel paint, and that ugly pink that men like to call "salmon color" line the streets. Some of the motels seriously made me want to vomit. Practically every motel had some cheesy ocean themed swimming pool with fountain mushrooms or dolphins spewing out water. The paint on the "sea animals" have been so incredibly sun damaged, which adds to the cheap appearance. It was not the prettiest site, to say the least.
One of the many "resort" Motels
A mushroom fountain
I do have to say that the beach was really nice. I'll have to give credit for that, but everything else about Myrtle Beach just didn't float my boat.
The beach at Myrtle Beach
I don't see myself coming back here again. I guess maybe I had a different idea of what Myrtle Beach would be like because I was thinking, "It's a resort area. That must mean the scenery is beautiful, there must be tons of fancy hotels, fine dining and expensive high-end shopping." I was wrong. I guess not every "resort" area has to meet that criteria. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh on judging the area. I just thought Myrtle Beach would be a little more picturesque and charming. Shame on me for those preconceived notions. Maybe I would have appreciated the scenery a little more if I had of expected nothing from the area. Oh yeah, and also maybe if this weather hadn't put a damper on my mood.
Alex and I have been in Charleston, South Carolina for the past 4 days. I didn't think we would stay this long, but it just turned out that way. Charleston is not as beautiful or charming as Savannah, but still a nice city. The historic downtown area has very old homes dating anywhere from the 1680s to the 1800s. Definitely a lot older than Savannah. Of course it's roots started about 60 years before Savannah, so it makes sense. I was expecting Charleston to be just as beautiful as Savannah, but it's just not. I mean it does have some pretty amazing buildings; the drawbacks are that it is more crowded, more expensive, and there are more bums. Savannah has a law against panhandling. If you are caught panhandling it is a 250 dollar fine and if you can't pay it then you have to jail. It's a great incentive for the homeless there to work for their money. Maybe, I would have found Charleston a little more interesting if we spent the money on touring more museums, but we still want to make it back to California. It is so hard sticking to a budget when traveling. Way harder than I thought it would be.
We walked the streets of Charleston and admired the old buildings. Many of the historical homes have a little plaques of info describing when it was built and who lived there. It was nice to learn a little history for free.
One of the historical places we did end up spending a pretty penny on was touring Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is where the Civil War began. It was the first battle of the war and it was won by the Confederate side. South Carolina was the first State to secede from the Union. After winning the battle at Fort Sumter, the fort was occupied by the Confederate army for the rest of the war. Fort Sumter is basically in ruins today, but before the major destruction of it, it looked like a pretty amazing fort. The building of the fort started in the 1820s and at the time of the battle there it was 90% complete. So, it took about 40 years of building. It was three stories high and the walls were 5 feet thick. The top two stories of the fort were destroyed in the Civil War, but the first story still remains partly intact today.
Alex and I have been getting really homesick. We just want to see some familiar faces and in Charleston we did! Alex's cousin Daniel and his wife Laura came to Charleston a few days ago and we got to spend a couple of hours with them yesterday. They are here for a wedding of a friend and I was so happy and grateful that they were able to spend some time with Alex and I. Laura is one of the bridesmaids in the wedding, so to take some time aside to spend with us was really nice. We walked around the historic downtown area with them. It was our second time walking around that area and for some reason it seemed to be much more charming; maybe it was the added company:)
So, Alex and I spend a ton of time at Starbucks coffee, just to waste time and do something that is cheap and/or free. I mean you can only do so much touristy stuff in one day, right? This is our way of just chilling and passing the time. We spend hours using their free wifi. Alex just introduced me to the website stumbleupon.com and I'm absolutely addicted now! If you haven't heard of it, I'll tell you about it. It is a site that helps you find cool websites that you would find interesting, basically catering to your own personal interests. It has a list of different interests that you can check box and then it will take you to websites that you might find interesting when you click on the "stumble" button. It's great for surfing the web and you don't have to worry about any weird or scam sites. I have found some pretty interesting stuff using the website. If you know about the site then you already know that it is a huge time waster, but I say if you have the time to "stumble" then have at it.
I think we may be in Charleston for one more day and then we will be off to our next destination, Columbia, which is the capital of South Carolina. We are trying to hit up every state capital if we can. We have a little place in our hearts for state capitals because we are from the state capital of California.
Oh, I don't know how could fully describe the wonderful enchantment of Savannah, Georgia. It's a beautiful city, full of history and charm. When walking through the streets, time didn't matter. Even after walking 20 blocks, I felt like I couldn't get enough of the city. I think I could have spent a whole month there if my pocket book was a little bigger, if you know what I mean. The city's design is wonderful. Every few blocks there is a park square with 150+year old oak trees coated with Spanish Moss, velvety green grass and intricately designed historical monuments/statues reminding you how Georgia got it's roots. Surrounding the park squares are buildings and homes that are either built in the Georgian era, or Victorian era. The city of Savannah has tried it's hardest not to turn into a "tourist theme park." It is actually very hard to find souvenir shops, you really have to look really hard if you want to buy any Savannah souvenirs. I think it really makes the city feel like a real city when there aren't souvenir shops on every corner. I tried to soak in every moment as Alex and I strolled down the streets.
Savannah's park squares
Many of the sidewalks are made of brick; Spring time is in the air; Beautiful Wisteria flowers on an old Victorian home
Savannah was the first city founded in the Colony of Georgia. In my last blog I talked about Colonal Oglethorpe, well, he was the founder of Georgia. He had many dreams and inspirations for the Colony, but due to the distraction of war with Spain, opposition from settlers, and opinions from the northern settlers in Charleston his dreams were never fully carried out. He was very much a humanitarian and a moral liberal of his time. When he was back in England a very close friend of his died from Small Pox while in Debtor's Prison. He was so upset with the system of Debtor's Prison that he petitioned to the King of England to start a colony in the Americas where people who owed a debt could be sent to the new colony and work off their debt rather than rot in prison. It came to be known as Indentured Servitude. The King accepted his petition, but not for humanitarian reasons, but rather for England to have a Colonal and his Regimen settle in a place that would be close to fight the Spanish. Colonal Oglethorpe brought 107 people with him in 1733 to settle in Savannah and the new Colony called Georgia. He was the leader of the Colony and outlawed slavery, prohibited hard liquor(beer and wine was okay), and gave the right to man to defend himself in a court of law without the use of a lawyer. Well, as you know if you read my last blog, just three years later in 1736 he had to go to St. Simon Island to build a fort and fight off the Spanish. After Spain was no longer a threat, Colonal Oglethorpe was asked to step down from his leadership role in Georgia and asked to return to England; that was sometime in the early 1740s. He returned to England and never came back to the Colonies.
A very famous Battle was fought in Savannah during the Revolutionary War. Savannah was overtaken by British soldiers and the battle where the American Rebels tried to take it back was the bloodiest in all of the Revolution.The American Rebels didn't win this one. 800 men from the Rebel side died and only about 50 British soldiers died. It was the first battle that The French allies fought in with the Americans. The landscape of the field where the battle was fought has been recreated to how it might have looked during the time the battle was taken place.
The most recent grave in this graveyard is from the 1850s; the writing on many of the gravestones is no longer legible
Savannah is also a very artsy town. It is home to the largest Art and Design College in the entire country. What is neat about the college is that the campus is not only in one location in Savannah. Back in the 1970s a woman named, Paula Wallace, came to Savannah with her husband and children. They were a pretty well to do family. Her children convinced her to buy up old Victorian and Georgian style homes and buildings all over Savannah and restore them. She then turned all those buildings into places to hold college art classes, which then turned in to the College of Art and Design. Tons of shops all over Savannah sell art and items created by the college students. Walking into one of the shops felt like walking into an online Etsy shop. We even ate lunch at a place that acted as an art studio/restaurant. I loved the vibe of the artsy atmosphere.
So, I guess I should explain my title to this blog, "A Christmas Present to Abraham Lincoln." Back when the American Civil War was going on, the Union Forces took hold of Savannah. Colonal Sherman was so impressed of Savannah's beauty that he decided not to destroy the town and offered it as a Christmas present to the President, Abraham Lincoln. I don't know how much I can express how beautiful Savannah is and I 'm glad Colonal Sherman thought so, too.
When Alex and I got to Savannah, we had no idea that it had the 2nd most largest St. Patrick's day celebration in the World. Number one is New York City. St. Patrick's day is a week long celebration here. They even have a committee dedicated to planning all year long for St. Patrick's day. So, we got to join in some of the festivities in the city. With all the celebrating going on it made me interested in why we even celebrate St. Patrick's day. So, I did some research. Only two letters of St. Patrick remain in existence and they really don't describe a whole lot of his life. He was British/Roman and the first letter describes how he was captured by some Irish and made a slave for six years. He escaped his slavery because he heard a voice telling him to leave and that there was a boat waiting for him. He did in fact find a boat, but they weren't waiting for him. The crew was actually very offended that he was trying to get on the boat without paying. So, he started to walk away and then all the sudden the crew decided they did want him to come on the boat. He sailed back to Britain dedicated his life to serving the Lord and became a pope for Britain. The second letter describes some of his joys and struggles serving as a missionary in Ireland. The rest of his life works is from "word of mouth." Supposedly he was sent to Ireland because a different pope was too scared to go. The Pagans and Druids in Ireland were really violent and scary. St. Patrick had an advantage because he learned how to speak the language of the common Irish during his time in slavery. He went to Ireland and was very popular. He played a major role in eradicating Druidism and Paganism. He often used the Shamrock to describe the Holy Trinity to the Irish. He was known to perform miracles and they think he died on March 17th. So, when we celebrate St. Patrick's day we are celebrating his life. He seemed like he was a pretty legit missionary, if you ask me.
The rules are very loose during St. Patrick's day celebration
We did it! We ended up going to Disney World! It was a whole heck of a lot of money, but I don't know if we would ever have the chance to go again. I thought, "Well maybe when Alex and I have kids we can take them to Disney World", but now that I look back I'm so glad we went with just us two. It felt like we were on vacation rather than just traveling. We were at Disney World for about 12 hrs and it was non-stop walking/waiting in line the entire time. We got to see/ride on about 15 different exhibits and I noticed the rides are a lot longer than the ones at Disney Land. Splash Mountain seemed like we were on it for 15 minutes. I thought, "Man, is this ride ever going to end?" It was a great experience all in all. I'm mean it was a "Magical" experience:) The light parade was awesome and the fireworks lasted for about 20 minutes. It was probably the best fireworks show I have ever seen. There were a couple times during the show that I thought it was over, but it wasn't. The place we were at in the park was right under the fireworks. It was pretty cool. Now the question is, "Would I go again?" Um, that's a tough one. I'll say maybe. Maybe, because it would cost a whole heck of a lot of money to do it again. I would get the park-hopper pass and stay for a week. That's the only way I'd do it again. Oh yeah, and I would stay at one of the Disney World Resorts.
Alex insisted on getting a big fat turkey leg and he enjoyed it thoroughly
After our little side track in Orlando we made our way back to the Florida Coast. By this time Alex was really tired of being in Florida. We had been there for almost a month. I was still fine with being there, but I think Alex just wanted to get on to another state. We went to St. Augustine. It's the oldest continually settled town in the USA. It was first discovered in 1513 by Ponce De Leon when he was trying to find the fabled "Fountain of Youth," and it was settled in 1565. Obviously Ponce didn't find the "Fountain" because he died. There is a freshwater spring near the town that was believed to be the "Fountain of Youth," but it's never been proven, hehe.
St. Augustine; Alex is kicking down the door to the oldest house there
I really loved St. Augustine. It's one of those towns that is going to stick out in my brain when I think of Florida. The town still holds much of it's old town feel. There is a Fort there that is still pretty much intact and was built in 1642. St. Augustine was Spanish run for a long time, until Florida was traded with the British for Cuba. Then it was traded back to Spain for the Bahamas. Then it was bought from Spain by the USA in the 1820s for 5 million dollars. It's been in the possesion of the US since then:) During the Civil War, St. Augustine was captured by the Union Army. The Fort was only being guarded by one Confederate soldier. The Confederate didn't put up a fight when the Union army arrived. St. Augustine was a Union occupied town during the entire length of the Civil War and became a place for the citizens of the US up north to vacation during the winter during the wartime.
St. Augustine Fort
St. Augustine has some of the oldest buildings still standing/intact in all of the USA/Florida. It's home to the oldest wooden school house in the US, built sometime in the 1700s. It has the oldest general store in Florida and the oldest home in Florida. The general store is still running as a store and acts as a museum, too. The glass cabinets in the store holds thousands of items that were never sold, some dating over 150 years past the expiration date! The roads in the town are all very narrow and it felt like I was in a little town in Europe. I could have wandered around the streets all day. I would love to go back someday and stay at one of the Bed and Breakfasts there.
Oldest School House and Store
We just couldn't get enough of the old town charm, so we went to another oldest town in Florida on Amelia Island called Fernandina Beach. The oldest house in the town(circa early 1800s) is still being occupied by the builder's decendents, and the house was fastened together with wooden pegs. I think that is sooo cool! Fernandina Beach also has the oldest hotel and saloon in the state. I love the old town charm!
Fernandina Beach Town
Sign to the Comfort Station AKA Bathroom:)
After Fernandina, we were done with Florida. We finally made it to another state, the state of Georgia. We stayed the night at an RV park. It was the cheapest RV park we've been to and it had free breakfast! How awesome is that??!! I think we are experiencing "southern hospitality" again:) They even had free coffee and cookies all day long! I was very happy!
We are currently in Brunswick, GA. It isn't much of a fancy town. It's more on the practical industrial side of things. We took a side trip to Georgia's Golden Isles near Brunswick, which is a grouping of islands along the Georgian coast. We stopped on St. Simon Island, which is home to the famous British Fortress Frederica. Not much of the Fortress remains intact, but the history behind it was very interesting to say the least. The 42nd British Regimen came to St. Simon Island in 1736 and built a fort along with a small town. The Spanish were not happy at all with that because they claimed the Georgian territory to to be theirs, but Britain had a different map that said Georgia was "Debatable Territory," and in fact did not belong to the Spanish. The land around the fort was marshy and heavily forested. In 1742 the Spanish sent 2000 troops to invade Fort Frederica. When the Spanish were about 1 mile away from the Fort, they were spotted by the British. The land was so heavily forested that the Spanish did not know they were so close to the Fort. The Fort was only guarded by about 200 men. They were strongly outnumbered. The Colonal Oglethrope sent about 40-50 men out to surprise attack the Spanish. The Spanish were completely shocked because they weren't used to such gorilla/Indian style of warfare. The combination heavy forest, gunfire smoke, and rain prevented the Spanish from actually seeing how many British they were fighting against. The Spanish ran out of ammunition and the British captured 12 Spanish Soldiers. The next day the Colonal sent a letter to the Spanish commander basically telling him that more British troops would be arriving and they would be immensely outnumbered and ultimately defeated. The Colonal was lying, but his lie worked. The Spanish left and Georgia was left to the British to keep. The battle was called The Bloody Marsh Battle.
The Frederica Fort
Old Home Foundations in Frederica. The Foundations are made from a cement using water, sand, lime, and oyster shells
The Frederica Graveyard
Many of the building foundations from the town surrounding the fort have been discovered in the last 60 years. An old map of the town tells who lived in which house. As Alex and I walked by the old foundations I couldn't help, but imagine what life would have been like for the people who lived there over 250 years ago. The old town store acted as a church, as well as, a store and John Wesley came and preached to the towns people there. In the store there was accounted to be 8,000 bottles of wine....I wonder what John Wesley thought of that ;)
The town was mysteriously burned to the ground some time in the late 1700s, and was basically forgotten until the 1940s when archeologists started digging up artifacts and finding the remains of the foundations in the town.
Miami to the southern most point in the continental U.S! We have done a ton of traveling these last few days. First we spent some time in Miami by the beach mostly, then we made our way down to Key West and then we went to the Everglades. I'm pooped! I think I need some more relaxing time at the beach:)
Where the hwy ends at the southernmost part of the continental USA
Of all these three places I enjoyed Key West the most. It's just as touristy as Miami, but the pace of life feels slower.
I'll tell you a little bit first about our time in Miami. Like I said earlier, we spent most of our time there by the beach. North Miami has some really pretty beaches and they seem to be less crowded. We also went to South Beach, the part of Miami that gets about 99% of the medias attention. It was seriously insane how many people were there! Alex and I drove around for over an hour trying to find parking and we almost got in a really bad car accident that would have been our fault:/ Glad we avoided it, though. We finally found parking by the beach, but it wasn't free. We went to the beach and we found out that beaches in Miami are "top optional." There were two young women at the beach we were at that were topless, but that was about it. I was actually tempted to take my top off just because my bathing suit top can be such a hassle to wear. I'm always pulling it every which way to make sure I'm not exposing anything. The women there who were topless had mosquito bites as breasts, so it wasn't too distracting. I think if I went topless I would be more of a distraction than anything with what God has blessed me with, and the stares alone would make me feel more uncomfortable than wearing my bathing suit top. So, I kept it on.
swimming in the ocean!
Underwater picture:)
Beautiful North Miami Beach
After spending some time by the beach we walked around the South Beach area, where all the shops and restaurant are. There were soooooo many people. Mostly young people and a ton of Europeans. It's amazing how many Europeans are in Miami. Did you know that the restaurants in Miami actually add onto the bill an automatic gratuity because Europeans don't normally tip the waiter? It's the restaurants way to make sure the waiters get their tips. We almost double tipped at one restaurant, but luckily we noticed the added gratuity.
South Beach Park
Walking around South Beach
Someone Partying In South Beach
My overall view of Miami is that it's too overcrowded and I felt a little out of place. It seems like a place where people go to pretend they are someone else; to forget their real life back home where people really know who they are and what they are really like. You know that saying, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Well, I think that phrase would probably be the same for those who come to vacation in Miami. And the building architecture is very "art deco." The oldest building probably dates back to 1950, when Florida was trying to turn the state into a tourist getaway place. Stucco buildings, bright pinks and blues, gimmicky ocean themed restaurants and hotels, I think you get the gist.
One thing that saved my negative opinion about Miami was seeing The Ancient Spanish Monastery. It was so beautiful and reminded me of being in Europe. It was first built in the 12th century in Spain. So, what in the heck is it doing in Miami? Well, remember that guy I talked about in one of my previous blogs, William Randolf Hearst? He was the guy who built Hearst Castle back in California. During the building of his castle in California he thought it would be cool to have a Spanish Monastery on the property as well. So, in 1929 he bought one in Spain and had it dismantled. The stones of the Monastery were put in boxes, packed with hay and each box was labeled to identify what pieces were in each box. There were 11,000 boxes total. They were shipped to New York and upon arrival it was found out that in the area of Spain where the Monastery was purchased there was an outbreak of the disease Hoof and Mouth. So, the U.S Department of Agriculture quarantined the shipment for fear of the disease spreading to the U.S, and took the stones out of the boxes and had all the hay burned that the stones were packed with. Something terrible happened when they did that because they forgot to label what stones came out of what box. Then the Stock Market crashed and it would take too much time and money for Hearst to bring the stones to California and have his workers figure out how to put the Monastery back together. So, the stones were stored in a warehouse in New York for 26 years until Hearst died. After Hearst's death the stones were put up for auction and bought by two guys(I forget their names). They brought the stones down to Miami and it took 19 months and 1.5 million dollars to put the monastery back together. That was sometime in the 1950s, so it was the equivalent to 12 million dollars today. They called it the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle because they were putting it together without any reference what so ever. I think that is pretty dang amazing.
Video inside the courtyard of the Monastery:
The Ancient Spanish Monastery
Door way to the Monastery Courtyard
Hallway of the Monastery
Okay, enough of Miami, now on to Key West! Oh, I absolutely loved Key West. It is the last of the Florida Keys and it is actually closer to Cuba than the Florida Mainland. The drive was gorgeous, ocean so blue that it was hard to tell what was the ocean and what was the sky. This is one place in Florida that I could see myself going back to. The houses date back to the 1800s and are all built in the Victorian Style. We meandered aimlessly through the streets. Chickens and roosters roamed around us, as well. We walked by Ernest Hemingway's home and a presidential vacation home called The Truman Little White House. J.F.K was at the house during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the last President to use the home was Clinton.
Can you tell where the ocean meets the sky?
Roosters and Chickens were all over the place in Key West
The Truman Little White House
Info about the Little White House
Ernest Hemingway's house
When we got to Key West I was pretty darn hungry. Alex and I had skipped lunch and decided on having "linner." We went to a delicious gourmet Panini restaurant. I was soooooooo hungry and enjoyed every last bite. For dessert we went to a place called Better Than Sex. It was quite the experience. The owner of the restaurant seated us. Candles illuminated the restaurant. It was a dessert only place, hours were from 6pm to midnight and it was a little on the pricey side. I got the dessert wine, Muscato, with my wine glass dipped in caramel. It was seriously incredibly good. I would go back to that restaurant just for that wine again. The dessert Alex and I shared was called Better than Sex and it was an award winning bread pudding saturated in dark chocolate sauce with Bing cherries infused in the bread and strawberries on the side. It was really good. Was it better than sex? Well, in my opinion food and sex satisfy two very different sensations and if one were to think that any food can be better than sex then they probably don't have a very good or healthy sex life. Really you can't compare the two on the same level because they are very different. Just my opinion, though.
Yummy food
One of each of our paninis
My Muscato
The "Better Than Sex" dessert
Our last place of destination was bike riding through the Everglades. The Everglades are basically a fifty mile wide flowing river only a few inches deep and is full of all kind of life. Before our bike ride the lady at the park asked us if we had rain gear because a storm was supposed to roll in any minute. It was still pretty sunny outside and there were clouds in the sky, but not rain clouds. So, we decided to risk it and not bring ponchos with us. I figured if it rained it was going to be warm anyways. The bike ride was 15 miles total. We passed by alligators and birds, a few insects flew in my face. About 2 or 3 miles into the bike ride the wind picked up and rain clouds started to hover over us. By mile 7 it was pouring down rain! The wind was blow against us and we were soaked. There were other bikers, as well, along the trail. Alex and I stopped at the halfway point on the bike trail which had an observatory tower. We took a few pictures from the tower and decided to be on our way. As I was walking down the tower some people passed by us and they all gave me really weird looks. I thought to myself, "I wonder if my mascara is running." So, I turn to Alex and ask, "Is my mascara running?" Alex says, "OH YEAH! It's looks pretty bad!" OMG! I ask Alex, "Why didn't you tell me before we took all those pictures???" He says, "Sorry, I guess I just didn't think of it. Guys don't really notice stuff like that." Yeah right! The people who gave me those looks were all young guys! Ugh, Oh well.
The wind was really bad and for like 8 miles we were riding our bikes against the wind, which is basically like riding uphill. I was exhausted! I had fun, but that fun was really tiring.
Alligator chillin on the side of the bike trail
Beginning of the bike ride was sunny
The storm begins to roll in
We tried riding our bikes really fast to avoid the storm
We didn't ride fast enough and it poured on us
The observatory tower
This pic was taken before I knew about all the mascara on my face:/
Another alligator
Man, this was a long blog. I hope you were able to get through it without falling asleep, lol! We've been in Florida for almost 3 weeks now and we are eager to go north to see more of the U.S. We just don't want to run into any really bad weather. I think we might go back up to Orlando and go to Disney World, it's a lot of money, but we may never have the chance to go to it again. I'm still thinking about it. On our bike ride through the Everglades Alex's phone got wet and is ruined. So, we have to get him a new phone and that is going to cost a lot of money.
