Holidays in the Sun

Christmas in Florida is a real experience.  It really does not seem like the holiday season.  We did a round of frolf on Christmas day.  We met some armadillos, watched manatees, played on the beach, and got bitten by mosquitoes.  It was great to have the boys with us.

Manatee

Lots of manatees

Our trailer tree

Christmas day frolf

More frolf action

What's out there, alligators?

Armadillo

Playing games on the picnic table

We are spending New Years with our our old neighbors who moved down her just over a year ago. They have an awesome boat and the fishing  was great.

Fishin on the Gulf

You catch some strange fish

Syd and Riley spending time together

Watching dolfins

Getting stingrays off hooks is interesting

Objects in this picture may be closer than they appear

Found Some Sun

  We found some sunshine in Northeastern Florida and have been hanging out enjoying the parks and beaches around Mayport, near Jacksonville.  We checked out Fort Caroline the location of a French colony, The Kingsley Plantation an early 1800's cotton plantation, and rode our bikes on the beach.

Fort Caroline

Kingsley Plantation house

Slave quarters

One of the locals

Bike riding on the beach

We came across people releasing sea turtles that had been cold stunned, kinda like hypothermia, at Cape Cod.

One of the turtles before release

And they're off

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There are a few big insects here.

Tomorrow we are heading to Tampa, where the boys will meet us for Christmas.  Looking forward to spending some time with them.

Savannah Historic District

 The Savannah Historic District was much better than I expected.  The district includes the original town grid  plan that was laid out by Gen. James Oglethorpe who founded the Georgia Colony.  The buildings which are 18th and 19th century architecture, are very awesome.  The city retains much of its original cobble stone streets, brick walkways, and the twenty-four park, open spaces or "squares".  Many streets are lined with trees draped in Spanish moss.  The river front is quite nice as well.

The Cotton Exchange

Andrew Low House.  Juliette Gordon Low was living here when she started the Girl Scouts.

Sydney next to the Girl Scouts Headquarters.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

Fountain in Forsyth Park.

Forsyth Park

You can by cups of beer to go.

Taffy Machine.

Candy Store.

Haunted House?

Our ghost tour ride.

Statue in one of the 24 squares.

We also toured the Bonaventure Cemetery. The cemetery was originally a plantation and became a private cemetery in 1846. Later it became a public cemetery.  It is over 100 acres in size.  

Johnny Mercer's family plot.

Grist Mills and Smoky Mountains

  Although we are making our way to sunnier weather, we couldn't pass up a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains since we were so close.  The weather wasn't the best, and it took three tries before we were able to drive over the top due to road closures.  We did get to see those blue, smoky, mountains however.  It is a nice little park with lots of buildings left from the early settlers of the area.

Mingus Mill was built in 1886 and ran for 50 years.

Information on the Mingus Mill

This mill had a turbine that was powered by water.  The turbine is under the structure.

Little Greenbrier School.  It was built in 1882 and had no heat.  It was used for 50 years.  Children came from as far as nine miles away to attend.

This cemetery was next to the school because the school also served as a church.

We counted nine Walker children graves.  This was one of the longest living.  There was an infant who died a few days prior to this child.  Tough time and place to be a child.  So sad.

John Oliver bought this land and built this house in 1820.  His family continued to own this place until the park was established in 1934.

Cades Cove in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

The Cable Mill, built by John Cable in 1870.  This grist mill used a wheel.

The Great Smoky Mountains.

More Smoky mountains.

Newfound Gap and the state line.

View of the Smoky Mountains through the frosty trees.

Seriously, we thought we were avoiding this!

We hiked on the Appalachian Trail.

  Tomorrow we head for Savannah, Georgia for a few days and then to Florida!