The Pictures....Finally

Savannah, Georgia Skidgate Island State Park

Jenna and Catherine amused themselves weaving palm mats.

Oops, out of order. This is Miami.....34C....at the pool all day.

Spanish Moss hanging in the trees.

The picture you were all looking for, pretty freaky hey!

Myrtle Beach

Richard got lots of surf fishing in.

Jenna got really good at casting this net. She built muscle too, the net is surrounded with wieghts.

This is the bait fish she caught in the net. Some casts would have about 20 fish in them.

After a week of sun, surf and sand in Myrtle Beach we kept on heading south. We loved Myrtle Beach.....well, at least the beach part, not the highrises that we could see looking to our right or left. I seems so wierd to see all this development along the coast in the US compared to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Richard spent most of the time surf fishing. He caught a robin fish, a skate, a blue and he hooked 2 sharks! Jenna got really good at throwing the net which is used to get the bait fish. She caught so many she shared with other fishermen or threw the big ones back in.
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So now we are in Savannah, Georgia. It is warm and the night is alive with sounds of crickets and frogs (reminds us of home). All the trees have Spanish Moss drooping down from the branches. It looks like nature is decorating for Halloween....creepy. We are staying in a beautiful state park. Today after school we headed into town and went on a Trolley Tour of the town. The history here is incredible and the old houses are beautiful. The porches are ornate with wrought iron. There are wood Colonial houses and limestone mansions. Lots of huge oak trees everywhere covered in Spanish moss. We stopped on River Street where the candy shop hands out free samples of prailine (we love that price). The road is made out of the old ballast rocks from ships......it was VERY bumpy. All throughout the town of Savannah there are beautiful parks, 24 to be exact. They are about the size of a city block with beautiful houses built around them and the parks are full of old oak trees. The squares also have statues in them of leaders in the civil war. Most of them are facing north....toward the enemy. All of Georgia was burned in the Civil war. There are no more plantantion homes left. Only Savannah was spared because Abraham Lincoln accepted it as a Christmas present.

Today we had a quiet day around camp again, venturing out only to the library to catch up on emails (hint, hint). On the way back to the campsite Richard spotted an alligator. We drove around to a place where we could park and then went to see. Lo and behold, it was an alligator...see photos. So now we know it is true when they say alligators can be in ANY body of water. That pond was not so big! The kids were thrilled although Matthew was a little frightened because he knows that he is a good size snack for an alligator. They can run up to 30 mph on land for short bursts. Needless to say we kept our distance.
On Wednesday we left Savannah and headed for Florida. Our first stop on our way to the Keys was St. Augustine. It is hot here! It was 85F today with about 100% humidity. I don't think I will ever get used to the humidity. Give me the west coast or Nova Scotia anyday. Today after school we headed to the beach. We were at the beach for about 2 hours when we noticed some pretty black clouds in the distance and some wind. Richard figured he should pop back to the trailer and get the awning in.......he's a little anal about that. While Richard was gone I noticed that the clouds began moving incredibly fast. I started packing up and got the kids out of the water. By the time we got the stuff packed up and ran up the beach to where Richard could pick us up.....he can drive right on the beach....the heavens opened and we were caught in a deluge. I used the sun umbrella to give us some protection but because it was warm getting wet wasn't such a big deal. Richard finally drove up and we scrambled into the truck full of sand and soaked to the bone. After the rain storm the weather cleared and it is still nice. Tomorrow we will continue south because we have booked a State Park in Key Largo for the 22nd.

Our trip along the coast was uneventful (just the way Richard likes it). We past many places we have all heard about. Daytona, Cape Canaveral, Maimi Beach, Coaco Beach and Hollywood....who knew there was a Hollywood in Florida. We are in South West Miami. There are avacado trees, orange trees (not ripe yet) and mango throughout the campground where we are. It was 90F today so we spent the day around the pool. We are thankful for air conditioning. Tomorrow we will head to the only english speaking CRC in the Miami area. The other 4 are spanish. After church we will drive 45min to Key Largo.

Savannah, Georgia

Hi y'all, just a quick update 'cause I know y'all lookin an dare ain't nothin' posted.....how's that for a southern drawl. We are in Savannah, Georgia. I only have a few minutes at the library but just to let you know we are heading into Florida tomorrow and will be working our way down the east side all the way down to the Keys. I will post pictures and more info when we find a site with wifi....where have you heard that before!

It is sunny once again in South Carolina!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We are parked about 10 trailers from the beach here in Myrtle Beach. We have had lots of rain and wind as well as about 2 hours of fierce thunderstorms this afternoon. I can understand why all the houses have no basements and are on stilts. All these storm systems are on their way out of the area so sun is expected soon. We can't wait because the beach is gorgeous and the waves are great.

Richard has been getting more surf fishing in. So far all he has caught is some bait fish.
While we were in North Carolina he got a chance to surf fish on the Outer Banks. There are lots of species of fish to catch. We also spent some time climbing sand dunes and watching the hang gliders on the dunes. All this is in the area where Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the first plane. There is a memorial there. We also crossed Roanoke Island which was the site of the Lost Colony. A group of English settled here, a father and his married daughter and his grand daughter and others. The father had to go back to England and because of the war between the English and Spanish ( I think) was unable to return for 2 1/2 years. When he returned there was no trace of his daughter or any of the other people. No one knows what ever became of them. There were no bodies, no signs of stuggle, no note, nothing. To this day no one knows what became of them.

We spent a day with the Vanwoerdens too. We decided to go to the fossil museum and look for more shark teeth. The kids of course had a great time together. We had a BBQ and we hope to see them down here in Myrtle Beach before they head back to Abbotsford.

Richard giving surf fishing a try. I think he likes it!

Digging for fossilized shark teeth.

Playing on the largest sand dune on the east coast.

Jamestown, first English settlement in the U.S.

Seeing all the cotton fields was so neat. This is harvest time. They pack the cotton into huge bricks. We all picked a sample.

Loch Ness roller coaster. One of the girls favorites, especially Rachel because it was the only coaster she was tall enough to go on. One coaster is in the loop and the next is heading down the hill.

Escape from Pompeii. One of the water rides that could soak unsuspecting spectators, not to mention the kids in the boat.

North Carolina

After one more day at Busch Gardens and then an afternoon at Jamestown and Williamsburg we figured it was time to keep going south. Here we are in North Carolina, Belhaven to be exact but it probably isn't on any of your maps. I feel like we are in and area of perpetual swamp. There are dark swampy areas everywhere split up by cotton and soybean fields. All the houses are built on bricks or pilings about 2 feet high.....think it floods much here? The main street by the library I am typing in was flooded just a month ago when a tropical storm came through. Hurricanes like N. Carolina as much as Florida. There are Hurricane Evacuation Route signs and kids get Hurricane Days off school. The campsite we are at is right next to one of those dark swampy areas. The mosquitos are huge here.....size of the ones in Alaska. It is good fishing though. Jenna has already gotten a line wet but no luck so far because we haven't bought any crickets.

Today we went for some good Southern cooking. We had collards, hushpuppies, cornbread sticks, BBQ and fried chicken. We got so much food that we have enough for dinner tonight too. After lunch we went fossil hunting in the slagg left from the phosphate mine. We found petrified sharks teeth and thousands of little shells. Some of the shark teeth the mine finds are as big is 6 inches high.....the company keeps those.

We will spend about a week exploring the swamps and the outer banks by Nags Head, also the town of Bath home of Blackbeard the pirate. We have caught up with the Vanwoerdens so we will hang out a bit with them as well.