during our time roaming around the southwest in the camper, we developed quite an affinity for mexican culture. so, this year, we decided to really do it up, quarantine style, for cinco de mayo. fun fact, annas due date was may 5th, but she was late. ho hum. originally, i had just planned to do […]
derek
coronavirus sewing.
i have had a complete lack of sewing motivation during the lockdown. which works out, because i also find myself with very little time to sew. even though our lives didn’t change THAT much, i am missing a weekly day with the kids in co-op so i can run errands. and an evening with anna […]
march.(quarantine begins).
towards the end of our time in florida, the concern over the coronavirus was just picking up. we definitely gave a little extra thought to the fact that we were in a city with an international airport. but mostly, we had no idea that things were about to get real crazy real fast. when we […]
miami again.(and the end of our vacation, sigh).
on our way out of the keys, we stopped at shell world, where anna picked out one million different shells to bring back to her personal hoard of memorabilia, and isaac and hazel spent their money on overpriced tourist candy. back on the mainland, our first stop was to head back over to robert is […]
sunshine key rv resort.
during our time in the keys this year, we stayed in sunshine key rv resort. it’s part of our collection of thousand trails affiliated campgrounds, so it’s relatively inexpensive, but it was hard to get reservations during these snowbird months. anyways. first things first. upon our arrival, derek cooked up the fresh vermillion snapper he […]
key west. revisited.
the weather for our second day in the keys was the same as our first, exceptionally windy, so we had to stick to land bound activities. we hadn’t planned on visiting key west again on this trip, but with a shortage of options, we decided to give it another go. our first stop was to […]
dolphin research center.
the weather while we were in the florida keys was quite windy. so, our options for activities were limited to land based excursions. last year, we visited the sea turtle hospital, and had planned to again, but after our impromptu stop at the marine life center on the way down, we were on a quest […]
everglades and fruit stand detour.
when we were planning this florida trip, we knew we wanted to revisit the everglades. but, this time, with ruby in tow, it was a little more complicated. the campgrounds don’t have hookups, and she’s not allowed on any trails, so we would have to leave her inside, with no a/c, which could be a problem, depending on weather. so, we didn’t even bother with the risk. instead we opted for just a quick visit, stopping on our way to the keys. we parked the rv in the shade in the parking lot for the anhinga trail, opened all the windows, and went for a short ranger led “hike” (walk along a paved path and boardwalk).
we eventually moved on from the tour, because the group was soooo big and we could hardly hear anyways. and i also forgot about all the little crickets on the ground that completely freaked hazel out and made us be the annoying family with a crying kid. anyhoooo. we saw TONS of wildlife. it is such a strange and surreal place.
of course, the main attraction is the american alligator. we saw a few along the way, but the highlight of the hike (walk) is “alligator point” (i think), where there’s a large gathering of gators, soaking up the sun, in what must be extremely ideal conditions. they were still a few weeks away from the social distancing mandates, so it was ok. 🙂
gator party. 
allligator point. i promise isaac was happier than he looks.
isaac had the good zoomy camera, so i bummed a lot of the shots from him, like this guy…
after alligator point, the rest of the walk is along a boardwalk that passes through/over some marshy, watery parts. lots of lily pads and things lurking beneath. we played leap frog with the massive crowd from the ranger tour, which is always fun when you have small people leaning over a railing, peering into a soup full of things that would like to eat them.
we stopped to take a few selfies with this guy, which was probably the closest alligator we encountered.
on our way out, we remembered to stop for the obligatory sign photo. early in our travels, we talked about whether we should do this at all national parks, before deciding it would add a level of stress to each visit that i wasn’t prepared for. also, the line for the sign photo is often rather long, and i would rather get to seeing the things in the park instead of waiting in line for a pic with a sign. anyhow. there was no line this day. so we stopped.
on the way into and out of everglades, there’s a fruit stand called robert is here. it’s massive. and pretty much the main reason i wanted to go back to florida. there are sooooo many weird tropical fruits. and other fun snacks. and the MILKSHAKES (which we postponed until our return trip on the way out of town, like last time).
between anna’s photos, and mine, i have quite a few, but i’ll spare you massive amounts of tropical fruit photos.
we heart mamey sapote. 
and sapodilla. 
after we made our fruity (and sunflowery) purchases, we grabbed some fast food, while ruby waited in the camper. :). and then, we were off to the keys….
febz. 2020.
i think we can all agree at this point, that if i’m working on my february post on the last day of march, that’s a good pace for me. so here goes. the random life and times of the lidbom kids during the last month before the apocalypse happened. first up. the superbowl. a tom […]
all the other january stuff.
we kicked off january 2020 fighting a stupid nasty cough and cold. there were a lot of fluids and drugs and napping people. it was meh. eventually we were all on the mend and regular old life resumed. lots of lounging around. arts and crafts. games. you know. randomness. for christmas, my mom got me […]