San Leon Texas

San Leon

Holed up in Texas for a couple of weeks.

Oil and gas in a big big way.

Our favorite activity - this place is a DIVE but the food was great

Wandering and found 'Candy cane lane' somewhere between San Leon and Houston

Robin is back to Vancouver and PG -so just me and my roommate Ray for 10 days

Layfayette

We’ve been singing (of course not in tune) Jambalaya, crawfish pie, ana filet gumbo for tonight I’m a gonna see…..my ma chere a mio.

We stayed in a small campground in the heart of Cajun country Lafayette. The drive from new Orleans through Louisiana was very interesting once we got a little ways from the coast. The road is a series of bridges built over swamp. The trees were scraggly pine covered in Spanish moss. A lot of french words in the names of the communities and the roads. Of course the word Cajun came from the term Acadian. We enjoyed some fantastic Cajun food at a famous restaurant called PreJeans. There was live toe tapping Cajun music. I wasn’t brave enough to try the alligator but did have spiced beef ribs with fried mac and cheese. Jack had crawfish pie, Seafood gumbo and shrimp ettouffe. For desert bread pudding with white chocolate. We have been enjoying our dinners out.

Pics for us

Infamous street!

Great band we listened too

Alabama and more

While we were in Alabama we ate at Lambert's throwed roll restaurant' Yep they really do throw the fresh baked rolls or huge buns at the customer. As well they come around with fried okra, apple butter, molasses, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, black eyed peas and heap the stuff that you might want on to your plate. This is as well as your main dish.. it was good fun but way too much food.

Next we drove through the southern tip of Mississippi and eventually ended up in New Orleans. Uh Huh, and Yes Ma'am, and " Peace Y'all " ( this was a sign on a Christmas display)

One of my favorite christmas sayings that I heard was "I know the reason for the season! said with a wonderful southern drawl..

bye for now

Nawleans

The following were all found in the French quarter of New Orleans... Hmm interesting.

Gulf of Mexico

We stayed at a posh resort (pricey) across the street from Carrabelle beach, which is on the gulf coast. They call it the forgotten coast. Not sure why. However, there was no evidence of oil spill that we could tell, although I was wondering about the number of birds as there was not that many as compared to other beaches.

Walked along the white sand beach, me, three other people and a very large dog. It feels of Mexico(except for the lack of people and resorts) There are palm trees interspersed with natural vegetation

This is definitely a summer beach area. Most of the homes are well kept and of a good size. Not any or many hotels where we were,

Drove to St. Georges Island, there is a 6 k. long bridge to get to this small island. The island is definitely a holiday destination spot with beach houses many of them large and for rent. The island is flat and about three blocks wide and 12 kilometers long. Had an excellent lunch of oysters in the shell and shrimp wraps at a small beach bar and grill.

The weather was beautiful (27) for our first two days and then turned cooler (20) on our third day.

The next day drove along the coast highway 98. (Emerald coast)

Some of the highlights include:

• driving past army and navy bases, familiar names like Tindal, Pensacola,
• Huge white sand dunes (looked like snow) at Navarre with dune buggies waiting to explore and drive through them.
• Wind surfing. (not us)
• Long bridges to cross over the ocean.

We drove through our first storm with a Tornado watch and thunderstorms and sheets of rain, It seems as if it is either pouring or dry… there is no in between. . The day started out hot and very humid. Today we are at a small rv park in Foley Alabama. Sun is shining but the temp is cooler.

great place for oysters

snow or sand?

Suwanee River

Way down upon the Suwannee river…

This is a neat little area that we stumbled upon. This southern river flows gently, and is very pretty, with trees overhanging the banks. Our campsite was quiet with lots of room to roam (played bocce). The campsite owner shared some, “local things to do”, ideas with us and we stayed a couple of nights longer than we had originally planned There are a few state parks close by and one of the parks is called Manatee park We didn’t get the opportunity to see any but we did do some other neat things. We drove about 40 miles to the coast and did a day trip to Cedar Keys. This was an area I really enjoyed. It’s curious how features strike you as comfortable or pleasing, or that you really like and others not so much. The atmosphere in this small coastal town seems pretty laid back. The ocean is gentle and there are small islands interspersed around the bays. The homes are generally nice looking. People drive golf carts to get around. We took a boat trip out into the bay and around a couple of Islands. Saw some dolphins. Ate Grouper (wonderful) and Mullet for the first time. It was a nice day.

Disney World

The rest of our time was spent at Disney World. There is so much to see and do there that it is hard to list it all. We did get to have a dinner with the princesses which was kinda fun. Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine and Snow White all stopped by our table to say hi to the old folks. Another highlight was the Fantasmia ( sp?) This was a major show with water, fireworks, real people, music etc. It was well worth the wait. Speaking of waits, the time for some of the attractions was definitely patience inspiring or trying…?

Kissimmeee (where we stayed) was easy to negotiate and drive though.. The only downer was our campsite. We parked on an ant hill masquerading as an RVpark. Some of the little devils got in the trailer and we declared war on them. The weather has been fantastic except for one 5 minute heavy downpour that surprised me as I didn’t know what it was at first.

The Main street and castle.

Kennedy Space center

We went to NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Kennedy Space centre. It was well worth it. Jack and I both enjoyed the tours, the IMAX movies and learning about space the final frontier. There is a huge animal preserve surrounding the space center. I wonder what the crocodiles and eagles etc. think of the liftoffs?

Canada connections including the space arm

wild things

guess where????

Epcot center

surfs up!

beach comber

Ya! Daytona

• Driving on the beach
• Walking on the beach
• Lunch at Barnacles outside under a beautiful florida sky
• International Daytona Speedway
• Jack got a tire fixed and the tires rotated across from the speedway. How daytonaish!Daytona

all lined up in the wind...