And Madison Blue Spring, where the river is crystal clear, which just feels magical.

Another magical place, surely inhabited by fairies, is Blue Hole at Florida Caverns State Park. The joy you feel here from the sheer beauty is top:

Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando is another place that has brought me incredible joy! The water is blue as can be, and it’s just amazing to see all the different large birds and swans. You really can’t believe how nice it is! And it is fun to be in a scene where there are people jogging and walking and laying out in the sun on the grass or eating at one of the cafes or playing at the playground:

One of the nicest main strips in Florida is Park Avenue in Winter Park. Here you can eat at a French sidewalk cafe while students bask in the sun at the park across the street. Then you can stroll around the rose garden or visit a museum. It is like being in Europe! Best of all, you can walk around the campus of Rollins College at night when all the Spanish buildings are lit up like in Europe and the Spanish moss catches the moonlight in the oak trees.

Another place I won’t forget is Miami Beach with its water the most vibrant shade of turquoise and its fun scene with all kinds of interesting people walking by and colorful lifeguard shacks (why don’t they make lifeguard shacks colorful at all beaches?)

There are many fantastic places in Miami that I’ll miss, including the Venetian Pool, a historic spot at a natural spring, and the swinging chairs on the bay outside the Perez Art Museum. The empanadas at Charlotte Bakery on Washington Ave are mouth-watering. And it’s always fun to just walk on Washington Ave, Collins Ave, and Ocean Drive absorbing the atmosphere.

South Pointe Park in Miami is also fantastic, with its walkway by the water, pier, modern highrises, and playground. Water everywhere!

And there are some very unique places in Florida, where sort of crazy types have created things. One is Coral Castle, a delight at sundown.

Warriewood Beach, north of Sydney, where the water is turquoise, the sand is yellow, and lovely headlands frame the beach.

Central Park in New York City, an absolute paradise with beautiful spots around every corner.

 Chastain Beach in Stuart FL, after a storm when piles of shells delight you.

Dubois Lagoon, in Jupiter FL, where the water is so clear and the lagoon wraps around the land in pretty shapes.

Oak Creek Canyon, in Sedona, a town with the most incredible red rocks that tower above you.

City Park in New Orleans, where the huge oak trees strung with moss will wow you.

Stone Mountain, in Atlanta, where a huge granite rock pops up out of nowhere!

Laguna Beach, near LA, where the color of the water is blue-green as you look down from the high cliffs.

China Cove, near Monterey CA, the most adorable-looking little cove you’ll see anywhere!

Lake Eola Park, in Orlando, where there are so many different birds it will surprise you over and over!

Cabrillo National Monument, in San Diego, where you are way way high above the sea!

Blue Hole Spring, at Florida Caverns State Park, an otherworldly place where mist gathers around little stumps of cypress trees and surely fairies live!

Fairies also live in Ferndell, in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where gnarled wooden railings lead you along a path through a tropical forest.

Glacier Point, in Yosemite National Park, in California, where the rock formations created by ancient glaciers are like none in the world.

Zermatt, Switzerland, where you can walk on trails high above the town, feeling like you’re up in the sky! You see the Matterhorn above, and little wildflowers below!

St Ann’s Square, Rennes, France- have a crepe while looking at the cutest architecture all around you!

Versailles, near Paris, France, where the gardens lead from one lovely scene to another- find the secret grotto!

Eze, near Nice, France, a medieval walled town with adorable red tiled roofs, incredibly high up above the Mediterranean sea!

Haarlem, near Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where gingerbread-style houses greet you, and you can visit the Corey Ten Boom house where she hid Jewish people during the war.

Green Island, Queensland, Australia, where you can snorkel in clear water seeing coral of all colors, fish, and funny sea cucumbers!

Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia- stand in the water at Ned’s Beach as fish swarm around your legs! See the incredible mountains that tower above the island.

It’s a beautiful world we live in!

Jackson Square in New Orleans.

We recently went on a summer road trip covering 3,000 miles in the south! The unanimous favorite place was Memphis!

We started in Florida, having our favorite Jamaican food for dinner (palm hearts curry-amazing!) at Reggae Shack in Gainesville. It was incredibly hot, 98 degrees everywhere for the first few days of the trip. Our first attraction was a dud, Haile House, which is not air-conditioned (yikes!) and not pretty either. To cool off, we went to Ginnie Springs, gorgeous nature but loaded with drunk people. The next day we had another miss- the Challenger Science Center in Tallahassee, which is no longer a science center but solely an Imax theater- what bad marketing! We were finding there’s not much to do in this kind of heat. We went to a mall- not much fun- but then had a good idea to go to the Florida Caverns which are always cool since underground! It was our second time there and we loved it. Next we visited Falling Waters State Park just nearby, and it was so interesting to look into the deep chasm where a waterfall usually falls (it was dry on the day we came but still so gorgeous). We walked the boardwalk peering down into sinkholes which was a little unsettling!

The next morning we hopped out of bed early and beat the traffic to Seaside! What a cute town! This is where The Truman Show was filmed. The town has tall architecture providing lots of shade, and the ocean breeze cools you as you walk around. Even more cooling is a dip in the ocean, which is paradise because of the white sand and cute views of the beach tower.

At night we ate dinner at 5 Sisters Blues Cafe in Pensacola.This was our best meal of the trip. Yum! Who knew that southern comfort food is SO good! The best part was the sweet potatoes, which had a taste like apple pie. The recorded Jazz music was great too!

We were ready the next morning to explore the military base at Pensacola! We walked around Fort Barrancas which was really fun. There are long tunnels, plenty of views from high up, and a drawbridge. The heat was pretty unbearable, but nothing compared to the heat when we watched the Blue Angels practice at 11am. Still, that was worth it! What an incredible sight! It’s amazing how close the planes fly to each other and at such speed!

Next we drove to Mobile AL for an icecream on their main street, Dauphin Street. What a cute place with a beautiful basilica and wonderful architecture. For sure check out the History Museum of Mobile if you ever go- a lovely museum with interesting exhibits, and free!

New Orleans was to be our base for the next three nights! We visited Jackson Square, which is just as pretty as you’ve seen it in all the photos, though even more tropical. The need for a clean restroom led us to have pecan pie at a restaurant in the middle of the morning- isn’t that just what traveling is all about? The voodoo museum was closed, even during its advertised open times so my daughter and husband headed to the Louisiana Children’s Museum while my son and I explored the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. This is one of the nicest art museums I’ve been to and highly recommended! Its building is inspirational and the art is colorful.

We had lunch at a favorite spot from our last trip to New Orleans, La Madeleine Cafe on St Charles Ave, and though it was more crowded and quite loud, we enjoyed it. The heat was unbearable but we bravely tried and tried to venture over the potholes to find The Fly in Audobon Park. There are so many potholes in New Orleans, it’s surprising! This spot was not worth the effort. I soon realized that we hit up the very best spots in New Orleans on our last trip without even realizing how lucky we were! So I decided to stick with some old favorites, and we had dinner at Little Gem Saloon, where we ate three times on our last trip! The interior is so pretty, the gumbo with a side of sweet potatoes was delicious, and there was live piano music.

The next day we tried to beat the heat early but we arrived an hour before opening time at Storyland so we walked around the Besthoff Sculpture Garden which is free to enter. It was a pleasant stroll. Next my daughter and I had a blast walking into all the fairytale sculptures in Storyland. For the afternoon, we escaped the heat at National World War II Museum, which my husband and son really liked, and my daughter was interested in too. The price was a bit steep, I thought. Escaping the heat can be really expensive!

We finished our time in New Orleans in the best possible way, with a stroll down Frenchmen Street listening to the sounds of Jazz wafting out the clubs and restaurants, and with a meal at Bamboula’s. Of course, a stroll always involves a lot of whining from the kids- just thought I’d throw in a little realism there! But overall we still enjoyed ourselves.

The last day of the first week involved a lot of driving, with a stop at Jackson, Mississippi for some time at the Mississippi Children’s Museum and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum then we headed to Memphis!

See the next post for Week 2 of our Grand Road Trip!

Blue Hole Spring at Florida Caverns State Park.

In July, we did a fantastic road trip through Florida! It was like a geological road trip because we stopped at springs, swimming holes, sinkholes, and even a cave with stalactites and stalagmites! It gave us an appreciation for what a varied and beautiful state this is!

First stop was Gainesville, which is a beautiful city with some amazing streets of tall, jungly trees. We went to the best butterfly conservatory at Florida Museum of Natural History where the butterflies were really hanging around us rather than just zooming by. We walked down into a gloriously beautiful sinkhole called Devil’s Millhopper, and then swam at  blue-green Ichetucknee Springs, which was bliss!

Headspring at Ichetucknee Springs State Park.

Further north we visited the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center where we saw the loveliest  dioramas of his classic American songs such as O! Susanna. They were lit with romantic lighting and had moving parts that were so lifelike! We walked by the Suwanee River (not that pretty) and listened to a performance in the bell-tower. Then we explored the ruins of White Sulphur Spring just outside the park- an interesting spot- glad we didn’t fall in because the wood was sounding pretty worn!

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center.

We drove along country roads and Highway 10 to Tallahassee where we visited the old and new capitol buildings. What a contrast- the old being gorgeous and the new an eyesore! We weren’t that impressed with Tallahassee but we did enjoy a delicious dinner at a Thai restaurant with a really friendly owner. It was called Reangthai and I recommend it!

The next day, we headed for the Florida Caverns State Park, where we did a tour of the cavern. Wow! You walk to more and more rooms, each more beautiful than the last, with stalactities, stalagmites, rimpools, soda straws, columns, and draperies! We even saw little bats. You have to see this place if you can! We fell in love with the blue pool here- what a mystical place!

Tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park.

Continuing on the road, we headed for Pensacola, where we did a kid-friendly activity, the Pensacola Mess Hall. School-aged kids adore this place, where they can go from one hands-on activity to the next! At sunset we built sandcastles in the squeaky white sand at Pensacola Beach– what a wonderful day!

The entire next morning was spent at the impressive National Naval Aviation Museum where there are some amazing fighter planes, exhibits about World War II and Vietnam, and IMAX films! The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a dud, with a horrible visit to Pensacola Lighthouse, and hours spent in traffic and a change of plans on the coastline along the Panhandle. There are too many beachgoers from Alabama on the coast here in summer!

Heading back home, we had a bit of a mosquitoey, hot walk at Leon Sinks Geological Area- didn’t make it to any of the deep blue sinkholes. We visited Edward Ball Wakulla Springs which is absolutely gorgeous and magical, but closed as we arrived because of lightning.

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.

St. Marks Lighthouse made for a lovely stop in a wild, wide open area- what joy this place gave us as we watched dolphins leap to catch fish! We stopped for a swim at the blue hole at Ichetucknee Springs and then in Gainesville for a DELICIOUS meal in the colorful and clean Reggae Shack Cafe- much yummier than it sounds!

Before heading to home sweet home the next day, we had a glass bottom boat ride over crystal clear Silver Springs and then walked in the wonderful gardens (the only other spot with mosquitoes on the whole trip). What a pretty place with a great history! The alligators in the springs made me disconcerted since I’d always believed alligators don’t go in springs because of the cold water. This made me rethink my swim the day before in the black waters of blue hole at Ichetucknee with a shudder!

Turtle seen from glass bottom boat ride at Silver Springs State Park.

Wonderful trip and so grateful to have done it! The driving wasn’t so bad at all, as we had movies and apps for our daughter and an audiobook (Orange is the New Black) for ourselves! To more road trips in the future!