March Travels Part #2

After our time at St. Augustine's we headed to Orlando.  In Orlando, there was a Ligonier Conference that was being held and we are going to attend.  The conference was from Thursday afternoon until Saturday noon.  It was good and we heard some good speakers, the highlight of the whole conference was actually hearing Micheal Card speak and sing!  We first planned to leave Orlando on Sunday and head on to St. Petersburg, (FL) but we learned that Micheal Card was giving a concert at St. Andrew's Chapel Sunday evening.  So we stayed one extra day and went to the concert in the evening.  It was so good!  The theme was on the passion of Christ and His resurrection.  It was very good!  Back to the conference for a minute, while at our van getting a bite to eat, we noticed another family not far from us with five children.  So we went over to them and introduced ourselves and found out they also homeschool and this was their first time at a Ligonier Conference.  When we saw each the other the next day, they invited us to stop by on our way home and spend the night with them and I'll share more about that in my next post.  :)

So Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and made our way to St. Petersburg, hoping to find a campground that had a vacant tent site.  As we neared the area, we looked on our GPS for a campground and decided to try the KOA in St. Petersburg.  We checked in to see what was available and they had a tent site available for the time we needed.  We booked and went and set up camp.  Afterwards we headed out to get a bite to eat and take a swim in the ocean.  This was going to be our first time camping!!  I was looking forward to it and just praying that all would go well and that my hubby would enjoy it, he is not really a camper, but we had a great week there!!  The bathrooms were very clean, the people friendly and the weather was perfect!!  It did rain one evening, but not for long, plus we had a tarp, so we stayed dry.  :)  The children loved camping and had a great time.  We all hope to camp again if we should go to FL again next winter.  :)

It was neat to see these birds walking around the tent, He was probably looking for food the children may have dropped. :)

There was water nearby the tent site and it was neat to see the tide go out and then come in.  First time I had ever witnessed that!

Tuesday, we decided to take the children to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.  It was a fun day and the children enjoyed seeing the animals and also riding on some of the small rides they had there.

All the children like riding on the carousel, they must have had about 5 rides during the whole time we were there.  LOL  I'll spare you all the pictures!  LOL

I went on the small coaster ride with the girls, K.(4 yr daughter) and I agree that we both don't enjoy them!!  LOL

 

More of my kind of ride and K. agrees.  :)

Proof we saw more than just rides...  :)

After the zoo, we headed back to the campground and enjoyed a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows! Oh and then we went for a swim in the outdoor pool at the campground.  The water was perfect and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves.  It was fun!   There were two older gentlemen in the pool and hubby noticed one counting the number of children we had, of course we got the usual question, are they all yours, but they were both really nice and thought it was great, for us that is.  LOL


Wednesday included a business trip to Sarasota, FL and then we found another beach to go swimming at.  I love being at the ocean, I'd love to live near the ocean...  BAck at the campground, we enjoyed another campfire, even though it rained a bit.  The children wanted to swim again in the pool, but it was closed because there was a bit of lightening along with the rain that had come.

Thursday we stayed at the campground.  The children really wanted a day to explore and enjoy the campground.  We didn't mind at all.  It was a relaxing day and my oldest and I, plus baby did go out and do a little shopping in the afternoon.  Like I mentioned earlier, there was water very close to the tent site, so the children enjoy looking for craps and catching them, plus finding jellyfish and watching others fish.  Thursday also included swimming at the pool twice and another campfire in the evening.   

Friday morning we had to pack up.  I'll stop here for now and share part 3 next week. :)  We made many fond memories and our first camping went well!