Fourth of July weekend - Day 3 (final day)

This is our 3rd and final full day in Crystal River, FL.

Woke up and made breakfast again.  I should note - last year our propane in the bottles ran out in the middle of a camp stay.  Thankfully we always had the electric skillet so it wasn't an issue.  This year because our skillet was so old and not as "non stick" as it used to be - we bought a single burner for cooking.  It frees up a lot of space not having to move everything off the cook top every time we want to cook.  We can even cook outside if we wanted to.

Cale woke up and then decided to steal my spot and go right back to sleep!

Our plan was to drive an hour to go to Weeki Wachee state park.  Kennedie is locking the bikes back up.

WOOHOO got to Weeki Wachee just as it opened!

We started to turn into the parking lot and realized the line was ridiculous long!!  So we stopped into this CVS and tried to  come up with a new plan.  We asked the guy at the counter what his suggestion was and he said to go to Rogers Park which was just up to the road.  So we headed that way!

Rogers Park has a small swimming area that's roped off but mostly it is a lazy type river.  We found a place across the way that was renting Kayaks and things.  We walked over and noted we SHOULD have had a reservation.  Thankfully they had some stand up paddleboards that we all could rent. So off we went and stayed on the river for about an hour and a half.  We paddled upstream at first.

Tim's way more proficient at paddling so he got to places to stop quicker as I was in the back of the group with Cale.

She was happy should could finally get in the water!

Another sandbar break!

On our way farther up the stream Cale was tired from all his paddling, so he hitched a ride with dad.

I snapped this on our way to dinner but you can see how the river winds around.  There were a TON of houses right on the river.  Some of them were dilapidated and some were MANSIONS!!

We found a place called Zig Zag Scallop to eat lunch.  It was DELICIOUS!!  Hands down best scallops I have had in a LONG time.

Tim had shrimp taco's.  He said they were also delicious!

Rain looked like it was coming in so we decided to eat inside.

Glad we did because we got dumped on and it wasn't letting up!

Back in the trailer and Cale was helping get all the stuff that got wet in the rain dry, so we could put it away!  We went to see Toy Story 4 at the local movie theater.  Which is in a mall that is mostly closed down.  I think the theater is the only reason that place is still open on the level that it is.  After the movie we hung out in the camper until we left the next morning!  We loved the campground we were in - I'll post pictures of it in another post!

Fourth of July Weekend - Day 2

We had a blast on day 2!!!

 My turn to make breakfast!!  

 Back and Rainbow Springs for Canoeing, Kayaking and Paddleboarding!

  She was excited to paddleboard!  The last time she did it was in Washington last year, and she was a pro at it!

Rental prices weren't bad at all.  If you aren't out there for the full hour they only charge you in 15 minute increments.  I believe for the time we had them, we paid $40 or so.  They do offer a 10% military discount.

 They didn't have any single kayak's available so the three of us were in a canoe, and Kennedie got a paddleboard.

 She is awesome at paddleboarding!

 Before you could get into the water you had to get out of the headsprings area.  There is a sign in the water that says you are able to get out.  This is a little past that sign where the boys wanted to get out and "treasure hunt".

 The water is pretty deep and we didn't bring the noodles so we made Cale keep his lifejacket on because he would tire out easily from paddling to stay afloat.

 Cale thinks he is going to be a professional you tuber one day.  We got him a cheaper go-pro version from Amazon 2 years ago for his birthday, we just let him have at it in the water.

 Boys hitching a ride with Kennedie back to the canoe.

 Cale wanted to give it a go.

 Then Tim.  We brought the paddleboard and the canoe back to the rental place and the boys stayed and played in the headsprings for a bit.

 Kennedie and me headed to the giftshop that was attached to the pay window.  It had some cute stuff in there.  There is also a little concession stand.  I don't know what food they served but when we passed by, I saw they had ice cream at least.  There is also some vending machines with drinks.

 We left Rainbow Springs, back to the camper changed and decided to go down to the downtown area of Crystal River and explore some of the shops.  The sky started to look a little gloomy so we decided to have a late lunch early dinner and found a BBQ place just within walking distance.  BubbaQue's, we loved the name because we have our own Bubba!  The food was DELICIOUS!!  Tim had nacho's with brisket, and I had a brisket salad.  We decided to get some dessert and got deep fried oreo's and funnel cake fries.

 Kennedie loves all things Oreo, so when she was eating this she said it tasted like Heaven!!

It started to down pour when we were eating.  We tried to wait it out but it didn't seem to let up.  We went back to the camper and hung out the rest of the evening!

Washington State Vacation Day 2

Day 2

We just relaxed in Tum Tum and thankfully we didn't wait to play in the water because this was the only day that it was nice and warm out.  By warm I mean 75 degrees!

Washington State is just a beautiful state!

 The family we were staying with loves boats, kayaks, tubing and stand up paddle boarding.  They got out their paddle boards and the kids had a blast!

 Kennedie was a natural!! She was out for about 4 hours and she even ventured into the part outside of the ropes.

 Tim taking advantage of his motor in the back of the paddle board! :) 

Cale convinced them to finally get the boat out - he found crackers and proceeded to stuff his face - apparently he was hungry!

 On the tube!!  He had a blast tubing around!!

 This boy hit every aspect of water sports!!!

This was after Cale was let to drive the boat!!!