Florida, 2018

We have never been to the East Coast of Florida before.  We have always gone to the Panhandle, which we love, but we needed a change.  Since we were going to Orlando for a Disney Vacation, it sounded like the best move.  We should have went to the beach after Disney so we could relax.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking!  We left on Sophia's birthday, so I made sure that I had some cupcakes for us to enjoy on the road.  We made it pretty far driving the first day, and stayed in Jacksonville, Florida. The next morning, we got up early and headed to the beach.  We had never been to this side of Florida.  I was not impressed with the water clarity, but the beaches were nice.  One of the things we love to do is find beach glass and shells.  We found lots of glass to bring home for the beach jar.  Many people were searching the beach for shark teeth. Some of the beach glass is pictured below.
 
             
 
After spending most of the afternoon on the beach, we ventured to St. Augustine.  We absolutely fell in love with the town.  It had such a good vibe to it.  We would definitely like to visit again.  While in St. Augustine, we decided to check out the Fountain of Youth.  It was fairly cheap to get into the park.  We were starving, so I was glad that they had a grill there.  They served up some tasty burgers and fries.  There was ample seating for everyone and it was covered with umbrellas to keep you out of the sun.  We walked around the park by doing the self tour.  When we got to the fountain, everyone was handed a glass to get a drink.  This was the most awful tasting water I have ever had.  It tasted like I took a drink from a garbage can.  It was awful.  I don't know that it made more youthful or not, but it definitely made my stomach turn! They had a lot of peacocks and wildlife running around the park.  The kids got a huge kick out of feeding the birds and the squirrels.  They spent probably an  hour doing this.  We got to watch a worker, who was dressed as a Spanish conquistador shoot a cannon over the bay, which was surprisingly neat and interesting to watch.  It made us jump, even though we knew the sound was coming.  Another worker was showing people how to make nails and other metals from a blacksmith barn.  The kids each got a nail. 

The drive to The Fountain of Youth.
We loved this street and thought it was so beautiful!

Below is the entrance to The Fountain of Youth Park and us getting a sip of the water (blech)
I also included some pictures of the kids feeding the birds and the cannon, because honestly, they enjoyed this part of the park more than anything!
                                                                                 
                           FYI:  Brad thought the water tasted like Satan's butthole as well!

                             
They had the best time with these birds!  It was so funny to see the birds interacting with them!

Braden feeding
a peacock!

We enjoyed the trees.  I know it sounds silly, but we are from the Midwest, and there are definitely not trees like this in Illinois!  


 

After visiting the Fountain of Youth, it was finally time to check into our beach house! We couldn't check in until 3pm, since this was our first day.  Our beach house had a nice ocean view and there were tortoises hanging out in the yard, which was so neat for the kids to see.  While walking on our beach near the beach house, was also ran across some protected turtle nests.           
                           





On the second day, we headed into town and found the Lighthouse.  It was stunning.  We had never been into a lighthouse before.  It was fairly cheap to get in.  The only issue was finding a place to park.  It was extremely packed and seemed to be a pretty popular tourist attraction.  While we were walking around the courtyard, Sophie found a rock that someone had painted!  We made sure to post it to the Facebook page as we were instructed to on the back of the rock. 

We generally ALWAYS rehide rocks, because we paint them to hide as well, but this one was too good to let go.  We kept it and it's sitting in my daughter's room with her other souvenirs.

The lighthouse had a fantastic view of the ocean and the town.  On the way up, there were cases with artifacts, pictures and games for the kids to play.  The games were learning games, such as how much a bucket of coal weighed that the keeper would have to carry up the stairs every day.  It was neat for them to get hands on. 

My honey and I at the top

Braden loved to be up top.  Sophie was a bit more skeptical, like me. The view from the outside, was just as spectacular.

After the lighthouse, we went to Castillo de san Marcos, the Bridge of Lions, and many other historical sites.  The Bridge of Lions is the type of bridge that opens up for large boats to pass underneath.  We saw it go up once to let a large yacht pass underneath. We made an early night of it, because were were heading down the coast to a different beach the following day.   

                          

                

                         

On our third day, we spent our entire day at Melbourne beach, which is were our next condo was located.  The view from our balcony was to die for.  Our condo was huge.  Our room was huge, the bathtub was huge, the shower was huge, literally EVERYTHING was nice and spacious! We didn't leave the condo all day, we just spent the entire time on the beach.  They had a pool, a snack bar, and some games such as shuffle board for the kids.  That night, Brad did some night fishing and we hunted crabs.  The kids love doing this any time we are on the beach.  We collected them all in buckets, then of course release them not too long after. 

The view from our balcony

 Our last day before we headed to Orlando to visit Disney, we laid on the beach the entire day.  The only time we left, was late in the evening for some Chinese food and ice cream!  Overall, I think we would definitely stay on this side of Florida again.  The water clarity wasn't our favorite, but the beaches were nice and not too crowed. We enjoyed it! 

XOXO...Becky                             

Cemetery Tour of New Orleans

We were lucky enough to be able to take a cemetery tour.  This was one of the big things I wanted to experience while in New Orleans.  I was extremely happy with the outcome and we learned a ton! 

Our tour is beginning! The kids are already super curious about the history of New Orleans.  Especially how it was founded.  The were very intrigued when they found out it was built by pirates, thieves, and the ladies of the night.  I'm almost positive they had no clue what ladies of the night are, but they still thought it was pretty neat sounding.  LOL

They were also interested to learn about the Kings, Queens, and Dukes.  The city was named after the Duke of Orleans.  Many of the streets are named after royal family members, such as Bienville (the founder of New Orleans) and Dauphine (French Princess, is what we think he said), as well as the famous Bourbon street (French family Bourbon, not the drink like some of us would assume).  The French founded New Orleans and certainly left their stamp; however, Louisiana was purchased by America with the Louisiana Purchase, so there was a lot of influence from that side, as well. 

There was a neat little story behind this building.  The two sisters were described as the mean girls of the times back in 1886.  These two sisters had their shop and they would make gowns and Mardi Gras outfits for some of the elite women in New Orleans.  They would hold court with some of the finest women in New Orleans and they would gossip and talk badly about any of the women who didn't frequent their store.  This business is now a lucrative restaurant. 

If you know me, I love wiener dogs!  This has nothing to do with the cemetery tour, but I loved this picture! 

We were also told about the Jesus statue.  The hands of Christ were always open at night when the lights shone on him.  After the Saints won the Super Bowl, some of the grounds keepers adjusted the lights just a bit to make it look like Christ was making a touchdown with his arms.  He is now called "touchdown Jesus." 

This building doesn't look like much to some, and it really didn't to me either, but it really has a lot of history.  The building to the right would be the Master's home.  The middle portion would be a small court and the building of the same color on the left was the help or slave quarters of the times. Another thing to note about the buildings of New Orleans is how they were built in the first place.  New Orleans is a swamp.  What they would do is drive telephone poles down until they hit bottom and then continue to do this until the ground was firm and there would be no sinking when the building was built.  They have been having problems recently with the cemeteries.  The cemetery we visited had some graves and monuments 1 1/2 deep that were buried and the historical society has no clue who is buried there.  They are in the process of starting to rebuild and restructure them.   

Many homes in New Orleans were decorated up for the holidays and we were told that they generally decorate for every single holiday in this fashion.  Again, if you have read my other write up, I mentioned house colors.  The owners of the homes are not allowed to change anything on the outside of their home.  It must be kept historically accurate.  The inside is whatever the owner decides.  Any changes to the outside must be approved or there are a multitude of fines and troubles the owner can get into. 

Other than being a beautiful home, this one has a lot of history packed in as well in which a typical person would know nothing about.  This was a typical Mistress home.  Historically, women have had much fewer rights than men.  The Mistress, had almost as many rights as men.  Her lover was to go into a binding contract with her that the Mistress's Mother would secure.  The Mother would make sure that her Daughter was well taken care of and that he would pay for any of her expenses, purchase her a home of her choosing, would pay for schooling for any children born, and would pay a monthly payment to the Mistress for her services.  This was great for the family because they would be taken care of.  If the man's wife found out and threw a tantrum and the man had to call it quits with her, the Mistress was able to go into contract with another man.  She was able to keep the home and her children would still be paid for.  This woman had more rights than the Wife, in most cases.  The reason behind these women becoming Mistresses instead of wives is related to their color.  If a woman was found to have even the slightest black or anything other than white, they could not marry.  There were balls held where these women would be put on display for the men to choose them as his Mistress.  The men loved these women because of their beauty and their coloring.  This was quite acceptable back then.     

This is the entrance to a park where many of the African Americans would spend their days off.  They would have singing and dancing, would sell their wares, and would even wait for someone to need some work done. 

A statue within the park that I found interesting.

The cemetery had certain hours where it could be seen.  They have had a horrible time with vandals.  Even recently, they had tombs broken into.  Such a sad thing. 

Where the people of New Orleans thought Marie Lebeau was buried for a long time.

Some of the monuments

As you can see, some people still frequent the grave sites of their family members

This is where Nicholas Cage is set to be buried.  Cage bought a home in New Orleans and later found out that it was one of the most haunted houses around.  It just so happened that while he owned the home, his acting career took a huge plummet, and when it was sold, he came back out on top.   

Many of these resting places have unknown families and people inside. 

This is where jazz musicians of New Orleans who have little or no money can be buried for free.

They call these the vampire tombs because the people inside are buried face down.  It was some sort of protestant ordeal.  The cemetery didn't want protestants buried there, so they made a rule that they had to be buried in this fashion. 

All of us in front of the true resting place of the Voodoo Queen Marie Labeau.  There was a ritual that must be performed if you want a blessing from the Voodoo Queen herself.  I will post our video below. 

Braden gave some money and Sophia gave a hair tie for beautiful hair.  I won't say what I asked for ;)

There is a ton of information on Marie Labeau.  Brad knows a little bit from watching American Horror Story.  I don't think it is accurate, but he found it interesting that they used her and we were learning the real story behind the Queen herself.  So, Marie was a hairdresser who was the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner.  Marie was a good listener and while doing hair, she gathered many secrets about the high society.  She used these secrets to help spread the word that she was the true Voodoo Queen.  Nobody doubted her.  She would gather many secrets from slaves and from workers.  They trusted her and she would always give favors. back.  The men never questioned her and many of the elite owed her.  She would keep their secrets about their mistresses and about their estates.  She would even have balls where these men could intermingle with the gorgeous mixed women of the time.  When she did need to cash in a favor, they were always more than willing.  Marie had many children.  She had a few daughters that looked almost identical to her.  She named them Marie as well.  These daughters looked, talked, dressed just like her, and acted just as she acted.  This was all part of Marie's brand.  Now she was the Voodoo Queen but she also never aged thanks to her offspring.  When the daughters got older, they had a pretty good bank account set up thanks to their mother.  When they retired, so died the Voodoo Queen.  This is what our tour guide told us, and I quite like the story.  It seems to me that Marie was an entrepreneur of the times and that's pretty amazing since she was a woman, let along a woman of color!

XOXO...Becky