Trip 4: How pie changed my life

Parks visited: 4

Several years ago I began watching Food Network Challenge, and every year I was quite fond of watching the pie challenge from the Great American Pie Festival. It happens to take place every year in Celebration, Florida, which is just over an hour's drive from where I live.  I never gave the festival much thought...I never knew when it happened, didn't feel like making the drive, excuses, excuses, blah blah blah.

Last year was a little bit different.  That time I actually heard commercials for the festival on the radio.  I did a little research into the city of Celebration and decided it would be simple enough to find.  My work schedule had me off weekends, so I knew that wouldn't be an issue.  The only thing holding me back was...well, me. 

For years I have been lazy.  Can't help it.  Weekends come and find me on the couch watching TV, in front of the computer searching for random nothingness to hold my attention, anything.  Motherhood has added its own challenges.  Do you know how hard it is to watch YouTube videos when your 5-year-old is at your elbow, asking you to make lunch?  My laziness when I was alone, or when Olivia was a lumpy little thing that slept a lot, was one thing.  But when she got to the age where she could tell me how bored she was, I knew it was time to start changing my ways.

Enter the Great American Pie Festival.  Robert was working on the particular day I was interested in going, so it was a mommy-and-me day for Olivia and me.  We were up early, out the door, and on our way.  The drive was pleasant, the weather was beautiful, and I had no idea what to expect.  What I ended up discovering was pie, and lots of it. The GAPF is famous for, among other things, the Never-Ending Pie Buffet.  A ten dollar bracelet for me, and free entry for then-4-year-old Olivia, and we were in pie heaven.  All your favorite professional bakeries serving all your favorite pies, all free, and with free ice cream, toppings, and coffee.  Hello, when did I die and go to heaven?

Oddly enough, I don't even like pie that much.

But that's kind of the point, isn't it?  I had to do something out of the ordinary to break out of my ordinary habits.  I had to just get in the car and drive, and it was like turning on the light in the deepest dungeon.  Olivia and I had fun.  Lots of it.  We walked around eating pie and ice cream, played in the kids' area, geocached a bit (and even met some fellow geocachers in the process, which is what happens when you sign a log with 'mmm pie' and they see it, realize you're at the pie festival too, and call around to all their geocaching friends until they find your cell number and call you to say Hi), enjoyed the beautiful city that Disney built, and spent a much better day than any day on my couch.

After our day spent eating pie, there was no holding me back.  My time on the computer became dedicated to finding local festivals, observances, shows...anything off the wall that looked a little fun.  We haven't made it out every weekend since then, but the weekends we've made it out have been fun like no other I've had.  And, I've gotten to spend quality time with my baby girl, and I can't ask for any greater gift than that.

So now, a year has gone by.  The countdown for the 2010 Great American Pie Festival finally ended at zero, and last Sunday was the day.  I had to go.  It changed my life, and returning to the festival was my way of thanking...um, the gods of pie?...for inspiring a great year.  To make it even better, I had even won two tickets to the buffet, so my excitement level was off the charts.

Chris came over around 10, and the four of us piled into the car for the ride to Celebration.  It was just as I remembered it from the previous year...the scenery, the vendors, the crowds...the pie.  We collected our entry bracelets and quickly grabbed our first slices of pie (apple for me, cherry for Olivia, I think lemon for Rob, and I didn't even see what Chris grabbed).  The sun was beating down on us, but we managed.  Back and forth from the buffet to the kids' area, buffet, play, buffet, play.  There was a break for real food (Greek) for lunch, but the theme stuck with us:  Eat Pie.

And just like that, it was over.  One year of excitement since my eyes were first opened to the glorious possibilities around us, and how did this year's festival measure up?  It was outstanding.  I got to spend a gorgeous day in a beautiful place with the people I love.  We could have been at a car wash and I still would have been happy, but car wash vending machines don't have pie.

And pie makes my heart happy.

Trip 3: Dunns Creek and Ravine Gardens

Parks visited: 4

Another weekend state park visit, and this week we managed a two-fer. The whole gang was together...myself, Rob, Olivia, and Chris...as we headed up Highway 17 with a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts...ah, road food. Our agenda was simple: Take a hike! Dunns Creek State Park was our first stop. It's an unmanned park with a mile-and-a-half walking trail that leads to Blue Pond (which caused great discussion on the differences between ponds and lakes, which I still haven't learned. Odd). It was overcast, as the previous weekend beach trip had been, but the atmosphere was completely different. We were in a forest setting, for starters, but it's more than that. Our happy little band of travelers has fallen into a groove. We're comfortable around each other, and the jokes and merriment were more forthcoming on this outing.

Blue Pond is just that...a clear little pond in the middle of the forest. There are geocaches to be had, and we managed to find all we searched for. Oh yes, and we managed to be found as well...by several hundred ticks. They didn't spoil the serenity of our surroundings, thankfully, and we just kind of hung out and enjoyed it for awhile.

While Chris and I were searching for our final cache, Rob and Olivia saw a deer. I'm glad they had the experience, but Olivia especially. I know she'll take it with her, which is kind of the point. Funny...in the cache we found while they saw the deer, I found a magnet for the Florida State Parks. I know I'm doing something right.

How can you not want to spend time in a place that looks like this?

After enjoying a picnic lunch we hit the road again and headed for the People's Republic of Palatka. Okay, so it's really just called Palatka, but in my heart it will always be the People's Republic of. Many thanks to the late comedic author Lewis Grizzard for humor I didn't understand at the age of 12, but I knew where Palatka was!

Ravine Gardens are...ta da!...formal gardens based around a deep (for Florida!) ravine. It is famous for the 90,000 azaleas that bloom every spring and for which they hold a festival every March. Unfortunately we missed the blooms...only a sporadic flash of color...but that didn't take away from the beauty of the park. I've had the pleasure of hiking the trails here before, last summer on the very hot and humid 4th of July, and our weather on Sunday was much preferred.

Our hike led us down into the ravine, to an artesian well that flows through to the other end and created the setting. It's shallow and clear, and honestly it's one of my favorite places on Earth. We saw a hawk, and it hung out long enough for us to take a few pictures.

We walked to the other end of the ravine, across a couple of suspension bridges, around the Azalea Trail, and back up to the rim. A few highlights:

And finally, our day was done. Almost. We still needed to get our books stamped and prove we had been there. Since Dunns Creek is unmanned, Ravine Gardens provides a stamp for that park as well. The ranger station was closed but we managed to find a very helpful one after a brief look around (and after a conversation with one of the rudest park volunteers I've ever had...the only blight on our day). Ranger Jerry was so cool. He took our books and managed to find the right stamps for both parks. On top of that he even put scrap paper over the pages so they wouldn't smudge. Jerry rocks.

So, we've managed to spend another weekend off the couch and outside in the sun. We've argued less, enjoyed each other more, continued to forge our friendships, and we've had fun in the process. We're learning. We're teaching. We are doing something so right, and I never knew it could be so fulfilling.

Or simple, for that matter.

Trip 2: Washington Oaks Gardens State Park

Parks now visited: 2

The camping trip is over. Kayaks are but a few minutes' perusal on craigslist. School has resumed and life is back to normal. Or is it? Vacations of the past have taken us to places where the memories made are then left at the gate where we paid admission. Not this time. Now we have a tangible piece of vacation that we can carry with us every day, and it has made a difference. Rob and I have both talked nonstop about our new love of the outdoors, an inherent need to leave the house and soak up the sun. We've talked to each other, to Chris, to coworkers, friends....strangers. No, maybe not strangers.

So we planned our second trip for last Sunday. Out the door a little late, but we met up with Chris for more pressing matters first: the gun show (picture me kissing my biceps...now). Along with Rob's desire to get outdoors is his desire to protect himself and his family from all things anti-us. Alas, the Ruger if his dreams eluded him, so then we drove an hour north.

Washington Oaks Gardens State Park is on A1A in Palm Coast. There are formal gardens, hiking trails, and the Matanzas River on one side of the highway, and the beach...also part of the park...on the other side. Our tour took us first to the gardens, which we walked around for quite some time. The park once belonged to distant relatives of our nation's first president and was used as their summer home. The azaleas were mostly in bloom, the huge oaks had Spanish moss hanging down and swaying in the breeze, and the whole area was just stunning. There is a pond on the property, and it is apparently a popular place for (blessedly nonvenomous or aggressive) snakes to swim and...er...mate. Which we saw. Fascinating. There is also a geocache in this area of the park which we found. Along with about 200 ticks.

After collecting our stamp and leaving the gardens we headed over to the beach side of the park. The weather was overcast, but that suited me just fine. It was much easier to enjoy the beach for various reasons other than swimming. Foremost, the landscape of the beach is different from other beaches in this area. There are huge coquina rocks all over the shore. They've been pounded by the water for who knows how many years and are smooth enough to walk on. It was so different from what I'm used to that you'd think we had gone to the west coast.

If there was one emotion I felt while climbing, relaxing, taking pictures...it was gratitude. I appreciated our ability to leave our normal lives behind for even a few hours and show our daughter what our locale has to offer. It was like that beach was our little secret...hardly anyone was there...but it didn't need to be. It's there for everyone to enjoy. And for that, I am immensely grateful.

In the beginning....

I guess it all started with my brother. Del is something of an outdoorsman and, oh, about 10 years ago, he invited me to go kayaking with him down the Wekiwa River. I agreed, failing to tell him that I don't swim and have a huge fear of all things *water*. Nonetheless, I strapped on a life vest, got in the kayak, and pushed off. While the actual trip down the river and back up was completely uneventful, I managed to scare myself and freak out every 30 seconds. In the end, I promised myself that I had taken my first...and last...trip in a kayak.

Fast forward to about a year ago. One of my facebook friends posted pictures from a kayak tour she had taken in Cocoa Beach, and I was intrigued. I did a little research and found http://www.kayakcocoabeach.com/ . It seemed safe enough, affordable enough, and they even allowed kids. From there it just kind of blossomed; We took vacation during Olivia's spring break, booked a spot at a campground near the kayak launch, and just went for it. Our first family camping trip, first kayak tour...aside from that one trip with my brother...

I suppose at this point I could introduce myself. I'm Paula, wife of Robert for almost 15 years, mom of Olivia (age 5). Employee, geocacher, lazy bones. Former roller derby referee, seeker of new experiences to enjoy with my family. Enjoyer of naps.

Okay, now that that's done...The camping trip changed us. Being outdoors and realizing the beauty we have around us in this great state of Florida really spoke to Robert and me. We even want to buy kayaks now! One of Rob's coworkers, Chris, went on this trip with us. He loves all things outdoors and encouraged us to open our eyes a little bit. Chris mentioned a book he has, the State Park Passport. I guess you take it from state park to state park and get a stamp from each one. It resonated with me. Living right around the corner from Blue Spring State Park, we stopped by and bought the passport book before we even made it home from camping.

The book is really neat...it breaks the state parks into regions and is alphabetical within region. Each park has its own page with information and amenities. There are officially 160 parks in this book, and our first stamp was from our purchase at Blue Spring. We have been slowly planning day trips to other local state parks with the goal of getting outside and having fun as a family.

See, neither Rob nor I grew up doing many outdoorsy kinds of things. In fact, he asked me yesterday what kinds of things we did as a family when I was a kid, and I could really only remember shopping, cleaning, and road trips to Grandma's house. Now that Olivia is old enough to appreciate it, we want to instill in her some kind of love for the outdoors and just want to give her the type of upbringing we didn't have.

So it made me think. One hundred sixty state parks in one year is quite a lot to cram in, and the appreciation factor would most likely be lost. Especially when Rob works a lot of weekends. But what can we accomplish in a year? We may not make it to all the state parks, but we'll make it to more than we did last year. Or any year, for that matter. So this is what I'm planning for this blog: To chronicle our year of getting outdoors. Taking day trips, spending time together as a family. Heck, it might not even be a state park, but it also won't be on the couch, in front of the TV. It will be a year of making an effort to change our horizon just a little bit.

Are you in?