Follow the Frog

 After the rocket center we figured we could eat up some hours and camp down the road shortening our drive to my sister’s today. Our destination: Davis Bayou Campground in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Disney’s Jungle Cruise did not adequately prepare a certain individual (not me) for the legitimate jungle environment that we encountered. 96° air temperature with 80 percent humidity and absolutely no breeze to be had. It was absolutely stifling. Quite honestly I expected it to be bad but Mother Nature exceeded my expectations here a bit. We learned a few things from this experience that will benefit us in our further adventures. Thing number one: a cotton quilt to lay on the tent mattress vs the sleeping bags. Thing number two: a usb fan to point air down from outside/push hot air from the tent out. It is one of the most uncomfortable nights I've experienced in a while. However, we had some visitors this morning that made up for it a tiny bit.  These little friend shapes...

 Yesterday we visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama with John’s youngest sister Sarah and her family. We had so much fun watching the kiddos learn about rockets and the various space missions and we enjoyed the history and enormity of the various missions as well. It was also a very obvious advertisement to participate in Space Camp. We saw lots of campers there.  Sam and Bryson were excited to go hitch a ride and learn about space! Sam and Bryson found some friends to explore the museum with.  Sam and Bryson wonder what it would be like to fly the rocket.  Saturn V engines Exploring a Mercury Capsule model  My childhood space experience  Sam and Bryson as astronauts 

 We made it safely to Nashville, Tennessee today! We had a couple of adventures along the way too. Our first stop took us by Abraham Lincoln’s childhood home of Knob Creek followed by a stop at his birthplace of Sinking Spring. We then continued our trek south to Mammoth Cave National Park where we had booked a tour to explore the cave. I love exploring caves! This one was different as it is a dry cave so very few stalagmites and stalactites. It is, however, the longest known cave system in the world and it was beautiful! This is a model of the one room log cabin Lincoln grew up in  Sam and Bryson thought it was a cozy space This is the memorial that houses the symbolic birth cabin of Abraham Lincoln. It is the first memorial to Lincoln and was built in 1909 and dedicated in 1911. The memorial in Washington D.C. was built in 1922. This is the big green bus we boarded to ride to and from the cave entrance. Crystal Lake Lots of pictures of rocks. I love rocks. Since Bryson is us...

  Yesterday was Noah’s birthday and to celebrate we went and enjoyed a virtual reality experience at Sandbox VR up in Dublin with  Noah’s girlfriend and a couple of his other friends. We had gone here last year and had an absolute blast in spite of the systems being problematic due to a power outage. They felt so bad about the experience they gave me six free tickets with no expiration to come back and have a better experience and we did. We chose a pirate themed adventure this time vs the fantasy one last time. I think I would love to do the fantasy one again though; I really love dragons. There are definitely some of the sci-fi experiences I would like to try as well. I can skip the zombie/horror ones though.  We finished up the day up with dinner at Noah’s favorite restaurant and then cards and cake at his place before heading back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to load out bright and early. I love visiting my kids and seeing what they are up to and how they are...

 Today’s adventures took us out for of doors in horrendous heat and humidity to go play airsoft. I got to shoot plastic pellets at Noah and his friends in a wooded area that had lots of places to hide and shoot at people from. Noah really wanted me to try it out and to meet the friends he made at the field so I had agreed to this prior to arriving in Columbus. Truthfully I had fun and his friends are really cool people. I found I liked to be more of a sniper and hide and sneak up on people and shoot them vs running all over the place. I was even able to sneak up and shoot a couple of Noah’s friends that are Air Force medics so I was pretty pleased with myself about that. We have just one more day here in Columbus and then we are off on more adventures! I didn’t get any pictures while running around shooting pellets so please enjoy this pretty flower in our hotel flowerbed. 

Today’s adventures took us south to Cincinnati to the Newport Aquarium   Well, technically the aquarium is across the river in Kentucky but I digress. We enjoyed seeing lots of varieties of fish from a many types of ecosystems. Sam and Bryson did too.  Sam and Bryson think they look like perfect penguin chicks  Sam and Bryson want to swim with the sea horses.  Seahorse shaped friend The elusive John I crawled down a 3ft. tall tunnel and up an acrylic tube to be able to watch the rays swim around me  We saw mermaid friends  We saw pufferfish friends Looking across the Ohio River from Newport, Kentucky into Cincinnati, Ohio. 

  We made it to Ohio yesterday !! We are here until Monday visiting Noah. We have lots of adventures planned. Today’s adventures took us to COSI which is the Ohio equivalent of OMSI for those on the west coast.  Sam & Bryson stowed away for an adventure  Sam and Bryson thought it would be fun to to explore the titanic! We found a model of what the titanic looks like on the sea floor  Sam & Bryson wonder what the ballroom looked like  Do we fit in the lifeboat? The idol of curiosity  So cool!! The Dino exhibit had lots of really cool skeletons. T-Rex is one of my favorites