Parks & Outdoors

An Island of a State Park: Jekyll Island in Georgia

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Jekyll Island State Park

Jekyll Island is an interesting and secluded spot off the southeast coast of Georgia. The entire island is a state park with an entrance fee. Once on the island, there are more than 7 miles of beaches. Unlike some state parks, about a third of the island is actually developed with hotels, golf courses, houses … Read more

Winter Home to the Manatee: Blue Spring State Park in Florida

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Cutting across central Florida from Sanford to Saint Augustine, I made a pit stop at Blue Spring State Park to check out the “Winter Home to the Manatee”. While there can be up to several hundred manatees in the waters at a time, there were still supposedly more than 100 manatees during my visit. What … Read more

13 Miles of Alligators: Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive in Florida

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Lake Apopka Wildlife Refuge, just outside Orlando, Florida, features a free 13 mile wildlife drive — a dirt path for cars to view alligators, fish, birds and turtles in nature. Thinking this would be a calm and peaceful excursion into nature like the very similar Savannah Wildlife Refuge Drive, which I adore, was a mistake … Read more

Soaking in Sedona

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After a few days of world-class, jaw-dropping nature in Tucson and a whirlwind of experiences at the Grand Canyon, our next stop was in Sedona! But first, food… Just outside of Sedona in Oak Creek is the beautiful scent of BBQ emerging from the Colt Grill. Google Maps photos initially made me weary — this … Read more

Going Undergound: Exploring Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky

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I hadn’t heard of Mammoth Cave National Park until I was exploring the area around Nashville for interesting things to do. With more than 425 miles of officially explored caves, it is the longest cave system in the world and took hundreds of millions of years to form. And it’s just 90 minutes north of … Read more

Exploring the Grand Canyon (South Rim)

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On the road to Tusayan & the Canyon After 2.5 great days in Tucson, we set the GPS for Tusayan, Arizona, the town just below the entrance of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The 5-hour, 333-mile route cuts right through Phoenix and several smaller towns including Flagstaff, where we made a pre-planned lunch … Read more

2.5 Days in Tucson: Cacti, Canyons, and a Cookie Cabin

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March 2025. I was headed back to Arizona.  I had previously spent time in Phoenix, Tempe and Sedona in 2018, but the plan this time was to check out the Grand Canyon and other to-be-decided spots that were new and interesting. I did one of my favorite things and perused Google Maps — The first … Read more