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Published: April 2nd 2008
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Boardwalks
The boardwalks protected the dunes and made for some neat photos Sometimes there are pleasant surprises when traveling.
Such as a family vacation. When you're just a kid, the family vacation is fun. Sure, you argue heaps with your siblings, and your parents yell at you for asking the dreaded 4-word question,
Are we there yet?. But generally a family vacation is fun when you're a kid.
Fast forward a few years. Ok, maybe a few more. You haven't fully lived with your family for several years. You've traveled extensively on your own and have pretty much declared your independence from being cooped up in the back seat of the car with your annoying siblings. You've had a few road trips of your own. You get along with your family, but that's mostly because you don't spend much time at "home".
Now why on earth would you agree to a family vacation that involves 4 days of driving and 5 days of camping?
I don't know why I did. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it. I imagined grumpy drivers, arguments over who was going to cook dinner, arguments from sharing a tent with everyone, hurt feelings from teasing each other too much, lots of swear words, and
Cheeky!
This little guy loved to visit the camp. Photo Nik Blaser embarrassment because your sister brought a friend along and the poor girl has to see how dysfunctional your family can be.
But it wasn't like that at all. It was actually a rather pleasant family vacation.
The location was part of it. The location reminded me why I love being off the beaten path. And just maybe, I'll have to give my dad credit. His choices for our family vacations have usually been off the beaten path, if they didn't involve seeing the family in Europe. As far as the US was concerned, our family vacations required finding little-known gems.
Part of me doesn't want to reveal this little gem, for fear that it may become too popular and lose its charm. But I have no fear thanks to Reserve America, which has taken the spontaneity out of camping (thanks to the reservation system, the park is almost always booked out). And so I'll reveal our little gem in Florida: St Joseph Peninsula State Park, which is found on the Gulf Coast near St Joe.
Never heard of it? Precisely why we went there.
No mobile reception. No in-your-face tourist icons or posters screaming to
spend your tourist dollars. Not necessarily easy to get to. White sand beaches separated from the campground by sand dunes filled with wildlife. A bird-watcher's paradise. Little light pollution in order to fully enjoy the night sky (I didn't think it was possible on the east coast anymore!).
Nearby quaint, fun-coloured shops run by locals who enjoy a laid-back, maybe a little run down, lifestyle. The run-down nature of the surrounding area is almost a refreshing change from the New York suburbia. Sometimes development can be too much. While the peninsula is now home to many shiny new ocean-front housing developments, the state park preserves the sand dunes and the boardwalks of days gone by.
They were in the midst of a beach "renourishment" project, so we wasted plenty of time watching the bulldozers re-shape the beach with the sand pumped in from a barge, which pulled its sand from a sand bar 3 miles out. It was also fun watching the plovers, gulls and sand-pipers who ran around snatching up all the worms and various shelled creatures brought up by the dredging.
We also did a bit of sight-seeing besides the beach-bumming and bird watching. We wandered
Need a seat?
A perfect birdwatching spot around the quaint town of
Apalachicola, which had lots of delightful shops to get lost in, little restaurants and cafes, and old boats at the docks. I met a
photographer who captured the local culture in black and white. And we enjoyed some of delicious ice cream just outside the state park, at a place called Cone Heads.
And so that was my family vacation.
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liliram
liliram
thanks for sharing!
Hey, thanks for sharing this. And good to hear of great family holidays.