We followed a poem to New Mexico. An art collector named Forrest Fenn buried a treasure in the mountains north of Santa Fe, and he wrote a poem that contains 9 clues for treasure hunters to follow. Where the Treasure Lies As I have gone alone in there And with my treasures bold, I can keep my secret where, And hint of riches new and old. Begin it where warm waters halt And take it in the canyon down, Not far, but too far to walk, Put in below the home of Brown. From there it’s no place for the meek, The end is ever drawing nigh; There’ll be no paddle up your creek, Just heavy loads and water high. If you’ve been wise and found the blaze, Look quickly down, your quest to cease, But ... read more

Lambertville is a quaint town with lots of little shops at the most western edge of northern New Jersey. We're staying at the Inn at Lambertville Station, which is located right on the Delaware River. We can easily cross the river into New Hope, Pennsylvania, which is another cute town. Everything is easiliy accessible to us. We went to a wedding last night at Lambertville House and walked there with ease. This morning, we wanted to take a stroll along Bridge Street to get some coffee. After hours of waiting for everyone else, I finally took off on my own to take in some of the sites. There's a beautiful, stone Catholic church, and an old Baptist church which my mom said is being turned into a music hall. Before too long, I spotted the rest ... read more

To make it to my cousin's wedding in Lambertville, New Jersey, my parents and I decided to save a few hundred dollars by flying into La Guardia in New York City. I've never been to New York, so I thought it might be nice to see parts of the city as we drove through. I got more than I bargained for! We landed in New York City at 4:30pm. We didn't get into the Holland Tunnel to make it to New Jersey until nearly 8pm. We sat in traffic in Manhatten on a Friday during rush hour for hours. I loved all the people watching, we didn't really have anywhere to be that evening, and, besides, I didn't have my little ones with me. I could think of less interesting places to be stuck in traffic ... read more

Jo continued to sleep the afternoon away. My mom and dad decided to make the short drive to Turtle Beach, so Oliver and I joined them. Turtle Beach is still in the midst of clean-up from the Red Tide, which is the algae bloom close to shore that killed lots of sealife. There are trashbags littering the beach, filled with dead fish. The whole beach reeked. That didn't deter us, though! Oliver is hilarious. He enjoys finding seashells and rocks and hurling them back into the ocean. As he throws them, he yells random things, like, "Gesundheit!", "I don't like rules!", "Uncle Scott!", and "Peanut butter and jelly sandwich!" We let him throw to his heart's content. My mom and I collected more shells (Turtle Beach is great for seashell combing). When we had enough of ... read more

We decided to spend the afternoon at Point of Rocks, which is here on Siesta Key, about two miles north from where we're staying. Red tide had come on Thursday, and we got to see some of the aftermath. Red tide is when there is a large red algae bloom close to shore. It produces toxins that kill a lot of sea life, which then washes ashore. My parents had combed Turtle Beach before it was cleaned up, and they said the dead fish were everywhere. That's how we found Point of Rocks today. I saw dead crabs, dead eels, and hundreds and hundreds of dead fish. There were skeletons everywhere, too, from fish who had died and were picked clean by the birds. I'm not sure if there were more shells that were swept on ... read more