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NOLA

Ashley Longnecker / February 23, 2016

After our visit in Mobile, Alabama, we packed up and headed to New Orleans! And guess who we saw there!!

We met up with Heather and Jeremy (@takethatexit) and their 2 kids! It’s like we enjoy hanging out with them or something...

We had a great visit over Cruze Farm’s Coffee Milk, Ginger Molasses Cookies and Red Velvet Cake. We always enjoy our time with them. We only had one day together but I’m so glad we are both headed west and have plans to keep meeting up along the way!

I had high hopes for NOLA but, to be honest...

New Orleans was probably one of my least favorite stops so far. I don’t know how else to describe it other than I just felt like a really dark place. I didn’t feel safe in the city walking around with the kids, the people we ran into at shops weren’t very friendly and just had a negative vibe the whole time we were there. 

We camped out at Bayou Segnette State Park based on a recommendation from Ditching Suburbia! Thanks Mike and Crissa! Free laundry sounded too good to be true, but it was! However, with the laundry room being free, we found it very difficult to time it to where we could actually get any loads done. Everyone had the same idea and beat me to the laundry room every day! We only were able to wash half of what we needed to there but we did appreciate the free washers and dryers there.

The park itself was actually pretty cool. So foggy in the morning.

Meaher State Park // Spanish Fort, AL

Ashley Longnecker / February 22, 2016

After leaving Panama City I made reservations at a city park at what I thought was just north of Mobile, AL. Turns out, River Delta Marina and Campground was about 45 minutes to Mobile which was just too far for all the things we wanted to do while we were there. However, the price was great. For just $20/night we had full-hookups and only 3 neighbors across the park. We were close to the bath house and the playground. It was actually a really great park. There was a nature trail along the lake that was beautiful. 

FLASHBACK // St. Andrews State Park

Ashley Longnecker / February 18, 2016

We had a great two weeks exploring at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City. Other than the tornado warnings in the middle of the night we had a fairly relaxing time. But this wasn't our first time here... 

Keep reading for a flashback of our first camping trip...

Gulf World Marine Park

Ashley Longnecker / February 10, 2016

After our crazy first night in Panama City Beach, we were so excited to explore the area. But man, it was COLD! It was a low key weekend full of laundry, school work, catching up on the blog and trying to stay warm.

We had been in touch with the folks at Visit Panama City Beach and they told us of several fun things to check out while in the area. One of them was Gulf World Marine Park. We made plans to visit Tuesday morning and the kids were super excited. 

At Gulf World Marine Park there are several things to do and you can easily spend 3-4 hours there without the kids getting bored. There is a section with these really beautiful parrots.

Though those were cool and all, our favorite bird to visit was the flamingo! There were these 2 huge flamingos just hanging out in this little pool of water. They were so bright pink and their beaks looked totally fake. Ada and Adali LOVED this part.

We went to the Feather & Furry Friends show where they had a few trained animals come out and do some funny things with the trainers.

The Panama City Beach Freakout!

Ashley Longnecker / February 09, 2016

After leaving Manatee Springs State Park we high-tailed it to Panama City Beach. We were eager to catch up with friends and have a couple of weeks to rest and recharge. We got a nice site on the lagoon side for our first week at St. Andrews State Park. It had rained a couple days before we got there so our site had a nice large pond next to it. Good thing we were only there for a week and had plans to be out most days doing things.

Our first night was at St. Andrew’s was quite memorable. We went to sleep knowing there would be thunderstorms and possibly some high winds but we didn’t expect to be woken up by the most intense winds we have ever experienced, rain and hail at 2:30am. 

I jumped up out of bed to look out the window to see what was going on. I asked Jonathan if he thought we should wake the kids up and take them to the bath house and at that point his phone alarm went off with a tornado watch/warning for Bay County! I moderately freaked out.

Is that the county we are in?? 

Where are we?? 

Is this for us?? 

Aahhh! 

(Note to self, always know what county you are in if you’re expecting bad weather)

Now, I’m from Indiana and don’t freak out about crazy weather often but when you live in a trailer that’s basically made out of popsicle sticks AND you’re surrounded by tall trees that are bending sideways, you get the heck out of dodge! I wasn’t so worried that there would be a tornado but I was worried about the possibility of large tree falling on our house and flattening it. (it’s happened, I’ve seen pictures)

We woke the kids up around 3 and made them get their jackets on super fast and told them we are headed to the bath house. Even though it was super close to our home, we were got in the truck and drove because the rain was nuts. We would have been soaked to the bone if we walked.

We opened the door to run outside and it was quickly thrown back and slammed against the RV. The rain was literally blowing sideways and it was hard for us to even walk the short distance to the truck. We were so wet and cold, but we drove over to the bath house just to make sure we were safe during the storm.

We checked the phones and watched the storm like crazy people while trying to keep our kids from freaking out. They weren’t happy about being cold or wet but I was glad that no matter what the weather did, we were going to be safe.