Cedar Key–10 Year Engagement Anniversary Trip

On October 26, 2002, Jonathan and I went to Cedar Key to watch the sunset and have dinner at the Island Hotel and Restaurant. Before getting ready to head back to Gainesville after our meal, we went up on the veranda and Jonathan proposed. Ever since that night we talked about how sometime we would have to go back and actually stay at the hotel. Well, we finally did that to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our engagement.

Jonathan’s parents came up for the weekend so that we could sneak away for the night. We had lunch all together before Jonathan and I loaded up our bags (packing just my stuff and not the kids’ made things go so much faster!) and our bikes and set off for the west coast.

Our first stop was Shell Mound, a prehistoric Indian mound. We walked a bit on the trail then went out by the water. It was insanely windy that day, the result of Hurricane Sandy that was barreling through the Atlantic at the time.

The mound is 28 feet tall and compromised primarily of shell and bones. It’s hard to fathom that amount of time that it took to reach that height.

From Shell Mound, we headed into town to check in at the hotel (it’s really more like a B&B).

The hotel was built in 1859 and originally was a general store that was later converted to a hotel.

We stayed in room 34. The large windows opened right onto the veranda. The painted pine wood floors were wonderfully creaky and dangerously sloped. The place was certainly chock-full of character.

The walls had no insulation, so in the guest book they asked that guests keep that in mind while “enjoying the privacy of their rooms.” We could hear the conversations of the people on the veranda quite easily.

We had a private bathroom connected to the room. This is worth noting because some other rooms had private bathrooms, they were just across the hall. We had a claw foot tub, which made for a somewhat interesting shower experience. But the place was just so cool.

After checking in, we walked through the town then came back to change for a run. (We just started the C25K program). From the run we headed down to the water to watch the sunset.

Looking down Dock Street

We headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. It was a beautiful night so we ate out on the porch of the restaurant.

I left our camera in the room so we didn’t take pics of the food, but it was so good. Our meal consisted of:

Appetizer: Hearts of Palm Salad (a twist on a fruit salad with lettuce, strawberries, grapes, star fruit, peaches, and other fruit, topped with hearts of palm and a strangely amazing dressing of crunchy peanut butter, pineapple juice, mayonnaise, and vanilla ice cream, sprinkled with sugared dates)

Salad

Entrée: Jonathan – Herb and Butter Grouper; Julie – Grouper Piccata

Dessert: Pecan Pie with macadamia nuts and chocolate

It was delicious.

After dinner, we got a quick photo in the lobby. We had one taken when we got engaged, although the furniture is different now, we were in about the same spot. :-)

We headed up to the veranda after that. It was pretty full of people that night. The night we got engaged, we were the only ones up there.

The common area on the second floor. None of the rooms have televisions, so this room had lots of books, games, and magazines to grab.

In the morning, we got up and got ready then headed down to breakfast.

We ate in the dining room this time and enjoyed the perfectly crispy French toast.

We decided to go ahead and check out since we didn’t know if we’d be back by later in the day.

We walked down to the museum, but were early, so we walked back to the car then headed over to the Cedar Key Museum State Park.

Happy 10 Year Engagement Anniversary!

Interestingly, Cedar Key was the end of the line for the Florida Railroad which connected the east coast to the west. For our anniversary this year, we stayed at the other end of the line in Fernandina. At the Cedar Key Museum State Park, we learned a little bit about that as well as about the various people and industries that used to call Cedar Key home.

A huge salt kettle used to extract the salt from sea water to be used by the confederates to preserve meat.

Across the way from the museum building was the St. Clair Whitman house.

We were never far from the water while on the island.

From the museum, we headed back to the main part of town then rode our bikes pretty much over the entire island. It didn’t take too long.

For lunch, we stopped in at the Seabreeze Restaurant. I love their clams. We always eat here when we go to Cedar Key.

A bit of a gray day, but a very good day. I am thankful that we were able to finally stay at the hotel and enjoy the time away together.

Mummy “Wrap Up”

As you may remember, in the summer we started making a chicken mummy to go along with our study of the ancient Egyptians. Well, a couple weeks ago we were learning about the Egyptians again (this time about King Tutankhamen) and decided it was time to finish up our mummy project. We coordinated a time with Evan to come over with Mystery Mummy so we could “wrap” this project up.

First, we had to clean off the mummies. King Klucky and Mystery Mummy had been sitting in salt for the last 2+ months. Wet paper towels weren’t working, so I finally just rinsed them under running water then had the kids dry them off.

Here’s the best photo I got of the mummified chicken before he was oiled, spiced, and wrapped. He (or she??) was considerably darker and much more shriveled up. And there definitely was a smell, although it was not particularly strong. I thought that the smell would be worse as it was drying out in the salt, but really, the main thing I smelled then was the rubbing alcohol it had soaked in prior to starting the mummification process. In the end, they had a very strange smell. It wasn’t super strong, but when I got too close it was pretty bad, as in, it's-good-I-don’t-throw-up-easily bad. But really, in the sealed container while drying, no smell. And once back in a sealed container, there’s been no smell.

Patting Mystery Mummy dry.

The next step was to apply oil (we used baby oil) and spices (we used cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and ground allspice because that’s what we had, not because they are particularly historically accurate). The mummy still smelled funny, but now also was dark from the spices.

Finally, the kids wrapped their mummies with strips of old sheets that I’d ripped up. They dipped the strips in a mixture of white glue and water then started wrapping. Both were ready to play at this point so I finished them up.

Wrapped and drying.

I spray painted the containers gold so that they could be the sarcophaguses for the mummies.

King Klucky ready for his burial.

Rosemary has now decorated his sarcophagus, we just need to get him in the ground. Jonathan teased her that we should put him in the attic because “it’s hot there and it was hot in Egypt.” Rosemary, however, told him that it’s cooler in the ground, just as it was cooler in the depths of the pyramids and tombs. She’s a smart girl.

While this project was a little more involved than others that we’ve done, I’ve got to say that is was really pretty easy and exceptionally memorable. I can see us saying years from now, “Do you remember when we mummified that chicken?” It was really pretty inexpensive since I bought the supplies in bulk, the smell wasn’t noticeable as long as things were sealed up, and it was just really cool to do. I’m not sure what our big spring project will be, but it will be hard to top this one.

Last Soccer Game of the Season

Ben wrapped up his soccer season with the Red Raiders towards the end of October.

Daddy and his boy

Ready to play one last game

Watching his team with daddy

Ben and his buddy, Asher. I think it made a huge difference for Ben to already have a friend on his team.

We were a bit sad to see the soccer season come to an end. Ben really had a great time, which was our goal for this. He’s already talking about soccer next year.

Charlotte’s First Bridal Shower Game

Anyone who has ever gone to a bridal shower has probably played this game before. You make a wedding dress out of toilet paper. The secret to winning this game, a toddler willing to wear toilet paper long enough to show off in front of the future bride. Thankfully, Charlotte was that toddler for us and the other groups didn’t stand a chance. ;-)

Michelle made Charlotte’s bouquet and Jessica made the veil. This dress was actually version 2.0…she ripped off the first one. Creative differences I guess.

Seriously, how cute is she? Even if she is pouting.

And this is how it was possible to do this to her. Crackers. Lots and lots of crackers.

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens Field Trip

Our October field trip was to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful weather and our group had a great guide. I think that Rosemary and Charlotte enjoyed the morning there. Ben was in school so he missed out on the trip.

Colonial Williamsburg-Day 7 & 8

Day 7

We wrapped up all we wanted to see on our last full day in Williamsburg.

My mom met up with some friends so my dad stayed with us as we walked over to Great Hopes Plantation.

Handsome Ben.

Getting some video

Looking towards the slave quarters.

We checked out the pigs too

From there we walked towards the Palace Green. It had transformed overnight into a military encampment to reenact the days before the Battle of Yorktown. Reenactors from various states came to participate.

Some of the tents on the green.

Kids playing on the field.

A few Native American interpreters were there, too.

Rosemary brought her camera the last day so she was snapping lots of photos.

I think this group was from North or South Carolina.

Lots of tents. I’m pretty sure the reenactors actually stayed in the tents for the weekend, which would have been cold the next night! But how fun would that be?

We had brought lunches again for the kids and Jonathan and my dad went up to The Cheese Shop to get the last sandwiches of our trip. Jonathan and I both got something different this time (every other time we’d basically gotten the same sandwich, just on different types of bread). I got corned beef, Jonathan had salami. While they were good, we both still liked the roast beef with the house dressing best. I mean, we must, we ate it 3 times that week. We definitely got our Cheese Shop fix this trip.

While they were getting lunch, I watched the kids as they ran around on the green. We saw a changing of the guard at the Wythe House.

I think this was one of the visiting groups.

And I got this photo of a not-so-historically-accurate-moment of a reenactor taking a picture with his phone.

While waiting, we met Polly. Rosemary asked to have her picture taken with her. She gave Rosemary a heart shaped rock.

Did you know they had cell phones in colonial times?

After lunch we caught another fife and drum march. The kids really loved this. When we heard the music from one of the videos we took when we got back home, both Rosemary and Ben got quite excited.

A quick pic of me and Jonathan as we made our way to the children’s chores and games area.

Rosemary attempted to carry water, but the ropes were a bit too long so she couldn’t quite get it off the ground.

Ben enjoyed looking through the toys and played this plate game where they tossed a bean bag back and forth.

Some of the various games.

Rosemary helped to get the dried corn off the cobs. The husks were used to make dolls. The corn would then be ground.

Ben playing on a little drum.

Rosemary hauled some firewood in the wheelbarrow. It was a bit difficult, so Ben came over to help.

After that, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center. Ben and Rosemary both bought one more thing – some more artillery for Ben’s army set and a Jamestown settlers set for Rosemary.

Then we headed back to the condo for dinner and started to pack up. We planned on leaving pretty early the next morning to get home at a good time.

Day 8

I didn’t end up sleeping well the last night so when it was time to get ready, I was pretty tired. But we got the kids packed up and all of our stuff then started home. We hit some pretty awful rain in Virginia and part of North Carolina. It was the first day that it was actually cold while we were there. The other days had been in the upper 70s and low 80s.

We listened to The Penderwick’s and Mary Poppins on our way home. I slept. Jonathan drove. We stopped in Georgia and had dinner with my mom and dad at Taco Bell before getting back to Gainesville later that night.

The trip was so fun. We had full days but weren’t worn out at the end of our trip. I think the kids really enjoyed themselves, too. They are still talking about their trip and playing with the toys they bought while there. We look forward to many more trips like this.