This is me and my coworker Don on one side of the Golden Gate bridge. In San Francisco that day, it was nice and warm....but near the bridge, it was freezing. And here I am (in flip flops, but you can't see that) shivering (but you can't see that either).

Napa Valley

I was working at Travis AFB in April, and my coworker Don and I drove up to Napa Valley, about an hour away. We stopped in St Helena, Calistoga, and some other city that I really can't remember right now. These pictures don't show just how beautiful the area is. It's early spring, so the grapes are just starting out, but we stopped to take some pictures of some of the grape fields anyway. We stopped at a winery to look around, but I actually didn't have any wine, because I had the first ever migraine of my life that day. Yeah, I know. I'm old.

A Sad Day

Some of you may remember a posting about Amelia's play date with Kami last month. Kami's aunt, Neicy, and I have been friends for years. Just this month, Neicy started working in my office. This morning, I got a phone call from a coworker, who told me that Neicy had suddenly passed away over the weekend. We still don't know what happened. Neicy was a beautiful, intelligent young woman, a mother to a teenage son, and a great friend. I'm devastated that she's gone, but I'm grateful for all of the memories I have of her.

I miss you, Neicy. That doesn't even come close to describe how I feel, but I really miss you.

Take THAT, Thu-Mai!

Did you say I have a stale blog? Check out all the posts I just made. Who has a stale blog now....hmmmmm? When did you last update your blog? A week ago? (insert snooty sniff here).

Fort Clinch Beach

Now, it is just my luck that on Fri and Sat, there would be cloudy weather, but on Sunday, it was perfect outside....hot and sunny. Right outside of Ft Clinch State Park, there is a beach that is relatively empty of people. So we checked it out!

First thing we saw was a submarine from nearby Kings Bay Naval Base
Beach with Ft Clinch in the background

Chan thought this horseshoe crab was definitely fake until she smelled it. Hee!

Old fireplace from the fort dumped on the beach years ago.

View looking south.

Fort Clinch's beach is a beachcomber's paradise. The $5 per car entry fee to the park keeps out the scrubs, so it's pretty deserted. We found a TON of sea shells, of all kinds. We each filled up a bag of shells to take back with us...but no shark teeth.

Fort Clinch

At the northern tip of Amelia Island is an old military installation called Fort Clinch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Clinch It has not been used in more than 100 years, but is now operated as a park. In my opinion, this place is crazy haunted. Anyway, this is a tiny, tiny, tiny military base....maybe a couple of acres space inside the walls. (and I thought Brooks was small).

Entrance to the Fort
Outer walls.

Building inside.

Tattooing commences promply at 2200 hrs.

Coat rack inside one of the barracks

Kitchen. True to form, one of the park employees/actors told me that as a woman,

I should feel at home in the kitchen. Hee!

Spooky hallway.

The Brig!

Cumberland Island Tour

Not far off from Amelia Island is Cumberland Island, GA. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Island It is a privately owned island that is now 90% occupied by the National Park Service. It has an interesting history. On Saturday, we took a tour of the Cumberland Sound to see the island and it's wild horses.

Bathroom on the ferry. I really had to go or I wouldn't have subjected myself to hearing my fellow travelers talk while I peed. Or having them hear me pee while they talk.
Me and Chan on the ferry. This picture was funny because I asked the lady half of this elderly couple to take it, and the husband kept barking orders to the wife on how to take the picture.

Fort Clinch from the ferry. More on that later

Cumberland Island's famous wild horses.

This is one handsome shark.

Something from my childhood

We were driving to the Fernandina Beach Farmer's Market on Saturday, and I was giving Chan directions to the location, when I saw this on the map:

Uh....what? Really? The Pippi Longstocking House? I lurved Pippi Longstocking when I was a kid. I mean, a girl with keen fashion sense, wild hair, that lives alone with her horse and monkey? Sweet. So we drove to the location on the map, which was not exactly clear, and I found the house through memory alone. And here it is!

Villa Villekula! Chan had no idea who Pippi was, so I took it upon myself to skool her in the ways of the daughter of a sailor lost at sea, with the wild hair. It turns out that this is where the American version of the movie was filmed. Awesome. Pippi rules. Can I get a witness?

Sunrise on Amelia Island

So after spending 3 hours hunting for shark's teeth on Friday, we researched the tide charts and decided that since we had found a bunch of teeth at low tide on friday afternoon, we would wake up early enough for low tide at 0630 on sunday morning. For those that don't know, there are 2 low and 2 high tides daily. And waking up at 0630 on a Saturday is no problem on the island because you will have spend all day friday in the sun, and if you are like us, in addition to searching for teeth, you will have walked from shell bed to shell bed doing lunges, so you will be exhausted from the exercise and the sun.

Amelia Island

Ok, so when faced with a 2 week trip to Jacksonville, FL...one must make the decision on what to do over the weekend, which is especially vital when presented with a 3 day weekend. My coworker and I agreed to go to Amelia Island, FL. I mean, who wouldn't? It is a small island in the Atlantic off northern FL that is apparently a big vacation spot. I never thought I would find a place that I liked as much as Oahu, but I have. I want to bring Austin and Amelia here and live here forever!

Chan and I were searching for seashells, when we saw a couple of people staring at the sand. We were like, "I wonder if those people know something we don't." She walks over, and yells for me to come over. Turns out that Amelia Island is like the #2 place in the US to find shark's teeth, and these people are finding tons of them. A lady showed us the ones she had found...like 20 of them, and was kind enough to scatter a few on the ground so that we could "find" them, and even let us keep them. From then on, we were obsessed with finding shark's teeth. A few locals saw us throughout the weekend and would stop by to check on our progress. In the end, we found maybe 30-35 total. We sat in the wet sand for hours each day, just digging, and getting excited like eight year olds when we would find some. In the last pic are the first 4 that I found.

View from the parking lot of our beachfront hotel, Seaside Amelia Inn
A handful of seashells scooped from the sand

Me pretending to be amazed while I take my own picture.

Chan looking for shark's teeth

Houses on Amelia Island

Shark's teeth that I found the first day.

St Augustine, FL

Is there a person in the world who doesn't love lighthouses? Before visiting this one, I have only been inside one other one, in Door County, WI, when visiting my aunt and uncle in Fish Creek. This one is in St. Augustine, FL, the oldest continuously settled city in America (I think?). Anyway, this is their lighthouse. Fortunately, on this trip, I am accompanied by my coworker Chandra, a young (32) sprightly chicky who is up for anything. She is even afraid of heights but is such a trooper that she did not disclose this potential lighthouse climbing deal breaker until we were halfway up the 200+ stairs. Whatta gal! Anyway, we made it up (seems less stairs than 200+), and were treated to an awesome view of the city:

The actual lighthouse, from the path
Looking up from the bottom

View from the top

Chan the Super Trooper

We totally did not eat at this restaurant

This one is for Mimi since she is obsessed with pirates. Arrrrr!

New Playground Pics

Some people would say that having a playground right behind their house is awesome. In our house, we call it "never being able to go in our backyard" because Amelia ALWAYS wants to go there, and sometimes we just don't have time....like we are unloading groceries or whatever. But we do try to take her there at least once a week. Here she is, on Saturday, on a girls' (Mimi and Mommy) trip to the playground. Amelia can now officially climb up to the top and go down the twisty slide by herself!

A new artist in the family

My grandma Betty is a pretty awesome artist. She's painted a ton of cool pictures, and even used to make dolls for me when I was little. I will admit I had nightmares from this one doll, who had long candy cane striped arms, and my name sewn in cursive on its butt. I would dream that the arms would pull me under my bed like the clown doll from Poltergeist. I think my mom eventually put it in the basement and I could sleep again. I digress. I'm hoping Amelia inherited some of her great-grandmother Betty's talent. Here she is, painting with watercolors in her Wonder Pets coloring book.

The New Swimsuit

Since Amelia really can't wear the same suit she did as a baby, and we can't find her pink swimsuit since we moved, Austin bought her a new one. He did a pretty good job. We are pretty dead-set against little girls wearing bikinis, so Amelia wears only 1-pieces. Here she is pouting, then trying to spray me with water, then stealing my diet coke, and then pouting again.