My Aunt Cindy and Uncle John left Atlanta for League City, Texas a quarter century ago and, shamefully, my mom and I had never made the trip to see them. To make up for our indefensible absence, we decided to descend upon their home like a swarm of locusts. My mom’s sister-in-law, Aunt Pat, was kind enough to accompany my mom and brother on the 12+ hour drive from Atlanta. While we didn’t plan it, my crew pulled up to Cindy and John’s at the same time as my mom, Pat, and Russ, ensuring that the seven of us did our best to overwhelm our hosts right from the start.
My Aunt Cindy raised four children and runs a tight ship, so if our crew did overwhelm her during our five day invasion, she didn’t show it. She warmly opened her home and provided us with several delicious meals. Similarly, my Uncle John was nice enough to let us raid his liquor cabinet. Everything from his top shelf scotch to his homemade wine was on offer.
During our visit, we were also able to spend time with my cousin Tommy, his wife Lara, and their two boys, Jake and Gabe. Liam really took a shine to Jake and Gabe and is now ready to relocate to Texas to be closer to them.
The League City area had plenty to keep the kids occupied and we enjoyed visiting various parks (including Rocket Park which houses one of the Saturn V rockets that NASA used to send America’s astronauts to the moon in the 1960’s), nature trials, and the Galveston Children’s museum. Most importantly though, we spent plenty of quality time with family, catching up and reliving fond memories.
Many thanks to my Aunt Cindy and Uncle John for hosting us, my cousin Tommy and his wife for being our tour guides, and a special thanks to my Aunt Pat for ensuring that Liam and CJ got to spend time with Grammy Sue and Big Russ.
Hot Springs has a population of about 30,000 and the town is centered around Bathhouse Row which is a series of ornately designed bath houses that were constructed in the early 1900’s. While only one of the bathhouses is still open for business, the rest are under the care of the Park Service, which has done a wonderful job restoring them to their opulent glory. With stained glass windows, rich wood doors, and marble throughout, you could see why wealthy people from across the US flocked to Hot Springs during the “Golden Age of Bathing.”
Our first month and a half has been spent in the sunny state of Florida and we’ve loved all our stops. The last two were some of our favorites though.
Floridians don’t get much love, at least not in Georgia, I’ve noticed. From sports, to fashion, to how redneck the residents are (which is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black), you would wonder why anyone would venture across the border into Gator territory. Well, after spending a month down here, I have to say, it’s a pretty beautiful state, and we’re just now getting to the coast.
Our first night in the Everglades we went on a ranger-led night hike along the popular Anhinga Trail which follows paved paths and boardwalks through a very pretty waterway full of wildlife. The ranger gave a wonderful tour and I continued to be reminded of something he told us throughout our visit to the park.
Our trip continues as we make our way down through the Sunshine State. We are so lucky to have such generous family members in such a pretty part of the state. Rick’s Aunt and Uncle live in Merritt Island where we stayed for three nights. While there, Liam scored another ranger badge at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We saw lots of gators, shore birds, along with a raccoon and an armadillo! If you know our kids, you know they LOVE wildlife so this was a big hit with them.
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