For my birthday (Monday Oct. 5) this year I decided to spend the weekend with my parents and my brother at my parents' condo in Ponce Inlet, Florida. We had a fun time and since it has been a while since I've blogged I thought I would write about it.
I arrived Sat. afternoon and spent the rest of the day just hanging out at the condo relaxing and doing nothing. We had dinner that night at Down the Hatch, overlooking the Halifax river and watched the sun set. Sunday morning we just relaxed once again but that afternoon we went to the science center down at the inlet. The science center consisted of a museum, a turtle rehabilitation center, and a bird rehabilitation center. We visited all three. The museum had several display aquariums of sea life in the area. As I have my own aquarium, albeit fresh water, I enjoyed these exhibits the most. The turtle rehab center is a small hospital where sick or injured turtles are isolated and cared for until they heal and are ready to return to the wild. There were turtles there for a variety of reasons, such as propeller injuries, digestive issues, and fight wounds. There was one display showing the kinds of things that often end up in their stomachs, such as fish hooks, cigarette butts, and deflated balloons! The bird sanctuary was a similar facility for birds and there were several varieties there including owls, pelicans, bald eagles, and even a stork with a broken wing. That night we went to one of my favorite restaurants Aunt Catfish's in Port Orange. I enjoyed Lobster (for $12.99!), the giant salad bar, and their cinnamon rolls.
Monday on my birthday we drove up to Saint Augustine for the day. Saint Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565. I had not been in about 15 years though I went several times as a kid with boy scouts and school. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos fort built in 1762 to protect the city from the British and French. We took a self guided tour of the fort and saw various rooms, an old prison, a chapel, and a musket demonstration. We also walked around on the ramparts looking at the old canons and admiring the view. After the fort we went over to the Columbia restaurant for lunch but it was closed. We were all disappointed as we had been talking for several days about eating there. At this point it was super humid and we were super hungry. Not a good combination for four stubborn people. But after going to three other restaurants we finally found an Italian one that we all agreed on and ended up having a really nice time. After lunch we walked through the historic district to the Cathedral and went inside just as it started to rain. After that, we slowly made our way up St. George Street running from awning to awning dodging the rain. Before we left town we decided we would go take a tour of the oldest house in Florida. It looked simple enough to find on the map but we hadn't counted on their being so many one way streets and several being flooded. It was actually nice to get lost though and see the old city from a different perspective (that probably is not how my mom would describe it though as she was driving). The oldest house in Florida was built in 1702 shortly after the British burned St. Augustine. The house had had several owners over the last 300 years and the different rooms were decorated to each show a different time period in the history of the house. We then drove around a little more before leaving St. Augustine, having had a fun day. That night we had breakfast for dinner, an ancient Rencher Sunday tradition (even though it was Monday) which I enjoyed experiencing on my birthday.
Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun weekend.
I have posted an album on Facebook of pictures from the weekend. You do not have to be a member of Facebook to view them. Just click on the link below and enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38706&id=1410030498&l=27a846e850
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Easter 2009 Pictures
I have created an album on Facebook with some of my Easter pictures. You can check it out at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22009&id=1410030498&l=1adc814e21
You do not need to be a member of Facebook to look at the album. And if you want to see more of the inside of my grandparents' house there is a link below to my family's weblog.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22009&id=1410030498&l=1adc814e21
You do not need to be a member of Facebook to look at the album. And if you want to see more of the inside of my grandparents' house there is a link below to my family's weblog.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Easter Weekend 2009
I realize it has been quite some time since I last blogged. When I set up my blog just before my trip to Yellowstone, I intended to go on more trips and to write more about those trips. But the economic situation has led me to decide to focus on saving money this year, and therefore, I have no big trips planned. Nevertheless I do plan on taking some small trips mainly with my family and I have decided to go ahead and blog about these.
I took some time off around Easter this year and went to see my parents and brother in Orlando for a few days. We saw several things that I thought would be interesting to write about.
I arrived in Orlando on Saturday morning, April 11th and my parents picked me up at the airport. After picking me up, we headed to rural Seminole County near Chuluota to see my Grandfather’s old ranch and house. Granddad sold the ranch in 1960 so that his children could go to college and he could retire. Much of the land is now a girl scout camp but the house that he built there is still standing. We had not called ahead so we just pulled in the front gate when we saw it was open. Although, we couldn’t walk in the house, I was allowed to walk around the grounds and take pictures. The house is a very plain one story rectangular building with a gravel roof and a screened-in porch around the back. The back yard slopes down to a lake with a dock. I noticed a large live oak tree in the back yard and asked my mom if she remembered it as a kid. She said that they used to have a rope swing on it and while they never climbed it, they did play around it a lot. I had heard about the ranch and this house many times growing up and I was thankful to have had a chance to finally see it.
On Sunday we went to Easter service at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Altamonte Springs, the church that I grew up in and that my parents still attend. It was good to see old friends and faces. After church, we went back home and had a nice Easter meal of ham, sweet potato casserole, and green beans. Later that afternoon, we went into Orlando and had the opportunity to go inside my grandparents’ old house in Colonial Town. The house was designed and built by my grandfather in 1937. My grandmother sold the house in 1995 when she moved into a retirement home. It has been owned since then by a Mr. Ellis. He recently put the house up for sale but has since taken it off the market. Nevertheless, he allowed us to walk around and take pictures. It was neat to be back in the house after so much time but it also felt strange for it to be decorated by someone else in a way that I was not used to. After seeing the house we went across the street to see my grandmother’s neighbor Amelia who has lived there since my mother was a little girl. We had a nice visit and it was hard for me to believe that Amelia is almost 100 years old! I have posted pictures of the inside of the house on our family blog at http://www.ryboltfamily.blogspot.com/ if you would like to see them.
Monday, my mom had a bunch of activities planned for us. We began with a morning boat tour of the Winter Park chain of lakes. Lakes Osceola, Virginia, and Maitland are connected by canals and the tour was of the three lakes and the canals. It was about 80 degrees and breezy and in my opinion, the perfect weather for a boat ride. We went past many mansions on the lakes as well as Rollins College. Although I had grown up in the area, I never really knew about the canals. The longest one, the Venetian, is about half a mile long. It is only wide enough for one boat and I’m not sure what happens when two meet going in opposite directions as the canal is not regulated. There were many large homes and gardens on the canal as well. Perhaps the best part for me of the whole tour was getting to see the Dinky Dock and beach on Lake Virginia. This lake is where my brother and I took swimming lessons as kids from Fleet Peoples, the same man that taught my father to swim when he was a child. The beach looked a lot smaller than I remember. Afterward, we ate lunch at a deli on Park Avenue in downtown Winter Park and then went by the cemetery where my other grandmother is buried.
That afternoon we went to the Henry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando. This was another local attraction that had been there a very long time but that I had never been to. The Gardens and house were all part of the Leu Estate that was donated to the city of Orlando in 1961. Today, one can tour both the house and the extensive gardens. On the house tour, we learned the story of the three families that had occupied it, the first being the Mizell family in the 1880s. Mr. Mizell was sheriff of Orange County and ended his term in office when he was assassinated. In fact, many of the stories told to us about Orlando and Central Florida in the late 19th century sounded more like the wild west than the densely populated tourist mecca that Orlando is today. After taking the house tour we walked around the rose garden and I took pictures. There were a lot of other gardens to explore but we were all tired from being outside so we ended our day there. Later that night we went out for seafood, a great way to end a nice visit with my family.
I will probably soon post some pictures on Facebook and put a link here. The pictures of my grandmother's house that I posted on our family weblog took me two hours to post and arrange, confirming for me that blogspot is best for writing which is what I enjoy mostly anyway. So check back soon for a link to pictures.
I took some time off around Easter this year and went to see my parents and brother in Orlando for a few days. We saw several things that I thought would be interesting to write about.
I arrived in Orlando on Saturday morning, April 11th and my parents picked me up at the airport. After picking me up, we headed to rural Seminole County near Chuluota to see my Grandfather’s old ranch and house. Granddad sold the ranch in 1960 so that his children could go to college and he could retire. Much of the land is now a girl scout camp but the house that he built there is still standing. We had not called ahead so we just pulled in the front gate when we saw it was open. Although, we couldn’t walk in the house, I was allowed to walk around the grounds and take pictures. The house is a very plain one story rectangular building with a gravel roof and a screened-in porch around the back. The back yard slopes down to a lake with a dock. I noticed a large live oak tree in the back yard and asked my mom if she remembered it as a kid. She said that they used to have a rope swing on it and while they never climbed it, they did play around it a lot. I had heard about the ranch and this house many times growing up and I was thankful to have had a chance to finally see it.
On Sunday we went to Easter service at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Altamonte Springs, the church that I grew up in and that my parents still attend. It was good to see old friends and faces. After church, we went back home and had a nice Easter meal of ham, sweet potato casserole, and green beans. Later that afternoon, we went into Orlando and had the opportunity to go inside my grandparents’ old house in Colonial Town. The house was designed and built by my grandfather in 1937. My grandmother sold the house in 1995 when she moved into a retirement home. It has been owned since then by a Mr. Ellis. He recently put the house up for sale but has since taken it off the market. Nevertheless, he allowed us to walk around and take pictures. It was neat to be back in the house after so much time but it also felt strange for it to be decorated by someone else in a way that I was not used to. After seeing the house we went across the street to see my grandmother’s neighbor Amelia who has lived there since my mother was a little girl. We had a nice visit and it was hard for me to believe that Amelia is almost 100 years old! I have posted pictures of the inside of the house on our family blog at http://www.ryboltfamily.blogspot.com/ if you would like to see them.
Monday, my mom had a bunch of activities planned for us. We began with a morning boat tour of the Winter Park chain of lakes. Lakes Osceola, Virginia, and Maitland are connected by canals and the tour was of the three lakes and the canals. It was about 80 degrees and breezy and in my opinion, the perfect weather for a boat ride. We went past many mansions on the lakes as well as Rollins College. Although I had grown up in the area, I never really knew about the canals. The longest one, the Venetian, is about half a mile long. It is only wide enough for one boat and I’m not sure what happens when two meet going in opposite directions as the canal is not regulated. There were many large homes and gardens on the canal as well. Perhaps the best part for me of the whole tour was getting to see the Dinky Dock and beach on Lake Virginia. This lake is where my brother and I took swimming lessons as kids from Fleet Peoples, the same man that taught my father to swim when he was a child. The beach looked a lot smaller than I remember. Afterward, we ate lunch at a deli on Park Avenue in downtown Winter Park and then went by the cemetery where my other grandmother is buried.
That afternoon we went to the Henry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando. This was another local attraction that had been there a very long time but that I had never been to. The Gardens and house were all part of the Leu Estate that was donated to the city of Orlando in 1961. Today, one can tour both the house and the extensive gardens. On the house tour, we learned the story of the three families that had occupied it, the first being the Mizell family in the 1880s. Mr. Mizell was sheriff of Orange County and ended his term in office when he was assassinated. In fact, many of the stories told to us about Orlando and Central Florida in the late 19th century sounded more like the wild west than the densely populated tourist mecca that Orlando is today. After taking the house tour we walked around the rose garden and I took pictures. There were a lot of other gardens to explore but we were all tired from being outside so we ended our day there. Later that night we went out for seafood, a great way to end a nice visit with my family.
I will probably soon post some pictures on Facebook and put a link here. The pictures of my grandmother's house that I posted on our family weblog took me two hours to post and arrange, confirming for me that blogspot is best for writing which is what I enjoy mostly anyway. So check back soon for a link to pictures.
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