Family Vacation, best camping, Kathryn Abby Hana Park
Kathryn Abby Hanna Park - let's start our camping vacation.. uh?
We arrived and after being all hyped up by my wife about all the things we can do...
I am not impressed.
The camp site is set up for an RV and we are surrounded mostly by RV's and the camp site lot slopes down, ground a bit rocky and hard. Man I miss Kelly Park already.... The lots are small and have no cement area to park my car like Kelly Park does. Bathroom is about a 3 minute walk away which is not bad. But I was surprised to find them working on the bathroom roof [check out the pic’s], already I had my doubts. I love to camp but I need electricity, water, and decent bathrooms with showers that have hot running water.
I admit, I did enjoy the camp sites security - they even had keypad locks on the bathroom doors. Yes, the bathroom has a lock and my father in law already had to come back to get the code because he forgot it. Personally, I thought I would be the first to forget the code and have to secretly use the bushes in an.... let’s say emergency. But luckily - I never had that problem unlike my father in-law who just could not remember it with ease.
After everything my wife had sold us on - ice cream shop, a laundry mat in the camp ground camp site, that it was very disconcerting to see that the camp ground had all these things closed. Then to see roof work going on, I was starting to think this camping vacation was going to be a bust. But like I always tell my kids - It's part of the experience you remember and this is part of the camping experience.
The funny thing about all this is- believe it or not, my brother in law brought with him a fridge, a grill, a freezer, a coffee maker and even a microwave - so much for roughing it. I tell people about going camping and people think I am crazy, but when I tell them that I do not go "all natural" and need some amenities, they say "oh, that's ok". But every year we go my brother in-law brings more and more of home with us.
It's getting cool and dark, our tents are up ( that was fun ) and we still are setting up camp... This is going to make great memories and hopefully a great blog post. Till next I write.
Best Family Camping Vacation, cheap vacation good, family makes it great
We've been here two days and we are finding out that the basics of camping always seem to work for the kids. Say what you want to say about this place - the kids are enjoying this family vacation. The kids already know most of all the bike trails. This camp ground is large and has many trails for biking and hiking, which have color codes to indicate the difficulty of each trail - red means difficult expert trail ( you know I didn't go on those ). The hiking trails are not so bad, my kids seems to have already become familiar with most of the trails here at the camping grounds and are my personal guides. If it wasn't for them, I probably would have gotten lost on several occasions.
My wife became particularly familiar with one expert trail, she almost crashed into a tree and felt it necessary to jump off her bike in order to save her life ( according to her that is ), a few small cuts and scrapes but she was fine. Of course that did not stop her from going back for more.
The one thing I did not like ( and could not get over the whole time I was there ) were the one car lane thru out the entire camping grounds. My kids and nephews love to ride their bikes and my son who is very daring tries to keep up with his cousins who are always looking for something interesting ( a subtle way of saying dangerous) to do. So it worries me that cars come and go and have very little room to avoid the kids riding their bikes. Also, I am waiting to see what happens when two cars going opposite directions meet on this single lane road, it’s not like you have the room to let the other guy pass? I've been looking for the one way sign but judging by how everyone goes which ever direction they choose, there doesn't seem to be one. ( I was wrong, I did run into oncoming traffic and found a way to pass )
What camp ground does not have a lake
What is camping without water and a place to swim? Now the camp ground lake is large, it also has a large “don't feed the alligator, cats ( my brother in-law suggest cats means bobcats or Florida panther ), raccoon or possums” sign. So swimming in this lake doesn't look like the smart thing to do. Though I don't see how anyone could because the banks of the lake would make it impossible for anyone to get back on to shore. To me it looks more like it was drugged up this way in order to keep something from coming up on to shore ( which brings me back to looking for alligators ).
My daughter did get a glimpse of an alligator and snapped a picture, she thought it was cool - for me it was a confirmation to stay out of the lake. Which caused me much grief because; my wife wants to rent a paddle boat. It's one of those boats with bicycle pedals to make the boat go. So while from far it looks like fun ( and hard work) all I can think of is - alligator bait.
The thing about camping is this - if you remember that the vacation is about spending time together with your family, anything can be fun. Even though we had to wait for the owners of the boat rental business to come open their shop, we spent our time playing dominos, chess and even a bit of two hands touch football.
When the owners finally arrived, I found them to be very nice people. They spoke about five different languages. The business to them was a hobby. They did this for fun and had their own business; they were professional translators for the local hospital and county courts. When they found out we spoke Spanish they wanted to know if we would be interested in working part time for them ( 30 dollars an hour, 2 hours minimum whether you worked 10 minutes or two hours, not bad. But we had to live in Jacksonville, darn ).
I tried to provide an impromptu lesson to my children, by showing my daughter how important and profitable it can be to know more than one language. These people drove a BMW and had a business as a hobby. But like most teenagers, it went in one ear and out the other.
Boat ride in the large camp ground lake
Continue: Boat ride makes camping fun
We arrived and after being all hyped up by my wife about all the things we can do...
I am not impressed.
The camp site is set up for an RV and we are surrounded mostly by RV's and the camp site lot slopes down, ground a bit rocky and hard. Man I miss Kelly Park already.... The lots are small and have no cement area to park my car like Kelly Park does. Bathroom is about a 3 minute walk away which is not bad. But I was surprised to find them working on the bathroom roof [check out the pic’s], already I had my doubts. I love to camp but I need electricity, water, and decent bathrooms with showers that have hot running water. 
I admit, I did enjoy the camp sites security - they even had keypad locks on the bathroom doors. Yes, the bathroom has a lock and my father in law already had to come back to get the code because he forgot it. Personally, I thought I would be the first to forget the code and have to secretly use the bushes in an.... let’s say emergency. But luckily - I never had that problem unlike my father in-law who just could not remember it with ease.After everything my wife had sold us on - ice cream shop, a laundry mat in the camp ground camp site, that it was very disconcerting to see that the camp ground had all these things closed. Then to see roof work going on, I was starting to think this camping vacation was going to be a bust. But like I always tell my kids - It's part of the experience you remember and this is part of the camping experience.
The funny thing about all this is- believe it or not, my brother in law brought with him a fridge, a grill, a freezer, a coffee maker and even a microwave - so much for roughing it. I tell people about going camping and people think I am crazy, but when I tell them that I do not go "all natural" and need some amenities, they say "oh, that's ok". But every year we go my brother in-law brings more and more of home with us.
It's getting cool and dark, our tents are up ( that was fun ) and we still are setting up camp... This is going to make great memories and hopefully a great blog post. Till next I write.
Best Family Camping Vacation, cheap vacation good, family makes it great
We've been here two days and we are finding out that the basics of camping always seem to work for the kids. Say what you want to say about this place - the kids are enjoying this family vacation. The kids already know most of all the bike trails. This camp ground is large and has many trails for biking and hiking, which have color codes to indicate the difficulty of each trail - red means difficult expert trail ( you know I didn't go on those ). The hiking trails are not so bad, my kids seems to have already become familiar with most of the trails here at the camping grounds and are my personal guides. If it wasn't for them, I probably would have gotten lost on several occasions.My wife became particularly familiar with one expert trail, she almost crashed into a tree and felt it necessary to jump off her bike in order to save her life ( according to her that is ), a few small cuts and scrapes but she was fine. Of course that did not stop her from going back for more.
The one thing I did not like ( and could not get over the whole time I was there ) were the one car lane thru out the entire camping grounds. My kids and nephews love to ride their bikes and my son who is very daring tries to keep up with his cousins who are always looking for something interesting ( a subtle way of saying dangerous) to do. So it worries me that cars come and go and have very little room to avoid the kids riding their bikes. Also, I am waiting to see what happens when two cars going opposite directions meet on this single lane road, it’s not like you have the room to let the other guy pass? I've been looking for the one way sign but judging by how everyone goes which ever direction they choose, there doesn't seem to be one. ( I was wrong, I did run into oncoming traffic and found a way to pass )
What camp ground does not have a lake
What is camping without water and a place to swim? Now the camp ground lake is large, it also has a large “don't feed the alligator, cats ( my brother in-law suggest cats means bobcats or Florida panther ), raccoon or possums” sign. So swimming in this lake doesn't look like the smart thing to do. Though I don't see how anyone could because the banks of the lake would make it impossible for anyone to get back on to shore. To me it looks more like it was drugged up this way in order to keep something from coming up on to shore ( which brings me back to looking for alligators ). My daughter did get a glimpse of an alligator and snapped a picture, she thought it was cool - for me it was a confirmation to stay out of the lake. Which caused me much grief because; my wife wants to rent a paddle boat. It's one of those boats with bicycle pedals to make the boat go. So while from far it looks like fun ( and hard work) all I can think of is - alligator bait.
The thing about camping is this - if you remember that the vacation is about spending time together with your family, anything can be fun. Even though we had to wait for the owners of the boat rental business to come open their shop, we spent our time playing dominos, chess and even a bit of two hands touch football. When the owners finally arrived, I found them to be very nice people. They spoke about five different languages. The business to them was a hobby. They did this for fun and had their own business; they were professional translators for the local hospital and county courts. When they found out we spoke Spanish they wanted to know if we would be interested in working part time for them ( 30 dollars an hour, 2 hours minimum whether you worked 10 minutes or two hours, not bad. But we had to live in Jacksonville, darn ).
I tried to provide an impromptu lesson to my children, by showing my daughter how important and profitable it can be to know more than one language. These people drove a BMW and had a business as a hobby. But like most teenagers, it went in one ear and out the other.
Boat ride in the large camp ground lake
Continue: Boat ride makes camping fun
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