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Florida Keys

2026-04-07 by Martin

We spent 10-days in the Florida Keys during March 2026, staying at the Sugarloaf Key RV Resort about 20 miles north of Key West. This was the high-season for staying in the Keys, and we had booked a long way in advance to secure the 10-day stay.

We traveled to the Keys from the Encore Miami Everglades RV Resort, and enjoyed the trip down the US-1 Highway which is known as the Overseas Highway once it starts its journey through the Keys. The highway follows a series of causeways and bridges as it makes its way through the Keys. The most famous bridge being the “7-mile Bridge” about half-way along the Overseas Highway. The current highway parallels an earlier section of highway for most of the way. Various sections of the old highway have been converted into bike and pedestrian trails, and fishing piers. Partway along the 7-mile Bridge we passed Fred the Tree, a wild-growing celebrity Casuarina tree. Fred the Tree is often referred to as a sign of hope and the resilience of the people in the Florida Keys due to its ability to thrive in such harsh conditions on a concrete bridge, while surviving a number of hurricanes and extreme weather events.

The Sugarloaf Key RV Resort is a very nice (and expensive!) RV park with a pool, cafe, bar, boat launch, marina, and sandy beach. During our stay we launched our inflatable paddle board and kayak from the boat launch and enjoyed a few hours paddling through the mangroves islands along the coast of Sugarloaf Key. We also spent some time relaxing on the sandy beach, and Allen enjoyed swimming in the Ocean.

During our stay we made two visits to Key West using the Lower Keys Transit public bus that only cost $1 each way and saved us from having to find and pay for expensive parking had we driven. There was a bus stop on the Overseas Highway just outside the RV park. On our first bus trip we found that the buses don’t really follow the posted time-table, and we waited a long time for the next bus. After this we discovered the Lower Keys Transit app that shows actual bus locations and estimated arrival times at each stop and made our subsequent bus trips easier to plan. The ride into Key West took about an hour because the bus stops at the Key West transit depot along the way for the drivers to take a break while the passengers wait for the trip to continue. The trip back from Key West was about 40-minutes as the bus travels direct without the transit depot stop.

On our first visit to Key West, we walked from downtown Key West to the Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Along the way we walked past the Truman Little White House. The Harry S. Truman Little White House was the winter White House for President Harry S. Truman for 175 days during 11 visit and was used for various federal government purposes until its conversion into a museum in 1987.

Construction of Fort Zachary Taylor began in 1845 as part of a mid-19th century plan to defend the southeast coast of the United States through a series of forts after the War of 1812. During the Civil War it became a key outpost for threatening blockade runners during the Union blockade. The fort was heavily used again during the Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–1918), World War II (1941–1945), and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). In 1976, Fort Zachery Taylor was donated to the State of Florida and opened up to the public in 1985. We enjoyed wandering through the Fort and up onto the ramparts. We particularly enjoyed walking through the red-brick arches and corridors housing the cannons and gun ports.

For our second visit to Key West, we decided to take the Old Town Trolley tour of the city. This is a hop-on hop-off narrated tour bus that travels all around the city with the driver providing interesting facts and history throughout the trip. The entire trip lasted 90-minutes and we learned a lot along the way from our driver Karl. After the Trolley tour we enjoyed lunch at the Two Friends Patio Restaurant on Front Street near Mallory Square on the north end of Key West before traveling back to our RV Park on the bus.

Our 10-day visit to the Keys was an ideal amount of time to enjoy the area and make a couple of visits to Key West. The weather was very good during our visit with temperatures on the high side for the time of year. There is something for everyone in Key West with a variety of historical sites as well as a good number of restaurants, bars, and stores throughout the town.

Below is a selection of photos from our trip to the Keys. Click on the thumbnails for the full size pictures.

St. Augustine, Florida

2026-02-09 by Martin

Founded in 1565 by Spanish settlers, St. Augustine it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States. The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years. It became the capital of British East Florida in 1763 and continued as the capital after the 1783 Treaty of Versailles in the Second Spanish Period. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819, and St. Augustine was designated one of the two alternating capitals of the Florida Territory, the other being Pensacola, upon ratification of the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1821. The territorial government moved and made Tallahassee the permanent capital of Florida in 1824.

We visited St. Augustine, Florida on New Years Day 2026 while staying at the Encore Bulow RV Resort near Flagler Beach about an hour away. It was busy in Saint Augustine that day, and we were happy that we had booked the hop-on-hop-off Old Town Trolley tour which allowed us to park remotely and take the shuttle around town at our own pace. The St. Augustine trolley tour has over 20 stops, is 8.5 miles long, and takes about 90 minutes from start to finish if you were just to stay on the trolley bus. Another benefit of the Trolley tour is that the drivers provide commentary and historical information on the city as you travel around.

Our first stop was to visit Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. The fort has been operated by the National Park Service since 1933 as the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. It was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, with construction beginning in 1672, 107 years after the city’s founding while the city was still under Spanish control.

Castillo de San Marcos was attacked several times and twice besieged. Possession of the fort has changed five times, all peaceful, among four different governments: Spain, 1695–1763 and 1783–1821, Kingdom of Great Britain, 1763–1783, and the United States, 1821–date (during 1861–1865, under control of the Confederate States of America). Owing to its strategic cannon placement and star-shaped design, the fort was never breached or taken by force throughout its various stages of sovereign ownership.

The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina (Spanish for “small shells”), which consists of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a sedimentary rock similar to limestone. Native Americans from Spain’s nearby missions did most of the labor, with additional skilled workers brought in from Havana, Cuba. Construction began on October 2, 1672, and lasted twenty-three years, with completion in 1695.

After visiting the Castillo, we walked along St. George Street which is one of the most recognizable and visited areas in St. Augustine. It’s a pedestrian-only route through Historic Downtown, lined with colonial-era buildings, courtyards, and a mix of museums, restaurants, shops, and historic landmarks. St. George Street follows a colonial roadbed first laid out in the 1700s. Many of its buildings are original structures or faithful reconstructions on historic foundations. Part way along St. George Street we stopped for a good lunch at the Burrito Works Taco Shop, and then a little further down the road we had dessert at the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Store.

After getting back on the Trolley shuttle we toured around some more areas of the city and saw some of the original historic St. Augustine homes before hopping off to walk around the outside of the original Hotel Ponce de Leon, and now Flagler College. Originally a luxury hotel built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler, built between 1885–1887, the winter resort opened in January 1888. The hotel was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and is the first of its kind constructed entirely of poured concrete, using the local coquina stone as aggregate. The hotel was one of the first buildings in the country wired for electricity from the onset, with the power being supplied by DC generators installed by Flagler’s friend, Thomas Edison. Since 1968, with the founding of Flagler College, the original building and grounds of the hotel serve as the centerpiece of the campus of Flagler College.

We also walked around the Hotel Alcazar across the street from Flagler College that was also constructed by Flagler using the same poured concrete method. Both hotels appealed to wealthy tourists who traveled south for the winter on his railroad, the Florida East Coast Railway. The Alcazar had a steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gymnasium, a three-story ballroom, and the world’s largest indoor swimming pool; however, after years as an elegant winter resort for wealthy patrons, the hotel closed in 1932. In 1947 Chicago publisher Otto C. Lightner purchased the building to convert the old hotel into a hobbies museum. He used the space to house several collections, including his own extensive collection of Victorian era art. He then turned it over to the city of St. Augustine and the museum opened to the public in 1948 and operates to this day as the Lightner Museum.

Rather than take the trolley shuttle back to our parking spot we walked back along the Matanzas River which is part of the Intracoastal Waterway. We passed the pair of copies of the marble Medici lions that guard the entrance to the Bridge of Lions, a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway and connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay.

There was a lot to see in St. Augustine, and our one day visit took us around the highlights. The most interesting part of the visit for us was the Castillo de San Marcos. One could certainly spend several days exploring the city and looking at the historic buildings and neighborhoods in more depth. Photos from our visit are included below. Click on the thumbnails for full size images.

Fort Sumter National Historical Park, Charleston, South Carolina

2026-02-062026-02-05 by Martin

We visited the Fort Sumter National Historical Park in mid-December 2025 while staying at the Thousand Trails Oaks at Point South RV Park in Yemassee, South Carolina just under an hour and a half away.

Fort Sumter is one of 40 fortifications that were built following the War of 1812 and up to the start of the American Civil War. These forts are collectively known as the Third System of Seacoast Defense. Today, Fort Sumter is an incomplete sea fort near Charleston, South Carolina, where the battle that sparked the American Civil War took place. Built on an artificial island at the entrance of Charleston Harbor, it remained unfinished on April 12, 1861, when attacked by Confederate Forces and greatly damaged. Efforts at rebuilding after the civil war never completed the fort’s original plan, but since the middle of the 20th century it has been open to the public and operated by the National Park Service.

Fort Sumter Tours provides access to Fort Sumter via their frequent boat service. The boat trip took about 40-minutes each way and we had about 1-hour on the island to see Fort Sumter. There are two departure locations for the tours: Fort Sumter Visitor Center at Liberty Square in downtown Charleston, and the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum on the opposite side of Charleston Bay. We decided to book our trip from the Patriots Point location because of the ample parking at that location compared to the Visitor Center.

As well as being the departure point for the Fort Sumter boat, Patriots Point also has the World War II aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown as its centerpiece. In addition to the USS Yorktown, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum has a fleet of National Historic Landmark ships, the Cold War Memorial, the only Vietnam Experience Exhibit in the U.S., the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and the agency’s official Medal of Honor Museum.

On our arrival at the Fort, one of the Park Rangers gave a brief presentation on its history. Most famously, Fort Sumter is notable for two battles, the first of which began the American Civil War. The First Battle of Fort Sumter began on April 12, 1861, when South Carolina Militia artillery fired from shore on the US Army garrison. These were (both sides agreed) the first shots of the war. The bombardment continued all day, watched by many happy civilians. The fort had been cut off from its supply line and surrendered the next day. Major Robert Anderson took the flag with him as they evacuated.

The Second Battle of Fort Sumter (September 8, 1863) was a failed attempt by the Union to retake the fort, dogged by a rivalry between army and navy commanders. Although the fort was reduced to rubble, it remained in Confederate hands until it was evacuated as General Sherman marched through South Carolina in February 1865.

A widely announced “End of the War” celebration took place at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865, which leads some to now claim that the Civil War started and ended at Fort Sumter. The now-Major General Anderson, though ill and retired, came to the ceremony and raised the flag. The assassination of President Lincoln, which occurred on the evening of that date, almost immediately overshadowed the festivities.

A massive concrete blockhouse-style installation, currently painted black, was built in 1898 inside the original walls, armed with two 12-inch M1888 guns, one on a disappearing carriage. Named “Battery Huger” in honor of Revolutionary War General Isaac Huger, it never saw combat. This battery was deactivated in 1947, and in 1948 the fort became Fort Sumter National Monument under the control of the National Park Service.

Our boat tour gave us about an hour at Fort Sumter, which was just about enough to tour the Fort and small museum that is located in one of the buildings. The park rangers were very knowledgeable in providing information on the history of the fort. It was interesting to see mortar shells from the Civil War still imbedded on some of the walls around the fort. Much of the original brickwork was destroyed during the Civil War battles and was not rebuilt. The bricks were manufactured locally, mostly by enslaved people, and you could still see finger prints of the original brick makers in some of the surviving bricks.

As part of the original construction, cavities in the brick walls were filled with “tabby concrete” which is visible in many areas where the original brickwork has been destroyed. This is a type of concrete made by burning oyster shells to create lime, then mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells. The shells are still clearly visible in the exposed concrete that is still in place.

We had recently visited many Civil War sites on our east coast travels, and it was particularly interesting to visit Fort Sumter as the site where the Civil War started.

Pictures from our visit are included below. Click on the thumbnails for the full size images.

Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

2026-01-23 by Martin

We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial just outside the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina while staying at the OBX Campground and RV Park in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina just a few miles down the road.

The 428-acre park is situated on the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands along the Atlantic Coast. This park, established in 1927, is the site where Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first airplane flights in human history. They had three criteria for their flight testing location: wind, sand, and isolation, all of which could be found in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

We started our visit at the visitor center. There was a very nice display and timeline showing the history of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s annual summer visits to Kitty Hawk that started in 1900. It was during these annual summer visits that the two brothers, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, initially developed non-powered (glider) flight, and then moved on to powered flight. The visitor center had some very interesting displays including tools that the brothers would have used, and a recreation of a small wind tunnel that they designed and built to test different wing profile designs. The visitor center also has a full size replica of the Wright Brother’s aircraft “The Wright Flyer” in front of large picture windows that overlook the site of their first flights and the Wright Brothers monument on the nearby dune. It was interesting to learn about the Wright Brothers systematic engineering approach to solving the problem of powered flight, and how in doing so, their experiments proved wrong some of the prevailing aerodynamic theories of the time.

The site of the first flights is just outside the visitor center along with replicas of their workshop/living quarters, and aircraft hangar. Markers show the take-off and landing points of the first four successful powered flights in human history made on December 17, 1903. The longest of the three flights was 852-feet in length and lasted 59-seconds.

We walked to the large stabilized sand-dune known as Big Kill Devil Hill at the far end of the park with its huge stone monument to the Wright Brothers. Thousands of times, the brothers trekked up this and three nearby dunes to conduct glider experiments. These efforts paid off as they mastered their flying skills and refined their flight controls that would help with their later powered flights.

The design of the granite monument features an Art Deco style which highlights bold geometric shapes. A notable part of the monument is the inscription that reads, “In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Conceived by genius. Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith.” The monument also features curved, wing-like designs on either side and a lit beacon at the top which functions similarly to a lighthouse. The Memorial started construction in 1928 and was dedicated on November 19th, 1932, with Orville in attendance as well as prominent aviators and politicians of the time. Today the monument continues to sit atop Big Kill Devil Hills as one of the highest points in the Outer Banks.

Located to the south of Big Kill Devil Hill, a life size sculpture represents the Wright brothers’ first flight. Dedicated in 2003 as a gift from the State of North Carolina, the bronze and steel sculpture reenacts the historic first flight. Orville pilots the machine, Wilbur runs alongside, and the witnesses who assisted with the flights that day look on and cheer.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial was an interesting visit to an iconic site in the history of powered flight and had a very informative visitor center. We were able to walk around the entire site in a few hours.

Pictures from our visit are provided below. Click on the thumbnails for full size images.

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

2026-01-21 by Martin

We visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia in mid-November 2025 while staying at the Thousand Trails Williamsburg RV Park about 10-miles away. There was so much to see on the 300-acre site we visited twice about a week apart. We started our visits at the visitor center which is located about a mile away from the historic district, with both a shuttle and walking trail that takes you to the historic district and back. During our visits we took both the walking trail and the shuttle bus on different occasions.

Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city served as the capital of the colonial era Colony of Virginia. The district also includes 17th-century, 19th-century, Colonial Revival, and more recent structures and reconstructions. Costumed employees work and dress as people did during the colonial era. The costumed employees provide tours and presentations at the various major buildings as well as working and demonstrating in the various trades shops scattered throughout the site.

Both the shuttle bus and walking trail enter the historic district near the Governor’s Palace at the north end of the site. We took a guided tour of the Governor’s Palace which included most of the main rooms. The guide provided interesting historical context about the building and its history, particularly in relation to the events around the revolutionary period of the 18th century. We walked south along the green belt known as the Palace Green towards Duke of Gloucester Street which is the main East-West thoroughfare through the historic district. It is bounded at the West end by William and Mary College, and at the East end by the Capitol Building.

There were a lot of things to visit along Duke of Gloucester Street including historic homes, stores, and workshops. We made our way to the east end of the street, visiting various places along the way. At the east end of the street, we reached the reconstructed Capitol Building. We took a self-guided tour of the building that included period-costumed presenters in various rooms who talked about the history of the building and the events that took place there. Most notably, this building was the home The House of Burgesses, the lower branch of colonial Virginia’s General Assembly, elected by property-owning voters throughout Virginia. Having first met in Jamestown in 1619, the Burgesses gathered in the Williamsburg Capitol from 1705 until 1776. Many of Virginia’s leading revolutionaries, including Peyton Randolph, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, served as Burgesses.

Allen remembered visiting Colonial Williamsburg on a 7th Grade school trip. He had some general memories of the town and buildings, and a specific memory of having beef and barley soup for lunch at the Kings Arms Tavern. We decided to have lunch there on our visit some 45-years later, and enjoyed a good lunch based on colonial era recipes. During lunch, we were entertained by a minstrel who sang and played a period guitar as well as telling stories about some of the period songs and tavern-life from the 18th century.

The Historic Trades and Skills community at Colonial Williamsburg uses 18th-century tools and techniques to apprentice in and eventually master more than 20 historic trades and skills. The trades shops help produce materials and equipment that are used in the ongoing restoration of Colonial Williamsburg and demonstrate their skills in period workshops scattered throughout the site. We visited several trade shops including a furniture maker, tinsmith, and blacksmith. They all talked about how the shops would have operated in the revolutionary era, and showed examples of their work, all prepared using period tools and equipment.

There was a lot to see and do at Colonial Williamsburg, and you could easily spend several days visiting multiple buildings and taking tours. We were able to see all of the main buildings and walk around all of the historic district during our two visits.

Pictures of our visits are provided below. Click on the thumbnails for the full size images.