Camping at St. Andrews SP

Camping on Thanksgiving??? Why not?  Isn't Thanksgiving a family time? Well, it could be ... a time to give thanks...while spending time with family. (Kelly and Leah were in Pittsburgh visiting with their Grandmother). What if you could go camping (something you like to do very much), with some family members, give thanks while you're there, and (yes!) play some games of Rook at the same time?...and do some birdwatching. I know, you'll pack up and go too. All you need is gas money. You already have the rest.

That sounds like a perfect idea to me. And that's what we did this past Thanksgiving holiday. Oh, the place was full of campers. They all brought their families too. Except for our next door camper from Canada. We invited him over one night to join us at the camp fire. Nice fellow. He was travelling back from the Florida Keys all the the way back to Canada after been in Cuba. Sounds like fun.
If you didn't know where St. Andrews State Park is, I'll tell you. In the Florida Panhandle. Why go all the way there? Because that's where it's warm. And it's cold in Georgia. Except for one windy and rainy night, the weather has been nice. We even went to the beach where people were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

You can read about the windy night and other detail on the camping at www.outdoorstentcamping.com.

St. Andrews is a State Park so we had water and electricity at our site. Nice. This park is big with a Lagoon (looks like a lake to me), a nature trail, a the beach area, a fishing pier, and other things too.

The nature trail was great. It runs right by the lake; so you could see waterfowl birds, wading and diving birds, and Passerines. Out of 45 different birds we've identified, we've seen 7 new birds. We're birders, remember? We've seen fewer new birds this time because we've been at Grayton Beach not too long ago. Both parks are in the same general area.

Having Connie and Duane during this camping trip was just great. They're family (Thanksgiving!) and they're great people to spend time with. They're sweet and if you meet them, you'll just love them. They're good Rook players too.

Our camp site was just by the lake. We got a great view with all the birds' activities and big fishes jumping out of the water.
I'm always surprised when we come back from camping about how we can have so much fun and spend so little money. I guess it's a state of mind. The "happy state of mind". Life is short, don't sweat the small stuff. Enjoy it.

We've seen some very unique things on this camping trip.  For the first time in my life I saw 3 big bucks (male deer) together.  One was a 12 pointer, the next was a 12, and the 3rd one has 8 points. (Maybe they were on their family Thanksgiving get-together too). How did I count the points on their horns?  They just stood there starring at me. I used my binoculars to make sure I counted right. Then I saw them again, a little later.  This time Duane, Debbie and Connie were there too.  Boy, Duane got excited. He wished James and Carey were there.  

We went to the pier by the beach.  A handful of people were fishing. It was like fishing in a barrel.  They cast their line, pull it right back up, a fish. Then another one, and another one.  I stood beside a teenager and when he casted his line, he pulled it right back up, a fish was hooked by his dorsal fin!!! just run into the line I guess. All these people were just throwing the fish back in the water.  And there comes one of the raccoons hanging around for easy meal. Some of the fishes were getting stranded in the rocks.  That's what the raccoons were going for.

One of the raccoons wanted to try Debbie's shoes on while Debbie was dipping her feet in the water at the beach.  (The pier separated the beach from the lagoon.) We saw him on time and chased him away.  But then...sorry I can't tell you all.  You just have to go camp and taste the fun by yourself.      

A walk in the woods

There are rewards that come with birdwatching. You get to walk in the woods to see the birds. So, you get to see the wild flowers too, and the pretty mushrooms.

I don't know what kind of mushrooms these are, but they are colorful and beautiful. Debbie took some pictures of them.

How do you like this painting of the grass with the flowers, the brushes, and the trees? Isn't it just beautiful? Nature painted it and we took a picture of it...as we were looking at the real version in nature. It still came out as a beautiful canvas but we walked right through it.
We saw several Wood Ducks that day. There is a pond nearby. Maybe one of the best close up views of these beautiful birds. Wood Ducks are one of my favorites ducks because they're so colorful. There were six of them.

After the walk, it was nice to rest a bit and just listen to the birds and the pleasant silence of nature. Yes, nature is quiet and serene but you can still hear it. Very pleasant indeed.



.

On our way back, we saw this area off the road and checked it out. Very nice with terraces of rocks and descending levels of water basins. I just sat in that natural seat. This is a perfect place to have a picnic. The sound of the water below is just soothing.

If you ever want to relax, just take a nice walk in the woods. You'll be smiling after

A couple of self defense techniques

Check out this "simple" self-defense moves. The 3 minutes free sparring (fighting) at the end were taking forever to upload so I trimmed the video clip.

Enjoy!

Monarch Butterflies

They are in migration...going south of the border.  Monarch butterflies.  They stopped by the pretty beaches and the beautiful lakes and wild flowers.  Some were tired of the trip and fell on the way.  Most will make it.  If they see a nice person, they'll land on him or her.

Watch the video. 

Videos of camping at Grayton Beach SP

This 1st video shows how we set up camp.  It may be a bit boring but I just want you to see how simple and fun it is to camp. And cheap too!

This 2nd video shows you the area around the camping site. This includes the Dune Lake, the Nature Trail, and the beach area.  Very nice. Believe me, we enjoyed it.
So sorry about the sounds on the video.  I first recorded comments while recording. The sound came way too low, so I recorded a new narration but I couldn't get rid of the old one.  Don't know how. lol

Camping at Grayton Beach SP

It's been a while since we've done a State Park camping. We've been enjoying our primitive camping trips. It's hard to beat the quiet and serenity of those settings.

This time we went back to a State Park. Oh yes, it was nice to have electricity and water at the site. The bathrooms with hot showers were nice too...but you have neighbors. These neighbors were not the owls and the singing birds. I shouldn't complain.

The weather was perfect. The beach with its white Florida sand was beautiful. The nature walk was peaceful and pleasant. And we saw 16 new birds out of about 34 different birds seen on the weekend, not counting the ones we couldn't identify.


We've extended our camping weekend by one extra day because it was so nice. Beside the birds, we got the chance to see a lot of Monarch Butterflies hanging out for a while on their migratory path to Mexico or further south.

A side benefit of camping at the beach in a State Park is that you get to enjoy a beautiful beach that is not crowded at all. And Grayton Beach SP has a Dune Lake as well. One of the only two dune lakes in the world. The other one is in South Africa.

On our way home, we were really having a hard time deciding which type of camping we like best; primitive camping or State Park camping. I guess we like them both.

So...they want to learn Judo

I just got back from the Tae Kwon Do school where I taught...Judo!!! Full circle.  I started martial arts with Judo.  After a little more than 10 years, I took a break, then started learning Tae Kwon Do.  I'm preparing to take my test for my black belt 3rd Dan this month.

I was happy to be officially promoted "Assistant Instructor" two months ago even though I've been assisting for about a year now.  My promotion came with a little surprise.  I'm assigned a group of teenage black belt kids with the mission of teaching them Judo takedown techniques.  Boy! was I happy!!!  I love Judo...and these kids remind me of myself learning Judo as a teenager.  We're having fun.

Aikido, Judo, or Jiu Jitsu are a very nice complement to a Korean style martial art like TaeKwonDo.  Like Karate or Kung Fu, TaeKwonDo is excellent for an attack or defense with an opponent by striking versus a grappling.  Your legs are longer and stronger than your arms for kicking.  The judo moves come in handy when a person tries to grab you.  That could put the karate or tae kwon do practitioner at a slight disadvantage (being grabbed).  That's the reason it's excellent to combine both styles of martial arts.  That's also why you now see "mixed martial arts" schools today.  Of course, you instinctively mix it yourself when you know both formats (striking arts and grappling arts). 

Just for your information, Karate, Judo, Jujutsu and Aikido are of Japanese origins, while Taekwondo is of Korean origin and Kun fu is of China. 

Well, I don't expect to ever be in a fight outside of martial arts tournaments, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.  I practice as a sport so I can stay in decent shape and also to compete in tournaments.  But who knows, maybe I will just help a "lil' ol' lady" being attacked by some bullies one day. 

P.S. Unlike my usual posts, I talked a lot about myself in this one.  As you may have noticed if you read my blog, I usually don't do that .  So, you'll forgive me this time.