Horatio

Every place we park our camper is a new adventure. Some places are amazing, others not so much. One thing that has proved true time and time again, however is that we make specific - and not to be sappy- but beloved memories at each location. There are themes of what we do in some campgrounds based on what’s available- so that even the campgrounds that we initially thought were going to be a bust have been full of amazing times for our family. This week has been a great example of that.

Did we think this place was going to be a bust? Not really, but every campground has its negatives and so does this one (some weird smells, the power fluctuates and so our power goes out a lot, our site is super small and very damp... etc). But why dwell on them? What we'll remember is this: we made our own memories.

One of the more interesting and very Florida things about our current location is our next door neighbor. Enter Horatio (were you wondering when he would make an appearance??). The very hour we parked and set up, we were told to look out for him, but after two days of not seeing any evidence of him, we just assumed it was a story they tell- and that more than likely, he is fictitious. Imagine our shock when, as we were sitting down to breakfast, he crawled out of the pond next door and began to sun himself on the bank! And if you haven’t figured it out yet, Horatio is a very large 6 foot long green reptile- alligator style. Every day since then, we’ve watched his “antics” with awe (with binoculars mind you!). He mostly suns himself on the far bank of the pond, but occasionally moves a leg or blinks an eye and sometimes he renters the water to lazily swim around the turtles. I’m sure many of you are wondering about his name…. And it may come as no surprise to you that we named him! We just finished listening to the book “The Hero’s Guide to Saving the Kingdom,” and in it, Duncan (Prince Charming for Snow White) shouts out names for all the animals he sees. We have adopted his delightful practice.

*These two photos are taken facing north, then turning around to face south... no zooming was done to show how close we are to our pond. *

Aside from Horatio, our week has been full of monkey in the middle in the wonderful heated pool, bike riding “adventures” (Ben and Nora have especially been enjoying this together!), morning runs with just the boys, and lots of walks. We’ve met another neighbor (this time a human!) whose hobby is wood carving- and once he found out the kids have whittling knives, he has shared his passion and and his expertise and given us some more carving tools.

Our evenings have been filled with night walks to see the winter constellations in the Florida warmth. The kids have even requested Family Adventure activities from our family adventure scratch off book and we’ve done three (mostly) fun filled activities, including movies and nachos under the stars, parents vs kids lip syncing contest and a boot camp style timed obstacle course around the camper. We also went out to a local Mexican restaurant where we had giant margaritas, great tacos and a yelling match- the Mariachi band was so loud we had to shout to order our food!!

Oh- and we still do school and work, too!