For Father's day I told my dad I would like to spend the day any way he would like. He said he would love to go to the spring and spend the day but I would have to meet him early so we could get in the park. At the time, I was not much for playing in the outdoors and...

When I started my State Parking journey, I was doing it mostly to keep myself out of trouble. I had a tendency of making poor decisions in life when I had idle time on my hands. It only took a few weeks of visiting the parks before I felt a transformation in my sprit....

Andrew, my son, is a big fan of nature so to celebrate his birthday I took him to a few gardens and "boneyard beach" at Big Talbot Island State Park. I knew he would love seeing all of the driftwood and trees laying around the beach. I am pretty sure he climbed on...

Originally,  Amelia Island State Park was the only park on my agenda for the day I paid it a visit. What I learned early on was State Parking plans rarely stay as originally planned. I pulled up the map to see where the park was located and if there were any other...

My Uncle Barry and Aunt Tracey lived in the Jacksonville area and there were a cluster of parks I wanted to visit there so I got a two in one because I could spend some time with them and see a lot of parks in one day. Uncle Barry thought it would be fun to go State...

I am pretty sure I had been talking about Ravine Gardens since the day I paid it a visit. It was the first park I really enjoyed. When reading about it a little more I found out it was best to visit the park when the azaleas were in full bloom which was anywhere...

Fort George Island Cultural State Park was a very interesting place to tour around. Uncle Barry and I entered the park and followed the road around, stopping at most buildings to get a closer look. First we found the tabby structures where the slaves used to reside....

May 17, 2020 Quin and I went to St. Augustine to go to an herb shop I heard about that had unique herbs I needed for a gardening project I was doing. We decided it would be fun to visit downtown and then we figured we should stay the night. We had such an awesome day!...

I learned early on that plans made for State Parking often change, on a whim. I decided to visit my Uncle Barry and Aunt Tracey in the Jacksonville area and also see a cluster of parks while I was there. I would see the parks in the day and spend the evening with...

August 2014 When I moved to DeLand I quickly realized I was now a resident of an amazing county to explore nature. While scrolling through Facebook one day, I noticed a post made by a friend talking about the Bulow Plantation Ruins. I had no idea such a great place...

February 13, 2021 Quin started putting his boat at Hontoon Landing which worked out great for us because we could just hop on the boat anytime, without hassle. My work schedule was picking up so we usually only had time to take the boat out for sunset cruises which...

March 30, 2019 When I worked at ImageWorks I had the pleasure of working with many different people and business in Orange City. One of my favorite people to work with was Darrel, a park ranger at Blue Spring. While Darrel was in the shop one day he told me about an...