Current state: Florida is tearing me apart on the inside

I love living in Florida and it also weighs heavy on me. This week I'm sharing about what's happening here, but also finding my silver lining, our real estate mistake, and spring break activities.

So welcome to March. Crazy to think we’re here already. This is the start of spring break season and also when we tend to plot out the rest of our year. And on the back end of things, right now has also been a barrage of questions and really wearing statements about our life choices (I’ll get into those in a sec).

Thank you for tuning in and reading about what’s happening in the world of 2TravelDads. I appreciate the support, even if you don’t realize that that’s what you’re doing by being here.

If you’re new here, the way I roll is by sharing a combo of my unfiltered thoughts on life, parenting and travel mixed with some helpful stuff. I’m also including a list at the end of upcoming trips in case you want to ask some questions or have suggestions for when we’re traveling (we have some cool things on the books!).

And now, for LIFE…

WTH is happening in Florida?!

I really love living here in St Augustine. It’s beautiful, warm and sunny, and it’s full of history. Did you know that before the Underground Railroad enslaved people in the South would flee to here, to St Augustine, to find their freedom? It’s true! …and it seems that kids in Florida won’t get to learn that history.

I get a lot of messages on Instagram and emails asking really pointed questions about Florida. It’s not people just saying '“Aren’t you worried about hurricanes living there?” but it’s complete strangers AND friends telling me “well, I would never live in Florida. All the people are so backwards and the governor is so dangerous” or “I would never let my kids go to school in Florida…”

And I’m like, “thanks for the feedback. Yeah, hurricanes suck and NO, not everyone is like what you see on the news and most of us DON’T support the crazy governor and the frightening laws he’s creating.” I’m so torn.

I love where we live. I love our kids’ school. I don’t love that the gov proudly stated “Florida is where ‘woke’ comes to die” as he and his cronies work to ensure that Black history isn’t properly taught. And it is accurate that there is an attempt to silence LGBTQ issues and normalcy. Yes, the empty library shelves and teachers worried about retribution for doing their job, that’s all real and it’s scary.

But then it’s sunny outside and we’re living an incredible life here in Florida. I don’t need fear and guilt projected on me by others. I’m aware of it enough and working against it in my own ways. I’m torn because this is home AND it’s a frightening view into what is possible in this world and current climate.

Fort Mose here in St Augustine was the destination enslaved people would escape to so they could be free. This is just one of the places that tells the history of Florida without the white-washing.

Anyways, there is even more to what’s happening in Florida, but I can only digest so much at a time. So now that I’ve got that slice of angst out there, I’m gonna share about some really cool travel stuff.

Our Spring Break Plans (a mini-rant)

Ha ha. Made you look. We still don’t have finalized plans and it’s only one week away. We usually are booked up solid, but I made a family / business decision last month and cancelled three trips. Two were projects and one was just fun. I’ve redistributed the work elements and freed up time for us to just exist as a family with time off.

So with that change, we’re going to a little island on the Gulf Coast of Florida with friends (Cedar Key) and then probably just enjoying our neighborhood beach. I’m okay with it all. I aim to NOT write about it.

This is our beach across the highway here in Butler Beach, FL. It’s pretty amazing and it’s already warm enough for swimming.

“Oh, you’re not going someplace cool?” OMG. This is another one of those kind of weird judgy questions or statements I get on social and the blog. We don’t need to keep up with the other travel bloggers that are always gone and always traveling to exotic, off the beaten path places. In the last nine years of blogging I’ve heard feedback, shall we say, about not being big world travelers when that’s what so many people think of travel blogging as.

You know, there’s a lot to explore close to home and everyone has a different life and schedule. That’s all I can say really. Bravo to the people who’ve figured out how to have kids in public school, a spouse that works for corporate America, a physical brick-and-mortar business to run AND they run a successful website that takes them everywhere. I have not cracked that code, and yes, I’ve heard of the Four Hour Work Week, and no, I haven’t instituted every Tiktok life hack to make it possible. Good times.

Savannah Update - Did we make a mistake?

If you’ve been following along with our family for the last nine years, you know we’ve taken some big risks and followed our gut on a few wild hares… Well, almost two years ago we purchased a flat in Savannah (love that city!) by Forsyth Park that was kinda scary/rundown. The plaster was crumbling, there had been water damage, an art student had lived there and there was spray-paint on everything…

We bought it as an investment opportunity knowing that we could fix it up and resell it someday, or that we could make it into a rental, perhaps for a SCAD prof or AirBNB. Well, we’ve been #1 on the short term rental permit list for two years. We’ve almost finished completely fixing up the flat and now we just wait.

This is the living room at our Savannah apartment

We can’t rent it or list it on AirBNB, so we use it for our own getaways and allow friends to stay there. This is one of the chances we took that isn’t necessarily paying off. I share this, not as a boast of having a bonus pied-à-terre, but to let it been known that not all things always work out well and not all investments are winners.

We’re not going to sell the flat currently, but suggestions about what we can do are welcome. I love it and it’s been a fun and really engaging project, but yeah, life and business demand we make some decisions…

Check out our Savannah website to see why we love it so much: SavannahExpored.com

And we’ve got Savannah podcasts coming out this month too. So stay tuned to hear EVERYTHING about our home away from home.

What Travel Blog Stuff is New?

The last two months I’ve finally really gotten to dig into our local travel websites and start writing and publishing new articles a lot. This is what I went to the University of Washington for and what I love to do: writing! In 2023 so far I’ve been able to publish 26 travel blog posts, which is insane to me.

For 2TravelDads I’ve been finishing off my polar opposites project: Hawaii vs Maine, which includes 7 podcast episodes, some hotel reviews and itineraries for visiting the destinations. I really have enjoyed sharing these two extremely different places. And it’s funny, but I really enjoy them each equally.

The newest on 2TravelDads is actually all about staying at the Samoset Resort in MidCoast Maine IN WINTER. Because the weather in winter is so different in the northeast, the Samoset actually shuts down its operations partly and limits how long guests can stay, which is a unique approach when you’re running a hotel. Anyways, it’s a unique situation and we really enjoyed staying there and waking up to fresh snow. Check it out!

Indoor s’moring at the Samoset - our new favorite winter treat

Other new articles I’ve been working on include Scenic Drives in National Parks, lots of lighthouse stuff, and then really digging into the specifics of Savannah. Last week I actually got to geek out doing research for an article, which has led me down the path of writing a bunch about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and different sites around Savannah, including the famous Bird Girl statue and Bonaventure Cemetery (so cool!). Really, working on my smaller websites has brought a lot of joy back into travel blogging that I was starting to lose.

New Projects on the Horizon

So we have a successful podcast and it gets an exceptional number of downloads, and I don’t get it. I cannot sit and listen to a podcast in any form, even when I’m driving long distances, but people LOVE listening to podcasts. So here’s something I’ve just started working on: Audio Blog Posts.

Coming soon via Substack, I’ll have the first set of Audio Blog Posts available for download. Consider this my backlog of books on tape. Rob Explored is still all the 2TravelDads adventures, but let’s be honest, when you read our stuff you know it’s me doing the writing, so it’s me recording the audio versions too, and now you can actually hear how I mean things to be said. All the sarcasm and sauciness that makes me fun at parties, but now in a download.

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Upcoming travel

While travel is always subject to change (I think we learned that well with COVID), this is the currently confirmed plan. It’s not as crazy as it looks, but it’s a good indication of the sorts of activities and experiences we have coming to the blog and podcast:

• Cedar Key and the Florida Springs - March

• Savannah, Georgia - March

• Miami, Florida - April

• Rocky Mountaineer Luxury Train through BC to Banff - April

• San Antonio, Texas - May

• Columbia, SC and Congaree National Park for fireflies - June

• Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone - June

• Washington State - July

• Carrabassett Valley and MidCoast Maine - August

• Gulf Shores, Alabama - September

• UnCruise to Belize and Guatemala - November

I’m so looking forward to 2023!

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So yeah, that’s what we’ve got going on right now. Thank you for listening to my rants and frustrations, and for supporting the blogs. Having an outlet, like a newsletter, where I can share what’s going through my head and on my work docket is super helpful, and I appreciate the eyeballs that read it.

If you ever have questions about blogging or how we do certain things in life, I’m a pretty open book. I’m happy to share about most topics, including LGBTQ issues, family dynamics, educational choices, Florida life, health journeys… All you have to do is ask!