Category Archives: Travel

Sunshine State still photos

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Here’s a photo blog of my best nature (and a few fun miscellaneous) shots from Florida. Turns out I may be a little better at still photography than I am at capturing live-action shots or pics with people as the subject. Enjoy!

Sea horses — These cute little critters were pulled straight out of Pine Island Sound by our Captiva Cruises tour guide.

Point House — A classic Florida beach shack built on a private peninsula at the entrance to Safety Harbor. It’s located in North Captiva, which is a bridgeless barrier island in southwest Florida, located west of Pine Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sanibel Island Lighthouse — One of the first lighthouses on Florida’s Gulf coast north of Key West and the Dry Tortugas. It’s 98-foot above sea level and was first lit in August 1884.

Carol’s orchid — Found growing alongside Jenny’s mom’s driveway.

Hibiscus — Spotted growing in Carol’s neighbor’s front yard.

Calusa Indian Trail — You can see Brown’s Mound covered in vegetation in the background. (The path to the top is on the other side.)

Gumbo limbo tree — This funky looking tree runs right along the cross-island canal the Calusa built for travel.

Osprey nest — Mama bird keeping watch, while baby birds of prey are cozy inside the nest. Seen near Captiva Pass.

Hmmm, not sure — Maybe some kind of primrose native to southwestern Florida. Pretty, though.

Fish shack — Angler retreats like this dot the intracoastal inland waterway between North Captiva and Pine Island.

Shells galore — Some of my nicest finds from Sanibel, which is considered the best shelling spot in North America, according to Travel & Leisure Magazine. I got my “Sanibel Stoop” on for sure!

Teenagers, Act Now! — Sure, this is not technically a still shot, but it features (a) Houston not photo bombing, which is a rarity, and (b) one of the funniest signs ever, which ends with “… while you still know everything.”

The Mucky Duck’s other sign — Houston tried to take a picture of me below this, but it just didn’t pan out for the usually steady-handed photographer, so I took this still instead. And really, it’s such comedic perfection that it really doesn’t need a human in it anyway.

White Rabbit — Just a glimpse into the kooky weirdness that is on display throughout the Bubble Room. Perhaps it’s symbolic of my having to curb some of my time-management ways in order to appreciate some of what island time is all about.

Fantastic Florida fun!

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Clan Dillingham does the Sunshine State. Fun-filled vacation details below!

After wrapping up our final day of CC on 3/22 (woo hoo!), we headed straight to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord to hang with some of our favorite homeschool families, Granny, and cousins Kelly and Ella (double woo hoo)!

Los gemelos were finally tall enough to take on the Howling Tornado, so all the boys frolicked about the waterpark in free and happy fashion, sharing rides with whomever wanted to take part in each thrilling descent. I think it’s safe to say that Stephen’s now an official GWL fan, too!

The following afternoon, we hit the road for Florida. And after a quick overnight stay in Kingsland, Georgia, we arrived in Fort Myers, where my old Madison pal, Jenny, welcomed us into her home and family.

The 3 Amigos & Ian climb on driftwood on the beach near the Sanibel Lighthouse.

See, Jenny and I never fully lost touch since I left Wisconsin in ’99. We probably chatted a couple times a year over the past couple decades, that is, till she reached out to me more consistently last fall to talk about homeschooling. Within those more frequent conversations, a fire lit under the both of us to get together in-person.

Sadly, there are plenty of people from UW “daze” who probably want nothing to do with me due to evolutions since college, namely my non-leftism and my faith. And that’s okay by me ’cause deeper friendships are built sturdier than that.

But Jenny never worried about those details. In fact, she said, “I never knew you were an atheist, Beebs.” To which I replied, “Well, I guess we were always partying too much back then to talk about it.”

Longtime friends together again: Jenny & I get ready for the hour-long boat ride from Capitva to Pine Island. What an incredible day of history, nature, & some silliness, too!

I suppose even back then, our relationship was more solid than some of my other ’90s friendships, which relied more on political likenesses than on deeper connections and appreciations of each other as unique individuals. I guess you could say it was more about fitting in and conforming, than it really was about letting your freak flag fly.

Now that’s not to say that Jenny and I don’t have some similarities these days. She’s a Christian, a stay-at-home mom, a woman in a committed relationship, an informed citizen, and a common-sense chick all around. Of course, there are still ample differences to keep things interesting.

One of our biggest distinctions is Jenny’s super-casual, island-time personality and my type-A, always-organized temperament. It was interesting to see how we rubbed off on one another, meeting on a happy, healthy middle ground. And that’s exactly what a good friendship can do!

Jenny’s apartment complex is filled w/ ultra-grumpy old people, who complained to security about the kids “splashing” & “jumping.” What geriatric killjoys! Good thing this beach-side hotel was cool about the boys swimming in their pool. Live it up while your young, fellas!

Besides rekindling my thang with Jenny, we got to meet her 4-year-son, Ian, and her boyfriend, Bill. I dubbed Ian “Mr. Proclamation” due to his wont of making sweeping and authoritative statements about most everything, but not in a whiney, annoying way. He was one funny little dude for sure.

Fortunately, Ian and the dudes got along splendidly, as did Stephen and I with Bill. In fact, Bill and Stephen hit it off. They could often be found smoking cigars, drinking bourbon, and talking late into the night. He was definitely a cool guy who enjoyed waxing philosophical with Stephen.

But I think Stephen’s biggest fan was Ian. He called Stephen “dat man” and loved holding hands with him whenever possible. So all in all, other than Ian hating Lexus (Zeke’s lemur stuffed animal) for some toddler-rationalized reason, Ian really clicked with “doze boys,” and they with him. Great success!

After our families devoured half-price pizzas, pitchers of Florida craft brews, & the best homemade mozzarella sticks I’ve ever eaten, Bill gives Houston pointers on how to play pool.

Our big vacation splurge was a boat-trip from Captiva to Pine Island. En route there, we cruised by barrier islands along Florida’s intracoastal inland waterway. Many were keys uninhabited by people, but their mangroves and the surrounding waters teemed with wildlife. We even saw a few ospreys and dolphins!

Some had fancy inhabitants and fancy homes, however, like one of North Captiva’s islands, where there’s no electricity or running water. So it’s like camping, but in a mega-lavish, super-expensive rental house.

Our tour guide said the lone store on the island sells milk for $15 a gallon, so really the only reason to visit there is to try to undercut the competition with $10 milk. As long as we had a kickin’ generator and/or a ton of dry ice, now there is a good business idea for early retirement!

Zeke & Gabriel pose for a shot on the Sanibel Island Pier, while Ian proclaims, “No, I don’t wanna be in dat picture.” Then all our sassy boys got to watch the local anglers fish for snook off Point Ybel, as well as witness a hungry osprey circling above, tenaciously in search of scraps.

There’s also Cabbage Key, which novelist/playwright Mary Roberts Rinehart bought for her son and his wife in 1938. It’s rumored that Jimmy Buffett based his iconic “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” song on an experience he once had at the Cabbage Key Inn.

And then there’s Useppa, another private island that had been a vacation retreat for such notables as the Vanderbilts, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Herbert Hoover, and Shirley Temple for decades after WWI.

But in May 1960, the CIA took over the island as a secret organizing site and pre-training base for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Crazy, huh?! It is again under private ownership and is back to being the stomping grounds of the rich and famous.

Houston sits atop Brown’s Mound. Although archaeologists say the Calusa mounds were originally much steeper, today this one is just shy of 30 feet.

We arrived on Pine Island, and our kids and a few other boys amused themselves by playing with “Mr. Coconut” off the dock landing at Tarpon Lodge. This “Old Florida” waterfront hotel dates back to 1926, and served Stephen and I our only vacation seafood fix: Mahi-mahi paired with white wine and asparagus. Delish!

One of the main inspirations for this trek was that the 3 Amigos learned a bit about ancient mound-building civilizations this year, and Pine Island once had their own: the Calusa Indians, who lived in southwest Florida starting in about 500 BC.

The Calusa didn’t farm or make pottery like other regional Indian tribes. They were fishermen and are the first known collectors of shells, using them as tools, weapons, and ornaments, as well as discarding the shells (and bones) of their food into huge heaps.

Zeke uses one a gag gift on Jenny (what a great actress!), while we kill time @ the Mucky Duck during a fierce beach storm.

And its these raised-earth masses that became the Calusa mounds. From the tops, the “Shell People” could view their village below, possibly using this vantage point in religious ceremonies. But these strong, warring peoples most certainly used the mounds in defense of their lowland homes.

Fishing, of course, was a much quicker and easier method of getting food than was hunting and gathering. So, this gave the Calusa the extra time needed to do other cultural things. For instance, they eventually established their own complex system of government, which involved nobility, commoners, and slaves.

The Calusa, whose name means “Fierce People,” eventually died out in the late 1700s. It was due to a mix of invading enemy tribes from the north, and smallpox and measles brought to the area by European explorers. It’s thought that the few remaining Calusa fled to Cuba when the Spanish turned Florida over to the British in 1763.

Gabriel, Zeke, & Ian view a turtle in the pond behind Jenny’s mom’s house, that is, until an alligator makes his way on to the scene. With 2,200 acres of freshwater wetlands on Sanibel providing a habitat for a sizable gator population, interaction between humans & these cold-blooded reptiles is not an uncommon thing. Yikes!

On the boat ride back, we passed a slew of adorable, rustic fishing shacks sprinkled throughout Pine Island Sound. Then our tour guide cast a net into water, pulling up all sorts of critters, including puffer fish, sea horses, and even a small sea turtle. The boys were delighted to check out all the strange-looking sea life up close and personal.

After we docked, we headed over to the Mucky Duck, a laid-back restaurant where Jenny used to work. A huge, violent storm rolled in, and we caught wind that traffic returning to Sanibel and then into Fort Myers was extremely backed up.

So, we chilled there for a while, drank a bunch, played the ring toss, and got silly. Jenny also took us on walk-through of the quirky restaurant, the Bubble Room. (Side note: the establishment was started by the Farqhuarson family — the namesake of the Scottish clan from which Quate is derived. Small world.)

Although we caught this nice sunset on our first trip to the beach, the Sanibel no-see-ums (a.k.a. biting midges) ate us up this evening. Luckily, we made it back to la playa on another bug-free day for shelling, playing in the sand, swimming in the Gulf, & then poolside hangin’ @ the West Wind Inn.

Our Easter in Florida was filled with blessings. We attended Jenny’s church, St. Isabel, on Saturday night. It was a much lengthier service than what the boys are accustomed to, but they were quite well behaved, I must say. They did get to light and hold candles as part of the mass, so I think that helped in keeping their attention.

Then on Sunday, Stephen took the four boys to a nearby park (even paid for them to jump on an Easter bounce house), while Jenny cooked, and Bill and I got the house ready for dinner. Jenny’s Aunt Marie came over for the celebrations, bringing all the kiddos chocolate bunnies and even eggs for an Easter hunt. What fun!

And if you can’t tell by now, we had an utter blast visiting our good buddies in the Sunshine State, and we look forward to going back again. Maybe next Easter, right Jenny?!?

March madness!

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Combine Memory Master crunch time, the homestretch of CC community, socializing galore, planning for a late March vacation to Florida, and dealing with day-to-day routine, obligations, and shenanigans; and then throw primary politics on top of it all, well, that is some pure madness for sure!

Gabriel & Bella show off for the camera, while Zeke, Houston, & Bret weigh down the other side of the spinny thing to ensure the fastest whirls & rotations as possible. Spur-of-the-moment park dates w/ Miss Tricia are the best!

So, CC community wraps up this coming Tuesday. Even though we zany Dillinghams school year round, this is always a huge reason to celebrate more spare time and six months of hard work under our collective belts, plus, Houston tackling Memory Master.

That child has been super-motivated achieving this academic feat (24 weeks of material for seven subjects) and, thus, has become truly proficient with the information. There were times over the course of these two semesters that I wanted to slack, but Houston always remained focused.

It has been a team effort, though. Gabriel and Zeke helped quiz Houston a ton, which, in turn, helped them with their weekly CC memory work. I think I succeeded at coming up with clever ways to review, as to keep things interesting and fresh and keeping him on target. And even Daddy got into the mix when he could.

The 3 Amigos get silly with their buddy, Josh, during Dress Like a Friend Day @ CC. We love our homeschool community!

Houston is two proofs down: one with me and the other with my pal, Adair. And then tomorrow, he does his final full proof of all 24 week’s worth of memory work (400-plus pieces of information) with his CC tutor, Mrs. Bach.

Then Houston will have his final proof with the CC director on March 31, but this test is only a quickie review of the material, aimed at illustrating that the student has true mastery of the knowledge and isn’t simply regurgitating soundbites. He’s got it made in the shade!

“Moms, don’t try to raise a good child. Raise a God-following adult.” — Lysa Terkeurst

All this studiousness is the reason why we’re treating ourselves to two fun-filled days at Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte with some of our favorite CC families, as well as Granny. However, there was actually some doubt for a while as to whether or not we would go due to some aforementioned and intermittent misbehavior by the boys.

After a trip to Build-A-Bear, backyard silly-string battles were the perfect way to round out the festivities @ Tyrnan’s 8th birthday party.

Stephen and I went back and forth about it, until Adair finally convinced me that this parental crossroads could prove to be a valuable lesson in radical grace. “None of us deserves Great Wolf Lodge,” she said with a matter-of-fact smile.

“We all deserve Hell, and ‘our righteous acts are like filthy rags,'” she continued, calmly invoking the prophet Isaiah. “But let’s go have some fun instead!”

There is such a strength and peace to this Biblical truth, so that’s exactly what Stephen and I opted to do: give grace big because that’s what God did for us through Jesus! I’m so thankful to have incredible friends like Adair keeping me accountable to the Word while also encouraging me to lighten up when necessary. Appreciate it, sister!

While most other kids are sitting still in their school desks, the CC boys rock it out @ the park.  Homeschool homies from L to R: Zeke, Josh, Matthew, Tanner, Tyrnan, Gabriel, & Will.

I admit that I need to be a glass-half-full kinda gal more regularly, although I think I have a pretty optimistic temperament generally. Yet sometimes in the thick of it all, it’s so easy to get down. I suppose the appropriate Christian-ese diagnosis would be that I dabble in a bit of “back-sliding” every now and again.

“Backsliding, also known as falling away, is … a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre-conversion habits &/or lapses or falls into sin, when a person turns from God to pursue their own desire.” — Wikipedia

Parenting is grueling but godly work, true. We are, after all, in a battle with Satan for the hearts, minds, and souls of our kids. But consistent obedience to God is ephemeral at best because of our sin nature. And woe-as-me selfishness inflicts even the most authentic and mature of Christ followers.

Still, pity parties do no one any good. So, I’m praying that I focus way more on all that is right and a lot less on the insignificant annoyances that sometimes go so overwhelmingly wrong, which I’ve dubbed “the freight train.” With Jesus as my conductor, I’m sure to get back on track.

I do believe a week of Florida sunshine just relaxing with and relishing in my peeps will also help ground me and give me perspective on this truly blessed life I lead: from those filthy rags to such unending riches of being clothed in God’s love and grace. Profoundly awesome indeed. Thank you, Lord, for so many second chances!

Here’s Aunt Lisa *literally* picking on the 3 Amigos during our quickie visit to Danville for dinner & giggles. It’s always a good thing to catch up with my big sis!

Another thing that has been lending itself to my occasional gloominess is primary politics. After all, if you’re reading this, you know for yourself how divisive, illogical, and insane this presidential campaign season has been. Sheesh.

It’s frankly appalling that so many Americans are actively trying to silence people’s right to expression simply because they disagree. Blocking traffic to rallies. Punching supporters. Attacking cops. Slandering citizens and spewing lies in the name of fighting supposed “hate speech.”

If you didn’t already realize that we live under a totalitarian system run by politically correct zealots, I guess that’s obvious now. Anti-liberty mobs are running amok, while the apparatchik media blames the violence on its victims and the desperate oligarchs gleefully foster the hate. Sick.

Just another satisfied customer: Stephen does his “civic duty” on NC primary day, but only after deciding who to vote for via impersonal Facebook survey. Luckily, Trump won out over Sanders, but just by a single vote. Whew.

I had to take a Facebook break for a while because people’s sheer ignorance of politics, history, and our republican form of government was making me want to say very un-Christian things to people I like. I mean, one shouldn’t consume mainstream campaign news for a month and then act like a political guru. That’s silliness.

And just because I love Jesus doesn’t mean that I’m willing to suspend all reality or ignore facts or check truth at the door, for goodness sake. Sometimes a calm, but persistent rabble rouser is just what the world needs.

Moreover, news junkies like me can’t be fooled by Megan Kelly or David Brooks or social-media memes or neocon henchmen or academic elites. It’s even worse when Christians who typically don’t dirty their hands with the worldliness of politics (except for gay marriage and abortion, of course) start the finger-wagging and lecturing. Ugh.

This ultra-cool neighborhood posse (clockwise from top left: Matthew, Crystal, Gavin, Nick 2, Gabriel, Zeke, Nick 1, Jacob, & Houston) has more maturity & commonsense than does most of the American electorate. Seriously.

Trump = Bad, even kinda anti-Christ. But guy who quotes the Bible in support of never-ending taxation = Just fine and dandy. Or guy who claims he wants to save unborn white and black babies here has no qualms about killing brown babies by drone and/or illegal war abroad = No problems there. For real? Just stick to the Gospel, y’all.

Puh-leez! Where were all you people when Ron Paul was running for president in 2012? You “for the sake of the party” stooges would rather support yet another socialism-lite establishment candidate than really strike at the heart of the shadow government and the leviathan that oversees its proliferation.

Paul’s platform was freedom, family, live and let live, non-interventionism, putting abortion back in the hands of the States where it should be (just like murder is not federal law), getting government out of the marriage biz altogether, and slashing regulation and auditing the fed, so that folks could have greater control over their income and savings.

CC buddy, Joel, & Houston soak in the afternoon sunshine after a hard day’s work @ homeschool community. You give me hope for the future, fellas!

And I sure won’t be bullied into voting for a turncoat big-government Republican, a warfare-worshipping chick, or an outright socialist simply by being pegged a sexist, racist, or xenophobe. Words have meanings, and just because some people throw them about willy nilly for political purposes doesn’t denote a change in definition.

Funny thing is that I’m a person who has come to think that the electoral process is a sham, so I wasn’t even going to vote, that is, till the hateful social-justice warriors and their minions in the media told me who I’d better damn well not support.

Yeah, it’s like how all the anti-smoking fanatics make me wanna buy a carton of Marlboros and blaze up. Same thing with the coercive thought-controllers and speech-police authoritarians. I hope my Trump vote triggered the hell out of them. Grrrrr.

A little blurry, but maybe that’s a good thing since the dude’s in a weenie bikini. Still, Houston, Gabe, & Matthew are psyched to hang w/ one of the wrestling heroes of the night.

Now that I got all that off my chest, let’s end on a positive note: The 3 Amigos had another piano party in February, but Gabriel and Zeke are just itching to have their first recital. Hopefully, that’ll happen in the spring for my proud piano-playing dudes.

Stephen took the boys and Matthew to AML pro wrestling for a testosterone-filled good time sans the mamas. Many punches, kicks, drops, and stomps have been attempted since then.

Houston is playing competitive baseball, with tryouts and everything. (The twins weren’t interested this year.) There haven’t been any games yet, but Stephen says his skills are advancing quickly. Plus, we’re all ready for some daggone scorekeeping and trophies for the winners only!

Gavin, Houston, & Zeke refill their “ammo” in preparation for battle w/ the enemy (Gabriel, Nick 2, & Jacob) during the first backyard water war of 2016.

My cool neighbor, Jessica, had a Sunday evening party in early March. It was a total blast! Not only did the kids get to hang with some of their best buds, but Stephen and I were able to get much better acquainted with some of our closest neighbors. That’s just the power of margaritas, wine, beer, and cigars!

Jessica and I have become fast friends, having had a couple “mom/booze dates” to celebrate the hard work of rearing dudes. All of our neighbors are cool, but the two of us have hit it off. Probably doesn’t hurt that we’re both writers, slight potty mouths, boy moms, with have twisted senses of humor.

Also, we finally had our friends Tricia and Jeremy (and their sweet kids, Bret and Bella) over to our house for a much-overdue occasion of chilling out and getting to know each other better. Interestingly, this fine night also included wine, beer, and cigars, as well as bourbon, brisket, and riveting political conversation.

Tricia and Jeremy are spiritually mature and very knowledgeable in their faith, informed citizens, open-minded debaters, and interesting individuals all around. So glad we’re growing our relationship with such fine folks as them, as well as many other wonderful people that we’re blessed to now call “friends.” Yay!