Author: addiervaventis

We went to a beach town called Port Aransas near Corpus Christi. After we got settled in at the campground we went to Tortuga’s Saltwater Grill. I got a crab cake and it was really good.

The campground area reminded me of Hilton Head Island in SC. The dogs were really tired. They picked their favorite spots on the couch and passed out. Chance choose the spot with the most pillows and Caper choose the spot next to him.

Makenzie came to visit us in Port Aransas. We picked her up from the Corpus Christi airport and went to eat at Ninja Mochi. The Korean corn dogs were amazing and the boba tea was also delicious.

They also had donuts. These donuts were unique shaped like circles or rings. They were pretty good but not as good as regular donuts.

The sunsets at Port Aransas were very beautiful.

We tried to go for a walk on the beach, but we didn’t stay very long because of the high winds and washed up jelly fish. The dogs were a little confused and disappointed.

The next day we took the dogs to the beach. They ran around and played for a long time. I forgot Chance’s ball, but they still had a good time at the beach. It was a lot of fun playing with the dogs at the beach.

On a couple of the days there were Portuguese Man’o war on the beach. We couldn’t stay at the beach very long or take the dogs because you can get stung on your foot and it is very poisonous. It would mean a trip to the hospital and none of us wanted that.

Trout Street restaurant was one of our favorites. The stuffed shrimp were really good and banana cream pie was amazing.

There was a fun beach and surf shop, we got souvenirs.

One day was cool and cloudy so we went to the ceramic pottery shop. Mak painted a vase, Dad painted a fish, Mom painted a turtle and I painted dolphins.

I named the dolphins, Caper and Chance. Caper dolphin is the one with darker paint and Chance dolphin has lighter paint.

We took Mak back to the airport to fly to NC. It was great to see Makenzie. I hope we get to see her again soon.

We left Port Aransas and arrived in Galveston. The campground had a pool and a lazy river. The lazy river was chilly, but once my body was numb, it felt pretty good.

Don and Mel came to visit us for their spring break. We hung out on the RV and then went out to dinner.

The dogs and I love hanging outside, enjoying the beach view.

The next day was Mel’s Birthday. We celebrated her birthday on the RV and then went out to eat. It was also Easter.

We went to a brewery. They had arcade games. Don and I went up against each other.

I played another game of air hockey, this time I went up against Mel.

Don and Mel had a pool at their condo next door to our campground. We had a pool day. Dad and Don got donuts and kolaches (hotdogs in yeast bread). They were really good. Dad and Don also brought lunch to the pool later in the day. I had gumbo, while everyone else had sandwiches. Mine was delicious. We swam in the hot tub, it felt really nice. The pool felt really nice too. It was a fun day.

We went to Galveston Brewery. It had a nice outside area and homemade lemonade, which was really cool. It was a really fun day.

We took the dogs to the beach for a morning walk. They had fun.

Don and Mel went to the airport; it was time to say goodbye. It was great to see them. Looking forward to seeing them again soon.

We left Waco and went to Austin. When we arrived at the KOA there was a pool. It was amazing to see a pool again. It was really warm outside. I went to the pool. 

The KOA did a pancake breakfast, which was really good. After breakfast, the SXSW festival was going on and we went to an art fair as part of it.

For lunch, we went Hopdaddy burger bar in Austin. It was delicious.

Of course, we went to a brewery. I got a caramel apple soda and popcorn. We also got fried pickles, fried deviled eggs and onion rings.

We went to a town near Austin for dinner and to see the Addams Family play. It was really good. The actors were amazing.

The dogs got new bones from the brewery yesterday – they are very happy.

The next day we went to the Rodeo. There was a carnival outside the rodeo.

We got fair food. Mom and I got corn dogs with cheese, bacon, ranch fries. Dad got mac’n cheese with brisket. It was delicious.

We then watched the rodeo and I got popcorn. There were cowboys riding wild horses, there were cowgirls riding wild horses, there were cowgirls breakaway roping, there were cowboys team roping and there were little kids riding wild sheep. We also watched the Nitty Gritty Dirt band live. They are a Bluegrass band. 

It was a lot of fun in Austin.

After Austin we went to San Antonio. When we got to the RV park It had a creek.

We went to see the Alamo; it was really cool.

We then went to the riverwalk.

We went on a boat ride and got a tour of the riverwalk. We went to see art and go shopping. We then went to a texmex restaurant on the riverwalk

We went to see some of the missions.

I got to try Texas Cola which is made in this area. I really liked it.

Once we left Louisiana, we made it to Tyler, Texas and stayed one night on a lake.

The next day we moved to a campground north of Dallas/Fort Worth in Highland Village.

We Explored Dallas. We saw a Bull sculpture and a cowboy sculpture. There were a lot of bulls.  We drove through Sundance Square in Dallas. It was kind of like Charlotte. I liked driving through the city. We went to MesoMaya for lunch. Dad got a woodfired steak. I normally don’t like steak, but it was really good steak.  I got street corn, beans and rice.

We got to experience Torchy’s Tacos, which started out as a food truck in Austin and now has lots of sit down restaurants. I got an egg and potato breakfast taco and a fried avocado taco. I wanted to try them because I have not had a breakfast taco and I haven’t heard of a fried avocado taco before.  They were delicious. It was a fun day.

The next day we went to Fort Worth.  We drove to an old part of town, Historic Stockyards and we drove through an old train station, that was turned into a mall.

We went to WoodShed Smokehouse for lunch. It was really cool that they allow dogs; they even have a separate menu for them.  We didn’t bring ours unfortunately. We got them a little present though, which were bones. I got Thai cauliflower and crispy potatoes. It was really good. We also got beer cheese fondue, which was delicious.

We then went to a Botanical Garden to see the orchid display. Mom loves orchids.

We saw a variety of different types of orchids, some from South America, Asia and Australia. Mom wished she could take some home with her. She  even went to the store and bought one. 

We went to Shannon Brewery. We found out that the owner’s name is Shannon, which was pretty cool.

It was fun exploring Dallas and Fort Worth. We have taken the RV to 9 states so far.

We then went south to Waco. Once we settled in, I did some schoolwork.

We hung-out outside enjoying the view. Chance wanted to be so close to Dad, that he put himself on the stool in front of him. He is so funny.

The dogs love their Christmas present. Caper especially loves hanging out in the chair and keeping an eye on us.

We went to Magnolia Market, which is based off of the show, Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines.

We went to the market area, hung-out and ate lunch. We also went to the bakery and got cupcakes. I got lemon lavender, Mom got coconut and Dad got carrot cake. All the cupcakes were delicious. We also got bacon cheddar biscuits, (Joanna calls them prize pigs.) We liked them so much, Dad has started making them for us.

Another day we went to the original Dr. Pepper Factory.

I got a Big Red float, Mom got a regular Dr. Pepper and Dad got an A&W Root Beer float.

We did both a Make-a-Soda experience and a Taste-a-Soda experience.  We each made different sodas. I created Tropical Lagoon with blue raspberry, grape and pineapple. It was pretty good.

Mom called her creation, Summer Days made with rose and vanilla. Dad made Captain’s Cola with cherry, orange and vanilla. We got to take our sodas home and I drank all of them.

We tasted six different sodas in the Taste-a-soda. We had to guess what they were and rank them based on look, taste, smell and texture and decide which were our favorite and which ones were our least favorite.  I want to do a soda taste test with my sisters one day.

The next day we went hiking. We hiked up these narrow steps up to a park where there was a country club for events like weddings. It was pretty neat. We also went to a fountain. Which was pretty cool. We then went to Lover’s Leap which was beautiful. It was a fun, exhausting day.

The next morning Caper and I were having a chill morning, before we got on with our day.

Later, we went to Waco Mammoth National Monument. Mammoths are kinda like elephants, but they were a lot taller and lived a really long time ago.

We saw fossils of mammoths, a saber tooth tiger and a camel all from the ice age. It was really cool to see all the fossils.

It was a lot of fun in Waco.

We left Mississippi and drove to New Orleans. We went to checkout the town. I tried a burger for the first time. I accidentally stuffed myself at home before I tried it. It didn’t really taste good.

We tried Kingcake to celebrate Mardi Gras. We went to Rouses grocery and got the Bavarian Crème. It was delicious.

Makenzie and Gavin came down to visit. We took them exploring around the town and we had diner at the Redfish. I got a new shirt and leggings.

We went to the zoo. We saw elephants, lions, macaws and gorillas. Makenzie and I took pictures at the photo booth.

We saw flamingos. They were the same kind of flamingos we saw in Aruba at Flamingo Island.

We saw a tiger; it was beautiful.

We saw African painted dogs. They are dogs that are “painted” African colors.

We saw orangutans. They were doing tricks, putting on a show and showing off for us.

We got to see howler monkeys. They were climbing around trees and also putting on a show for us. It was fun getting to go to the zoo and see all the animals.

We went to the art history museum to see cool art. My favorite art was the funky art. We went to the sculpture garden and saw cool sculptures, like alphabet man.

We did a Voodoo tour the next day and learned a lot of interesting stories. My favorite story was the vampire one in the movie Interview With A Vampire. Tom Cruise’s character is based off of Count St Germain. Don’t know about the vampire part though.

We did Mardi Gras parades the next day and saw two Krewes, the Krewe of Iris and Krewe of Tucks.

The floats were really pretty. There were so many! The parade lasted all day.

We collected beads and other cool stuff.

It was a lot of fun in New Orleans. I had a good time there. I hope I get to go back and visit there again one day.

After New Orleans we went to a campground a few hours west that was like a swamp. It also had a disc golf course. It reminded me of the movie Where The Crawdads Sing. It was a nice break from the city.

We saw that Caper’s and Chance’s hair was getting too long, so we decided it was time for a shave. Our razor died as we were finishing shaving Chance. They still look handsome though.

It was a lot of fun in Louisiana. Hope we get to comeback someday.

We went to St. Andrews State Park at Panama City Beach. We’ve been to Panama City Beach a few years ago in the summer. Makenzie got me a new outfit for my birthday, although it works great for Valentine’s Day.

I made homemade lip balms. I got a lip balm kit for Christmas. Who knew making lip balms was that easy. I learned that the different textures of lip balm and Chapstick depends on how much beeswax you use. They turned out like I hoped they would. It was a lot of fun.

We went to the beach. The beach was by the jetty, which helps protect the shore from the tides. It was really cool.

The dogs and I like hanging out on their chair and getting a little bit of outside time.

We went kayaking around to explore and check things out. We got see the seasons start to change from winter to spring. We were gonna kayak to this one restaurant, but it wasn’t open for the season yet.

We went to the beach again another day. They had a food truck where they sell hotdogs and hamburgers. I got a hotdog. It reminded me of Maho Bay in St Thomas.

We went to the Davis Bayou museum in Mississippi and learned lots of interesting stuff about the bayous. We learned about the Gulf Islands National Seashore which are barrier islands that protect the shore from erosion.

We learned about one of the islands, Cat island. We learned that Cat Island got it’s name because of the resident raccoons. It was also where they would train dogs during World War II. Pretty Ironic.

We learned that the Mississippi Sound is where a lot of animals live and build nursery’s one example is sea turtles. Sea turtles lay their eggs and then baby sea turtles hatch.

We went to the Walter Anderson Museum. We learned that he traveled around the Mississippi Gulf and painted what he saw. Some of his most famous paintings were of the barrier islands.

We went for walks around the campground. We saw a disc golf course. We checked out the cabins and saw the beautiful inland waters.

We made snickerdoodle cheesecake cookies like the ones from Appalachian Cookie Company. It is a cookie shop in Boone. They were delicious.

After NC, we went to an RV resort in St Augustine, FL. It was an amazing place and it had a nice pool.

Ella came down to visit. We walked to Kookaburra, an Australian coffee shop next door to the rv resort. We got breakfast and lunch there one day. We got Aussie pies. This was my first time trying Aussie pies. We got sweet potato, veggie curry, egg with rosemary and a bacon with swiss. They were delicious. My favorite was the veggie curry.

We took the dogs to the beach to let them run around and play. The dogs took on a new hobby, bird hunting. When they saw a bird they started chasing after it. Caper was so determined to get a bird that he almost knocked the wind out of me when I fell down running after him, literally and figuratively.

It was also my birthday month. Mikeala and David came to visit. We went shopping, I got a new pillow.

We went to Old Coast Ales and Osprey Tacos. We went to Itty Bitty Donuts and I got a fruity pebbles donut. It was so cool how the donuts were half the size of a normal donut. We went to MoHo Barbecue. We were craving barbecue. The next night we ate at an Italian restaurant.  We did a lot of eating out with David and Mikaela. It was awesome!!

Mel gave me a big surprise when she came to be with me for my birthday.

My 18th birthday came. 

I chose to go to Old Coast Ales Brewery/Osprey Tacos again! I got a spicy tofu taco, it was delicious. Ella got it last time we were there and I tried hers, so I knew I wanted my own this time. We played a card game called, Gnoming Around, it’s basically golf but with gnomes.

We walked around downtown and I got gourmet popcorn, taffy, macaroons, fudge and special popsicles.

We went shopping and then we went to the movie theater to see A Man Called Otto.

For dinner we got food from Sakada Japanese Steak House. Grandad and Nana had recommended this place. I really enjoyed my lo mein, fried rice and egg rolls.

We went to Mayport Seafood Restaurant, I got a crabcake. We had been there years before when we went to Jacksonville for summer vacation. It was really cool to go back. We also went to Pussers. When the GPS pronounced Pussers she started saying it funny, we laughed about that; you had to be there to understand. It was fun seeing Mel. I can’t wait to see her again. 

We went to Fort De Soto. It was a beautiful place. There was a lot of water around us. Unfortunately the dogs could not get in the water.  

We have been to Fort De Soto before. We came to Fort De Soto for Easter. Mikahla and David came to visit at Fort De Soto. We went to the beach and hungout. We went back to the RV to roast Marshmallows.  It was great seeing them; hope we get to see them again.

Curry Hammock State Park, We went Kayaking one morning to a sandbar. It was a pretty nice sandbar. 

We went to Hutchinson Island. It had a nice view, amazing concrete and a lot of grass for the dogs. My room had a great view. Mom made a window seat.

It also had a lot of great activities and amenities such as a pool and a rec center. Mom and I did Zumba there. We followed along to a VHS tape of the guy who first invented zumba. It was definitely an interesting experience. We celebrated Mom’s Birthday: Happy Birthday. We went to Kyle G’s Steak House.

Hutchinson Island was a lot of fun. Hope we get to see it again.

We went to North Carolina for Christmas.

We went to Charlotte to see Grandad and Nana. We saw Mikaela and David and went, brewery hopping with them. We had a nice get together. It was a lot of fun.

We went to a French breakfast place. It was really good. I got golden crepes. They were delicious. We went to Boone and stayed at a cabin at Seven Devils. It was really cold.

We were gonna go to Greensboro on the 24th to see Mom’s family, but then we got snowed in. Caper and Saba are getting acquainted with one another.

Makenzie got Saba in October, shortly after her kitty Gracie passed away.

On Christmas Day we opened presents. I got a lip balm kit, a window art kit, a nice headband, a marvel poster, socks, and lots of other cool things. 

We went to Greensbro on the 26th, we hung-out.  Ella, Aiden and I played Mario Kart on the Nintendo and with her new Oculus. We also played Kahoot on the computer through our phones. We did presents. I got them sleep masks, lip balm and lotion. Makenzie, Ella and I all got socks and some candy bars to share. We saw Gavin the next day and had brunch.

I got to see my friend Brendan. We hung-out and watched The Three Stooges and watched Free Guy. He got me a mug for Christmas. 

We went to Asheville for New Years. I also got a little bit of an early birthday present from Mel. We went to Biltmore and saw the all different rooms and areas of the house: such as the library, pool, and tapestry room. We also checked out the shopping area of Biltmore and got some souviners. It was a lot of fun.

Mel and I did a polar plunge. Well not exactly a polar plunge, but it felt cold to us.

We headed inside to get changed and watched Dad and Don play pool.

We went to Grove Park to see the gingerbread houses. The gingerbread house competition was for all ages. They were pretty cool. Everyone who made the gingerbread houses was very talented.

When we saw this gingerbread house. It immediately made us think of our friend Kent, who used to be a band instructor.

We got hot chocolate. There were different ways you could order hot chocolate. I got traditional. We also enjoyed a nice view. It was amazing to go to Groove Park and see the gingerbread houses.

We stopped at one of our favorite places Ginger’s Revenge, well Mom’s favorite place. Ginger’s Revenge has alcoholic ginger beer. I had a shrub seltzer. It’s seltzer water with scrub flavoring in it. It was fun seeing Don and Mel and being able to spend New Years with them. Hope we get to see them again soon.

We went to Orlando for Thanksgiving. We had Makenzie, Ella and Gavin on the RV. We went to Disney Springs to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Drawn to Life Cirque, a collaboration with Disney.

It was about a girl named Juile. Her dad was an animator, before he passed away. He gave his book to Julie to complete his drawings. When she tried to draw, the paper kept going away and turned out to be evil, and then the paper became good. There were also a couple of acrobatic tricks and other tricks as well. There were also some cartoon characters. It was an amazing show.

 The next day was Thanksgiving dkay: Happy Thanksgiving. We watched the parade and then we watched football. We then ate breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrown casserole and quiche. 

We went to the pool and swam. We then had dinner including mashed potatoes with gravy. There were two types of gravy because Ella is vegetarian. We had green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, and sweet potato casserole. I really like the sides. It was delicious.

The day after we went to Universal. This was an early birthday present for me!!! We went on a vip tour which meant we didn’t have to wait in lines. It included breakfast.

We started in Harry Potter World. I am a big Harry Potter fan. We did Escape From Gringotts and we rode the train.

 In Hogsmeade we rode Journey Through The Forbidden Forest. Our tour guide Jimmy said that people would get the footlong hotdogs from Jurassic World and go on Journey Through The Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter afterward. Needless to say they probably regretted it in more ways than one. I definitely wouldn’t want to be one of those people who ate before the ride. It’s a good thing we didn’t do it right after we ate breakfast.  It was awesome and then we got to see a Quidditch Game that was pretty fun too. 

We then headed to Jurassic World and rode the Velosiraptor. It was pretty intense. We rode Kong Island after the Velociraptor. I liked that one and then we headed over to Marvel Superhero Island. I was excited because I am also a Marvel fan. We rode The Incredible Hulk which was pretty cool. We had lunch it was pretty good. We did ET afterword it was an original ride. It was pretty exciting we then did Men In Black Alien Attack which was pretty fascinating. 

We did Revenge Of The Mummy and Transformers, which were pretty cool. We did Jimmy Fallon which was pretty interesting. The last ride was the Rip Rocket which none of us did.  We said goodbye to our tour guide Jimmy and we went back to Harry Potter World to get souvenirs. I got a Gryffindor sweatshirt. We went to Marvel Island and did Spiderman which was pretty exciting. We went to the Marvel store and got souvenirs. I got a t’shirt with all the characters on it. It was a pretty fun and unforgettable day. 

We all had different rides we enjoyed from that day 

Makenzie: Kong Island Incredible Hulk and Transformers

Ella: Velosiraptor

Mom: Journey Through The Forbidden Forest

Gavin: Men In Black Alien Attack

Dad:  Journey Through The Forbidden Forest 

Addie’s by area: Harry Potter World: 1. Escape From Gringotts 2. Quidditch 3.  Journey Through The Forbidden Forest  4. Train Ride

Marvel World:  1. Incredible Hulk 2. Spiderman  Jurassic World:Kong Island 

others: 1. ET 2. Transformers 3.  Men In Black  4. Jimmy Fallon

We went to the Sea Life Orlando Aquarium.

We did the virtual tour where we snorkeled with sharks in the Bahamas. We then saw lots of big fish, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, sea horses and dragon fish.  It was really cool seeing all the sea animals.

We then went to Sloppy Joes and had refreshments. I got a coke. We then went to Joe’s Crab Shack. I got a whole bucket of snow crab. It was hard to peel it, but it was worth it. Crabs are much harder to peel then shrimp.

We went back to the RV. We had s’mores and picked a movie. We watched Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. It’s a good movie if you like time travel.  It was a really fun night.

We had to say goodbye to Makenzie, Ella and Gavin. It was fun to see them. We’ll get to see them again in Boone for Christmas. 

We started out on our first adventure with the RV. We left Asheville and started to head out for our first stop in South Carolina at Santee Lake. It was beautiful.

It is called Santee Lake because it is on a lake. Within the lake there was a lagoon with a playground. It reminded me a little bit of Wildcat Lake.  It is a lake in North Carolina with a playground and picnic tables. The only difference is it has brown water instead of blue water.

We also saw a couple of different types of wildlife because we were mostly in the woods. We saw squirrels – Caper and Chance tried to chase them. I’ve mentioned Chancy has a girlfriend in every port. Have I mentioned Caper has to get in the water at every port? When we were at the lake Caper tried to get in the water. He was really disappointed he couldn’t get in because the water was too cold and it was time to go.

A couple of days later we went to Jekyll island. We went to lunch at Zachery’s by the pier. We took the dogs to Driftwood Beach but we couldn’t let them off the leash. We went to Dairy Queen and we went into a gift shop we haven’t been to before. I got saltwater taffy. Jekyll was fun. I wish we could’ve stayed longer.

A few days later we went to Beverly Beach Florida. It was cold when we got there. I had a beautiful view from my bedroom window of the ocean.

Then, we went to Orlando. We need to get ready to have Makenzie, Ella and Makenzie’s boyfriend Gavin on the RV. I can’t wait to see them.

Being on the RV is very fun. It is very different from being in Asheville and I do miss my friends. However, I am also happy to be on this wonderful adventure. I can visit my friends when I come back to Boone.