This morning, we continued North to visit Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, which preserves the first English Colony established in North America in 1587:

The kids received their Junior Ranger badges:

Continuing North, we visited the Wright Brothers National Monument:

Looking out from where the Wright brothers launched their airplanes:

Working on the Junior Ranger workbooks:

An Osprey flew by and landed in an adjacent field:

Walking the flight line:

Looking back at the launch site:

We continued North to reach Assateague Island, which we’ve visited several times before, well after dark.

Today we visited the Okefenokee Swamp.  We paid for a boat ride through the swamp:

The kids got to drive for a bit:

Our river guide said that Anhingas are called “water turkeys” but seemed to be offended when I asked if they were a food bird.

Back on shore, we toured a restored homestead in the swamp:

Driving North, we visited Fort Pulaski National Monument.  We arrived less than an hour before closing, so we only had time to quickly walk through.  In the distance, we could see a tanker lumbering by:

Union rifled guns were able to pierce the masonry walls, which led to a Confederate surrender within an hour of the first shot fired:

We drove a bit farther North before overnighting at a Walmart.

This morning we were kicked out of our first Walmart parking lot.  Despite Walmart giving us permission to park in the lot, it turns out that the lot is in fact owned by the mall that Walmart is part of, and the mall doesn’t allow overnight parking.

Today we’re visiting Disney World!  We drove to the Disney campground in the park, then took the boat across the lake from the campground to the park.  We arrived at the gates at opening time along with a few other people:

There were a number of parades and performances going on throughout the day:

We used the smartphone application for Disney World to optimize the order in which we visited rides.  The FastPass system allowed us to hold a spot in line at some rides while we visited other rides.  We of course visited the “It’s a small world” ride:

Animatronic presidents:

The Enchanted Tiki Room, featuring hundreds of singing robotic birds.  It’s only a little creepy:

We stayed at the Disney campground because it allowed us to stay in the park until 1AM, instead of 9pm when “normal” guests had to leave the park.  We saw the night parade:

…And rode rides until the park closed at 1AM.  Thanks to Fastpass, we managed to ride every ride in the park today except the train that goes around the park.  Trish and the kids rode all the big roller coasters while I spectated.

Leaving the park:

Tonight we’re staying in the Disney campground.

Shabbos on Sanibel Island was very nice.  We went for a couple walks on the beach, and the weather was perfect.  It’s not the busy season here right now, so the campground is pretty empty:

Sanibel Island is the best place in the US for collecting seashells, and we were not disappointed when we went out collecting before sunrise:

Within a couple hours we had collected quite a stash:

I went for bike ride across Sanibel Island.  There were no good hills to climb, but the scenery was great:

We left the island a bit after noon to head North to overnight at a Walmart Southwest of Orlando.

Sunrise over Bahia Honda Key:

It’s time to move on, so we left our campsite:

Heading Northwest, we drove along Alligator Alley and stopped for an airboat tour of the Everglades:

The facility also has a walk-through section, where plenty of alligators sun themselves on shore:

M holds the baby alligator:

We continued on to an Everglades visitor center where the kids received their Junior Ranger badges:

We also did a bike ride out to an observation tower and back.  The winds were very strong, so getting there was easy but getting back was a real slog:

We continued West to a campground on Sanibel Island, Florida.  Good Shabbos from Sanibel Island!