Sunday, April 10, 2016

What's in Jekyll Island...

I always wanted to come here but never had the chance, but finally last week, my husband took me and the kids to this awesome place.

Our first stop was the Historic District.. if you are trying to go on a dolphin tour, you have to go to the Beachdrive Road.. Both morning and afternoon tours were booked so we had to alter our itinerary.



Such a nice place really!! A lot of kids and adults riding their bikes, literally everywhere...
Love the natural shade that the giant trees give to the tourists like us...

We heard about the Driftwood beach so we checked the place out. I love, love, love the driftwood beach... but my kids don't :) They are looking for "real" beach.


So after a quick lunch at the Beach village (we had some fried shrimp and fries at Love Shack in Jekyll market suite), we headed to Sand Dunes park (or beach).

It was low tide so we were able to walk on part of the dried up "ocean floor". My daughter collected sand dollars and small shells.




Some random "mud" kids...




After 2 hours at the beach, the sun got too hot for my hubby and I.. sorry kids... let us go back to the Historic District and wait for our tour (not until 6pm LOL)...

We took them to ride their bikes along the beachview drive.

There's even a version of "kalesa" (Kalesa: noun, a horse-drawn carriage used in the Philippines. It was one mode of transportation introduced to the islands in the 18th century by Spanish colonizers)




My son got anxious about the dolphin tour. We told him it's when the captain rings the bell and it's at 6:30pm.

After few more minutes of waiting, he was funny as he said "DING!! 6:30"... Hahaha.

But it didn't take long, our wait was over.
We spotted birds...by the bridge.


I was unable to take a single photo of a dolphin in "full" because they were too quick as they swim around us in the spot where the captain took our boat.

I did have some shots of the awesome sunset of Jekyll... ah..........



Bye dolphins, said my kids...


I love Jekyll...



Hello Okefenokee

Last spring break, we wanted to see Mema (aka grandma). Since her city is close to Okefenokee Swamp and we have never been there, we took a day trip to the famous swamp with our Mema. 

The Okefenokee is the largest blackwater swamp in North America.

We were not satisfied by what the swamp park in Waycross is to offer us so we drove farther to Folkston to the Wildlife Refuge. We had lots of detour on the way but we made it by 4pm..  

Another family spotted baby gators quick as we were driving towards inside..

Then few minutes later, we spotted a gator on the side of the road...



We wanted to go to the famous board walk. I wanted a wide and long shot of  the trees and the road, so I urged my family to drive ahead of me as I walked behind them...


Nope.. I didn't get got by the gator :)






There's a raccoon!!



If you climb the observatory (aka tree house), a pretty view of the swamp beholds you.. We did arrive at the best time of the day to be at the swamp. 

My kids peeking at their Mema from below :D


On the way back we spotted the same gator at the same spot (We were debating if it was a statue.. Mema wanted to throw a stick to test it). But judging from 2 photos, it did move or changed its angle so only after I downloaded the photos we decided the gator was real ;-)


Bye Okefenokee, hoping to come back... next time we will definitely try the boat tour to see more wildlife :)

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Downtown Atlanta Engagement - Fox Theater Engagement session - Engagement Photography

I had an amazing first downtown atlanta engagement session with these 2 wonderful people (with their friend, not in the picture, but she was great at assisting, hi Ashley). smile emoticon

 We were supposed to take photos at the Jackson street bridge too but we all got wore out from walking around downtown.
  We took photos at each stop... (Georgian Terrace, street lamp, pedestrian post, middle of the street!)


and yes... inside the restaurant... (akward moment with the server as we had to tell her we were there for the pics only, sorry about that Miss ), but this is an awesome kiss, don't you all think?, well at least i think so ;-)

  I was afraid of getting lost on the way back to my parking spot that they let me ride with them on their cool red Camaro!!
smile emoticon 
... Congratulations to the high school sweethearts Greg and Shannon.