Falls of the Ohio State Park

Mother Nature has quite the imagination, does she not? Take Falls of the Ohio State Park in southern Indiana, for example. With the buildings of the Louisville skyline casting a shadow across the Ohio River, and gigantic barges floating by transporting many of life's modern conveniences, here you'll find acres and acres of fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old. Such a contrast.

I wrote about my family's experience there at Visit Indiana's Indiana Insider blog, as well as Travel Mamas. A while back, I also shared this picture of the Lewis and Clark monument found at the park. We had a wonderful fall day there examining the beauty of ancient history (the kind that Mother Nature herself creates).

Beautiful Terrain:

Amazing Fossils:

The Mighty Ohio River:

If You Visit:
Falls of the Ohio State Park
201 W. Riverside Drive, Clarksville, Indiana (Just off Exit 0 on I-65.)
Admission to the Interpretive Center is $5 for adults and $2 for kids.
Open Monday-Saturday, 9-5 and Sundays 1-5.
Insider's Tip: There's a play area in the Interpretive Center, but it's easy to miss. Consider taking turns watching the kids with another adult so that you can spend more time learning from the exhibits. 

This post is a part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Guest post at Travel Mamas

Things might be a little quiet around here this week, as the arrow is battling another stomach virus. Yuck.

To tide you over until we're feeling well again, check out my guest post at Travel Mamas about a day we spent in Southern Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky.

And last week I had a guest post at Go Big or Go Home about the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Thanks to Colleen and Traci for the chance to invade their sites for a little while!

Fort De Soto Park

A real highlight of our recent trip to Florida was the morning we spent at Fort De Soto Park. Located in Tierra Verde, Florida, it's just minutes away from St. Petersburg and Tampa. It has been named America's top beach by Trip Advisor and others, and it really is spectacular. My favorite aspect is the miles of uninterupted shoreline. No buildings, no traffic, just gentle waves lapping at the edges of the sand. It's beach life the way Mother Nature always intended it to be.

I had lofty intentions of being pretty active during our morning there. I wanted to rent bikes and tour the fort itself, in addition to playing on the beach. Fate intervened though--the small bike rental place didn't offer a kid's seat or trailer for the arrow, and the Fort is currently closed for renovations. There are worse places for your plans to go bust, I can assure you of that. Instead, we spent two hours playing in the sand, splashing in the water, and hunting for seashells. Here are a few of my favorite photos:

I know it looks like we had the place to ourselves. There were plenty of people visiting the park, but it's large so everyone tends to spread out. We visited between 9-11 a.m. on a Sunday, so I'm sure arriving early helps, too.

If You Visit:
Fort De Soto Park
3500 Pinellas Bayway S., Tierra Verde, FL
Admission to the park is free. Depending on how you get there, you'll likely have to pay a 35-cent toll to cross the bridge to get to the park. (That's not a typo. Really. 35 cents.) According to the website, the Fort will re-open sometime this month.
Insider Tip: The park is relatively serene and undeveloped, but there is a snack bar and gift shop that sells beach supplies and lunch fixings. If you're not traveling with small children and want to rent bikes, you'll find that near the snack bar. There is a great paved trail that runs throughout the park. And most of the parking areas scattered around the park have a restroom and picnic shelter.

This post is a part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

The Bricks of Ybor in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida

When planning a trip, I tend to spend a good chunk of time researching dining options (which has more to do with my love for eating that it does my love for trip planning). I find that if I don't have some good restaurant recommendations, I'll just flounder around and retreat to the closest place because I'm so hungry. Now that we have the arrow along with us, it's even more important to do a little investigating so we don't end up at some chain restaurant or where kids might be frowned upon.

A couple of months before our trip to Florida, I started following the Tampa Bay area's tourism bureau on Twitter. Their staff often answers questions from travelers via Twitter, so one evening I filled out the form and asked for a few restaurant recommendations. I think my only parameters were kid-friendly and independent. They sent back a few ideas, one of which was Bricks of Ybor, a great spot in lively Ybor City. Our lunch there turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip.

Walking toward Bricks of Ybor

Bricks is an interesting spot: part bar, part coffee shop, and yet it had a very complete menu. For lunch, Bricks is a good choice for sandwiches and lighter fare. My husband ordered the Derby sandwich (our waitress said it's one of their most popular dishes), and I had the Portabelly (I have a love affair for portabello sandwiches, so I'm sure this won't be the last you hear about that on this blog). These sandwiches were delicious--healthy, yet filling, with some unique flavor combinations. Bricks has a kids menu, although there were plenty of things off the regular menu that the arrow would have loved. Bricks even has a peanut butter bar!

Derby sandwich at Bricks

Portabelly sandwich at Bricks

A big reason (besides the delicious food) that we liked Bricks was because it was "adult." Hip staff, trendy neighborhood, bar offerings, etc. In fact, I think it's owned by a skateboarding business. It was the type of place we would have gone to often pre-arrow (if we lived in Tampa, of course). But inside, it's light and airy and very casual, so we never felt uncomfortable dining with a toddler. When I got up to use the restroom in the back of the restaurant, I saw that they had a play area, complete with a few toys and games. This area appears to become a stage in the evening hours. I'm all about kids learning to behave in restaurants, but I also think that getting to play for a few minutes while your parents pay the bill never hurt anybody. So that's exactly what the arrow got to do (on a super cool rocking horse!)

Now if we could just get the arrow to start pronouncing the "r" in fork (which he proudly yells out everywhere we eat), we might be ready for 5-star dining.

If You Visit:
Bricks of Ybor
1327 E. 7th Avenue, Ybor City, FL
Opens at 11 a.m. daily
Insider Tip: I don't see it listed on their menu, but order the potato salad as your side. It was jam packed with feta cheese and I wanted to lick the bowl. Too bad my husband ordered it and didn't let me.

This post is a part of Wanderfood Wednesday at Wanderlust and Lipstick.

Kidscommons in Columbus, Indiana

I've been on a roll lately with posts about children's museums. (I've chronicled our day at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis here, here and here.) Without a doubt, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis ranks pretty high on our list of favorite outings. Children's museums in general are a great option in the winter months.

We're really lucky to have a children's museum right here in Columbus, called Kidscommons. While it's not nearly the size of Indy's museum, it is still full of all sorts of fun and could easily hold the attention of kids of all ages for several hours. I wrote about Kidscommons last week at Visit Indiana. It is an ideal spring break destination for Hoosier families on a staycation (or anyone passing through town--it's minutes from Exit 68 on I-65.)

Even though this museum is just down the street, I had been waiting to take the arrow because I thought he might be a little too young. I shouldn't have worried: the entire first floor is a toddler paradise. He could pretend to plant wooden flowers and roamed the floor with a watering can... I can already imagine he'll be my little helper in the yard this spring and summer!

The first floor also features this adorable Japanese house. Here the arrow could prepare a sushi dinner and serve it in an authentic Japanese dining room. He loved that he got to take his shoes off!

The second floor features the museum's two most popular exhibits: Bubbleology, a really fun "bubble" room, and ExploraHouse, which teaches kids about the inner workings of a home. ExploraHouse is well known for the gigantic toilet slide. (If you want to read more about the toilet, head over to the Go Big or Go Home blog, where there was recently a post about this very toilet.) The arrow was a little too young for the toilet, but maybe someday we'll celebrate potty training success with a visit!

The top floor had lots of athletic games and exhibits designed to get kids moving. I thought I might have to drag my husband out of there (notice the arrow begging for a turn!)

Kidscommons a great option for playdates, because its open floor plan means moms can station themselves strategically to keep an eye on the kids but also get some adult conversation. I'm hoping to go back in a few weeks when my sister, niece and nephew are on spring break. It's already clear to me that for as long as we live in Columbus, Kidscommons will be a haven for family fun and a place we can make many memories.

If You Visit:
Kidscommons
309 Washington Street, Columbus, IN
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10-5 and Sunday, 1-5
Admission: $6 per person (kids under 18 months are free)
Insider Tip: Flip through Columbus Parent and print out the $2 off coupon!
Kidscommons does not have a cafeteria. I recommend visiting Zaharako's (right next door) for lunch or dinner after a trip to the museum.

This post is a part of Mondays Are For Dreaming at The Mother of All Trips, where Mara is also dreaming of spring break adventures close to home.

Wandering around downtown St. Petersburg

One thing I love about visiting the Tampa Bay area of Florida is that while you have gorgeous beaches and beautiful weather, you also have a few cities to explore. For me, a city lover and a nature enthusiast, that's a really great combination.

So we spent a leisurely Saturday morning wandering around downtown St. Petersburg. Here are a few highlights:

One of my favorite features of St. Petersburg is the long stretch of parkland that separates the big buildings from the water. Parks make exploring cities with a toddler so much easier and more fun, because you can get them out of the stroller to run free for a while. My husband and I fell for this giant old tree. I can only imagine how much needed shade it has provided families on hot Florida afternoons. I already want to return and plan a picnic lunch.

The Dali Museum

If the weather hadn't been so gorgeous (and we hadn't been so sun-starved after a long winter), I would have loved to visit the new Dali museum. But this was as close as we got. The building itself looks pretty spectacular, though (it's the glass dome in the background).

St. Pete Pier

As you walk toward The Pier, you can get fairly close to many of the boats lining the marina. The arrow is deep in that phase of boyhood where planes, trains and automobiles fascinate him. We can officially add boats to the list now, too.

But alas, a boat ride will have to wait, as downtown St. Petersburg was just too much excitement for our little guy.

This post is a part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Traveling with an iPad

We've only had our iPad* for a few months, and I already can't imagine life without it. Which is probably a real testament to this device, because despite having a blog and now an iPad, I'm really not very techie. If you saw my cell phone, you would think we had all traveled back in time to at least 2001. We have found the iPad to be particularly helpful while traveling--it is a source of entertainment, our GPS, and a "let's look that up" device while on the road. Someday I'll do a post on favorite iPad apps while traveling (I'm still in research mode on that), but until then, I'll give you a sneak peak at how we put it to use entertaining the arrow during last week's flight.

While he's usually pretty happy to look at books or color while flying, our return trip fell during his usual naptime. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to curl up on our lap and doze off on this trip, so it was nice to have something with which he could still relax and settle down. My husband and I even got to indulge in some adult conversation while the arrow was singing along with his buddies from Yo Gabba Gabba. I call that a win, win for everyone.

This post is a part of You Capture at I Should Be Folding Laundry. This week's theme is technology. I'm also linking up to Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries.

*Amazon affiliate link.