Jonathan's Road Trip

We now have a classroom pet......well, sort of!  While at the Turtle Hospital we adopted a resident turtle named Montel.  Due to his needed extra care, Montel lives (and will always live) in the Turtle Hospital, but the donation made helps to feed and care for him.  We will get a few updates on Mantel throughout the year, but in between updates, we can always check on Montel by visiting the hospital website at  https://www.turtlehospital.org/

  Turtle Hospital - Marathon, FL Having an early release day due to snow means that distance learning has an early release too.  For me, that meant that we were able to do a little more exploring earlier in the day.  Today we drove about a half hour north to Marathon, Florida which is a city that stretches over a few different Florida Keys.  In Marathon there is a Turtle Hospital.  The hospital is for the purpose of rescuing sick or injured sea turtles and rehabilitating them with the hope of releasing them back into the ocean once they are well.  The Turtle Hospital offers tours and today we took a tour and learned a lot about sea turtles. Some things that cause a sea turtle to become sick and need rehabilitation are intestinal problems due to eating things such as plastics that are in the water, injuries due to getting entangled in fishing gear, a collision with a boat, or an illness that causes the growth of tumors on the turtle. The Turtle Hospital is just like a real hospital in t

My "classroom" Although I miss my friends at Tariffville and my two cats at home, I am enjoying doing distance learning for a little bit because I can be outside in the warm weather.  The rental house where we are staying has a screened in porch and it is fun to be "in school" on the porch, so I can watch the pelicans nearby. A pelican visitor Today, my mom suggested getting changed into my bathing suit on one of my breaks so that when it was lunch time, we could walk down to the lunch for a quick swim.  Talk about a fun recess! We chose to swim over my lunch break Cats on gate to Hemingway House After school, we went back to Key West so that we could tour the Ernest Hemingway House.  Ernest Hemingway was a very famous author.  To be honest, I normally don't like these kinds of (house) tours, however everyone in our family was very excited about seeing the Ernest Hemingway House because of the cats! (In fact, we were so excited that my mom forgot to take a pictu

My dad relaxing with his morning coffee Since Tuesday was still part of our long weekend and we were off of school, my mom decided that it would be a great day to do  a little exploring.  Before we took off on our adventure, we celebrated Mardi Gras - an annual carnival celebration that has large parties and parades in New Orleans, Louisiana.  For breakfast, my mom made us, beignets - a yummy treat (similar to fried dough or donuts) that is popular in New Orleans.   New Orleans Beignets Happy Mardi Gras! After a quiet morning, we drove a half hour to go to Key West.  Key West is the most southern of the Florida Keys and is actually the southernmost point in the continental United States as well. Additionally. Key West is only 90 miles from Cuba. Due to Key West's proximity  to Cuba, through the years tens of thousands of Cubans tried to flee Cuba and enter the United States as refugees.  The Cuban refugees were leaving their country due to very difficult living conditions and a ver

Day #4 route   Finally, today was our last day of travel (at least for a while).  Today we drove 400 miles from Daytona Beach, Florida to Cudjoe Key, Florida.  Cudjoe Key is one of the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys are a string of tropical islands that stretch off the southern tip of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In the morning, as we left our hotel, I asked my mom to take a picture of me near the local grocery store.  I thought it was kind of neat to see a Winn Dixie store, since Mrs. Drinan just finished reading that book to our class.  Down south, there are actually a ton of Winn Dixie stores. Winn Dixie grocery store! Before we drove off the mainland of Florida, we passed by Miami.  Miami is the largest big city that is closest to the southern tip of Florida (before reaching the Florida Keys).  We plan on exploring a little of Miami after we leave the Keys. Miami skyline Next, south of Miami, but just before the bridges out to the Florida Keys, we pas

Day # 3 route Day three was another long day of travel with 422 miles between Myrtle Beach, SC and Daytona Beach, FL.  It was also very rainy - even MORE rainy than it was the day before. My mom was sort of disappointed because there were some very nice cities (Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA) on our route that she hoped to explore for a little bit, but it was literally downpouring.  Just like we did the day before, we made the best of our day and saw what we could from the car. Rain all day One thing that was pretty cool to see was that we were now far enough south the have palm trees all over the place.  As we were leaving the hotel in the morning, I saw what I thought was a baby palm tree,  My mom thought it might just be a certain type of palm tree that only grows to a shorter height, however we are not sure if she is right or if I am right.  Either way, the "baby palm tree" was just as tall as I am.  An extra bonus to the day is that it was Valentine's Day.  My mom p