Creepy Crawler Bug!!

So I was just sitting out on the front porch with the computer checking my e-mail. I glanced up to the walkway and saw this big bug coming towards me. Having never seen this particular kind of bug before, I wanted to catch it so I could show Joe and see if he knew what it was. I ran inside, grabbed a glass jar and came back outside and he was gone. A few seconds later he came back out from the grass onto the walkway, so I acted swiftly and trapped him in the glass jar. Meanwhile, waiting for Joe to come home I did some researching online and found out he was something called a cow killer. Joe came home, looked at the bug and confirmed what I now knew. He said that's a cow killer! The first he has ever seen in the state. Usually they're only in Florida.
While I was online,I found out....Red velvet ant or "cow killer" The females are wingless and are sometimes mistaken for a large, hairy, orange and black ant. These "ants" are actually wasp! A solitary wasp, the velvet ant does not live in colonies or have a "nest". They are found crawling through lawns, digging around soil, or even in garages where they have wandered in by accident. Velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape from you. The females have a very painful sting if handled. The name "Cow Killer Ant" was given to the velvet ant because of the reputation of the female's sting. It is said that the sting is so painful that it could kill a cow. This handsome insect does make a sound (especially when stepped on) but the squeaks of the cow killer ant would hardly be heard over the painful screams, if the person stepping on the wasp was barefoot.

P.S a week later I caught another one in our yard. So it seems like they're migrating to North Alabama, so be careful when you walk outside barefoot.

Our Special Spot!

These pictures show the spot where Joe proposed to me three years ago.

More pictures in the park!

Here are some of my favorties that we took that day!

Pictures in the Park!

My sweet friend took these pictures of us at Big Spring Park.
Thanks Becki!

Vacation Adventures Part Four!

Two months later and we're finally finishing our vacation blog....
Last full day at the beach and we decided to spend the whole day actually at the beach. Dad bought a canopy to set up at the beach to use for shade, so we decided to set it up and spend the day down at the beach. Setting it up was a lot more troublesome than we thought it would be since it was a cheap kind. We followed the directions putting the poles together, then throwing the roof on top, then trying to erect it. We were doing ok until we tried to raise it up. The wind would start grabbing the top, blowing it causing the poles to come undone. We tried to fix those poles, then the poles on the other side would come undone. When we tried to fix those, the poles in the middle would come undone and the roof would try to blow away. Eventually Joe figured this was a lost cause and gave up and put it away. While putting it away a gentleman from Missouri walked up and thanked us for his entertainment. He said he was watching us to see how far we would go before giving up. He said the day before, his brother's family had tried to put the same kind of canopy together but didn't give up so soon. Eventually they got it together, then a big wind gusted and sent the canopy tumbling down the beach. He said we made the smart move by giving up early. This gentleman then offered us the use of one of his spare beach umbrellas and he set it up in front of the ocean. How nice of him. It's good to know that there are still nice people in the world.
It was a nice day. Joe brought down the inflatable raft and floated in the surf. Amber tried to read her book on the beach, but kept getting distracted because she thought Joe was going out too far. Which he thinks he wasn't. It was really fun. Maybe next year Amber will go out on the raft with him. The rest of the day we just relaxed at the beach, at the pool, and the hot tub. We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner at a restaraunt with mom and dad.
Last day... the trip home. We came home the scenic way, taking the ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island. While we were waiting for our ferry, we toured Fort Morgan at the very tip of the penninsula. It was considerably smaller than Fort Pickens but had the same combination of Civil War and WWII technologies. Pretty much a miniture version of Fort Pickens. The ferry was fun, a good experience for Amber who had never been on a ferry before. We got to see all the oil and gas rigs in the bay as we passed them. And we watched the seagulls and pelicans as they fished in the ferry wake. Before we knew it we had arrived at Dauphin Island. We drove around the tip of the island and saw Fort Gaines and the Dauphin Island sea lab. Joe went there when he was in sixth grade with his school class. Ahh memories...
Driving back home we once again went off the beaten path and drove through Alabama's blackbelt area. We went to Old Cahawba, site of Alabama's first capital and now a ghost town. Of course we got there right as they closed, so we couldn't see a couple of the more interesting ruins since they were behind padlock barbed-wire topped fences. Holy cow! Why do they need such security for a few pieces of old stone? I guess it's a testament to the area and the crime rates. Nearly out of gas, we stopped a passerby to ask him the quickest way to Selma, and he gave us directions in exchange for a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet. Too bad we didn't have a Book of Mormon to give him at the time.
Driving through Selma was interesting... we kept our doors locked the whole time. We found the historic bridge where a famous civil rights march took place and took a picture of it, then ran back to the car and locked the doors behind us. Hate to sound like a racist, but we felt like we were in the ghetto the whole time. We got gas and got out of there and headed home. It was a nice scenic drive, driving along the back-road highways. We hit the interstate just south of Birmingham, ate yummy Cracker Barrel for dinner and came home. Can't wait to go back to the beach again next year!

Vacation Adventures Part Three!

Oysters....mmmm, what a lovely way to start the day. We had to make sure we got our fill of oysters on this trip. That was half the reason for coming. We went over to Pensacola today to see Fort Pickens. All through this trip Amber has been learning her Civil War history. There is tons of Civil War and World War II history all along the Gulf Coast. Joe had been to Fort Pickens once before as a Boy Scout. There are a number of forts guarding the bays along the Gulf Coast and Fort Pickens is the biggest and most interesting of all. On the way there, just past the Fort Pickens park entrance it was strange to see that alot of the beach parking lots off the road were submerged under water and sand. We were trying to think if there had been any storms lately to cause the road to flood. Also the campgrounds and the stores were closed and boarded up, how strange.
We got to the fort and noticed that there was a diesel generator outside the visitor center. We toured the fort, and learned about the battle of Pensacola Bay, that never was. This fort is interesting in part because it was built for the Civil War, then used again in World War II, so it was a mixture 1800's and 1900's technology. It was also interesting to see that part of the fort had been blown up and was missing due to a fire that got to the powder rooms. Oops! I'd hate to be the one responsible for that mistake. Walking around the fort got us really hot and Amber was ready to go, while Joe wanted to explore more. So I guess it was time to go. We bought a couple souveniers and found out that the fort had just opened a week before. It had been closed since Hurricane Ivan hit..... 5 years ago. Wow, guess that explains the submerged roads and closed up stores on the way here. They didn't even have water and electricity yet, which is why they had a diesel generator powering the gift shop. What timing! It's a good thing we came this week instead of last week.
On the way back to the condo, right before crossing the forever long bridge over Pensacola Bay, Amber started screaming because a spider decided to drop down from the rear view mirror to say hi. Of course he had to make himself known right as we started crossing the bay. We couldn't find him, hopefully he enjoyed the ride. We haven't been down here since the hurricanes, so a couple of things were different since the last time we were here. The biggest thing we noticed was that the old Pensacola Bay bridge next to the current bridge that used to be open as a fishing pier was now in pieces and was creepy to watch as we drove alongside it. There were sections of the bridge that were intact, but there was a majority of the bridge that looked like the sections had been picked up and dropped like lego blocks. We guess that happened when the storm surge came into Pensacola and made the water rise really fast, picking up sections of the bridge with it.
We got back to the condo and there was a beautiful sunset on the horizon. We couldn't miss this moment so we ran out to the beach where we could get a good view of the sunset so we could take pictures of it. After taking the pictures, Joe noticed how beautiful Amber was in the light of the sunset. So he had to get some pictures of her of course. Much to Amber's surprise Joe got into a romantic mood. We decided to go for a little walk on the beach to the dunes away from people, and did some kissie kissie smoochie smoochie on the beach in the light of the sunset. Yep Joe can be romantic sometimes.
On our trip, we promised Amber's little cousin, Brianna, that we would find some cute little sea creatures and take a picture for her. We went crab hunting after the sun went down. We've never looked for crabs at the beach before, but we see people doing it all the time with their flashlights, buckets and nets, and figured how hard could it be? At first we didn't know where to look for them. Do we dig holes? Are they down by the water? Or are they up closer to the dunes? We went down and walked along the shore sweeping with our flashlight looking for any signs of life. For the first few minutes nothing, but as we walked further down the shore, we started to see white things sitting still, and as we got closer to them they ran really fast into the surf. And as we walked, we saw more and more of these. They were crabs!!! After seeing these over and over again we started getting creeped out because we didn't realize the crabs were out in plain sight. Never again will we walk along the shore at night without a flashlight.
Trying to catch them was interesting, they're so fast. Even if you try to sneak up on one, they can still see you and they run into the surf or they disappear altogether. That got us really baffled. Eventually, we were able to catch a couple of little ones and figured out what they were doing. They were hiding in footprints where they think they're safe, even if you're hovering right over them. Another reason that we're not going to walk on the beach at night without a flashlight anymore. It was fun catching the big ones as long as we kept them in our sights and blocked them from going into the surf. We just followed them until they hid in a footprint, then captured them with a net, trying not to get pinched. We bought them inside to take pictures. Of course Joe thought he was smart and tried to pick one of the big ones up. He thought if he picked them up by the body from behind they wouldn't be able to pinch him. That wasn't the case. Man, those little things are strong! He could reach all the way back behind him and pinched Joe's finger. It didn't hurt until he found the cuticle and pinched the crap out of it. Ouch, scream, back into the bucket! We were finally able to take pictures of them by dumping him into the sink. Poor thing was scared to death. He was kinda cute in a crab sorta way. We took them back to the beach and let them go.