Wandering Knapps

This was by far the best excursion we did with the kids in Clearwater!  Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise. We weren't sure about it at first, because it was more expensive than other excursion. Which is you are staying in Clearwater, no need to plan anything ahead of time, just walk down the the marina across from Pier 60 and walk the deck to see which excursion you and your family would like. We did a dolphin cruise as well, and plan on going back to take a cruiser out on our own, which the offer. But if you are one that likes to plan ahead, click on the link above and book your cruise!    As you board the ship they will take your family photo, which they offer to you in a frame at the end of the cruise for $25, it's a little pricey, but just get it. I am so grateful for that awesome pirate frame and my family photo!  The crew's shipmates are in character the entire cruise and even yell speeches at you while waiting to board.  Once on ...

We love to travel and road trip. Each place we go we would love to get on the lake, ocean or local wet spot! So we were discussing what we should do? Go camping and buy a canoe? Buy a ski boat and camp? We aren't able to afford the catamaran we want yet and sail. Nor do we have anywhere to keep it.... we live in Texas y'all. There isn't a way to sail to the Caribbean here.... so we wanted something that we can take with us on our road trips. Jolene made a random comment about just dropping anchor and camping in the boat...... Hm.... we never even considered buying a smaller cruiser. Once we started looking at what was available we quickly knew this was a great option for our stage of life, and budget. We searched all over. We went late at night to see two boats, even keeping the kids up super late to go look at a boat. (We are known for getting our kids in bed real early, so this was a shock to most people we know) Even going to eat dinner at 10 pm after seeing a bo...

  Wandering Knapps You Tube Channel  My son Carter wanted to get involved in our travel adventure and help you see what he packs to keep himself entertained. We have road tripped over 200+ hours and rarely use any sort of electronics. He starts off with a -Big 4 inch ring binder -pencil pouch (much better than pencil box for the car) -blank note books -graph paper -plastic sleeves for their drawing/creations -markers, crayons, etc -stick glue (DO NOT make our same mistake, NO liquid aka squeeze glue in the car. -scissors -calculator (you'd be amazed #1 what they learn, and how entertained they are by a $1.00 calculator) We also go to the public library and get books on cd and bought each kiddo a CD Walkman....(bringing back the 90's) Man, they think those things are the coolest thing ever. Here is a link the the exact one we bought. $15 CD Player at Best Buy We also go to Target and buy a bunch of those $5 games you see, and keep them all in a box a...

This is the one question I get asked the most out of all our adventures! Which cruise line did you like better? Royal Caribbean or Carnival? (we will go with those two, because they are the most popular and both port out of Galveston Texas, which is the closest to our home base) Let's start by painting the picture. We sailed Royal Caribbean, Freedom of the Seas Jan 2016, porting in Belize, Honduras and Cozumel. We sailed Carnival Freedom Feb 2017 making port in all the same places. We really wanted to compare apples to apples! The Boarding: Both boarding through the same port and had such a similar process there was nothing worth noting here. The Food: The main dinning room: On the Royal Caribbean we had 8 pm dinning. (which if you don't know what that is, you can choose either 6, 8 or anytime dinning. We really like having a time to eat. We enjoy sitting with the same people each night and hearing about their day and excursions. We are pretty socia...

Clearwater Florida One of American's number one beaches! It is our family favorite beach to date!  We will have a few posts about this adventure, including the hotel we stayed at and why, the places we ate, the excursion we went on and the beach/area of Clearwater Beach.  Let's start with the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Clearwater Beach Hotel and Spa Clearwater Beach Hilton Hotel & Spa The hotel has been newly renovated and sits right on the beach, with private beach access and just down the street from pier 60. This is the main reason we stayed at this hotel. We were looking for beach access as our number one priority. We truly fancy Marriott hotels, more about that in another post, but this time Hilton had the best beach access and location for our travels.  When you walked downstairs the hotel you come to either the pool on the left or the beach in front of you. The view of the beach is just spectacular, it's picture perfect. You see the b...