anastasia state park
Our hike consisted simply of walking a little over 2 miles north along the water's edge looking for shells, jellyfish and horseshoe crabs and then coming back along the dunes scouting for sea turtle nests. We had turned on the mapmyhike app to get the exact time and mileage, but it didn't seem to be working for us that afternoon so no such luck. There is also a marked hike (Ancient Dunes trail) through the mangrove hammock and dunes (which you should definitely do!), but it was so hot that we decided to skip it and stick to the beach where there was a breeze.
summer stargazing
I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone who has even a slight astronomical interest. We used SkyView and Star Chart, but there are a ton of options. Ellison prefers Star Chart, but Trevor and I prefer SkyView (pictured below). They're both user-friendly, but I like the fact that with Star Chart you can just point the phone at the sky and up pops all sorts of information about stars, planets, constellations and satellites. The screen isn't too cluttered, making it easier to identify exactly what you're viewing, it works well for kids and beginners (that's us!) and also has soothing background music that gives your stargazing a kind of planetarium feel. Perfect. If you're in to planetariums, that is.
"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television."
— Paul Hawkens, Commencement address, University of Portland, 2009