The St. George lighthouse was relocated from the West End of the Island where it had collapsed from hurricanes in 2005. The locals gathered all of the bricks, and using the original plans rebuilt the lighthouse where it now stands in the center of the island activity.

The drive down there was not so fun due to the cries of a 16 month old baby who was tired of being strapped into a seat for 3 hours. Nora eventually fell asleep for us thank goodness. Because listening and ignoring the cries of Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy, has to be one of the toughest things a parent has to endure.

Driving there leaves you feeling like you are traveling to a place lost in time, true to the nickname of this part of Florida known as the forgotten coast. This area prides themselves on being referred to as “Old Florida”. Back before high-rises dominated the beaches and tourists still ate and shopped at local businesses, owned and operated by families who have lived there for generations.

It takes 2 long bridges to get out to the island from the mainland. Further adding to the remoteness of it all.

St. George Island is not very big, a barrier island just 28 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point. However it has three distinct regions on it. The State park on the east end occupies 9 miles, a public business area, and a private, gated and highly-exclusive community known as The St. George Plantation, complete with its own airstrip. There are some of the most expensive homes on the entire Gulf of Mexico located here and second homes to many celebrities such as Hank Williams Jr., Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and others.

View from atop one of the several walkways that traverse over the dunes at the east end of the island in St. George Plantation

I got a quick tour of The Plantation with one of the residents who showed me the highlights and even a secret spot with 3 freshwater ponds that are home to several alligator. Unfortunately they were hibernating at this time of year.

Our accommodations on the island was a rustic stilt home, yet with modern amenities affectionately called Fisherman’s Prescription. Complete with wood paneling, and even wooden ceilings, it was true to its name. Located on a small inlet of water and had a nice dock leading off the back yard it was perfect to fish from or launch a boat to go explore the surrounding coastline. I am sure the banks are swarming with trout and redfish in the warmer months. We loved the place and plan on going back to spend more time when it is warmer as this area is all about the outdoors.

During our brief stay of 2 days, 2 nights we ate at Harry A’s and Blue Parrot. Both had a great atmospheres. Harry A’s is a great beach bar with a large courtyard for live music and dancing and sure to be a lot of fun during the summer months. Worth noting is that they boast a very large selections of beers :) The Blue Parrot is more laid back. Located directly on the beach on the Gulf Side it begs you to just sit, and enjoy the scenery while drinking a margarita. I bet a sunset would be beautiful there on their outdoor patio.

The food choices were just about the same, with the Blue Parrot perhaps being a little more upscale, but basically local seafood is the basis for each menu. We only had sandwiches at both places, there were about average but according to locals it is the dinner entrees where they really excel.

Can you see the little munchkin lying on the beach? She loves to get sandy!

The spot we frequented the most other than the beaches was the Lighthouse park playground. They did a nice job building a great spot for younger kids to play and have fun. Nora thoroughly enjoyed all the fast slides.

Speaking of the beaches, St. George has miles and miles of great beach. I imagine even in the summer you would have no problem finding a secluded spot to set up. The sand was darker than Pensacola and the water not as clear, but they were still beautiful in their own right. The dunes were tall and perfect, covered in long sea oats swaying in the breeze.

One of the big selling points for us to come back is how dog-friendly the island is. Seems most rentals are pet-friendly and the beaches allow dogs in all areas as long as leashed. I am sure noone would care if you had them off-leash if they were obedient. Just make sure you CLEAN UP after your dogs. Do not ruin it for everyone.

Special thanks to Collins Vacation Rentals for the accommodations, Sea Oats Gallery for letting me shoot there, and to Rusty for taking me around the island and showing me some cool hidden places. We cannot wait to go back.

2010: The year of the Oil Spill. This Lost Sole became a source of a lot of attention for the One Shoe Diaries. It helped get over 30,000 hits in one weekend when I got featured on CNN.com because of this photo.

It started with Nora’s first New Year which just became a series of firsts for us and Nora. Nora’s first words, her first steps, her first Birthday, our first trip to Disney as a family and so on. Experiencing life as a dad is so much more enjoyable than I thought it could be. Watching Nora grow is a wonderful thing, and now I understand the addictiveness of raising a child.

We also moved into a new place and met some great new people. We did have our bike and lawn mover stolen from the new place, but we still love the location. It has been great to be within easy biking distance of downtown Pensacola.

Unfortunately with all of those highs came some pretty tragic lows. 2010 was the year the world lost one of the great people in the world, Jessie Pauline Conner, a.k.a. Nanny. Losing her makes it tough to say that 2010 was a good year :( We miss her dearly, and there is not a day that goes by without thinking of her.

We also lost a good friend of ours, Bob Quarles, whose life was tragically snuffed out at the age of 41. He left behind 2 incredible children and is missed by hundreds of friends and family. He touched more lives than he would ever have imagined.

2010 was also the year of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Not only did the oil drape a physical dark cover over the our beautiful Gulf of Mexico waters, it shrouded the entire Gulf Coast in a psychological shadow of fear and despair. We were surrounded by the realities of our friends and neighbors losing their lives from the economic impact, and we are still seeing it to this day.

But out of that disaster, The One Shoe Diaries got national attention when I became an official iReporter for CNN.com. All the positive feedback I got about the One Shoe Diaries inspired me to plan a cross country road trip for 2012, which is still on track to happen.

Several relationships started and ended this past year, and one saw its demise that directly affected us. Seeing our good friend go through it has been heart breaking. But a few of my good friends had cupid shine on them. Kevin got married, Sean got engaged, and Scooter by god had a Christmas Miracle happen and met a great girl down in Port Charlotte. Now if only Trish could be blessed with a good companion in 2011, because after hitting 40 this year, she sure is not getting any younger! *LOL* *LOL* :) (just kidding with you Trish, welcome to the club)

Luckily my business did see one of its best years somehow, and I have a bright outlook for 2011 to be even better. I am sure this year will also see its share of firsts for us and Nora. I can only hope better for this year for everyone. I hope our economy can stay on the upswing, and that maybe, just maybe, there will be a little less crime and violence in the world. I wish everyone a truly happy new year.

Here is a gallery of the Lost Soles discovered in 2010. 57 in total, averaging just slightly over 1 a week. I still find it so fascinating how many shoes get lost out there.
]]> http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/the-year-in-review-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/nora-turns-1-a-year-in-pictures/ http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/nora-turns-1-a-year-in-pictures/#comments Sat, 11 Sep 2010 13:15:41 +0000 Randy http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/?p=3744 Every parent says it, "I cannot believe it has been a year already!" and they also say, "look how big she has gotten!" I think both things as I look through her pics from birth to now. It has been an incredible journey. OI so thankful I never missed a day. By working at home I saw her wake up every day, and kissed her goodnight at the end of it. I got to see her go from a bobble head to now running around talking. She can even use a fork and even strum a guitar! Where did my baby go?]]>

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NORA! Nora not too sure about this chocolate thing yet. I am sure that will change.

Below is a gallery of selected photos from Noraslife.com over the course of the year, I hope you enjoy the innocence and joy that is a little newborn baby’s growth to toddlerhood. Perhaps it can be a bright spot on what is otherwise a gloomy day in the history of the United States, the victims of 911 aren’t not forgotten.

]]> http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/nora-turns-1-a-year-in-pictures/feed/ 2 http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/destination-deal-island-md/ http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/destination-deal-island-md/#comments Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:07:31 +0000 Randy http://www.oneshoediaries.com/blog/?p=3682 We arrived at Deal Island with a sound asleep Nora, after an hour straight of screaming. She just wanted out of the VAN! She endured 20 hours over 3 days stuck in the car seat and just could not handle another minute. So I pulled over and just by pure luck, was an upscale gated [...]]]> We arrived at Deal Island with a sound asleep Nora, after an hour straight of screaming. She just wanted out of the VAN! She endured 20 hours over 3 days stuck in the car seat and just could not handle another minute. So I pulled over and just by pure luck, was an upscale gated subdivision with the gate wide open. We drove in and stopped along the fountains at the entrance. I got out with Nora and immediately she stopped crying. She loves fountains and moving water. After holding her and rocking side to side she was out like a light, she had worn herself out. She slept the next hour, and then after we got there kept on sleeping through the night as it was 1:00 a.m. when we finally arrived.

Taken during the Skipjack races on Deal Island, MD

The girls: Tammy, Cookie, Rachie, Nora and Sharon

The next day we went out for lunch at a little seafood eatery called Beach to Bay Seafood Company just up the road from Deal Island in the small quaint town of Princess Anne. A very informal place, but nice. It has been written about favorably in many eviews and labeled as a must-stop place to eat on an eastern shore road trip. It did not disappoint. I had a grouper sandwich that was huge with a side of the cream of crab. Both were delicious. Nanny had a cup of Clam Chowder that she said was the best she ever had, and that is saying a lot as she knows her chowders.

For more stories involving Deal Island follow the links below:
Deal Island, MD, the Fountain of Youth >>
Deal Island Wind Down
Deal Island Photo gallery >>

We have decided to find creative ways to collect money to donate to a local organization, The Emerald Coast Keeper, to help do our part and clean up the beaches. So far we have collected $50 through a silent auction of a framed print of Lost Sole #359 during the recent Gallery Night in downtown Pensacola. The winning bid was placed by a Mr. Allen, who we would like to thank for chipping in his part. The print was graciously donated to us by a local photo shop, Rob’s Camera. Hopefully we can garner more donations than that, but we gotta start somewhere. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read this entry.

December 2009, Outside Magazine Cover

Of course it struck a cord with me so I wrote a letter to the editor. To my surprise a neighbor informed me about seeing my name in a magazine recently, and remembered it was Outside Magazine. I immediately went home and searched through my issue and sure enough, there it was. Just a small excerpt, but pretty cool to me nonetheless. Below is the letter I wrote in its entirety.

I just finished reading your article Foot Loose about the washed up shoes with feet in them and it struck a chord with me. This has been one of my greatest fears, that I will one day walk up to a shoe to photograph it and a there would be a foot will be still in it!

I have been engaged in producing a self-created project entitled “The One Shoe Diaries” for over 5 years now. My project has been featured on HLN and many newspapers around the U.S. The project is all about my wife and I’s adventures traveling in a motor home after losing my house to Hurricane Ivan, all the while writing a journal and connecting the stories to all of the lost and abandoned shoes we came across. We have since settled down after traveling full time for 4 years. since we stopped we have experienced the ultimate low and high of human existence. We both lost a child and gained a

Randy's excerpt is in the highlighted area

child. Our son Noah died during birth, and just 1 month ago my wife gave birth to our little girl Nora. It brought everything full circle. During all of those journeys I continued to photograph the shoes, or Lost Soles as I like to call them. Many of the Lost Soles then became connected to actual lost souls. For example. I drove by a semi-truck that had obviously just veered off the road and crashed into a tree leaving the cab completely engulfed in flames. There were no emergency vehicles on the scene yet, just passer-bys that stopped to help. Not wanting to be in the way when help does arrive we continued on. Not but 100 yards down the road lie a discarded work boot. I had already had this type of occurrence happen so I knew what I wanted to do, or feel I HAD to do. We got off at the next exit and turned to the news and learned the man had been killed I stopped and got the photo and went home and dedicated that Lost Sole to that man who lost his life. At the time his name was not released by the news media yet so I had him listed as unidentified truck driver who could have been someone’s husband, or father, but at the very least was someone’s son. Within hours I got a comment to my post. “Thanks for the dedication. The man was in fact a husband, a father and of course a son. His name was Jeffrey Pierce Rodgers.” I was stunned. This was just one in a list of amazing connections between my shoes and people passing.

When I read about the feet showing up I got chills. People have always joked about that, and I always just laughed it off. That article took my whole Lost Soles concept to another level. I want to add it was written really well and brought out the mysterious and eerie nature of the findings without being overly macabre.

This is my first letter to an editor, I just felt compelled to write because lost shoes are very personal to me, and has been my life work for 5 years. I have a complete website totally devoted to it, I have two books and done numerous gallery showings.

I hope this letter finds you well and have a great day, Thanks for your time.

Volume 1 is a about a physical journey traveling across the U.S. in a motor home after becoming homeless following a disastrous hurricane. Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off by embarking on another physical journey in the motor home but evolves more into a mental and spiritual journey involving a parents’ personal tragedy. And Volume 3 follows the struggle to get through that tragedy and find hope, eventually coming full circle with a Hollywood-esque ending. Interwoven in all the volumes are amazing stories of coincidence and serendipity that surround the mysterious lost shoes littering the highways. Many of the discovered shoes become Lost Sole dedications to actual lost souls who passed away on the same day as the shoes were discovered.

The full-color, 56 page books are all photographed, written, and designed by award-winning artist, Randall Louis Hamilton. Currently they are only available for purchase online and at gallery showings. These books must be seen to be appreciated and ebooks can be downloaded for free using the links below. Be sure to check out the interactive map of all the lost soles Randy has discovered across the U.S. plotted out utilizing GPS coordinates.

I invite you to download all three. I just ask that if you enjoy what you see and read, please buy a book. They make very unique gifts :) These books take a lot of work to create. They are true labors of love. I do everything in regards to their production: write, photograph, lay out the design, edit, everything except physically print them. Viovio.com does that for me.

And please feel free to send the PDFs to anyone you think might be interested in looking at it. Anything you can do to generate exposure for the project is greatly appreciated.

Download Volume 1: A Journey Across America, One Shoe at a Time PDF (5MB)	Volume 1: A Journey Across America One Shoe at a Time Volume 1 focuses on our journey from South Florida to Northern California after losing our residence on Pensacola Beach, Florida to Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Instead of taking it as a disaster, we took it as an opportunity to live full-time in a motor home and tour the country in search of adventure, all the while photographing all of the lost shoes we discovered. We took the southern route of I-10 through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eventually California. Over the course of the journey we encountered flat tires, small fires, running out of fuel and at times out of money. Some of the highlighted shoes were a flip flop in Pensacola, a cowboy boot in Austin, a high heel in Hollywood Hills, plus many more. We discovered and photographed over 150 lost shoes and gained an inmeasurable amount of life experience.
Download Volume 2: Friends, Family and Lost Soles PDF (5MB)	Volume 2: Friends, Family and Lost Soles In volume 2 we continued our adventures in the Cruise Master motor home by circling around the East Coast. We explored from Florida to Ohio to Maryland and back, eventually settling down back in Pensacola where the first journey began. All the while discovering more lost shoes, or what I now call, lost soles. This volume focuses a little less on the travel aspect, and more on the stories that we want to tell about the people in our lives that mean the most to us. We endured extreme highs and extreme lows during the time frame in which this volume takes place. We were shocked when we found out we had conceived a baby, which turned to elation, only to become despair when it turned into tragedy. Soon after we experienced the passing of our son, Noah Charles Hamilton, amazing and unexplainable events brought true hope back into our lives like a tidal wave. We wrote this volume despite being extremely hard to do so, in order share the experience we had to perhaps help others who have to go through the same horrible experience find hope. I would like to thank everyone who has supported us in this endeavor. It has been really fun to get all of the emails and messages about other’s lost sole experiences. Some of which have been sad, others humorous, but most of all they have enriched and reshaped our view of this world.
Download Volume 3: Lost Soles Lead to Hope Found **NEW** PDF (5MB)	Volume 3: Lost Soles Lead to Hope Found Just as the other Volumes, Volume 3 follows Sharon and Randy’s journey through life’s ups and downs. It begins with two people surviving every parent’s nightmare, to healing as a couple, eventually experiencing every parent’s greatest moment.  Along the way it dives further into the almost other-worldly connection between the lost soles and actual lost souls. I am very proud of this volume. It has so many levels to it and echoes back to experiences from earlier volumes that once seemed insignificant, but now revealed as very important events that shaped our lives. In essence this volume brings the One Shoe Diaries full circle. The ending is so perfect and Hollywood-esque, that if I had not personally experienced it and had witnessed it, I would not believe it was genuine. Following up on this Volume will be a tough act. However as evidenced in the One Shoe Diaries, life always has forks in the road. You never know what is store. Life is an adventure for sure.