Christmas in Florida

Drove down last Sunday, the 23rd Dec, to visit the folk in Avon Park. Had a lovely visit, enjoying the warm, even hot temperatures (I saw one temperature display that said 91' one day, but not sure if that was accurate. Some others showed in the mid to high 80's), sunny skies and fresh salty/swampy breezes one recognizes all too well from that part of the country.  Also enjoyed taking a trip down to "Lion Country Safari", Xmas lights at the hospital, visiting with the folk

(S got a hole in one - a birthday present)

visiting our old favourite, "Highlands Hammock" etc.   C and Grandma had a wonderful time loving on each other - so sad that we live far away. I think Grandma enjoyed all the kisses and hugs,

and Grandpa enjoyed showing us photos and other things he's been up to lately. 

Lion Country Safari

C doesn't look too perturbed at being eaten by a lion!

Feeding a giraffe

My, what a lovely long tongue you have!

Riding on a camel.....

May I jump in, Mommy?

We reluctantly left them on Friday morning for the coast where we headed to the beach. The air was very warm but the water was chilly. I got in as far as my waist but C managed to swim up to her neck. S got his ankles wet! We also had fun building a dribble castle and decorating it with shells.

The next day we meandered slowly up the coast, visiting interesting places along the way - some nature reserves, and cute harbour villages: Cedar Key, and another one: Apalachicola amongst others. We even saw brightly coloured autumn trees here and there - about 2 months behind the rest of the country. It was low tide at one place and we got to see miniature fiddler crabs scuttling around. Many of them were only the size of a dime (just more than 1cm wide). I'm not sure if S got any close-up pics of them but will add them later if he did. Some of them were tenaciously guarding their wives and didn't move til we actually nudged them along. There was a whole city of crabs in that area so we didn't walk around for fear of stepping on them.
We ended up near St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park around 5pm and made the decision to camp there - it's nice to have a van we can sleep in at short notice! There were a few sites available and we found a nice one just a stone's throw from the sea. 

(The reason these two photos are dark is that they were taken at or around sunrise.)

How nice to go to sleep with the roar of the waves in one's ears. And the cherry on top was a storm that blew in just around bedtime so we got to hear the rain on the roof as well as watch a light show from the lightning. That didn't last too long - or maybe we fell asleep before it ended....

          Sunday morning we had a picnic breakfast by the boat launch and got to feed the gulls

                                                   who caught our bread offerings in mid-air.

C was, of course, thrilled. I don't know how much food actually got down her own throat though.
So then, this week was the first of the new year - HAPPY NEW YEAR! We had 3 angels to watch this week. I'll tell you about that next time. And the time after that will be about Canaan, comparing us to the Israelites of old.