Trip to Treasure Island

Sorry, no pirates.

Jeff and I took a long weekend to recharge at his uncles' place on Treasure Island, FL. I planned to do nothing the whole time, and that's pretty much what happened.

This is the view from the balcony, where I spent most of my time:

That's the Gulf of Mexico there. We started every morning with a walk on the beach. If I made the effort to look over the balcony the other way, this was the view:

That's the Intercostal Waterway. Lots of pelicans.

Compare & contrast

What I was looking at a little over a week ago:

What I'm looking at now:

Feel free to discuss.

One of the things I like to do when I go to California is to go to botanical gardens (luckily, wormie enjoys that, too). I like seeing plants I don't usually get to see. Right now, these count:

Granted, very similar ones will appear in my garden soon, but right now they remind me that, despite the covering of snow and ice on my car, one day spring will come again.

And while it's supremely boring to those who live in warmer climes, I just love seeing citrus trees all full of fruit.

To me, terribly exotic. To them, something you find in the backyard. :)

California, there I went

So I was in California, visiting wormie & Lola. It was beautiful - in the 70s - every day. What did I come back to?

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON...
SCATTERED AREAS OF SNOW WILL BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD IN COVERAGE THIS EVENING. THE SNOW WILL MIX IN WITH SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN... ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 70. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF AN INCH OR TWO WILL BE POSSIBLE TONIGHT...WITH LIGHT ICE ACCUMULATIONS AS WELL.

Delightful!

I also got to see Susan (hi, Susan!), and we had lunch at Huntington Beach, on Ruby's there at the end of the pier in the above photo.

I'm back!

Did you miss me?

Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia

Did you know that you have to drive through three separate parts of West Virginia to get to Shepherdstown, WV? I didn't. But we did it this weekend to get to Ben & Joann's wedding.

Congratulations again to Ben and Joann. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and it was great to see everyone again!

For pictures of the trip, have a look here.