back from down south

 

We went to Florida for March Break. It was cool. As in, average 70 degrees  farenheit. But in the sun, this felt lovely. The wind was a bit of trouble - and the water was a little too cold for skim boarding for the kids. But we managed to find warm spots and still had a lovely holiday together. By far the best day was the last day (see above). The water was perfect and shallow enough to catch the warmth of the sun. sigh. 

(yes. to the curious it might seem like the teenaged unit has begun surpassing the parental unit in height, but maybe its just sinking sand...?)

 

Jonah, of eagle-eye vision, spotted this dolphin from our boat in the inter-waterway (between the mainland and the key we were on) It was manitee season so we had to boat carefully in the middle of the waterway, on our way to an island.  Robert spotted a manitee swimming right in front of our boat - huge brown wiskered creature. 

There was a bird sanctuary on the island. 

And shells, coconuts and cactus type flowers in fushia.

there was also a neon version of fushia when we got back to our key.

We ate great food on our trip - Keagan's Seafood...

...Bob's BBQ.

American Brew. just kidding we drank Corona - at $1 a beer. What luxury.

 

Tastee Treats.

We watched the sun until it sank into the sea.

We built fortresses out of sand.

 

 certain members of the family loaded up on TSN especially during March Madness (basketball)

oi

We lounged as lizards in the sun...

 

   

and believed in false advertising  - authentic greek fishing village?

and sometimes we didn't.

most of Florida is a mixture of swamp and dry wasteland

completely dependent on irrigation and planted palm trees to maintain itself as "itself".

but we love her anyway. and are glad for the palms.

they were a part of the exotic textures we savoured

 

we posed for pictures - some knowingly,

 others not 

 

On our way back, we visited St. Augustine, Fla. the oldest European settlement in North America.

1565 - the Spaniards beat out the French. Those Spaniards totally owned the new world. 

here we discoverd secret walled gardens

                                                    and worlds within worlds

and faced dire indecision about which treasure to take home...

 while others went on a hunger strike until we got out of the store

 

because of a gag order in our contract, we were not allowed to record the result of a kids v.s parents 

volleyball game.

but I can say that a certain female kicked some teenaged butt with her power-serving. 

Ahem. can i say that?

and now for a postcard pic view from our deck.

 Where I ignored the mounting pile of work I left behind.

 Farewell Florida! 

We will visit often in our dreams.