Florida 25

I was going to make reservations for Florida early (for me), late fall, but when the hurricane rolled through in November I didn't.  I assumed the resorts along the gulf would not be open because of the damage.  We thought about trying Ft. Lauderdale, but then didn't get around to finding a place there.  The first part of January I decided to call a couple of places that we have stayed before, just to see if by chance they had any availability. Most of the places were partially open, and as soon as a room was remodeled, they made it available.  We found a unit for the first week of February on Casey Key.

I was sick the week prior to heading south.  I spent a day in bed, and a day in a recliner.  I was mostly recovered when we left, but we decided to take our time driving down and we took the Alabama route that misses Atlanta.  We stretched it into a two and a half day drive.  We did stop at a state park to see some Florida wildlife, but weren't too impressed with it.  We made it to A Beach Retreat on a Friday afternoon.  We had a beautiful week weatherwise, and we definitely enjoyed relaxing. 

 

 We enjoyed the fellowship in Sarasota church on Sunday, and Glen and Joyce had us for breakfast one morning with John and Jeannie, and Marilyn.  We also stopped in to visit Max and Mary at their very nice, new place.  But mostly we relaxed.  I walked several miles on the beach twice a day, looking for sharks teeth.  I was pretty successful, but still haven't found the big ones.  Casperson Beach Park was closed, but if you were willing to walk (I was), you could get there by walking the beach from South Broward Park.

  As is our habit, we ate out every night at a different seafood restaurant. We tried two new ones this year, Pop's Sunset Grill and Pinchers. All of our favorite restaurants were reopened following the hurricanes, so we were thankful for them.

Being fully rested and feeling good, we got on the road early for our trip home.  We missed rush hour in Atlanta, and drove until we were beyond Nashville before we stopped for the night.  It made for an easy last leg home.  We got home in time to help D#2 and S-I-L serve lunch the following day.

The first week home I bought a new computer.  My farm software would no longer update on the old one.  I spent the week learning a new operating system and getting all my important stuff transferred to the new machine.  The second week was meeting week, which kept me busy.  Then on Friday we headed west to visit Son#2 and D-I-L in Burlington before the baby comes.  We had a nice afternoon, supper, and evening with them, then we drove to Ft. Madison for the night.  On Saturday morning we headed for Bloomfield to visit Uncle Russell.  We stopped in Cantril at the new Dutchman's Store, which is huge!  I enjoy the store, but didn't spend much money this time.

We got to Bloomfield midmorning and had a nice visit with Russ.  He has slowed down, and he will turn 100 this year.  I think he was still driving a year ago!  After our visit, Rog and Deanne took us to the Southfork for lunch.  After a huge lunch, they took us on a Davis County historical tour.  We learned where the early church members settled and saw where the first two churches were built. They are currently worshiping in the fourth church building.  They also showed us the earliest cemetery that was used by the church.  We saw the Troy Academy, the first "college" in the state of Iowa.  We also visited Brent's place, because I wanted to see the farm shop.  They certainly farm a much greater variety of farm ground out there than we do.  We had a leisurely drive home, stopping at the Milton Creamery to buy some specialty cheeses.

And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.                                   Genesis 49:15