Of Dolphins and Discovery

While at Hilton Head, we decided to take a boat tour to see dolphins. They guaranteed that we would definitely see dolphins. It was a cool morning, and we enjoyed sitting in this restaurant area while we waited for our boat "captain".

We boarded the "Gypsy" and it was almost an exclusive tour, except for one other family with 3 kids. They were a very nice family and we enjoyed visiting with them during the boat ride.

Look! There are 2 dolphins right out there! (Don't try enlarging the picture, because it was almost impossible to catch them on film.) We did see several, but they came up only briefly and right back under the water. Still it was very enjoyable.

On Friday, our last full day there, we went to see the Discovery Museum. It wasn't exactly what you would think of as a museum. We got there just in time to take the guided tour. It was actually more like a botanical garden atmosphere. The real purpose of the tour was to explain the importance of the marsh lands, and the various kinds of fish, etc that live in them.

They had this cage under the water and our guide pulled it up to show us these blue crabs. I made certain I wasn't within reach of their claws.

We also saw some beautiful trees, most of them were live oaks, and they had this beautiful spanish moss. We also learned about spanish moss, that it is neither spanish nor moss. It is also not a fungus. It is called an epiphyte plant, which is a plant that lives on another host plant or tree, but doesn't depend on the host plant for it nutrients. It is seen mostly on the live oak trees in the southern states. ( the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida).

The above picture shows some of the marsh grasses. I also happened to get a pic of this white herron. The guide was very informative and we learned a lot.

They had a lot of different and unique plants all along the pathways. However, I took the above picture to show my friend Rebecca, so that she can possibly avoid it in the future! (LoL).

These were just a couple examples of the many plants that were there. I've always said that everyne should learn at least one new thing every day; I definitely learned some new things at this very interesting museum.

Fun and Sun in South Carolina

(Disclaimer: This totally got messed up as to order and placement, but I just couldn't spend any more time trying to fix it. I think I kept making it worse!)

I can't believe it's been a week since my two sisters, my sister-i-law, and I spent a week at beautiful Hilton Head Island. The weather was perfect (mid to high 70's).

As you can see, with 4 of us, the car was packed. We somehow managed to take everything we needed.

There's no way to actually show in pictures or describe how beautiful the scenery was, driving through Kentucky, Tenessee, and South Carolina! We had mostly sunny days for driving and we totally enjoyed all the beauty.

We were blessed to have the use of a beautiful condo in Palmetto Dunes. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a spacious living room, kitchen dining area and a patio overlooking a pond.

We were only about a 5-10 minute walk from the beach. The ocean was beautiful! My SIL, Sheila, especially enjoyed the beach, the sound of the waves etc. All of us took some walks on the beach, and were able to find a few sand dollars to bring home.

Brenda, Sheila and I went out to observe the sunrise one morning. It was cloudy at first, and we thought it wouldn't really be exceptional, but we were wrong. (I really should have included a couple more pics of the sunrise--it was hard to choose just a couple.)

We also enjoyed the use of the pool, which was also just a few minutes walk from the condo. Even though it is an outside pool, it is heated, so with the sunshine, and warmth it was restful and relaxing.

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We watched a couple movies while we were there; also the world series and dancing with the stars. ( I know I shouldn't get hooked on that program, but I am--what can I say.) They enjoyed it with me.

I felt like a princess, with the spacious master bedroom all to
myself. A queen-size bed, a TV, a door going out to the patio. It was great! During the week, we often said we were enjoying paradise. It almost seemed that way, with the beautiful palm trees everywhere, and a great place to stay.

Besides the pool and the beach, we also took some day trips, but I think I will need to save that for another post. I was overwhelmed when I saw all the pics I had taken! We spent a day in Savannah, took a boat trip, and went to a Discovery Museum. But, that will be another day!

Psalm 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him?

Psalm 19:1 The Heavens declare the glory of God; th skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Regarding Flowers, A hubby, and Contraptions.

(disclaimer: the pictures and text would not line up like I wanted them to, so it may seem a little disjointed. In the interest of not taking any more time, it is what it is.)

A couple weeks ago (or longer), my friend Rebecca generously donated some of her plants and her time to help me do a little landscaping. The result is what I call my "Hosta Garden". (I need to get a cute statue or something to put on the tree stump).

(areas left and right of the stump)

I have two other little flower bed areas that I've wanted to get finished, but my hubby wanted to work up the ground first. Finally, yesterday, I went to buy some annuals and we were able to plant them last night.

Lynn had worked up the ground in these areas, but because of the flooding, and then the intense heat the ground was hard and had clumps of dirt. Being the semi-perfectionist that he is, he decided he needed to get out his "soil grinder" and grind up the clumps of dirt. I didn't know he even had this machine, so it was quite fascinating.

The way this works, is that you put the clumps of dirt into the bin at the top, and it grinds them up and nice fine dirt comes out the bottom. He was very excited that he was able to use this contraption to make my flower beds nice. ( Being very frugal, I think he was just as excited to think that he had purchased this machine for $20!)

These two flower beds are the result of his fine work. I had gotten some marigolds, some that are called Salvia (or Solvia)--they are purple and I thought they were pretty, and some moss roses.

Lynn usually goes with me to buy the flowers, but this time he trusted me to go get what I thought I would like. When he saw the flowers I brought home, he said "I don't think you got enough for both beds". As it turned out, we had exactly enough!

Since he had his soil grinder handy, my hubby decided to grind up some of the horse manure we had at the back of our property; he said it would be great on our vegetable garden.

Being the princess that she is, our dog, Chloe, was very much interested in this manure, and I'm sure wondered what we were doing with it!

Since we had some rain overnight, my vegetable garden and my flower beds all look very nice.

" Thank you, Lord, for giving us sunshine and rain as we need it. You are indeed the "Master Gardener".

Sun, Seafood, Sweets,Swimming, Sunsets

(Disclaimer: This is a little lengthy, so if you don't have time to read it, I certainly understand!)
As the temperatures in Indiana began to plummet to below O levels, I was fortunate enough to fly to sunny Florida to spend some time in the sun! I had the flu a few days before we left, so this was a very welcome respite.

My cousin, Nadine, has a condo in Bradenton, and so sister Lou and I were invited to spend this time with her. Her sister Carol was with us for a few days. Above is the courtyard for the condos; Nadine's condo was second from the end in the right hand corner of this picture. The pool was just to the left of the picture.

We arrived late on Sunday evening (the 6th); the next few days were cool (for Florida!) but still mostly in the high 50's and low to mid 60's during the day. Monday evening we went to the Oyster Bar for dinner with some friends in the condo next to ours--Byron and Beaetta, and Darlene (who was a neighbor of mine when we were growing up). Then we went to visit some friends who have a trailer there, Lana and her husband. Lana also grew up in Archbold.

Lou, Me, Betti, Carol, Nadine, Darlene

Tuesday we had supper at "Betti's Cafe"--a sister of Carol and Nadine; she and her husband John have a beautiful condo in Sun City Center. We had a great meal and a fun visit there.

We had supper Wednesday night at a very unique little restaurant. It is called "Jose's Real Cuban Food". It has only a few tables and some stools along the bar. We wanted to check this one out because it is going to be featured on "Deli's, Dives and Diners" on TV. They were going to be taping the program on Feb. 17th, the day we left. It was really good food and a unique atmosphere.

By now you have probably figured out that our main entertainment was food! This was called "Sonny's Real Pit BBQ". I had sliced brisket that was really good. Even better, we went for the "early bird" meal and got a great senior discount.

We had breakfast at this really cute Breakfast House Friday morning. It's in an actual house, and they have a real chef that does the cooking. Everything was not only delicious but presented beautifully.

These were called Tropical Pancakes (I think); I don't know if you can tell from the picture but they had a ring of pineapple baked into them like a wheel in the center. It also had macadamia nuts. Nadine allowed us all to taste them--yummy!

I had never had Eggs Benedict so that was my entree. It has hollandaise sauce on top and some very good home fried potatoes on the side.

This was our breakfast group. On the right is another cousin (by marriage), Carolyn. After breakfast we drove through downtown Sarasota and stopped at the Whole Food Store. It was HUGE! It even had it's own parking garage, and had every food imaginable.

Saturday for lunch we went to "Peaches". There were 7 or us cousins that were there in that same area, and we all got together for lunch. Then we went to cousin Ruth's trailer, as I had never seen it, and we had dessert there.

Sunday was probably the most interesting day for me. We went to church Sunday morning on the "Chapel on a Boat". It was a very pretty chapel inside. The pastor was kind of young, but had a good message. After the service we had time to go out on the deck and enjoy the sunshine.

(An inside view of the chapel)

There were eight of us that went to church together--the 4 from our condo, our 3 neighbors, and Carolyn.

We went to the Oyster Bar for lunch. Lou had her Valentine's dinner, as she had the special--lobster stuffed with crab meat and even some fried shrimp as well. They have an appetizer called "onion straws" which are very, very thin fried onions. We all shared some!

Sunday evening we went to the church that Carolyn normally attends. They had a special singing group, The Sarasota area Mennonite Men's Choir. We got there 30 minutes before it started and just barely got seats. I think there were probably about 1200 people there. There was also a string quartet made up of 4 sisters; they played before the concert started, during the offertory, and accompanied a couple of the men's songs. They were so good! Two of them were twins who are juniors in high school. They were amazing. The men's choir was also excellent.

Monday evening we went to a buffet at "Sweet Tomato". They have all kinds of salad, soups, potatoes and desserts. Once again, I ate just a little more than I should have.

Tuesday night we went to Anna Maria Island and ate at the "Sandbar" restaurant. This is a view of the restaurant from the beach. We got there before our reservation so went to the beach.

After our dinner we went back out to the beach and watched the sunset. Pictures never seem to really capture the beauty of things like this.

Wednesday night we again went to the Island (Holmes Beach) and ate at this little "shack" called "Skinny's". It's not real big and we ate outside. But they had wonderful hamburgers, and after having seafood several times, it was a welcome treat.

Of course, after our burgers, we went out to the beach and again watched the sunset. It was a beautiful evening, with very little breeze and was very relaxing.

NOW, what did we do besides eat? Went for walks, laid out by the pool and swam, read books, watched some TV, visited a lot, pretty much just rested and relaxed. After the first few days, and one sort of rainy day, it cleared up and was beautiful weather the rest of the time--mostly low 70's.

I would not be telling the whole story, if I didn't mention "Sweetberries". It is a frozen custard place that has soft ice cream and concretes, and I think we were there at least 3 times. I know one time we made it our supper stop and also had a sandwich.

What I can't seem to figure out is, why wasn't I able to stay on my diet and lose a little weight? What a mystery!

A Welcome Respite

Webster defines "respite" as: "a temporary intermission of labor, or of any process or operation." I am retired, so I am able to rest and relax at times. However, my hubby still works full time, takes care of our farm house and grounds as well as helping his daughter with hers, and spends a lot of time working (repairing equipment, etc) for the radio ministry in Haiti. So he really needs an occassional respite.

Last year, for our anniversary trip, we went to Chain O' Lakes to a cabin like this. I wasn't crazy about the idea, as you take all your own food, supplies, dishes, linens etc. But we went, and I enjoyed it, and he got some much needed rest.

So this year, I suggested that we do this again. (What was I thinking?) Last year we went the last weekend of October (our anniversary is Nov. 5) and it was very cold the entire time. The cabin is heated with a wood stove. So this year I suggested we go a little earlier.

Kitchen

We got there last Thursday afternoon, and it was warm, so much so that I needed a fan to be comfortable. But Saturday morning we woke up about 5:00 am and were very cold! So we started a fire, and kept it going the rest of the weekend.

Lynn began to relax, and actually slept quite a bit Thursday evening, and Friday. By Saturday afternoon he was beginning to feel more energized again, and worked on some electronics projects he had brought with him.

Friday for lunch we drove in to Churubusco, about 12 miles, and had lunch at this little restaurant. It was really good food, a really good price, and we took some left overs back with us. We then went to the Churubusco library, so that I could get my "computer" fix. I checked e-mails and blogs and facebook. He enjoyed reading a magazine while we were there.

I spent my time doing some Bible study, reading, working sudoku puzzles, and taking walks. This is a side view of our cabin. You can't really see it very well, but it has a screened in porch along this side, with a porch swing, and I spent some time out there during the day when it was warmer, reading and enjoying the fresh air.

These are the steps going down from our cabin to the lake. I was going to count them but never did. There are at least 30-40 steps, so I was able to get my stair-stepping activity.

The lake was beautiful. Sometimes when I was down there, the sun was shining on the water, and it was just very peaceful. I loved just feeling the quietness and peacefulness of it all.

I enjoyed my walks as well. However, the trees were not very pretty or colorful. They were already dropping a lot of their leaves. My hubby explained that this is because of the dry weather we had. (Since I've been back, I also heard someone on TV say the Indiana trees would not be very colorful because of the drought.)

I did manage to find a little bit of color here and there. So it was a restful time, as well as time to talk, discuss and reflect on various things.

Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give your rest."