Back to Reality

I’ve taken a little break from blogging the last two weeks.  I had several quilts to finish for some deadlines, then I was out of town for a week, and I’ve spent the last couple days playing catch-up.   My husband had a trade show in Orlando, so I decided to go with him.  We almost didn’t make it out of town.  We left during the beginning or a huge snowstorm.  I kept thinking our flight was going to be delayed.  They loaded the plane and we took off from the gate.  It was a total white out all around us.  It took them about 30 minutes to de-ice the plane.  Then the captain announced that they had to plow the runway for us to be able to take off.  Despite all of that, we did get off the ground.    Some areas in the Twin Cities got up to 20″.  My Dad said he has never cleared so much snow off his drive way.  I have never been so happy to get out of Minnesota!

Down in Florida, we stayed at Disney’s Coronado Resort.

Joel was in meetings pretty much the entire time – day and night.  So, I spent my days sitting by the pool, eating bonbons for two days.  Actually, there were no bon bons as any snacks from the resort cost an arm and a leg.  That didn’t really seem like an even trade for some chocolate, and I really love chocolate.

They had two pools, so I could change up the scenery every so often.  Can you guess which is the quiet pool?

I’m sooooo not used to sitting around all day, so I got really bored just hanging out by myself all day.  I’m sure you feel really sorry for me!  I did get lots of knitting done though.

The setting really was beautiful . . .

and the weather was perfect.  Every single day was beautiful, sunny, and just the right temperature.  That is so rare in Minnesota, that I was just in awe of the weather.

After Joel’s trade show was over, we rented a car and drove south to Punta Gorda.  Joel’s parents are newly retired and rented a house there for the month.  The house was located on one of the canals and has this lovely view.

 We invited ourselves over and spent a few days exploring the area with them.

This little island that we visited was called Gasparilla.  The island was so quaint ~  I loved all the flowers and the beach houses . . .

It is a quiet island, with little traffic, just a few shops and restaurants.  No mobs of people, just slow-paced and relaxed.

Oh, and beautiful beaches.

The boys enjoyed fishing off this beach.

The world record hammer-head shark was caught off this beach, though mackerel was the catch of the day.

We had some company that was after the boys’ catch . .

Back in Punta Gorda, we found a spot to watch the sunset.

We get beautiful sunsets back in Minnesota in the summer, which means I haven’t seen anything like this for about 5 months.

We made a quick trip down to the Everglades for an air boat ride.

We had hoped to see some gators on our ride, but this is all we saw there.

On the drive home, we noticed that the other side of the road was a nature preserve and was loaded with alligators.  We couldn’t get close enough for a great picture, but at least we saw some.  This one was HUGE!

On our way back, we stopped at Marco Island.  I loved this little island too.

It was so beautiful and pretty swanky.  We discovered that it was a great spot to go shelling.

The beach was just covered with shells, especially right by the shoreline. 

Time to head back home. . .

Back to reality

But at least I can afford the bon bons here!