'TILL WE MEET AGAIN--

We returned to Ohio Saturday, April 21 with mixed feelings.  It is hard to deny the fascination of sub-tropical breezes and all the pleasures unique to the Florida scene.

Yet it also is painful to be away from family and friends--especially our square dancing Johnny Appleseeds--for those four wintry months.

Now, we will enjoy rekindling our Ohio activities for the next 8 months or so and will leave the family circumstances of the Christmas season dictate our next departure date. 

Our Florida blog stories concluded with the airboat ride published April 21st.  Today we offer a little wrap-up featuring a few unpublished photos.

The pelican on the dock piling above was, itself, celebrating the arrival of morning on a piling near the Fort Pierce Causeway Bridge; that day of our recent deep sea fishing adventure.

The pelican's companion, the alligator, was found on our last visit to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, just before our departure for home.  That outing celebrated the spring break visit of Sue's granddaughter Mackenna and her friend Amber from the Cleveland area.

Thank you Sunshine State for the marvelous weather these past four months and the sensational critters who blessed our experience with their presence in many of our wanderings.

We opened the story of our trip south with a portrait of a giraffe in the Jacksonville Zoo.  That was a nice picture but it is of far greater comfort to see wild animals roaming freely.

We enjoyed seagulls everywhere.

Pelicans and turtles and crabs too.

We enjoyed the dolphins who often enhanced our mealtime views along the waterfronts.

I enjoyed the hammerhead shark who prowled about our fishing boat, reminding us of a human's real place in nature's food chain.

And then, this; on our last weekend...

...A Fairy Festival at the McKee Botanical Gardens (think Kingwood with a very tropical flavor) where lots and lots of little lads and lasses romped the grounds in the make-believe world of angel's wings and magic wands and pirate's cardboard cutlasses for the lads.

Some older princesses got into the spirit of the day too like the lady above with her colorful arrangement of garden cuttings serving as her angel's wings while she tends to her photography chores.

Yes, thank you Florida.

The camper's modest storage fee is paid and it will rest on our spiffy lot until we next grapple with the thorny question of abandoning Ohio's usual winter discomfort and, alas, our Ohio families and friends for our third season of snow-birding in the sunny south.