My ultimate destination...

Indian Rocks Beach, Clearwater Beach, Treasure Island Beach
or somewhere in between, ah...

Traveling music--Kokomo

If you've read Our Story from the first page of this website you'll know that I lived in Florida for five months. I absolutely loved it. 'Course, it was in the winter from January 1 to May 14 in 1995 when the temperatures are mild and pleasant. Although it was hitting 95 degrees F when I left in May. I have since been to Florida during August and July and know how the heat cloaks you like an incessant nightmare, but I still love the place. There is something in the air there that appealed to my whole being. Something that lent itself to relaxing my whole soul, mind, and spirit--a continued feeling of being on vacation. I could feel the beaches are out there, and the shells and the sand and the palm trees, the whole time I was sitting inside a building doing the thing I had to do to pay the bills. I'd get myself through many a day as a temporary 411 operator by picturing myself down at the beach, lying in the shallow water, and sifting through the sand looking for more shells. A side note here. When you are visiting the gulf coast in the summer watch out for the stingrays that like to hover up by the shoreline. Do the "stingray shuffle". Shuffle your feet as you walk out into the water. They will feel you coming and move. The absolute best feature about living in Florida, in my opinion, was having citrus trees in my backyard. It's not like having apple trees. The apple trees have to be sprayed in order to get decent fruit. The citrus trees, on the other hand, that grow so abundantly in everyone's front and/or back yards don't get sprayed and yet they give out the most delectable and wonderful tasting produce. I wanted to ship them back to everyone I knew in Ohio but only sent one package after finding out how expensive it was. Even yet, I don't relish buying grapefruit the grocery store. They are just not as sweet and delectable. Breakfast was made luxurious when I was able to step outside and pick fresh pink grapefruit off my very own tree. I'd stand under the canopy of green leaves and look up at the golden yellow balls of fruit trying to spy just the right ones for that day's pitcherful of juice. There were so many of them on the tree that we couldn't eat them. We gave away as many as we could to anyone who wanted some. Even yet, I still don't enjoy a grapefruit I've had to buy at the store. It just isn't as sweet and delectable. There was also a tangerine tree in the yard. Up till that point, I had not liked eating tangerines. But this tangerine tree held the sweetest, most gorgeous tangerines I have ever had and haven't had since. I added to this bounty by planting a lemon tree shortly after we moved in. Often I think of that lemon tree and wonder if it is producing fruit by now. Another thing I loved about being in Florida was hearing birds throughout the winter. Ground doves cooed on the telephone wires all day and other various birds were chirping around. Looking up, you would see a great egret winging overhead. Every time I saw the different birds there it would impact on me again and I'd realize that I was in a new land. I liked being out of my rut. Lizards abounded, too. They would find their way into the house and our cats would play with them. I would rescue the lizards from the cat's inquisitive paws and put them back outside. When we moved to Canada, a lizard clung to one of my bookshelves all the way. I didn't know this till we set them up in our new northern house in May. I didn't know how to take care of a lizard so I set it free outside on the roof garden. I'm sure it didn't last the winter. I think about that lizard at times and if I had had Web access at the time I could have looked up "how to care for a lizard." But it was the palm trees that I grew the most fond of. Well, second to the beaches and water. Their feathery branches fascinated me. I went to the library to learn the names of these tall, graceful poles. Their names elude me now but I wistfully look at palm trees that I see in the malls now and want to be back under a real one pointing up to a real Florida sky.