Returning to Missouri

Once we were out of Florida we drove up to Atlanta to visit my sister Linda.  Our one day in Atlanta was not good- rainy and cool.  We drove to the Atlanta History Center.  In the past we have visited this museum, albeit not much time in the main building, but in the out buildings and gardens.  Remember when I wrote a posting regarding the Swan House?   That is a house built in the 1930s with a swan theme in many of its rooms.  It is located on the grounds of the museum.

There is much in the museum which is more on the serious side- as it has one on the nation's largest Civil War exhibitions.  And it was very interesting to spend time with that.  However, there is a current exhibit which caught my eye.  Pictured above is a barbecue cooker, and its claim to fame is that it has a 20 foot flame.  As the museum displays says, you can choose a cooker for purely utilitarian  reasons, or you can be intentionally artistic.

 

Pictured above is a map of the states with the best barbecue places noted.  Red areas denote barbecue heaven, the orange has really good barbecue, the yellow is for those places with good barbecue or some "funky sauce ideas going on" and the white states are for "despair".

We made it back to Missouri and drove to Farmington to catch up with John's side of the family.  About a dozen of felt the need to get out and hike, and this time the weather was cooperating.  We drove to Hickory Canyon, a place which is about as scenic as Pickle Creek.  One of its main attraction is the waterfall pictured above. The canyons in this park are carved from Lamotte sandstone (from sandy beaches of a shallow ocean which existed 500 years ago according to the Missouri Department of Conservation).  The trail leading into the canyon is narrow and rocky, constantly going up and down- John and I would rate it as being difficult.

 

  After going down into the first canyon, John and several others took a path which went over the waterfall.  Following that hike another number of us, myself including this time, hiked into another box canyon nearby.   It felt so good to traipse around in that park after our long car trip and eating too much holiday snacks!

Final Notes on Florida for 2018

On the evening after we toured Legoland John and I stopped for supper and before entering the restaurant I glanced at the moon.  I just had to look at it because earlier that day I had learned that this moon was special as it was a December or Cold Moon.  It will not be for another 70 years until a full moon will happen on December 21st- the time of the winter solstice.

When we visited St.Petersburg we also returned to the Florida Botanical Garden.  It was getting close to dusk and we figured that we might as well stay in the area to see the annual Christmas light display in the gardens.  The garden and lights had changed somewhat since the last time we had been there.  Some of the flowers in the garden were quite beautiful when back-lit by the lights.  Pictured below are a floral display of orchids and calla lilies.

Upon our return trip home we chose to take a different route, with the goal of taking a look at the damage Hurricane Michael wrought to Panama City and Mexico Beach.  Driving on Highway 98 toward those areas we happened to pass by a portion of the Gulf Islands Nation Seashore.

No, that is not snow but large white sand dunes.  This park is on a long sand spit that encloses Pensacola Bay.

We knew immediately when we entered the area hit by Hurricane Michael.  Palm trees had their tops sheared off, other trees were bent almost to the ground.  Billboards stood as skeletons with their innards blown out.  Whole subdivisions of houses had their roofs covered with blue tarps.  The Port Panama Distribution Center only had its concrete walls standing.  A sign by the road directed the public to go to a local elementary school for Christmas eve services.   Quite a few utility trucks could be seen on the streets, their crews filling the nearby restaurants for lunch.  I wondered how many of those men and women had to stay in this area over Christmas so the citizens could have some normalcy return to their lives,

Legoland and Cypress Gardens

Our daughter Melissa, husband Spencer and grandchildren arrived the end of the first week that John and I were in Florida.  They had plans to go to Legoland with Spencer's parents.  Our grandson Nathan is currently very much into playing with Lego blocks.  We were against paying the steep admission price- the one day admission fee is pretty much equivalent to Disney Land or Busch Gardens.  Also rain was in the forecast for the day they were planning on going there, given all the facts John and I still decided to put out the money and go with them.

Legoland was in the Christmas spirit, as you may see in the picture above.  Do note that all the pictures I have of this resort area (there is a hotel on site) depict a variety of assemblage of lego blocks.  So this was one awesome Christmas tree.

Legos built into a variety of forms are located through out the park, as pictured above.

The park was quite busy the day we were there, given that it was Christmas break for many families.  And we observed that the demographics were young families having at least one boy between the ages of 4 to 9 years of age.  However, there were some enjoyable sights for us older adults, as lego city.  This area of the park featured cities and sites located in Florida, as well as other cities of our nation such as New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C.  While walking around this exhibit we heard bells ringing.  The beautiful music was coming from Bok Towers, which was another structure built with legos.

 

A southern belle, built out of legos, greeted at the entrance of Cypress Gardens.   This section of the gardens was built 75 years ago.  Back then it was a botanical gardens and theme park.  It closed down in 2009 and was redesigned to appeal to families with young children, and is now known as Legoland.  In this section of the park it did retain some of its features- the topiary trail, gardens of azaleas and camelias,  and a very large banyan tree.

Some paths of the gardens were closed off because of flooding, Lake Eloise along its borders was overflowing her banks.  I must say that our walk through this section of the park made our trip to Legoland worthwhile!

Revisiting Our Favorite Sites

The first week we were in Florida it was rather cool, much as we would have liked to have some beach time, that just did not sound good given the weather.  And that was all right, as there were other places which we wanted to return to visit, as central St.Petersburg.  A couple of years ago I had written about this older area of St.Petersburg and showed some of the murals which can be seen on the outside walls of many of the buildings.  The one which caught my eye is pictured below, it is the title of a song which my mom kept singing even in her last days when her memory had faded.

One other eye-catching and most colorful mural is pictured below.

While we were in this part of St.Petersburg we did have to visit the largest used and new bookstore in Florida, which is Haslams.  It is possible to fritter away many hours wandering around here!

One sad note here, and that is the changes which are taking place in this area of St.Petersburg.  Pictured above is a very large building being constructed, part of it use to be the Union Trust building.  The older part has been refurbished, and then it has been added to with plans for the ground floor  to be used for retail.  I can only guess that the rest will be used for high-rise apartments.  Certainly that will change the ambiance of the city around it!

A Return to Florida

No, this was not a permanent return to Florida for us.  We have sold our motor home, so that phase of our life does seem to be over and we are living in St.Peters Mo.  However, as our daughter, husband and children, had plans to be in Florida over the holidays, John and I decided that would be our plan also.  We left a cold wet Missouri about the week before Christmas.  Our first night was in Mississippi, where it was also cool and moist.  The next night was spent near Dustin,Florida and what a beautiful sight from our motel balcony greeted us the next morning!

How happy we were to be back in Florida!  Two days later we were walking on the beach at sunset and we saw our first great blue heron for this trip.

In the following days we hiked around Saw Grass and Wall Springs Park, as well as Weedon Island Preserve-  favorite places of our which we wanted to revisit.  It was fairly cool the first week we were in the state, and not much wild life was sighted.  At Saw Grass, a place usually replete with crocodiles and turtles, we saw one of each.  Oh, and one armadillo.  It was hard to catch him still, he was scurrying around quite fast and stirring up leaves trying to find food.  What funny creatures!

Pictured below is what we think was a Florida softshell turtle, easily identified by his long snout.

About a week later, when the weather had warmed up and jackets no longer needed, we visited Wall Springs and found many egrets perched in the trees above Boggy Bayou.

At that park there was a new path for us to explore, which led to an observation tower which I am fairly sure can withstand some pretty strong storms!

One final picture here, which I think would make for a very pretty Florida Christmas card.  I espied this egret while walking around the neighborhood of our residence where we stayed for the two weeks we were in Florida.  There will be more postings in the future regarding our Christmas trip to Florida.