Goodbye Florida

     Jason and Noel had a great time at the Orange Bowl, in spite of the disappointing loss by Ohio State, and on Saturday we hung out with Noel's brother David and his wife Maryann.  Since it was cold and rainy, we spent the time at the Estero Fine Art Festival.  It was awesome - I love talented people!  (there was so many great things to see at the art show, I think I'm going to do a separate post just to show you all the great artwork and talent at this show!)

Jason and Noel at the Orange Bowl

 

Time with family!

     Sunday the 5th of January we left Ft. Myers and headed north up the gulf coast.  I'm not sure why I was so emotional about leaving, but I cried for the first hour.  I think it was a combination of really feeling at home there, knowing I would no longer be in the same state as our son Jason, being overly tired and knowing we were heading into bitter cold weather.  :(

     My weepiness subsided and by the time we arrived at our first stop, visiting our friends in Cedar Key, I was ready for the next part of our adventure.  Cedar Key is a small coastal town of about 400 year round residents and our friends had been out all afternoon trimming branches along the road and their property to make sure we could get down their road.  Ron was ready with the chainsaw and with a few more branches trimmed, we managed to back into their driveway.  Noel has been friends with the Blacks since the early 1970s and they are just about the nicest people you could ever know.

They always make us feel welcome and their home is always full of good friends and family.  We met their other friends and by the end of the second day we were all one big, happy family.  We just adore their daughter Tiffany, and Noel is their son Hunter's God-father.  Good friends, good food, good drinks, good conversation...I hated to leave!

Playing "Bananagrams" - So Fun!

This place won the national "best clam chowder" award two years running!  It was delicious!

Tiffany telling us about the research being done in her lab

Tiffany works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and she showed us around her offices and laboratories where they do research on fish, clams, crabs and oysters.  It was really interesting to learn about the local history and wildlife.

Here are a few pics I took in Cedar Key - it was quite cold while we were there and the temperature was in the 20s at night.  What kind of Florida weather is that??  This is the first time I've worn long pants since last Spring.  My tan is fading fast.....

These cute fish are made from driftwood and were for sale in a local art shop.

I love this picture!

From Cedar Key, we continued north to our next stop, our friends Michael and Linda near Ft Walton Beach.  We camped in their driveway as well, and had a lovely evening visiting and hearing about all their travels.  Noel had a bit of truck envy over Michael's new Dodge Ram, and after a great breakfast, we headed west.

 Next stop....New Orleans!