Charleston Thanksgiving visit

I'm back! Thanksgiving travel got in the way of posting. Charleston was quite fabulous and we had lots of visiting time with those sweet granddaughters.

Great Thanksgiving dinner with lots of help from everyone. Missed you Heather!!

The Aquarium was first up on the visit list. First visit for all of us. Really nice facility downtown with a sea turtle "hospital" and a sea ray tank where you can touch and feed them. Weird experience the feeding: you hold a small dead fish upright between your fingers with palm down as a ray hovers over and sucks up the fish. The girls opted just to watch...

It seems to me all the "serious" smokers look like an experiment gone wrong

We worked up a good appetite for lunch. Charleston is an amazing town for food, and barbecue is no exception. It's a vinegar based sauce here in the Carolinas. Yum!

These stairs are amazing and a lot of work for someone.

Notice the "widow's watch" on the roof - very common here

More houses from the neighborhood behind Tiffany and Chris.  I couldn't resist taking more photos. Love, love the style. We all walked down to the park this time as I wanted Mark to see.

This park backs up to water and a lot of private docks. There is a huge fluctuation in daily tides here: over 6 feet. Boats are placed accordingly.

More eating out - this time Leon's Fine Poultry & Oysters. And it was fine to be sure...

Jules apparently wanted to go on a cruise - run Jules run!

Beach visit! Sullivan's Island to be exact. Got there right as sunset was ebbing. What a gorgeous beach and the cruise ship was leaving as we were there. Not a huge cruise ship area, only Carnival goes in and out to Bermuda,Caribbean, and the Bahamas. I had some fun snapping photos with that amazing light.

Beardcat's Sweet Shop for after dinner gelato. History of the amazing photo is apparently unknown. Obviously a real person with a love of animals...  Such a cute resort town with an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants. Well worth going and only 25 minutes from Tiffany's house. So much to see and do in every direction.

I'll end with an assortment of Penny and Juliet photos. They are such a joy and growing up so fast!

Naples and season is a coming

Naples is starting to get busy. Not anywhere close to what it will be after the holidays, but enough. Season here is a major event that bumps the population up to double. The beach will not look like the above, peaceful and quiet, unless I go first thing in the morning. The people are coming in mostly from the mid-west and Canada, with a smattering of other countries like Germany, England, France, Italy,and Denmark (yup, Denmark). It is quite beautiful here with perfect 70 degree days in the winter so I get it, but boy, you have to plan for crowds and traffic.

Some interesting skies the last couple of weeks including full moon, and it's been warmer than normal. I'm back in the Florida white sand and swaying palm trees mode, having a hard time realizing other places are getting cold. Star Mountain is getting colder but no snow yet. Opening day on the ski mountain is Thanksgiving and they make snow too, so likely the machines will be working hard soon if they're not already.

looking for buried treasure

Another beach visit - got to do some sketching, photography, and a little reading. Mighty peaceful. Just me and the birds (and an occasional human.)

One of the mangled banyan trees. Look at that new growth - fabulous. Every single one along the road has new leaves. Resilience indeed.

A few creatures scattered around. That's a gathering of ibis and an ugly duck waiting for breadcrumbs from Mark and the cute little frog was perched just like that next to the front door at eye level.

A day on the golf course. Lots of birds but no alligator sightings yet. Gorgeous weather and the course is in great shape especially considering they lost 140 trees in the hurricane. I've been playing wife golf on Sundays. Yes, that's a phrase around here. Enjoying it.

Can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. We're flying  Miami to Charleston and I'm packing pecan tassies which I haven't baked yet. These are a must and instantly became a tradition when I found the recipe. Cheers!