This is Why …

Fort Pickens Campground — Gulf Islands National Seashore (GINS), Florida
Temps: Lo 60F / Hi 72F (15.5C / 22C)

Boy were the weather forecasters wrong today!

We thought we were going to have another overcast, dreary day with a very good chance of rain. Hah! It turned out to be a jewel of a day — the kind of day that we can point to and say “This is why we came to Florida!”

And such a bonus it was after two drab and gloomy days, and a serious downpour last night as a storm front moved in from the west to drench us but good.

We were all set to spend the day at home when we woke up this morning. Maybe go out for another 10-mile (16 km) trike ride — which is what we did yesterday despite the rather thick fog, and the clammy mist hanging in the air. I was comfortably ensconced on the sofa, checking emails, when what should catch my eye but a colorful sunrise. Minutes later, the sun was a golden orb in a bright blue sky. Just then, Mui returned from the bathhouse and we both exclaimed — “Let’s grab a quick breakfast and get going!” And that’s what we did.

11,460 steps or 3.25 miles or 5.2 kilometers — anyway you look at it, we had a great walk.
Setting out along Pensacola Bay, we headed to Fort Pickens, rounded the
tip of the island, and walked back along the Gulf of Mexico.

There really are no words to describe our long walk — except to say that it was excellent. Setting out at 8:30a, we covered the 3.25 miles (5.2 km) — based on my measured stride — in three hours. Yes, we took our time and enjoyed every minute — despite the 92% humidity and no shade on the beach. Of course, there were stops along the way to take photos, and also to eat the snacks we had hastily packed.

Pensacola Bay is mirror-smooth this morning.

Willets

Great Blue Heron

Kildeer

Willet

Brown pelican
(I posted my favorite pelican shot from today in the Viewfinder Blog.)

Common Loon
Subtitle: “I’m so happy to see you; let me give you a hug!”

Crab

They say the sign of a good photographer is getting low … and getting dirty!
the result (top right) was worth getting sand all over my clothes!

Ruddy Turnstone (Juvenile)

Top: Where Pensacola Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico.
Bottom: The surf is rougher and there is more mist along the Gulf.

Mushroom cap Jellyfish — some of the ones we saw were huge!

Portuguese Man o’ War — Beware; they can be deadly!

We enjoy the shells on the beach, but we don’t bring them home!

Erosion at work on the Gulf-side beach!

Ghost Crab

You would think that after walking for three hours that we would just go home. Well, we did; but we didn’t stay long — it was just too beautiful a day, and we were too close to the beach not to take advantage of it. Besides, the siren call of the sea was just too much for Mui! He made a couple of sandwiches, we grabbed some drinks, and headed over to Langdon Beach, just down the road from us.

Are you wondering why Mui's dressed in his snorkeling skin? ...

… It’s because he really did go in the water today! Crazy man — the water temp was only 60F (15.5C)!
(Don’t worry; he didn’t go far … the surf was too rough, so he played in the shallows.)

It was after 2:00p when we finally returned to the Phaeton. After we got ourselves cleaned up, Mui took care of a few things around the coach, and I sat in the sun and read through the pile of brochures that has been growing. It felt so good to be sitting outside, a light breeze keeping the temps at bay.

On the recommendation of Tena, our contact at AHB (our mail service), we decided to have dinner at Peg Leg Pete’s. It’s located in Pensacola Beach, a mile or two outside the gate to GINS — Gulf Islands National Seashore. So glad we went. No white linen at this shack-of-a-restaurant, but the service was very good; and so was the food. The seafood was some of the best we’ve had in a long time. (The place is owned by the same people who own Maria’s, a seafood market in Pensacola.) We shared a calamari appetizer and grilled shrimp main course — both were oh so tender, and perfectly cooked. And the key lime pie was the crowning touch.

A most excellent meal. Peg Leg Pete’s gets two thumbs up from us.

Not sure how long this great weather will continue. You can be sure that we will be taking advantage of it while we can.

Catch Up Time

I have been slack about blogging the last couple weeks. Not that I have not been riding my bikes, just doing other things.
Since the last post, I had been riding the Wabash Trace and paved trails in Council Bluffs. After the nasty month of October, we got some decent weather in November. My favorite section of the Wabash Trace is from Silver City to Malvern. That's a easy 17 miles r/t. Many times I ride on to Mahr Road make the ride 20 miles. If really energetic, I got the While Cloud - making the trip just over 25 miles.
However, before my trip to Wisconsin, rode a lot on the Council Bluffs trail system. Here, I can log some miles on the hybrid. Of course, I have to check out the construction at Playland Park and Big Lake Park.
A week ago, I hit the 3200 mile mark. Thats 1000 miles over last year's total.

Beautiful At All Seasons by Elizabeth Lawrence for GBBC

This post on the book Beautiful At All Seasons was written by Annie in Austin for The Transplantable Rose.
Elizabeth Lawrence wasn't a TV star in charge of garden makeovers- she lived with her mother, made gardens in a couple of Carolina cities, wrote columns for local newspapers, corresponded with other gardeners and was the author of several beloved books, including A Southern Garden,The Little Bulbs, and Gardens in Winter. Bill Neal gathered up many of her columns in Through The Garden Gate, published in 1990. Now, more than twenty years after Miss Lawrence's death, we gladly pony up the price of another collection of her columns, written for a local audience back when the president was named Eisenhower, Kennedy or Johnson. The plants Elizabeth Lawrence speaks of may be regional, but her thoughts are abounding and universal and what a trip you can go on when following her words! Do not think she writes only for the South or that she has nothing to say to modern people. This classically educated woman may look ladylike but she is interested in everything and to get to the plants she'll join her friends in crawling across the forest floor hoping to catch a scent from early wildflowers, or confess to sneaking into the University of Padua Botanical Garden when it was inconveniently closed, only to be chased out of the park by furious Italian guards.

Beautiful in all Seasons, Southern Gardening and Beyond with Elizabeth Lawrence was put together by North Carolina writer Ann L. Armstrong and Lindie Wilson, the woman who bought Elizabeth Lawrence's house in 1986, thinking she'd bought a house but discovering that she now owns a garden shrine. The earlier collection, The Garden Gate, consists of columns written between 1957 and 1971, arranged rather like a daybook, taking you throughout the year. Beautiful In All Seasons is divided by subject matter, allowing you to read what EL wrote about the same plant, idea, principle, or holiday over the years. Since both books consist of short newspaper columns, they're perfect for quick refreshing dips when time is tight.

The introduction to Beautiful At All Seasons speaks of Miss Lawrence's "well-furnished mind" - a concise and exact description of what it's like to read her books. Do any of you know the Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn movie Desk Set, seen here in a poster from Amazon.com? The 1957 movie pits research and information person Katharine Hepburn's memory and retrieval skills against Spencer Tracy's EMERAC, the room-sized Electronic Brain. Somehow I think Elizabeth Lawrence would not only triumph over EMERAC, but would be a whiz on getting the best out of Google if she were around today.

I'm so glad MayDreams Carol chose this book for the Garden Bloggers Book Club! Although I didn't receive my copy until Friday, I've already taken quite a few refreshing dips, and was pretty pumped up when I read the article titled 'Importance of Garden Details'. Both Elizabeth Lawrence and I came up with the same Aspidistra/Holly Fern combination after trial and error. But she discovered this in 1963, while my reinvention took place in ...
Last week something EL wrote in 1970 added an extra dimension to my day. The cilantro was going to seed all over so I'd been harvesting some of the little round seed capsules, leaving some to reseed. You probably know that while the leaves are cilantro, the plant is Coriander.
I was collecting these coriander seeds for Chicken Mole, but while gleaning the seeds off the stems, I remembered that in a column called "Savory Seeds" from Through the Garden Gate, EL had talked about coriander seeds, along with others in the umbelliferae like caraway, dill and fennel. She said that coriander seeds were once coated with fondant to make a type of comfit, used to bribe children to be quiet in church. She noted that, "Alice had a box of comfits in her pocket when she followed the white rabbit down his hole. She produced it at the end of the Caucus-race....there was exactly one apiece all round."
I looked at the seeds - trying to imagine something that tasted like cilantro as the center of a candy, rinsed off a couple and gingerly bit them. The taste was quite different from the leaves - it was like some kind of citrus. With the outside temperatures approaching 100 °F and the A/C chugging away, it didn't seem like a good idea to pull out pans and a candy thermometer and make fondant...perhaps there was a simpler way to make a coriander candy. A few Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips smooshed around a couple of coriander seeds tastes enough like chocolate-covered orange peels to keep even me quiet for a few minutes.
This post on the book Beautiful At All Seasons was written by Annie in Austin for The Transplantable Rose.

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When He Just Doesn't Get Me

I ordered Desperate for my daughter who's in the middle of childrearing with six small children but thought I'd read it first. This paragraph on husbands resonated with me.

"One more example of my unhealthy expectations: I expect that my husband should "get" me. Oh this. How many of us just wish our husbands "got" us? We want them to understand us in profound ways, and then accept us with open arms. We want them to admire who we are, how we're made, and who we are becoming. We want to be known and loved.

What happens when they don't "get" us? What happens when they don't understand why we have to leave the dishwasher open all the time, or why we like Taylor Swift, or why we can't enjoy our time away if our feelings are hurt before we leave?

The "I expect" voice is a killer of joy and true contentment. My husband is not going to understand all of the inner workings of my soul. He's not always going to think I'm fabulous, and he is not always going to agree with me (he might even think I'm crazy sometimes). When we let our husbands off the hook and are content to be who we are for the glory of God and not the approval of man, life is greener and more full. I want to please my husband, and I want his unconditional love, but he's a sinner just like I am, and humans can't really give unconditional love; it's hard enough just to love.

We've got to snuff out that voice or it will burn our marriages. Find contentment in the overwhelming fact that you are perfect to God; He gets you because He made you. Live free in that truth."

Whew! That's a tall order. I confess that I've struggled with this issue for longer than I've been married; which is a long time. I'm a people pleaser, to those I truly love, in a big way. For the most part, I've let go of my real and unreal expectations, and life is surely more peaceful. But here's where I still struggle. When my husband DOES "get me" now, it doesn't mean a whole lot. I've hardened myself to not need his praise, but the fact that I've done that, I guess, really means that I truly still want it?

Human interaction is so extremely complicated. Especially when you've been with someone so long. It's impossible to unravel events, emotions, wrongs, rights, and whatever else goes into a marriage to make sense of it. So what to do? More next time and an analysis of the book What Alice Forgot.

Frustrating Day

I was up VERY early this morning. Watched TV until there was a place to have breakfast. Was one of the folks in line at Ruby's waiting when the Restaurant opened. After breakfast, I quick stop back at the room and drive into the park to shoot some photos at sunrise.

A little late in getting in position. Actually, the sun was just up when I got Bryce Point. Was able to get a couple shots.

Was cold this morning - in the upper 30s. Loaded up the car and headed toward Red Canyon. Was still too cold when I got to the West end of the bicycle trail. So, figured I might as well head to Zion.

Zion National Park was a zoo. Traffic backed up at the entrance and tunnel. Most of the turn-outs were full. My plan was to get at the Visitor's Center to that I could check out the scoop regarding the shuttle buses. All of the parking lots at the Visitor's Center were full. Signs said to park in the town pf Springdale.

Even though I was needing to use a rest room, I said "screw it" and headed to Hurricane to find my hotel. Checked into the hotel. The desk clerk did not give me any hopeful signs that tomorrow morning would be any better at the park.

Decided to leave options open - plot some alternate plans. Since i also wanted to check out dirt trails, I found a bicycle shop in Hurricane. At Over the Edge Sports found out that this is Fall Break. That's why so many people in the park than it was a week ago.

There really isn't a good other place to spend the next 3 nights. So, guess I will rest, check out some singletrack, and do some local tourist activities, May go up to Cedar Breaks. Could even go the the Grand Canyon North Rim (it its still open). Across southern Utah, I found places closing for the season within the next week.

Awesome Day, Sweet Ride

What a beautiful day. When I decided to head out to ride, it was about 65 deg, sunny, and no wind. The 4300 needed to be checked out after derailleur repairs, so brought it to the bike shop, switch pedals to the full (no flat side) clipless. Rode out from the shop.
Was not sure how far I would ride, see how I felt. Stopped at the Trail Center (10 miles). Feeling great to went on to the pedestrian bridge, rode over to Omaha, and took several photos. Went up to Millers Landing (first time there) and down to Lewis & Clark Landing. Finally, headed back across the bridge.
I have to comment. When I was a kid, I learned to look to watch for others around me. These days, just walk on the sidewalk, go to the the store. People do NOT look were they are going, do not watch for others near. I have many times when people would walk right into me, had I not stopped and back up. Well, the same thing is happening on the pedestrian bridge. They walk like they own the bridge. Hell, they don't even pay attention to on-coming traffic (walking or cycling). When I come behind them and call out "On your left!" they keep on walking like they never heard me. Today, I was coming behind 2 on the right, and 4 abreast coming my way. I called out to try to get through. NO ONE stepped over to make room. They kept walking, passing 6 abreast. WAKE UP, PEOPLE. There are more folks out here than you and your group.
OK, I will get off my soapbox.
Great ride on the way back to the shop. Much of the way, I was riding at 15-17 mph. Sweet ride. Ridden 30+ miles, gone for 2 hours and 40 minutes, 20 minutes stopped. Logging, I calculated the ride at 12.9 mph over the length of the ride, pretty good with the traffic on the bridge!