From flip flops to mukluks

    We slept with the windows wide open on our last night on Crescent Beach.  It was warm overnight and a bit humid.  The humidity and light rain has helped bring a little more green to this very dry area.  We have heard many reports of brush fires and smelled smoke nearby this morning.  So much of the land here is marsh and that it seems odd to hear so many fire warnings, but there has been a lot of drought everywhere this year.
    We shook some of the sand out of our clothes, shoes, books and towels so that we could pack them up.  I just got into the pace of stepping outside with only a t-shirt and shorts on.  Every time we take a winter vacation we wish that we had stayed longer.  Rick's love of downhill skiing and our sweet grandchildren keep us from spending the winter away from home, but I will definitely plan a longer warm weather break next year.
   We enjoyed the great historical sight seeing in St. Augustine and found the prices for our rental car, nice condo on the beach, and meals to be cheaper in this area than most other warm weather spots that we have visited.  The beach was amazing - it goes on forever and has wonderful, soft clean sand.  However, this IS the Atlantic and the water was pretty chilly in March.  It is a very laid back area and has a big population of retired folks.  We did not find fancy restaurants, but found some really wonderful casual places to eat with great views of the water.
   We spent a lot of the time comparing this area to Sanibel Island on the Florida Gulf coast and to Hawaii.  We want to go back to both of those areas and probably won't be back to Crescent Beach  unless something else draws us here.  So it was great to visit a city that I missed on previous travels, but now there are other spots I have yet to visit - Key West perhaps.
   Our trip home was uneventful (a good thing to say about plane travel these days) except that I got a notice from Delta that they had lost my luggage as I drove home with luggage in the trunk.  I am not sure WHAT they did to my luggage, but it seems fine.  We got back just in time to help Carter celebrate his big 6th birthday at Old Country Buffet.  Most kids would be excited about endless mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.  Carter was excited about a huge selection of fruits, veggies, jello, and three big slices of ham.  This boy is into power food!
   It is cold outside, but I am happy to be home to get hugs from my first grandson.  Goodbye warm weather!