Today is my 38th birthday! I love birthdays! Over the weekend, the mister surprised me with a birthday luncheon at The Morikami Japanese Gardens with all of our Florida family. When a birthday starts out with family, Japanese gardens, and green tea ice-cream – it was destined to be the beginning of a great year! Thank you Mister Lyon. I have a feeling 38 is going to be pretty amazing – I can’t wait!
Tag Archives | florida
Thanksgiving Planning: Island Edition
Most years we host Thanksgiving dinner at our home – however, this year we don’t have family coming into town to visit so we decided to travel for Thanksgiving. We booked a week at a fun, red cottage on Sanibel Island. We are meeting the mister’s uncle and aunt there for a little fun in the sun!
On our way there, we plan to pick up Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods and of course, we will pack our favorite wine too! Our week will be spent outside beach combing (Sanibel is known as the best place to shell in the country!), biking the island (you don’t need a car!), checking out the local shops and eateries, and taking long walks with Noodles and Olive. We are super excited! While I love hosting Thanksgiving dinner, I think it will be nice to sleep in late on the big day (no housecleaning or cooking!) and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner outside next to the ocean.
How about you – do you have an unconventional Thanksgiving planned? Are you traveling? Where are you off to?
Coffee on the Beach + A Water Tornado
A water tornado, otherwise known as a waterspout is exactly that a tornado that forms over water. I remember the first time that I saw a water tornado (waterspout), the mister and I were on our honeymoon in the Florida Keys and were several miles off the coast, snorkeling at a reef. While they were in the distance, I didn’t find it to be scary and wasn’t really even concerned! Since we are camping on the beach, the mister and I like to spend some of our mornings sitting next to the ocean while we drink our coffee, observe wildlife and chat. Last week while in the Florida Keys, we got another show entirely – we sat and watched a large thunderstorm in the distance that was shooting off water tornadoes left and right.
Here are some photos I took of one forming:
It was very cool to sit and watch them happening in the distance, but now as a mother whose child was a few feet away sleeping the in the RV, I couldn’t help but think, “Please do not get bigger and please do not come this way!”
Have you experienced any interesting summer weather? I would love to hear!
Happy Independence Day!
Hello, Friends! We are still in the Florida Keys enjoying our family summer vacation. We have been spending our mornings paddleboarding and our afternoons snorkeling and beach-combing. We even spent one entire afternoon relaxing – which means the mister and dogs took a nap, Eben drew and read and I caught up on a little blogging! It was so nice, especially since we spent the entire day before paddleboarding, snorkeling and kayaking (my arms are sore!)
We are still trying to decide how we want to spend our 4th of July evening. Some years while in the Keys, we have visited a nearby town for a 4th of July celebration with fireworks and patriotic music on the beach, other years we have hiked to the top of the old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge and watched a different type of fireworks display, bio-luminescence in the ocean below! To be honest, the latter is my favorite! I have my fingers crossed that is what the boys want to do tonight! And of course, sometime today we have to stop by the marina to pick up an ice-cream cone to cool off!
I hope you are spending the long weekend eating watermelon, sipping lemonade and maybe even snoozing in a hammock with someone you love!
Happy 4th of July!