My first Mardi Gras Parade 2011

I lived on the Gulf Coast for over ten years before I participated in my first Mardi Gras parade. Although celebrating " carnival" for { at lest} six weeks prior to the start of Lent is part of the culture here, were I come from this practice is as foreign as fried pig ears.

I do NOT like crowded events, so I'd avoided participating in the { mostly family-friendly} Mardi Gras parade until I served on the steering committee for the local American Cancer Society Relay For Life effort.

Here is one of the many floats that walked in the 2011 Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Parade.

  Our float was , of course PURPLE!  My favorite color also happens to be one of the three colors of the Mardi Gras season.{ The other two are green and yellow}

The High School JrROTC marched in the parade, as they do every year.

  Here is another float preparing for the parade. We were there literally ALL DAY and , being February on the Gulf Coast beaches,  in COLD and WINDY weather.

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Central Florida trip 2012

My first trip to the St Petersburg area of Florida from last year. Although I'd been to Tampa, this was my first time traveling down to the west-central Gulf coast via highway.

We stayed in Palm Harbor...I could walk to the Gulf from where we were staying. Many people i the neighborhood owned boats, so there were some human-made canals behind many of the houses in the subdivision.

I saw a white egret in Dunedin.

The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway down near St Petersburg looks similar to the Santa Rosa Sound where I live in Florida.

We ate hibachi one night while we were there...and I thought the ring of onions on fire made for some awesome pyro effects.

On our way home, we stopped on Cedar key, a tiny island fishing village literally in te middle of nowhere off the coast of Florida. It was COLD that day, but I loved visiting Cedar Key.  My goal for he next time we visit this charming little island is to bring back more photos of the architecture there.

The dock on Cedar Key.

                                            A pelican taking flight off the dock on Cedar Key.

Lake Autumn 2010

 In the autumn of 2010 I had some free airline miles, so I went back to the Lake on October.  We do not get much " autumn" here in Northwest Forida, so it was a special treat for me to see autumn leaves & experience " sweater weather".  My godsister and I also went to visiit her sister in Akron,Ohio overnight.

Here is the view from the house of the Lake one October at dusk.  

My godbrother's son & I went " fishing" off of the " boat" :O)

 We attended a high school football game. Did I mention it was a HOME game? Go Wildcats!

My younger godsister at the Light-UP Lantern Festival, 2010 in Akron, Ohio.

 The band plays at halftime at the football game.

              My other godsister and I went to the local " pumpkin patch" one sunny autumn afternoon.



Blackwater River State Park

Every summer, my congregation spends a day on the Blackwater River in northern Santa Rosa County, Florida.

Here are scenes from last summer's trip on canoes and inner tubes. My congregation looks forward to our annual " Canoeucharist" every year and my Best Dude  and I enjoy hiking on these lands.

Apparently , there is a motion in the Florida House to secure drilling rights on these precious state-owned park lands. As a citizen of Santa Rosa County, I oppose this motion.  No amount of oil or natural gas is worth destroying this precious habitat.

Shoreline Park pics. Sorry for the delay.

I very recently discovered how to post photos to Blogger, so I am late in posting photos from my Shoreline Park morning.  However, Blogger is MUCH more user-friendly than is Wordpress.

Here s a dinghy that I saw tied to one of the boat docks.

I LOVE the juxtaposition of nature versus human-made in this photo. The tree{ which is what originally caught my eye} in the foreground against the background of the buildings over on Pensacola Beach.  When I shot this photo, all I saw was the tree, but a friend pointed out to me the artistic tension of the natural versus artificial structures found on the Florida Gulf Coast.

Here are some exposed tree roots.  Such tree roots look quite different up North.

Here is yet another example of nature versus human made near our Gulf Coast. The birds were moving too fast for me to get a good close-up portrait of one.

My favorite " thin place"

According to my rector, a " thin pace" is a place where one feels closest to God.  In my life both in the mountains and n the coast I've been blessed with several such places.

Shoreline Park and Fort Pickens National Seashore in Gulf Breeze, Florida { somewhat near where I live now} are two such local " thin places".

However, there is one place that is, to me, extra-"thin".

My godparents' lake , campground and cabins area , situated on over 100o acres of gorgeous Appalachian foothills in eastern Ohio is my most- special place. Although my teen years were generally unhappy{ mostly punctuated by A LOT of bullying and several doctors' visits { in an attempt to figure out "what is wrong with Sarah"}

The place where I feel closest To God is Austin Lake.  It is true that I * never* want to move back to Ohio or Pennsylvania, but the property surrounding this lake holds some of my best memories. Every summer I look forward to travelling here .  I've discovered that vacation need not be full of a planned agenda : I much rather prefer time away to re-charge. When I am here, there is never a planned agenda: and I am contend t just " be"  at the Lake.

My autism makes  travel difficult. When I { eventually} arrive at the Lake, the pain { literally} of the sensory input overdrive will be worth it.  Where else can one wake in the morning, sip tea on a porch overlooking some beautiful Appalachian woodlands and later read Morning Prayer while sitting in a kayak on a clear lake?

I see this EVERY morning when I'm visiting the Lake. Can you understand why this place is so" thin"? :O)

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Coastal hiking is not the same  as hiking these hills.

" Where I come from/ we rode in TRUCKS."~ country singer Luke Bryan

Beach in January

I checked my Facebook & saw that the family & friends up there in Appalachia are pretty much snowed in.
Since I grew up in the Snow Belt I understand their frustration.

This morning  I went to the beach after I attended my gym session. It was a perfect day for walking on the beach with my new Nikon camera. I wore a pair of long " gym pants", a t-shirt and a light jacket. At the end of my walk I had to remove my jacket , it was too warm in the sun!

AWESOME!

Until today I had not been to our local beach in many weeks, so I am especially glad that I took the opportunity to enjoy our local Gulf beach today.

I do admit that I miss my mountains up North---ESPECIALLY during the seemingly endless and miserably humid Florida summers. Yuck.Yuck.Yuck.

Humidity here in  in inescapable  in the summer months  and our " summer" seas lasts from May -October. My annual trip to my godparents' Lake in rural Eastern Ohio is my respite from the oppressing humidity that comprise Florida summers.

I like snow, but since I came of age up north I learned quickly to not like ICE on the roads.

It is dangerous to drive on icy roads and I do not miss the stress that worrying about someone while waiting for them to drive home on icy mountain roads. When we lived in eastern Ohio my Dad's commute from work included a long stretch of driving on icy and { in some places} narrow , rural mountain roads. I am not kidding--- it is scary and especially scary after dark.

This was my view this morning when I went outside for a walk:

My new Nikon is so good, hat the photos I took at the beach required little editing. The individual file sizes are huge, so its essential to at least employ a wee bit of cropping. When I email my photo files taken with the Nikon I found out that I cannot attach more than four files.  My " old" camera is a Canon PowerSht and , although a good " beginner's" camera I am grateful for my new Nikon. Of course I a still discovering it features...I've yet to attempt to take video.