Weekend Coffee Share – Wandering Dawgs

June – At Home and another Road Trip

July 2, 2023Posted in Celebration, Road TripTagged birthday, Books, Disney Animal Kingdom, June, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Sanaa, WBOYC, Weekend Coffee Share14 Comments

We started the month of June at home. The above image was taken one afternoon just before one of the frequent thunderstorms.

June 1 marked the beginning of my summer water aerobics classes at a pool near our house. It was nice getting into the routine of working out in the pool with friends. At home, the birds and other critters in our yard kept us entertained.

Father’s Day and Birthday Road Trip

Our recent trip to Florida started on Father’s Day weekend. We stayed off the Interstates and headed south on back roads of Georgia and Florida. On our way south we stopped in Folkston, Georgia to visit the Okefenokee National Wildlife before continuing to Florida the next day. The Swamp Island Drive and walk on the Chessar Island Boardwalk were a great way to start our trip.

A Week in Lake Buena Vista, Florida

The next day we drove on back roads to our destination in Lake Buena vista near Orlando and Disney World. The weather was typical June Florida weather – pleasant mornings, hot the rest of the day, and daily thunderstorms. Our condo with a screened in porch was a fun place to relax and do nothing. There were several pools and restaurants to enjoy at the resort. Most days we stayed around the resort and the farthest we drove was about 16 miles to one of our destinations.

I celebrated my birthday a few days early with lunch at the Sanaa restaurant at Kadani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. The restaurant serves delicious food and overlooks a savanna with giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeest, East African Crowned Crane and other animals.

Our original plan for the week was to hang out at the resort, go out to eat a few times, and enjoy the pools. We’ve been to Disney World many times over the years but had never been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. On the spur of the moment we decided to spend a day there.

The first thing we saw when we walked through the gates was the Tree of Life which features carvings of more than 300 animals.

We wandered around the park and went on two trails to view some of the animals. Gorillas, a Komodo Dragon, colorful birds, tigers (we saw them sleeping but I couldn’t get a picture), hippos, and water buffalo were a few of the animals we saw.

There wasn’t enough time to see everything but it was a fun day.

A Night on the St. John’s River

On our way home we spent a night next the the St. John’s River in Palatka. We enjoyed a great seafood lunch beside the river, walked along the river walk in front of our hotel, and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the river before we started north to our home in Georgia.

On our way home we stopped in Darien for some fresh Georgia seafood at Mud Cat Charlie’s at Two Way Fish camp on the Altamaha River.

Books

I loved “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingslayer. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a page turner that takes place in Appalachia in southwest Virginia. I also read two more of the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny.

Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and What’s Been on your calendar?

May Road Trips and Other Adventures

June 2, 2023Posted in Celebration, Entertainment, Road Trip, Sporting EventsTagged BananaBall, Blue Ridge Parkway, Books, Magnolia, Savannah Bananas, Weekend Coffee Share20 Comments

This May our wandering took us to the countryside in Georgia, to a baseball game, on a road trip to Virginia, and around our own neighborhood.

Georgia road trip

Our first trip was to the Georgia countryside. On the way to our destination we discovered a new to us barbeque restaurant in Portal where we tried their pulled pork and fantastic spare ribs. We enjoyed our time in the country where the wildflowers were blooming and the trees were showing off their new green leaves. We fed carrots to my brothers donkeys, walked in the woods, and had a fun visit with our 12 year old granddaughter.

Celebrating Henry’s birthday at a Savannah Bananas game

The Savannah Bananas sell out every home game so when I had an opportunity to buy two tickets for a game on Henry’s birthday I jumped at the chance.

We saw the team owner Jesse Cole outside the stadium so of course we stopped to meet him. Henry shook his hand, he posed for a photo with us, and wished Henry a happy birthday. The Bananas play a different kind of baseball called Banana Ball. It has different rules than regular baseball and the night is filled with entertainment during and between the innings. We were laughing and entertained the entire night.

Around my Neighborhood

Flowers were blooming all around our neighborhood and in our own backyard. The header image is one of the gorgeous white blooms I captured one morning as I walked by the giant Magnolia tree in a neighbor’s yard.

In our backyard the Painted Buntings fed at my bird feeder almost every day. The resident lizard likes to hang out on the railing on our back deck.

Road Trip to Virginia

We traveled to Virginia to visit our daughter’s family for Memorial Day weekend. We spent the first night in a motel and had a nice visit with my cousin and his wife when we met them for lunch at a Cracker Barrel by the interstate before continuing on to our daughter’s house.

Being with our daughter and her family was the highlight of the trip. The weather was overcast, chilly and sometimes raining but we didn’t let the weather spoil our visit.

It was wonderful to see our Grandson who just finished his first year of college and our Granddaughter who just finished her junior year of high school. My daughter and I enjoyed a trip to the local farmer’s market where I picked up a frozen smoked trout to bring home and she brought home some beautiful fresh produce. Later that day we drove into the mountains, had lunch in the small town of Floyd, and took a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Chateau Morrisette Winery.

Books

Our Book Club book for May was “The Measure” by Nikki Erlich. It was a very interesting and thought provoking story.

I also enjoyed reading “No Plan B”, the latest Jack Reacher book by Lee Child and “Still Life” by Louise Penney.

Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

April in the Rear View Mirror

April 30, 2023Posted in Birds, Flowers, Nature, Road TripTagged Books, Month of the Military Child, Weekend Coffee Share15 Comments

Here’s what happened in my world in April, 2023.

Month of the Military Child

I can’t let April go by without mentioning that April is the Month of the Military Child. Military children are also sometimes called Brats. I am proud to be a United States Air Force Brat.

Trip to the Country

After what seems like a long, cold winter we took a short road trip to the country in early April. We couldn’t go by the Georgia Football Barn Sign on Georgia Highway 15 in Tennile with stopping to snap a few photos. The trees were just beginning to display their green leaves. We spotted a few deer and wild turkeys but I wasn’t able to capture a photo.

Flowers

I was happy to see that these plants survived the freeze we had around Christmas.

Backyard Birds

Painted Buntings and other birds started appearing at my backyard bird feeder and in the surrounding salt marsh. The hummingbirds are also here but so far I haven’t been able to get a photo of them.

Books

Our Book Club book for April was “The Blessing of the Celtic Curse”, the first in the Saints of Savannah series. The author, Leigh Ebberwein was our guest at our April meeting. We all loved the book and enjoyed hearing her stories about writing the book.

I also enjoyed reading “Remarkable Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt, “My Sisters Grave” by Robert Dugoni and “Still Life” by Louise Penney.

Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #181 – Double Dipping

January 9, 2022Posted in Flowers, Nature, PhotographyTagged Cee's FOTD, Cellpic Sunday, double dipping, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Sunday Stills, the future is ours, Weekend Coffee Share33 Comments

Tina is hosting this photo challenge and she is “suggesting that in addition to our challenge you explore and link to some of the other creative opportunities our friends and fellow challengers make available in the WP blogosphere or any other sites where you post photos.” Many thanks to Tina for encouraging us to participate in other challenges. Be sure to visit Tina’s original post Lens’Artists #181: Double Dipping

All the photos in this post were taken this week near where I live. The caption of each photo contains a link to the original challenge.

The Hibiscus (above) and Camellias (below) are blooming where I live.

For John’s Cellpic Sunday the only requirement is to include a photo taken with a cell phone, IPad or other mobile device. The next image was taken on an early morning walk with my IPhone 7S and then cropped and edited on my computer.

Natalie wants to know how our week has been. My week as been filled with preparing for a trip and getting out to take a picture a day for nine days in a row. Maybe this is the year I’ll reach the goal of taking a picture a day for 365 days. This shrimp boat is one of my favorites from the week.

Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge topic is “The Future is Ours”. A flower bud’s future is to become a flower. We humans don’t know what our future will bring. I posted more about that in Every day is a gift.