10/4/07 (Thursday): We had a great visit in Florida. We ate some great meals, enjoyed visiting our family and lots of old friends (young ones, too!). The weather was a lot warmer in FL than here in Michigan! Special thanks to Cathy for playing airport shuttle for us and letting us use her car while we were there. Also to Tom for filling the same role at the Detroit airport.

Today's pictures are a real mish-mash covering the last couple of weeks. This is how our campground looked just before we left. There's even more color now.
I saw this tiny nest on the same walk before we left. I think it's probably a hummingbird nest. The little cavity was about the size of a ping pong ball and it was studded with bits of bark on the outside and lined with soft grass inside. We saw the hummers every day at our feeder.One of my favorite parts of the FL trip was the day Mag treated me to high tea at the Grand Floridian Hotel at Disney. It was very elegant and the food was great--tiny tea sandwiches, fancy pastries, strawberries and cream, and wonderful, fragrant tea. I felt so ladylike (I clean up pretty well)! Thanks, Mag.
While we were in FL, I took some pics of some of the people who regularly comment on this blog. I thought it would be fun to know who we're talking to. We start with Julie (she of the keen eye) and her hubby, John. I've known Julie since we worked together in the early 1970's. She and John drove down to Winter Park, even though her back was killing her, to visit us and give us the gifts they'd brought us all the way from Indonesia. We enjoyed a great visit over dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.The handsome young man to the left of my mother-in-law, Mag, is her brother, Ed (otherwise known as Uncle Ed and T (for his wife, Teresa, who didn't want to have her picture taken). Ed came over to see us, but Teresa couldn't join us because she had to work. Ed is retired now after a long career as a CPA. He's a newlywed and enjoys cooking gourmet meals and surfing the web (especially my blog and various cooking sites).
This is Ed's daughter, Darcie. I forgot to get a shot of her when she visited with her two charming daughters and handsome son, so I stole this picture from Mag's refrigerator. I've known Darcie since she was a pre-teen. She's a full-time Mom who's also studying to become a pharmacist. When she finds time to read my blog I don't know, but she manages to excel at just about anything she takes on.We also fit in the time to have breakfast with some Florida Trail Association buddies, Troy and Gloria. Troy's wife, Kaye, has some medical problems right now and we didn't get to visit with her this time. We hope you're feeling much better by the time we come back, Kaye! Troy and Wiley have been friends since Wiley was a teenager, and I met both of them when I joined FTA in 1980. They are both avid outdoors folks. We've shared many adventures. Troy reads my blog and shares it with Gloria (who doesn't have a computer), but he usually comments by email or phone rather than on the blog.There are lots of other folks who read my blog, but don't comment. I'd sure like to hear from my readers. Try posting a comment--it's easy and safe!

Jumping from that topic, I'll share a few pictures of my visit with my son, Tom, and his family.
We went to a Chinese festival at a local park one day while we were there. We enjoyed a nice walk along the Huron River, where they were having dragon boat races. We also enjoyed some Chinese food, face painting, a rhythm band, kite making and other fun things.All three of my granddaughters love to be read to, and Wiley did his fair share. It's great to have an excuse to read some of the fun kid's books that you're too embarrassed to read to yourself!Julie: your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find something really unusual hidden in one of the pictures on this blog. We're setting you up here. Don't let us down! No, those swans behind Anna are not the hidden item you're looking for.) You're looking for something deliberately planted in one of the photos (and it's not a teddy bear). Doesn't Anna look all grown up? She just started kindergarten.Here's a shot of Tom's family at an apple orchard we visited. That's his lovely bride, Kristin, on the left with Claire in her lap. Tom has Anna on his lap and that's Margo on the right. We had so much fun with our frequent visits this summer. It was great to have the opportunity to get to know my granddaughters and daughter-in-law better. You guys are doing a great job parenting, Tom and Kristin! I'm going to miss you this winter.I'll close with a couple of shots of the foliage in our neighborhood that I took yesterday.It's a good thing we found such a great new job for the winter, because it's going to be really hard to leave this place where we've felt so at home!