May 10th, 2022

How did you spend Mother's Day?  Mine was just about perfect!  Do you want to hear about it?

In our house, we celebrate people.  And when it's your day to be celebrated, it usually takes more than one day to fit it all in.  Mother's Day was no exception.  It began on Saturday with a mystery trip.  I was told to grab my camera as we set out, bright and early, but I had no idea where we were headed.  I did notice that we were driving south.  Interesting.

We headed down a highway that was sparsely populated, which is a nice change after the months of massive traffic that we've been having.  As is our way, Tim and I chatted about this'n'that as we cruised along which usually keeps me fairly distracted.  Still I couldn't help but notice that the sky was getting darker as we went.    Since I had no idea where our destination was or what we were going to be doing, I wasn't especially concerned.  And it also needs to be pointed out that here in Florida, a cloudy sky does not automatically mean rain just as a sunny sky does not automatically guarantee no rain.  Yeah, it's a strange place.  So anyway, the sky was looking like this:

Again, neither of us was especially concerned about the grey ominous looking sky.  Even as we pulled in to the parking lot of our destination we were not worried.  Our Destination?  Deep Creek Preserve!  Knowing my love of a great hike and an even better photo safari, Tim found a hiking spot that I had never heard of so that I could spend part of the day doing something I dearly love!  Awwwww!  That's perfect.  

Except for the fact that pretty much as soon as we arrived, the sky opened up and it absolutely poured rain. Dang!  It really looked like a terrific hiking/photography spot too.  We just sat in the car for a little bit waiting to see if this was going to be one of Florida's famous 15 minutes of torrential rain and then nothing kind of rainstorms.  It was not.

We sat watching the rain come down for a bit and then I asked, "Was there a Plan B?"  Tim put the car into gear and said, "Plan B coming up!"  Off we went.  Another thing about Florida rain is that it is often very geographically specific.  There have been days when it rains on the south end of the island but not the north (or vice versa)  or on one side of the bridge and not the other.  So the thought was that perhaps, this particular rain storm was here at Plan A, Deep Creek Park, but not at Plan B which was hiking the Pennington Audubon Trails a few miles away.  Great idea!

Except that if anything, it was raining even harder there.  Drat!  Tim was ready, he had a Plan C as well!  Awesome!  So next we headed toward the Port Charlotte Beach Park another place I had never been.   We were very excited we we arrived as,  at last,  it wasn't raining!  Hurrah!   

There were puddles, so had there had recently been some precipitation but there were peeks of blue sky here and there and we were encouraged.  So this time, we got out, walked around a bit and enjoyed that lovely recent fresh rain fragrance.  I grabbed my camera and got a few shots.  There were some fishermen, a lovely long pier and board walk and a few birds!  I began snapping away as we wandered around.  We were having a lovely time while Tim kept an eye to the sky which still had a bit of that heavy dark look that might (or might not) mean something.  

Just as I was saying that I thought the storm was moving off, I mean literally as the words were leaving my mouth, there was a terrific clap of thunder just above us and lightening strikes in several directions.  We starred at each other for a second, then began laughing like lunatics as we ran for the car just before the rain started up again!  LOLOLOL  

Hiking idea shelved,  we headed off to enjoy lunch in a place we both enjoy but rarely go.   I can never remember the actual name so I refer to it as,' Wings and Rings and Things and Stuff ' but Tim knows what I mean. It's not a fancy place but the food is good.  Kind of basic but consistently good.  Tim loves their wings in particular. I am a fan of their burgers.  On the rare occasion that I am in the mood for a burger, that's the one I'm usually thinking of.  They never disappoint.

All in all, Saturday was a terrific adventure!

Sunday, Tim insisted that everything was about me. I had to make the choices of what to do.  Really?  Well hmmmm,  the choices are endless.  Let me think.  So while I thought, Tim made a wonderful breakfast and then, at my choice, we went outside and power washed the exterior of the house and the courtyard.  It looks so good now!    Afterwards we were both very wet and a little dirty so my next thought was that I wanted to walk on the beach.  I mean, what the heck, we were already wet and dirty.

Luckily it was a gorgeous day for beach walking.  Sunny and breezing and perfect.  We walked along the water's edge getting wetter with splash and covered in sand from the beach.  It was awesome.  

Eventually we went back home.  Once we were cleaned up my next decision was that I wanted to  find some dopey, girlie movie on TV and watch that.  So we looked.  And looked. And Looked!  And honestly couldn't find one silly girlie romcom kind of film. I was thinking some old Audrey Hepburn or even Katherine Hepburn black and white film.  Or maybe something a little newer (though still awhile back) a Meg Ryan or Kate Hudson kind of movie.  Nope.  I was about to give up as Tim scrolled through the possibilities when the X-Files suddenly appeared.  What?   Seriously, the Xfiles?  I perked up.  Dang I haven't seen an X-Files re-run in a Very Long Time.

Yeah that'll do.  So we ordered pizza and watched X-files re-runs and talked to each of the kids ,which is always one of the best parts of the day.  All in all, had an absolutely perfect Mother's Day Weekend Celebration!

​Honestly, I cannot imagine it being much better than that.