8/2/2018 4/24-8/1/2018
Well, August is here. won't be too long and it will start to cool off, we hope. We have enjoyed being home for the summer, almost forgot what it is like. We planted grass and it is sprouting pretty good from all the rain. We have had about 30" of rain since April. One day we got over 2" in 30 minutes.
We ended April & began May with a 2 week stay at the beach with our motor home near Flagler Beach. It is beautiful up there, and still only 90 mins from the house. We drove to Tampa to see Lynyrd Skynyrd and to Jacksonville for a James Taylor concert. Joe Bonamassa came to St Augustine with his amazing band too, so we were busy between sitting on the beach, and listening to music...such a life.
We came home and celebrated Mother's Day, went to the last of a 6 show series at Dr Phillips PAC and started to get ready for Kaylee's graduation from High School....doesn't seem possible our little grand daughter is 18 y/o, high school grad, working girl & has started Seminole State College...where has the time gone? Barb's two sisters & their families came from Minnesota, friends from Oklahoma, lots of locals, and we had a big party. Half way through the party, I got sick. I drove myself home and spent the next 36 hours sleeping...it was not fun. But, even though I missed the graduation ceremony, I got well enough to spend time with family before they all left. My brother had been here for a month too...we hadn't seen each other for that long since we were in high school. It was all good. Then it was back to normal stuff, doctors & lunch with friends., and relaxing from the fun.
June brought time to work in my shop, doing projects we had put off for several years. I refinished the kitchen table in the motor home, which turned into a pretty big project. But it turned out great. We also attended 4 concerts, seeing several bands we had never seen before, which is always fun. In the meantime, we have been doing some planning for the rest of this year and our big trip to Europe next summer. It takes a lot of work to get ready for these adventures we go on. I think we are going to recruit some professional help for our Europe trip...too many unknowns.
July has been pretty relaxing. Four more concerts, 4 nights camping with our daughter & son-in-law, who bought themselves a gently used 5th wheel camper and were dying to break it in. So we spent 4 night at a State Park near Clermont, about 50 miles west. That stay also included a drive south to a couple more State Parks & the Bok Tower near Lake Wales, which we had never visited before. There are 161 Florida State Parks and we have visited 122 of them, 39 to go. We are going to go camping in Sept., Oct & Nov., all at Florida State Parks...we will have less than 5 left when we get done. It has been a fun adventure, lots of beautiful places. And no, I am not going to pick the best one...I gave up on that practice as a young man when I saw what the judges had to go through to pick Miss America & Miss Universe...it is all too subjective and it is a bunch of opinions, none of which we are sure are even sane opinions...so, I will pass. But we have seen some natural beauty not seen too many places on earth...but again, I have not seen everything on earth, yet. Get back with me when we have. We have been watching The Travel Chanel, reading the photography magazines that appear in our mailbox, we have a ways to go. Our friends from Finland were at Nordkapp, Norway in the last week. It is the furthermost northern point in Europe, only 2,942 miles north of where we are, guess where we are going next summer? Maybe on a cruise ship...never know. A lot of that is still in the undecided column, but we are getting there.
Steve & Barb Larson
