Vacation

Where does one begin?  I did not mean to leave this space untended for this long, however, fast moving events swept me up and carried me away.  Now I have a few stories to share.

 

First let me just say that I’ve missed all my friends here in J-land.  I’ve missed reading your posts and keeping current with all the happenings in this community.  I’ve missed sharing with you about what’s been happening in my world, too.

 

A couple of days after I wrote my last post, I got a memo from our Human Resources Department telling me to use 48 hours of vacation time by the third week of May or lose them.  We can only carry over so many weeks of vacation time each year and any extra must be used up by our anniversary date with the company.

 

I looked at the calendar on my desk and quickly realized that, due to upcoming events at work, I needed to use this vacation time the following week or I would have to forfeit it.  A quick meeting with my boss and it was confirmed.  I’d have nine days off starting that coming Monday.

 

My first plan was to just loaf around the house for a week doing a few chores and catching up on some reading and goofing off.  A call from my friend Ken the next evening had Paulette and I planning to meet Ken and Joyce for the following weekend in Daytona, Florida.  We picked Daytona as a half-way spot between our respective homes.

 

Sunday night after work, I walked in and found Paulette and Ken talking on the phone.  Ken and Joyce would not be able to go to Daytona the following weekend because of some health problems of their aging, but beloved pet dog, Valentine.  It seems that in my absence, Paulette and Ken decided I should drive down to Vero Beach for that week.  The thought was that I should finish the vacation that had been interrupted last October when I left early to return home before an impending hurricane made landfall. You can read about that trip in my archives for October 2005, if you like.  Paulette did not have any vacation time left so I’d be going by myself again.

 

That’s how I found myself once again on a tropical beach swimming and enjoying a cool beer in the hot sun.

 

 

 

 

With nothing to rush my visit this time, we decided to explore as many of the spoil islands in the area as we could.  This is a shot of Ken on one of the prettiest little islands we visited checking his messages from work.

 

 

I was having a blast and we saw some great spots for return visits.

 

 

We discovered that you can adopt an island if you wanted to help in keeping these islands clean and pretty.  Here’s Tom, Ken’s dad standing beside a sign explaining the program.

 

 

I, as you can see, am enjoying every minute of the adventure.

 

 

We needed to keep our strength up, so we foundour way to the Ft. Pierce City Marina and took sustenance at the Tiki Hut Restaurant located on the property.  Ponce De Leon would have loved to discover this place.  The adult beverages had great rejuvenating powers.

 

 

After lunch and a few beverages, it was back to the arduous task of finding more island beaches to swim and play at.  On some of the islands we made interesting discoveries such as these two stumps the locals have been carving on for years.

 

 

Here’s a shot of Ken on yet another island.  Notice the stump in the clearing behind him.  This one had been carved on and then it had been scorched on purpose with fire to give it a very eerie effect.  I love making these little discoveries.  Each new island had some distinct little secret to be revealed.

 

 

This is how we finished out our day before returning home to hot showers and some excellent hospitality.

 

 

There’s more of my trip to share next time and I’ve visited an interesting shipyard here in Savannah that I want to tell you about.  I hope you are all doing well and enjoying some excellent spring weather.