Jekyll Island - 2nd stop is the beach.

While I find another cache Jocelyn and Isaac enjoy the water and sun.
Doesn't Isaac look like he just planted the standard at the top of Everest?

The added bonus was the 1:32 scale Tritan missle on display in the convention center. It's a little hard to see but it's black and red sitting on the red, white, and blue tablecloth.Then it was off to the fishing pier where Jocelyn spotted the second benchmark of the trip.

Jekyll Island - 1st stop Earth Day Nature Trail to find Isaac's first cache.
Low tide means mud flats.Isaac makes the trade.Bones on the trail.

Arriving at the Hostel in the Forest.

OUTDOOR shower. I thought they meant outdoor. They meant OUTDOOR. As in O U T D O O R. Nary a implication of being hidden from nature.

Crystal clear water. Composting toilet - which is really an outhouse with lots of straw and sawdust which oddly eliminates the outhouse aroma.
Owl en route to glass housewhich is the one place that doesn't seem to photograph well. It's a large eight sided dome of entirely glass walls. Even the dome roof has a half a dozen glass panels. It is really quite spectacular to sit up there in the trees and rest and relax.

There are lots of other folks photos are here.

Off to the Hostel in the Forest.

Traveling the sort of back roads we stopped for lunch at a boat ramp in Yulee named for Melton O Nelson. Jocelyn stumbled onto a benchmark and we found a modern day archaeological site containing broken eyeglasses, and empty deodorant container, beads, and fishing line.

Like a Mr. Clean commercial.

Who knew the driveway could be so white and sparkley? Not moi. Before on the left; after on the right.

Ready-Made Honorable Mention

My usual junk assemblage. There I was browsing my afternoon away. This magazine was only one stop on my tour but as it turns out my entry had won honorable mention.

Gone Baby Gone.

New babies.

Two out of three so far anyway. I've been waiting patiently for over a week sot it's a good day.

Buy of the day,

I do love an estate sale. Or yard sale. Or thrift store.
I thought is was a laundry basket (the basket separates from the wheeled stand) but research proves it to be a bassinet. No matter, it will be holding geraniums on the porch very soon.

First the gunman, now the bomber.

Today we had a bomb scare on campus. I never believe anything so while there was all this yelling and running going on around me I was still blabbing on the phone. By the time I realized they were serious they were herding us like cattle to the softball field. The campus was evacuated by about 11. We went out to lunch. Did a little shopping. The usual evacuated day off stuff.

The funniest part was when we got to what we thought was the softball field and this guy (ball player in uniform) came by to tell us we were not on the SOFTBALL FIELD. We were on the BASEBALL FIELD. Like anybody in that whole group knew the difference or even knew we had one of each and were on the wrong one. Evidently no one but the team and hey - their game was canceled due to the turn of events - knows this information. I mean really, they were out there grooming the field like it was going to be game on.

After a lot of griping about the sun and the heat (like anyone could do anything about it) they opened the concession stand. I asked for a vodka tonic. They gave me a Sprite.

Life used to be so dull. Only hurricanes scored us a day off.

NOT the express lane.

The EXPRESSO lane.
Tomorrow I'll skip the picture taking and try a shot.

DAD gets an update.

Before.

After.

Michael's new porch.

That may be a stretch since it isn't really a new porch. It is a transformed porch; formerly a gigantic storage room now a summer salon.

Everest by IMAX

Finally! Ever since reading Into Thin Air shortly after it was published I have been haunted by the 1996 perfect storm of Jon Krakauer's reporting expedition, the IMAX film attempt, and the most catastrophic and deadly year ever on Mt. Everest. I do not understand why people would risk lives (their own and others) to enter into such a tangle with nature. But they do. It took me all these years to finally see it on the IMAX screen. Now it's over. It was worth it. Read the book. See the movie. Stay off the mountain.

Then comes the giant rocker.

Just a bit further up the road.

Giant chicken. And baby.

Concrete, of course. That crazy road to Waldo road always has something new to catch my eye.

Sidewalk sweeping pays off.

Cardinal nest in my kitchen window shrub,

Here's mommy. Hard to see because I had to take it from inside over the window and screen. Every time I went out she flew off. See her red beak just right of center?

Ceiling tiles.

I found these at a yard sale for ten bucks for the two. They were layered with white, ivory, aqua, and green latex paint in various stages of peeling. It was a labor of love to strip and scrub but I think the finished product was worth it.

Copper and bronze art.

And my favorite necklace.

G L O R I A Gloria her name is G. (G) L. (L) O. (O) R, (R) I. (I)

Turns out I was wrong about Dave being my oldest friend. It's Gloria. We worked together at Burger Chef while we were in high school.
Once more thumbs up to the internet. And high school reunion sights.