More Florida Photos!

As most of you know, at the end of April

we went to Florida

for the birth of my newest grandson.

While there, I took as many photos

as I could...

I always LOVE Florida's sunsets, palm trees, flowers and wildlife.

So, I will continue to post sets of them

until I run out of the ones from that trip.....

in between

posting the ones of our U.P. Spring and summer....

So, here goes:

Florida's gulf coast NEVER disappoints me

regarding supplying some of the most

breathtaking sunsets I have EVER seen:

Tropical flowers!  Wouldn' t you love to tuck one behind your ear and drink a Momossa?

And of course, my goofy pelicans! Love 'em!!:

Sunbeams at sunset!:

Love, love, love the palms....

Another shot of a Hibiscus:

Sometimes the best sunset shots are AFTER the sun goes

all

the

way

down:

Madeira Beach:

We will be back...

you know, with that new granddson living sooooo far away,

I have to go back more often now, don't I?

Oh, darn....

that will be very hard to do.

NOT!!!!  

Florida Vacation Trip Photos: Part TWO

For those of you that didn't read yesterday's post, you may want to drop down and look at that first....

Now for the rest of us...let's carry on, shall we?

We blasted by car through several states, pretty farm lands, but it was flat.

Highway I-75 heading straight down from Michigan to Florida

is pretty boring.

The first intesting thing we started noticing were miles and miles where they must have had to blast through rock to make the highway.

We liked seeing the layers of rock:

And then we got into the Cumberland Mountains, which were like huge rolling hills!:

We thought of how beautiful it probably is in the spring and fall.



Then, it got flatter and flatter as we approached the Florida state line:

AT LAST...we were approaching the Florida border!!!

It was still in the 60's, but that felt a lot better than the 30 degrees we had left just a few days before!

My husband spotted the state line and a sign for the Florida Welcome center rest stop.

I wanted to go further before we took a break, but since he was our driver for the last two days, I had to listen to the Pilot.

So we pull into the rest stop, and THIS

is the first thing I see!:

Nope.

We weren't in Michigan any more!!!

I wasn't sure I wanted to get out of the car.

But THEN:

I saw THIS!:

I LOVE Oak trees with hanging Spanish Moss!

I took several pictures of the trees there and wandered around like a silly tourist with the camera clicking away.

You can't blame me.

At almost every turn there was Spanish moss begging to be photographed.

Some had entwining ferns:

Some looked like it had been hugging the trees for years:

And then, we rejoiced to see the first tropical plants on the whole trip down!:

And then, before leaving the Spanish moss there, I saw this lovely arch of it!:

And FINALLY:

Our first palm tree!:

It was so good to see tropical vegetation, because we knew we were finally almost there.

On our way out of this lovely road stop, there was a lookout that pointed over Florida countryside.

I really liked this old, dead tree there:

We stayed almost an hour there, taking in the tropical plants and snapping away photos.

We climbed back in the car, knowing we were closer to our destination, refreshed and happy.

Stay tuned for our destination photos next!

*P.S. Don't forget to go out and get your photo for entry into the first ever Retirement Chronicles Monthly Amateur Photo contest! January's theme is "Anything Rusty". Submit your entry by Jan. 31st, midnight.