Hanging out in Florida
I'm two days behind. Will I remember everything?
Yesterday we went to a Saturday morning market in St. Petersburg. It was stands with crafts, fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, great things to eat, clothes, and more. There was a live band playing old rock and roll covers. There was food from Peru. There was a booth with about 15 kinds of empanadas. There was pizza and quiche and soup and crepes and granola and breakfast stuff and barbeque and fresh breads and more than I can list or remember. Almost all the booths would give you a taste, and Chuck would wander slowly past looking as though he were trying to decide whether to buy something. All the vendors would ask him to come try what they were selling.
We did buy a crab empanada in honor of Paraguay.
The people there all seemed to be in a good mood. There were people of all ages and family groups and all of them seemed to be having a good time. We saw a couple of ladies who had to be in their 80's wearing biker tights and helmets wheeling their expensive bikes through the market. Half the people there had their well behaved pedigree dogs with them. We saw two families with very young twins.
While we listened to the band a red hat lady came and stood enjoying the music right in front of the band. She was loving the music and started dancing a little. Here she is getting down to a hard driving cover of the Beetles' "Come Together".
After the market we went to the beach. We did some more walking/jogging, this time with socks with my shoes. It got too chilly to swim and soon it started raining.
We came back, had a nice dinner, and watched 'Breach' on HBO. And then we watched the end of 'Pretty Woman' which was much dumber than I remembered it.
This morning we took it pretty easy. Chuck went outside for his quiet time and I hung out in our room for mine. I really missed being at church today.
When Chuck came back we looked up state parks on line and picked the closest park that was in the Everglades---about a 3 hour drive.
The drive was nice, a good time to talk and dream. The park was OK. It was pretty close to this gathering of motorcyclists who had a very loud rock band playing. All the pristine paths sounded like rock music.
This park had royal palms, which are the glorious really big ones you see in photos of tropical wonderlands. This is a frond from a royal palm.
This is looking up at one of them from the bottom. They say that lightening has killed every one of the original trees and these huge ones are second growth. I wished to see the height of an original.
All along the trail there were these huge root systems of uprooted trees. I don't know if this is the result of a hurricane or just natural life span, but the roots are all spread out thickly in this shallow disc around the tree trunk.
I don't know what these berries are but Chuck wanted a picture of them so he got a picture of them.
I didn't get a picture of the gumbo limbo tree. It is nicknamed the tourist tree because of it's red, peeling, paper-thin bark. It took me such a long time to get that, but I finally did.
* * * * * * * *
While we were driving Chuck was playing Christian radio. They played the song, Come to Jesus, by Chris Rice.
Yesterday we went to a Saturday morning market in St. Petersburg. It was stands with crafts, fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, great things to eat, clothes, and more. There was a live band playing old rock and roll covers. There was food from Peru. There was a booth with about 15 kinds of empanadas. There was pizza and quiche and soup and crepes and granola and breakfast stuff and barbeque and fresh breads and more than I can list or remember. Almost all the booths would give you a taste, and Chuck would wander slowly past looking as though he were trying to decide whether to buy something. All the vendors would ask him to come try what they were selling.
We did buy a crab empanada in honor of Paraguay.
The people there all seemed to be in a good mood. There were people of all ages and family groups and all of them seemed to be having a good time. We saw a couple of ladies who had to be in their 80's wearing biker tights and helmets wheeling their expensive bikes through the market. Half the people there had their well behaved pedigree dogs with them. We saw two families with very young twins.
While we listened to the band a red hat lady came and stood enjoying the music right in front of the band. She was loving the music and started dancing a little. Here she is getting down to a hard driving cover of the Beetles' "Come Together".
After the market we went to the beach. We did some more walking/jogging, this time with socks with my shoes. It got too chilly to swim and soon it started raining.We came back, had a nice dinner, and watched 'Breach' on HBO. And then we watched the end of 'Pretty Woman' which was much dumber than I remembered it.
This morning we took it pretty easy. Chuck went outside for his quiet time and I hung out in our room for mine. I really missed being at church today.
When Chuck came back we looked up state parks on line and picked the closest park that was in the Everglades---about a 3 hour drive.
The drive was nice, a good time to talk and dream. The park was OK. It was pretty close to this gathering of motorcyclists who had a very loud rock band playing. All the pristine paths sounded like rock music.
This park had royal palms, which are the glorious really big ones you see in photos of tropical wonderlands. This is a frond from a royal palm.
This is looking up at one of them from the bottom. They say that lightening has killed every one of the original trees and these huge ones are second growth. I wished to see the height of an original.
All along the trail there were these huge root systems of uprooted trees. I don't know if this is the result of a hurricane or just natural life span, but the roots are all spread out thickly in this shallow disc around the tree trunk.
I don't know what these berries are but Chuck wanted a picture of them so he got a picture of them.
I didn't get a picture of the gumbo limbo tree. It is nicknamed the tourist tree because of it's red, peeling, paper-thin bark. It took me such a long time to get that, but I finally did.* * * * * * * *
While we were driving Chuck was playing Christian radio. They played the song, Come to Jesus, by Chris Rice.
Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!
Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!
And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!
Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!
O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!
And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!
Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!
And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!
Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!
O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!
And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!
I'm drawn to the melody of this song, but I always judged the words as too simple, too much about Jesus making me feel good and not enough about being like Jesus. But today it caught me off guard and I found tears rolling without really knowing why.
I've thought about it all day, and still don't really completely get it. The best I can make of it is this. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be who I should be, to take care of the people I care about, to be responsible. I spend a lot of time thinking about whether I could do better.
The song was like a hug from Jesus. Maybe taking it all to Jesus won't make it all go away. How do we balance out taking up our cross with laying down our burdens? I don't pretend that I can understand this. But I know a hug helps, and it helped today.
* * * * * * *
So, Chuck and I were talking about this on our way home and we were in some slow moving traffic. I started checking out billboards.
One of them had the words, "Casual Atmosphere, Serious Faith" over a picture of a family sitting on a lawn. Underneath the family were the words "Fairway Church". I looked again. Is this about golf? YES!!! Next to the family there was a golf ball in the grass.
Chuck wanted me to take a picture, but I guess I wasn't quick enough.
I've thought about it all day, and still don't really completely get it. The best I can make of it is this. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be who I should be, to take care of the people I care about, to be responsible. I spend a lot of time thinking about whether I could do better.
The song was like a hug from Jesus. Maybe taking it all to Jesus won't make it all go away. How do we balance out taking up our cross with laying down our burdens? I don't pretend that I can understand this. But I know a hug helps, and it helped today.
* * * * * * *
So, Chuck and I were talking about this on our way home and we were in some slow moving traffic. I started checking out billboards.
One of them had the words, "Casual Atmosphere, Serious Faith" over a picture of a family sitting on a lawn. Underneath the family were the words "Fairway Church". I looked again. Is this about golf? YES!!! Next to the family there was a golf ball in the grass.
Chuck wanted me to take a picture, but I guess I wasn't quick enough.
Comments
Thanks for all your trip updates.
-Larry