A Journey To Florida, And A Bidding Of Farewell~

My first sunrise at Deerfield Beach, Florida after arriving the evening before~

I will be dedicating this post to my beloved father-in-law, Dr. William Rush Cromer.  He is in his final days and we, as a family are in the process of bidding him farewell.  I have known this wonderful man for over 51 years and been a part of his family for over 45 years.  He was raised in Miami Florida, married his beloved wife Lois there and my husband Bill was born there.  This is going to be a difficult time for us, and I am thankful I had these in draft form, before things took a change for the worst.  I took this image of him a year ago March 30, at Ashleigh and Matt's wedding. 

Please lift up our family in your prayers and heart thoughts during this difficult time.  Thanking you~

My mother always said Smile, and you have to Smile when you think about how long it took for me to get to Florida and the obstacles that tried to stop me.  Bad weather, illness, broken down Amtrak trains, and then a 5 hour delay, nearly a cancellation with a mechanical problem on the airplane.  Then on my return, we got word that my home state would be getting upwards of 20 to 25 inches of snow in just over 24 hours and of course we did not know exactly where the snow would hit at it's worst.  My home got a fresh coating of 9 1/2 atop what all, we already had.  Just an hour South of us, made national news though as over 400 cars were stranded along with some 200 18 wheeler trucks, what a mess! I decided to extend my visit with my daughter and her husby in sunny Florida and extra 2 days, now that was a huge Smile for me~

Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slide show presentation after you have read the narratives~

I will be linking up with Judith for:

www.lavendercottagegardening.com

Mosaic Monday

&

Stewart for:

   http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/

Wild Bird Wednesday

Papayas grow outside my daughters' back yard and there are always the Boat-tailed Grackles to greet you the first of daybreak~

We visited a few beaches along A1A, but Deerfield was within easy walking distance from their home~

Ashleigh and her husby Matthew are just the sweetest couple to be around.  Their first anniversary is March 30~

 I was busy taking Iguana images that I knew were not going to be very interesting, when Ashleigh yelled, "Mommie, look behind you", and wow was this big beauty close too~

Later on my first day with them and the only day with rain, we visited the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge near Boynton Beach, which was fantastic~

On Sunday morning, I walked back over to Deerfield Beach to watch the sunrise, and it was glorious~

Ashleigh and Matty as she affectionately calls him, rode their bikes over to meet me~

There were awesome surfing waves with many a surfer doing their thing early in the day~

Brown Pelicans, just love those chaps, along with the very loud and animated Seagulls.  The dying Jellyfish were a sad sight, but this happens every day, and so I took the last of their beauty~

Just outside the young couples bungalow were the images in mosaic below~

Ashleigh and Matt surprised me with a special day trip over to Sanibel Island and what another beautiful day was had by all.  We drove through the beautiful J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge~

Back to Deerfield Beach and another gorgeous day~

On my last day in Florida Ashleigh had to work and so my son-in-law Matt took me on a day adventure to Wakodahatchee Wetlands and what a spectacular place it was.  So many amazing species of birds and wildlife all living in such close proximity~