...soul refreshed!

As was guessed, DH and I were finally able to take a two week road trip! What a roadtrip it was!! Departed from Upstate NY, travelled via the coast, to arrive at islands off the west coast of Southern Florida - 3200+ miles (round trip)!!

Inspired along the way by...

...Amazing works of the "Artist & writers' haven" island of Cedar Key (& Seafood to our hearts delight!!)...

(HAD to throw this picture in for Shara!!)

...Ocean, sand 'tween my toes, and shelling in Sanibel/Captiva Islands...
(I told DH if I could walk the beach every morning, with my coffee, while watching the sunrise and searching for shells it would seriously cut down on my 'saling'! ...He just laughed.)

...Animals of all shapes and sizes! Birds on the beach, 'gators, an armadillo, playing in the ocean with dolphins, conch...

and a mama black bear with her cub (partially up the back side of the tree - if you look close you can see an ear!!)

...Sensory overload hangin' w/ Mickey (aka: Mr. Mouse) for a couple of days in Orlando...

I came home full of ideas - one of which involves my latest obsession with soldering... with a PLETHORA of newfound shells to fuel my passion... Here is last nights attempt~

(Yes. I still need LOTS of practice at this soldering thing, but I AM enjoying the process... and can gradually see improvement!!)

Two weeks with no computer, no internet, no e-mail, no e-bay, no blogging. (We had the laptop with us, but we had no desire to logon!!) That in itself was liberating and refreshing! But it is good to be back!

(I would like to claim that there was no 'saling' either, but...We did 'stumble' upon two garage sales on Cedar Key which yielded this 18" tall retro-'80's teal Haeger figure, a Royal Haeger Vase and a collectible book on Rabbits! They were purchased early in the trip, so I was Very Happily surprise that they were still undamaged when we arrived home!)
Now we're back!

MOTIVATED and ready!!