Florida Visit

My Dad has been up visiting from Florida for a few days last week. He drove himself up, and we thought it would be nice for me to drive him down as it is around 1300 miles, plus I really wanted to spend a few days with him in Florida. It's been a couple years since I've been there.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous through the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia..


There was one place where we actually climbed so high that we were in the clouds..

And the grades were very steep. It was necessary to have "run away truck ramps".. where they could pull off and get stopped by going back up the mountain. We saw many places like this..

The Carolina's were beautiful too. I wish I would have tried to take pictures of the poppies and cone flowers growing all along the highway there.. it was stunning. I looked it up HERE and learned that LadyBird Johnson was responsible for these beautiful fields of wild flowers.

We stopped overnight in Macon Georgia, where my youngest son lives. Had a really nice visit with him and he took me out for pizza that evening. Macon is such a cute town.. I love it there. Saw this mural painted on one of the buildings there so I snapped a picture..

Then the next morning we continued on to Florida. This is the little community where my dad lives. It isn't near the coast.. but they have a little fishing lake..

And it is definitely Florida. The first morning I was there I took these pictures as the sun was just coming up..

Dad lives on one of the back corners next to some thick vegetation and a little creek. This is his back yard..

He has a couple of small fish ponds, and has built little bridges across them. He also loves feeding and taking pictures of the birds. ☺

Here is his Kumquat tree.

I don't really like to eat them, but they are sure pretty.

One of the days we took a tour of Echo. It is an Agricultural training center and experimental plant nursery that works towards ways of feeding hungry people of the world. I really can't explain it all and do it justice, but you can read about it HERE. Dad volunteers at this place, so he took me around and showed me things. I met these little guys (anoles) along the pathway.

And this fellow was just getting ready to crow..

I didn't really get to do any shopping.. so no quilt shops. Plus I was flying home.. and couldn't really take much back with me..

....this beautiful sunset was outside the plane window coming into Pittsburgh Airport..

...but this was waiting for me when I walked in the door. ☺I completely had a weak moment last week and put in an order in at Whittles.

No plans for this yet.. but I'm sure I'll think of something! And oh.. I got lots of compliments on my bag.. so I was HAPPY I had made it.

I spent today just catching up on things here.. so I'll try to make it for a visit soon...