Island Distractions

On Sanibel, it’s easy to do just nothing. But, if you tire of that, it has plenty else to offer. Considered one of the best shelling spots in North America, Sanibel attracts shell-lovers from all over the world. The unique east-west orientation of the island creates beautiful sandy beaches and an abundance of unusual shells….

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Pattern and Texture

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” ~Henry Miller

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Pedal Pushers

The Sanibel Causeway spans San Carlos Bay and connects the island to the Florida mainland in Punta Rassa, near Ft. Myers. The entire causeway is three miles long, consists of three two-lane bridge spans, with two man-made islands between, and charges a toll for island-bound vehicles only. So, once on the island, it’s easier to…

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The Common Snowbird

There is an actual bird, the Common Snow-Bird, or dark-eyed junco, that migrates south from the cold in groups. John James Audubon, the great naturalist and painter, once wrote of the snowbird, “The migration of these birds is performed by night, as they are seen in a district one day and have disappeared the next.”…

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The Peabody Ducks

The first Peabody Hotel was built on Main Street and Monroe, in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1869, and named in honor of George Peabody, for his contributions to the south. It hosted many important dignitaries of the time, including Andrew Johnson, William McKinley, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis.The hotel closed in 1923 in preparation to…

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In Search of Sunshine

We headed out a back door route on a lazy, meandering four-day southbound road trip through six states to Sanibel Island, Florida, where we’ve rented a condo for three weeks. It is the middle of winter, so the landscape was leafless and gray, but we were lucky to have clear, but chilly, weather. The Missouri…

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America’s Finest City

The sun was shining on “America’s Finest City”, as San Diego is fondly referred to, when we approached its port, as if the city was flaunting it’s own reputation for its glorious and mild year-round climate. San Diego is also ranked as the fifth best place to live in the United States, the fifth wealthiest…

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Hawaii’s Big K

When we visited Kauai many years ago, the “Garden Island”, I learned, was rich in the natural beauty of velvet chartreuse cliffs, jagged emerald green mountains, cascading waterfalls, deep, narrow valleys, and sheltered beaches, with much of it inaccessible by land. The few towns are situated on the coasts, separated by long, winding roads. We…

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A Taste of Maui

I remembered Lahaina fondly from years ago when Dean and I rented a condo on the beach in Maui for a week or so, and Lahaina then was a loose, carefree, hippie town with beer and seafood restaurants, galleries with local art, a quaint main street, and lots of t-shirt shops. It hasn’t changed too…

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