summer in Florida ... life is good

After Buddy's (wonderful!) appointment at the clinic (see my previous post), I had lab work to do ... so I didn't have time for our traditional celebratory visit to Sonic. Instead, I stopped at a McD's drive-thru to grab one of these yummies:

Have you tried their smoothies? They're pretty awesome (better than I've had at some smoothie shops!), especially at only $2.50 for a small. The mango-pineapple flavor actually rivals the smoothies I enjoyed in Hawaii, yes they're that good! One of summer's simple pleasures....

I hope that you're enjoying summer. The sometimes oppressive heat aside, I love summer here in Florida! ... the water's nice & warm for swimming (I'm a whimp when it comes to water that's colder than 80 degrees F!), the days are longer, the sun's even brighter, the scent of fresh-cut grass wafts in the air, daily late afternoon thunderstorms are "like clockwork", and it means getting some new sandals (found these sparkly beauties at Target on clearance, and they're 100% non-leather (you know my policy!) ... what a find!):

Sal and I have been spending a lot of time outdoors, savoring summer. Last week, we went for a nighttime nature walk led by a naturalist at Green Cay Nature Center. They hold them only once a month, and they book-up immediately, so I was lucky to finally get us in! Before the stroll through the wetlands, she gave a mini-lecture on the ecosystem there, and introduced us to the cutest little owl named Oliver. We got to meet him up close (this photo was not zoomed, yes I was that close to him!):


(Owls blink very often, so I was glad to get a shot with his eyes open ... apparently he caters to the paparazzi, LOL). He's only about 4 or 5 inches tall, and was rescued and rehabilitated after being hit by a car (he needed a wing amputated, poor thing). Now, he calls the GC Nature Center home. So precious!

We enjoyed a lovely nature walk along the wetlands boardwalk and saw birds roosting for the night, and used flashlights to capture the "eye shine" of various other creatures....their eyes shine in the dark! Alligators have a red eye shine; I kept scanning the water surface with my flashlight and spotted a couple gators lurking in the pitch black night. Eerie, but very cool !!

And of course, what's summer without trips to the BEACH ?! It's one of my favorite places to enjoy some of my favorite things ... sun, sand, surf, swimming & Sal. {wink} Our beach has a sign that's updated daily by the lifeguards... they post the ocean temp, swimming conditions, etc. And last weekend, they added a note, "life is good" (lower right). Made me smile! :-)

Hope you're enjoying summer and that "life is good"! :-)

Susan