Our stay here has been punctuated by short road trips and flights north. For Christmas we headed to Heather's for a week, and I returned again in late January, experiencing major snowfalls each time. The grandkiddie fix was just what I needed. We spent a long weekend in Coral Springs with Dad when Ann & Jim were in town, and again when Heather and the kids came to visit. Their stay was happily extended 5 days when snowstorms in VA shut down the airport, and flights were not available until later that week.

We made a west coast sweep, visiting Unni and John Haskell in St. Pete, Elise and Bob Elliott in Boca Grande, and Bruce and Marie Hepp in Ft. Myers (although Marie was sick, and we only caught a glimpse of her). We had a mini-family reunion in Naples at Candy and Ann's house, with Dad, Aunt Pat, and Laura; also had lunch in Tin City with Aunt Bobbie and got to see her new assisted-living digs. On the way back, we motored straight to Vero Beach to see Betty & Frank Flores and Anne & Ev Johnson, who were staying with them, en route to Marco Island for a 3 week stay.

On another occasion, we drove down to Jupiter to connect with teaching colleague Marla Shainman and her husband Barry, and boating live-aboard friends of theirs, Diane and Alan Klein. A couple of weeks later they drove up to Stuart and we scoured the Stuart Art Show, and wined and dined aboard Family Affair and at a local Italian restaurant.

Visitors included Dad, who spent New Year's weekend with us, and Dawn & Paul Gudelis, who were here for MLK weekend. They drove down with their dog Audra from St. Augustine where they are living temporarily on work assignment. We poked around the Stuart Boat Show, biked miles to the beach and back, and generally partied hearty.
Check out the Gudelis's youTube video to get the flavor of the fun: