Ok, it’s been 4 months. Time to bid farewell to our winter home. We gather up and load up to head to Lake Wales. We are set to check out a few new places and a couple familiar stops.
It is strawberry season, actually even Strawberry Festival week in Plant City. Carol joins us as we head for Parkesdale Market for their famous strawberry shortcake. I go for the whole deal, shortbread, ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. It is delicious just as I recall. Getting there is messy though. Our trusty Garmin, Beatrice, sends us right through the thick of festival traffic. What a mess! It was worth it (so I say. Kent did all the driving).
We fit in a bit of family time. Kent’s Uncle Bill is in nearby Winter Haven. It has been 4 or 5 years and it is great to catch up with him. Bill turned 80 years young March 5 and he is looking great.
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park protects a large tract of Florida dry prairie. We start with a leisurely tour, a narrated swamp buggy ride. Our guide is the preserve manager, he leads their fire crew that plans, sets and manages controlled burns so we get sort of a pyro’s view of the place but leave with an interesting overall view of the terrain and how dry prairie, wetlands, marsh, swamp and sloughs inter-relate. Not a bird guy or a wildlife guy he is a plant guy. We check out some often-overlooked carnivorous plants and wildflowers that thrive in the cool damp earth at the base of acres of wiregrass.
We take a short prairie hike to get a closer view then call it a day. It is in the 90s and as one might expect, shade is hard to come by on the prairie. The park is a dark sky location for star gazing but we just drove in for the day so we will have to save that activity for another time.
Back at camp we have
been admiring the graceful swallow-tail kites as they swoop and glide overhead. Today we get a reminder that they are skillful predators. Grackles heckle a kite as it swoops and approaches a towering live oak. The kite out maneuvers the pursuers and lights atop, seemingly ending the conflict. Nope. Moments later there is a loud ruckus as it appears the kite is falling down through the branches then is swoops high into the sky and away. Our parting view, what looks to be a baby bird held tightly in the kite’s talons. After the fact we spot the targeted nest, and a dove moves in making loud protest. Guess that’s whose home was raided. Nature can be brutal.
Albany and their flight back to Texas. Routine life will soon return. We shlep all our stuff out of the Vrbo…seems like it multiplied while we were here. Kent and I wrangle an invitation to spend a couple nights at the kids to hang with Willa and Hazel a little more before we head south. It is a wonderful time. December 31, time to head on south.
subsequently eat, the ginger bread cookie people Carol so artfully created in their image. Ginger crisps were a hit and all the sugars disappeared.
Christmas morning – stockings, plenty of gifts for all the kids, Nana gets a sweater that matches Willa’s, and we christen Mike and Tracy’s fancy new waffle iron.
waffles, lasagna, potato leek soup and apple crisp. Showier, special occasion creations like Mike’s cinnamon rolls and stuffed pumpkin as well as a marginally successful attempt at papousas. Of course, NY bagels. All took one night off and we had Mexican food delivered. We ate well and shared fun kitchen time.
pleasure of prime rib roast, oh so good even if I do say so myself. Mike, Tracy and family shared Christmas Day dinner at her folks leaving us to take over their kitchen for a few hours. We removed all traces of our decidedly NOT plant based meal as best we could. We were unable to calm a somewhat crazed cat who was apparently hung over on the scent of raw meat!
Tracy and Willa give ice skating a try. It is kids’ afterschool session at a seasonal outdoor rink by Rondout Creek. There is a fair amount of trepidation early on and practicing how to fall and how to get up are integral to the experience; but everyone ultimately agrees it was a fun afternoon and worthy of another try. Hot chocolate helps solidify that sentiment. We head home to warm up.