The calendar said February...2012

Well, the photo is as it says! St. Augustine Florida! And again, warmer than here in February! I took this picture IN February...but February of 2011. I flew down to Florida to see the shuttle launch, and experience for which there are no words, perhaps some tears, but you can't be explained the emotions felt! I've already blogged about the awesome, amazing, word-less, experience that it was. That blog is "Shuttle Launch. Best. Thing. Ever.".

I stayed with some dear friends with Green Light Group Tours....(Fab company by the way. Normal people. Great tours. Great prices. BOOK IT!) They were more than kind to let me stay, lend me a car, let me play with their kids, AND? Let me ditch my lawn chair there! :-) (Sometimes I blog on that site too, so, take interest, and stalk their page too!)

At any rate....St. Augustine is a wonderful little tourist town, at any season. Of course it's better to see it with friends, and it's a glorious sort of sunshine, but please....don't leave without having a sticky bun from the Bunnery Cafe on St. George Street...WOW! Y-U-M! From a historical stand point, it IS our oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin here in the US! It was founded in 1565...forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown! Fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock! So it's fun, warm, yummy, AND educational!

The calendar said January....2012....

January….it’s cold here, so a healthy reminder of WARM is always good. I took this picture in Oia, on the island of Thera….one of the five islands that make up Santorini. Picturesque is the word that books will use to describe this place….I think that’s hardly the tip of the iceberg beauty! It’s simply stunning, and for a couple reasons. 1. Of course that it’s STUNNING! 2. Every picture you’ve ever seen of Greece, woo’ing you with it’s history and magnificent beauty has a picture from this little town of Oia, unless it’s the acropolis. Magazine articles about Greece cause us to believe that there are two things to see…the acropolis….and these blue houses. Now, while that’s not true of course, as Greece is awesome in every corner, it IS true that these are two MUST SEE’s! Now, sure, I travel for a living….and I’ve been to Oia more than “a lot”, yet way under “never enough”! I want to move here for a month, hang with the locals, and learn to be annoyed with the hoards of tourists that run all over until about 5pm! (Who cares if that’s how I do it!). BUT, until that moment…I’m forced to steal beauty in small doses. This picture…taken during too short of time on a shore excursion, and I am surrounded by OODLES of people. You don’t see or feel that in this picture, and when I flip open January? I don’t feel that either. I’m caught in the moment of beauty looking over the Aegean. There is no need for a fancy camera, a special secret location from where to shoot, and certainly no need for photo shop, with the exception of the words stating where it is! It’s stunning. Period. I know, I’ve said that already, but there aren’t words for this place. As always, I encourage you to go, put it on your wish list, or order and print it up to a huge canvas like I did! So now, its not just January…it’s bliss all year long.