Sunny Days: Snow and ice at home—Gale winds and storms in Florida

I have got to say, I do not miss the snow and ice. We sit in dock so the winds and rain do not really threaten us like they would if we were anchored out--but we are watching the weather both in Tennessee and Florida. We took a field trip this week to visit Naples/Bonita Beach and our friends’ aboard Fugitive home in Tarpon Cove. It was a welcome vacation to a dirt home and we met Janis’ fascinating parents. As a hobby and to follow the tradition of 5 generations before them, they spend March extracting maple syrup from the trees on their property near Blind River on the North Channel in Canada. They explained the process and had wonderful pictures of them in the process. Plus they gave us a bottle—awesome. We hit their hot tub with a vengeance and went to dinner in old Naples at Café Luna. Great fun. As true to our old ways--we took no pictures We were not tempted to shop at the huge outlets we passed as we traveled 3 hours up and down the interstate but we had a couple of sunny days and light traffic. We came back in time to show Janis and Brian our adopted home of Dunedin and then get them on the waters southward. We will miss our running buddies-- they are going to be in the Bahamas for the month of March—not this year for us but we will catch up with them some time. Last night was a weather window for crossing the Gulf so now we have a fresh bunch of Loopers in the marina. Sonata that we met in Chicago and Corsair who traveled up the Cumberland to Nashville with us have come in and we are glad to reconnect with them. Now we have a windy, rainy weekend ahead to watch the Broncos and the Patriots, the Basketball Vols and watch the weather reports from home.