Ginny came up with the idea of getting together to celebrate brother Rob's birthday (4 Dec) and thank him for all he's doing to care for Mom Farnsworth. By the time the day rolled around, all siblings but one had gathered in Palm Coast for eating, drinking and sharing memories.
1 Dec, Wed - Patti, bless her heart, let us park our car in her garage and then drove us to SeaTac for our 11:27 United flight. After all the talk about TSA scanning and patdowns, it was a non-event as we went through the same old security as last time we flew in February. Our flight was delayed almost an hour (giving us time to grab a sandwich) but we reached Chicago with plenty of time to make our next flight to Jacksonville (and grab another sandwich) arriving around 22:30. This was the first time we flew with just carry-ons and it worked very well for this short trip to what should have been a warm climate. Hertz had no compact cars and offered us an SUV or a Mustang. We took the bright red convertible just to savor the look on C.J.'s siblings' faces. It was about 80 minutes from the airport to Palm Coast where we checked in to the Best Western. [BTW, car rental and hotel were arranged as a package through Expedia at a very good price. Airfare was covered by our Mastercard "World Points".]
2 Dec, Thu - We slept-in a bit then had breakfast in the hotel lobby - eggs, sausage, and biscuits and gravy as well as cold cereals, waffles, and pastries were available. We picked up a bouquet of flowers and dropped in at the house to say hello to Mom F. and Rob. Later, Ginny stayed with Mom F while we went to lunch at the Golden Lion in Flagler Beach with Rob and Pat, C.J.'s oldest sister.
On the way back we stopped to buy a couple of rakes at Walmart and spent some time clearing most of the leaves and pine needles from the front yard. For dinner we drove to Daytona Beach where Ginny was staying with Pat in one of Pat's timeshare condos on the beach. Mary showed up (a day earlier than expected) and we had an excellent pasta and sausage meal and an interesting conversation until way past our bedtime.
3 Dec, Fri - Somewhere we had heard of a trail that looped down to the Palm Coast Marina and
back to the community center. So starting at the Community Center seemed like the logical beginning. We found a brochure there with a map and set off down the median between the lanes of Palm Coast Parkway, along the St. Joe Canal (a fork of the St. Joe Creek we had paddled on a previous trip), and under the bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. We stopped at the Tropical Kayaks shop to check on a possible rental for several of us and then continued along Clubhouse Drive back to the Community Center. Later, we gathered at Rob's and left Doreen, the visiting nurse, with Mom while the rest of us went to Hooligans for drinks and a large selection of snackies. Greg showed up from Delaware just as we were about to wind things up, but at least he had time for a beer. Once again we gathered at the condo in Daytona for dinner, this time salmon was on the menu.4 Dec, Sat - Leaving Mom with Doreen again we all met for breakfast at The Pier in Flagler Beach. Afterward Rob led us to Wickline Park and a nearby boardwalk that extended into a
marsh on the Intracoastal Waterway side of the barrier island. The far end of the path had lots of gopher tortoise burrows but we didn't see any of the critters. I did spot a wood stork as well as the ubiquitous egrets and herons. On the way back Greg, C.J. and I walked though the farmers market marveling at the huge avocados. Mary and Pat were off on a quest for fine manicures, but later Mary spent the afternoon preparing for the night's pot roast dinner. C.J. and I were in charge of dessert and bread and found a nice artisan loaf of roasted garlic bread. Dessert was up for debate but we eventually settled on a ice cream cake roll with chocolate cake and mint choc chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Dinner was a big success: good food, good company, and Mom seemed to be enjoying herself. We all decided to follow Rob's suggestion and leave as soon as dinner was cleaned up so as not to overtire Mom.5 Dec, Sun - Ginny and Greg met us at Tropical Kayaks and we paddled up the canal to
"Manatee Cove", a pond surrounded by a golf course. We didn't see any manatees but there were lots of birds. Leaving the cove, we paddled east to the Intracoastal Waterway and turned north into a strong wind, not quite strong enough to produce whitecaps. After a few hundred yards we found a sandy beach to pull up on and lazed around in the sun for a while before paddling back to the marina. Greg came back to the hotel with us as he was going to spend the night in order to get an early start home on Monday. Later, we rode over to Rob's with Greg, hung out for a while, then went down to Daytona for another dinner, this time shrimp scampi.6 Dec, Mon - Greg left early leaving his jeans in the closet while we slept on. Then C.J. and I
visited several parks: Herschel King (not much more than a boat launch and playground), Graham Swamp ( which provided a good walk along a forested sand ridge above the mostly drought-dry swamp), and Bulow Plantation State Park. At Bulow we walked the nature trail to the ruins of the sugar mill (photo, left) and springhouse. There is a boat launch and canoes are available to rent ($10/hr, $40 all day) for a paddle on the Bulow Creek canoe trail. We had lunch with Ginny and Rob at The Meeting Place then we took a walk along the Intracoastal Waterway where we spotted three large dolphins. Later we returned to Rob and Mom's for a London broil dinner.7 Dec, Tues - We got up at 0530 to a dark and cold morning - the temperature was in the low 30's and folks had covered their tender plants and fruit with blankets. By 0630 we were on our way to JAX arriving around 0800 for our 0949 flight to Washington, DC. The TSA must have been having a slow day because both of us were scanned, my waistband was probed, and C.J.'s hands were checked for explosive traces(!). The flight to Dulles was on a commuter plane with just four seats across and we were assigned seats in the Economy Plus forward section since all the Economy seats were taken. Our roll-aboard luggage would not fit in the overhead bins so they were checked at the gate and we picked them up outside the door to the plane at Dulles. We had a very short layover and then were on our way at 1236 arriving in Seattle where it was 20 degrees warmer at 1510 or so. There was not much to see except clouds on the way across the northern US except in a few places that were snow covered. Patti made our day by picking us up at 1600. We were home to our chilly house by 1715.
Pat, Greg, C.J., Rob, and Mary at Wickline Park nature trail, Flagler Beach
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