Here Comes the Sun....

and it's more than alright! For the first time in a good long while we had excellent weather for FAVO, although that didn't help our attendance as much as we'd hoped. Friday began pretty dreary, with a mix of rain and clouds. Same old, same old. But then, around 3 in the afternoon the sun came out and stayed there. I don't know what the temperature was, but I do know it was tolerable which came as a complete surprise. The air conditioner in Room 139 is merely a prop. Without benefit of chilled air, I had planned for a miserable night with only two fans for cooling. You know what? It was enough and then some; I did not even turn the big boy on high!

That's Garrett on the left, and I can't remember her name on the right. I suppose I could make a name up for her and no one would be the wiser, but than again, maybe not. I couldn't have been happier having these two children hang with me at FAVO. In town from a small Alabama town visiting their grandparents, they kept me company for a while. Gosh they were sweet. I'm not sure if it was my chocolate chip cookie bars, Smarties, or our conversation that made them hang around, but I'm not one to complain in a situation like that. That said, I had more visitors than I expected; the night went by very quickly, and before you know it, Bruce was there and we packed most of it back up.

But that was Friday. What happened on July 4? Rain and lots of it! That's not entirely true, the weather was kind of a reverse of Friday--clear until 3, followed by some rain and then MORE RAIN! Early in the day we drove up to DeBary to see Judy and Cris's new place on the St. John's River. Although we had directions, we ended up using Google Maps, driving on this gorgeous canopied road:

Just ten days ago they left their big home in Altamonte Springs, trading it in for a double wide trailer, and is it ever nice. There's a lovely sunroom on the back overlooking the river:

How would you like to have this view from your back yard?

A very winding river; for those who don't know the first thing about the St. Johns River, it is one of only a few that flow North. Before long they will have a pontoon boat to travel up and down the 310 mile length. Isn't it beautiful? Following our visit we invited them to lunch at the nearby Swamp Gator restaurant located on the riverbank. Indeed, they have gator on the menu, although I'm not nearly brave enough to try it.

So far, so good with the weather. We arrive home, load the kayak on the car, get our bathing suits, and head over to Dave's condo on Lake Pineloch. Apparently our good weather fortune couldn't last forever because soon after arriving it rained, but not for long. Bruce decided the time was right to take the boat out for a little fishing:

He's very visible, right? Keep reading....

A while later David took a neighbor's paddle board out, going around the entire lake, stopping to chat with his Dad, who by that time was on the opposite shoreline. The water was smooth as glass at that point. But then it wasn't. As David neared the shoreline, the storm clouds were coming in fast and furious!

Rain began falling, at first not too hard; Michelle and I went to the end of the boat house, scanning the lake for the bright orange kayak with no luck. It was then that the heavens really opened up, making visibility about zero. Where could Bruce be? Like any good former Boy Scout, he was prepared. As he was paddling the opposite shore he began chatting with some folks out on their dock, who were kind enough to shelter him through the hour long storm. Inviting him in and offering refreshments no less! And, as fate would have it, they are former neighbors and good friends of my sister Lisa! Finally the rain stopped, David drove me home to get the spare set of keys and I drove over to get Bruce, rather than have him paddle back because with the way the afternoon and evening were going there was no telling when the rain might begin again.

Home we went, unloaded the kayak, and headed back over for the big fireworks show.

The air was already filled with smoke from fireworks going off everywhere. One of the Lake Pineloch residents traditionally does a big fireworks show over the lake for everyone. This year Michelle took up a collection to help out ,allowing him to do an even bigger show. Out in the lake is a barge, towed there by kayak with more fireworks on it than you can imagine. Remote controlled, around 9PM, they started going off with, I dare say, a bang? My photographs are very iffy:

The kept going and going!

It was nothing short of fantastic! So, you see the little girl in the pool above? After the fireworks, the dj got everyone on the dance "surface", in this case a pool deck. At one point we formed a circle with one dancer taking the middle to show off their moves. About four years old, this little cutie had no problem being one of the featured dancers. So fun.

We danced and danced, grateful for friends, dry weather, and good music. Here's a crazy dance picture:

Asking David if I was embarrassing him, he responded, "no, I would be more embarrassed if you weren't having a good time. " That's my boy!