dual personalities

Last week we were in Boca Grande, Florida, staying in a luxurious condo generously loaned to us by a good friend.

It was glorious.

Clearly I am an off-season person. One of the joys of the off-season in Florida is, of course, that there are so few people around. It is quiet and relatively peaceful. You have the beach almost to yourself and the pool is peaceful except for a few polite southern children who respect your space.

It is possible to live in the moment and really relax.

Our daughters, the over-worked TV exec and the on-a-budget graduate student, could let their hair down.

Daughter #2 sliced and diced for us while daughter #1 mixed perfect margaritas. Yummo.

All week I never logged on or in to anything. (Unlike this guy.)

To each his own.

I preferred to walk on the beach and collect seashells.

The weather, I might add, was perfect–never warmer than it was at home in our flyover state. And there was always that proverbial tropical breeze blowing. Plus, we spent hours cooling off in the pool which was surrounded by lovely Floridian flora.

Then we would go into town to eat lunch or have ice cream.

Then repeat.

Enjoy a lovely dinner.

Enjoy the sunset.

We got all dressed up once and went to the fabulous (and historic) Gasparilla Inn on our second-to-last night.

I read a lot of Nathaniel Hawthorne–my kind of beach reading! And we watched a lot of Designing Women, Season 2 which daughter #1 brought along, plus various movie favorites of the mindless variety, i.e. Viva Las Vegas, Ghostbusters II, and others too embarrassing to name.

Mix in endless mother/daughter chatter and you have a priceless vacay.

Nevertheless, it’s always nice to come home, isn’t it?

But I sure do miss my girls.