The Green Flash

On Siesta Key.  Seeing the 'Green Flash' is a first for me.  Pretty exciting!  And that's it for this chapter. Flying back to Annapolis tomorrow.

Early morning on Little Sarasota Bay

                 Another beautiful day on Siesta Key, and another Great Blue Heron up bright and early.

Siesta Key

A Great Blue Heron out for a morning walk.  We are safely in Sarasota.  ;-))

Atlanta to Dunedin, FL

I left Atlanta Sunday morning and had a long but uneventful drive to the White Sulphur Springs, Florida, where I spent two delightful days at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center.  While Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, his song "Old Folks at Home" is the Florida State Song.  The Folk Culture Center (also a state park) is built right on the the Suwannee River and may be one of the most tranquil setting I have ever experienced.

The Center has a wonderful Carillon that plays Stephen Foster songs every few minutes and a lovely museum with a collection of old pianos and wonderful dioramas depicting various songs he composed. It also has a large array of craft buildings where different folk crafts are demonstrated daily.  There are monthly folk festivals, as well as a large folk music festival every May.

Next it was on to Dunedin and Clearwater Beach where I'm visiting a colleague of almost 40 years before going on to the destination for this trip, Sarasota, on Friday.  The weather is beautiful, mid 70's and sunny. To borrow a quote from a t-short company "Life is good".

Greetings from Clearwater Beach

The Bell Tower/Carrillon at the Stephen  Foster Folk Culture Center

The famed Suwannee River.  It's pretty low now, as it's fed by the the Okeefenokee, which hasn't had sufficient flooding to raise the water level    

One of the wonderful dioramas at the Stephen Foster Museum

Elli says it was a bit chilly and actually snowed in Annapolis!