Vacation in Paradise

As most of you know, I primarily travel for author-related things, like conferences, or to see family (usually combined with some kind of work thing). Last week, I took an actual vacation, to visit my friend Terry, who currently lives in Stuart, Florida. Stuart is about 40 minutes north of West Palm Beach, right on the St. Lucie river (an estuary). The ocean is 20 minutes from Terry's house.

I went there last September for the first time and we had an absolutely fabulous time together. This visit didn't go quite as smoothly...I came down with a horrible cold (including a fever, which I rarely run) and the airlines messed up my flight home on Monday, so I didn't make it back until Tuesday.

But Terry and I are troopers, and we have been friends for thirty years (gulp), so we just made the best of it. And while I didn't feel great for most of the trip, we managed to have a good time anyway. Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of my sort-of vacation.

One of my favorite places to visit, this beach is nicknamed "Bathtub Beach"

 There was one mom and her small child there when we got there on Saturday morning early. Otherwise we had the place to ourselves, and wandered up and down the shoreline with our feet in the water until the 90 degree heat drove us away around 10:30.

Its real name.

 I took a picture of Terry taking a picture of the cool coral formations. Yes, that's coral.

The two of us. My sunhat got a little crushed in my suitcase, but I was really glad I had it.

 As always, we ate REALLY well.

Pina colada toast

 On Sunday, we went to the Fort Pierce pier, and saw these cool pelicans fishing.

 The sky at the pier is always amazing.

Then went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants right on the St. Lucie River. I got one of my favorites, Oysters Rockefeller, which I can't get at home. Yum.

Even better than the food was the fabulous view.

This is Lily. She and her pal Murphy kept me from missing my own cats quite so much.

That's Murphy, on the couch. She is into everything!

 But probably the most memorable moments of the trip came on our two-hour sunset cruise down the St. Lucie River on Friday night. (The fever hit half an hour in, which wasn't fun, but it was still amazing.) Because it is an estuary, we even caught a brief glimpse of a few dolphins--too quick to get a picture of--which made my night.

Of course, the captain's cute young assistant (Australian accent and all), helped a bit too. I'm pretty sure this picture alone means I can take this trip as a romance book research expense.

 Terry and I were pretty happy to be sharing the adventure together. Old friends are the best.

The ship was a 3-masted sailboat, and the captain shared all sorts of cool facts with us, which made the two information geeks very happy. LOL.

We got a kick out of the fact that the boat was named "The Lily"

On the way back, we saw the sunset. This amazing sky was on the other side of the boat.

And this was the sunset itself.

 Pretty spectacular, isn't it? Out on the water, it was even better.

So even though my vacation shopping mostly looked like this:

I still had a pretty good time. It wasn't the relaxing and rejuvenating vacation I'd hoped for (and I gave poor Terry my cold before I left, which seemed like a poor return for her hospitality), it was still a great break from my regular life. And all that ocean made me very happy.

Best Mini Vacation Evah

So last weekend I took a couple of days off and went to visit my friend Terry at her new home in Stuart, Florida. (She had to move there because of her job, and her hubby and original two cats are still back in Connecticut. So she REALLY wanted me to come visit.) I was there from Friday through Monday morning, although Monday really doesn't count, since I left her apartment for the airport at 8:30 am and got home at around 6 pm. SIGH. (Although I did get to spend time with my sister Sarah, since she was kind enough to pick me up at the Albany airport and drive me home to Oneonta.)

But reader, I had the best time! If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you might have seen some pictures of the amazing seafood we ate (there are no pictures of the wine we drank, but you can assume there was some). Stuart was a lovely little town, and I actually did a lot of research while I was there, since I'm working on a Women's Fiction novel with a setting based on it. Cute, quirky shops (I still wish I'd taken pictures of the shop fronts, because they had the cleverest names), fabulous restaurants, including our favorite which was right on the water, a boardwalk, and fun places to visit. But the best part--besides being with my friend--was the sky. It was amazing. These pictures are real, I promise.

This was at the beach about 20 minutes from her house.

 We only got to spend about 25 minutes at the beach Saturday and Sunday (Saturday we got there at 8:30 in the morning and it was already 90 degrees out), but it was really beautiful.

The clouds were incredible every day I was there.

High tide, around 9 am. All those outcroppings are actually coral.

On the main drag where all the shops were.

Terry, on the pier we visited Saturday afternoon.

Murphy!

 As you might predict from one of my friends, Terry didn't last long without getting a couple of cats to keep her company in her new place. Above is little Murphy (she's probably a Bengal, and this might be the only time I saw her sit still!) and below is Lily, who actually slept with me one night.

Lily

 This was the small, fairly hidden beach about 20 minutes from Terry's house.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the McKee Botanical Gardens. Fabulous plants and a bunch of cool life-sized metal sculptures. (Also a very nice gift shop, where I did some damage.)

Lion!

Then Sunday morning, back to the beach briefly. There were so many shells there, the "sand" was actually made up of tiny crushed shell.

Then we went to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center, which was very cool. And educational.

Terry, showing off all the fish.

 They had sea turtles. And small sharks. And I got to feed a manta ray (all the little kids were doing it...)

Then it was back to our favorite restaurant, the Stuart Boathouse. We ate there Saturday, and it was so great, we went back for our last meal together on Sunday night. Of course, not only was the food amazing, but this was the view from our table!

My new happy place

Now I'm back to reality, and catching up on all the stuff that piled up while I was gone. But I really needed the break, and I'm grateful for good friends, good food, and of course, OCEAN.

Coastal Magic Convention Report: Part the Second

So, when last we left our intrepid heroine, she was suffering through a warm Florida sunset on her way to dinner with fun companions. It's a hard knock life, I say.

So...I'd been looking at the place we ended up going to dinner, since you could see the side of it from the hotel, but hadn't made it there last year. It was quite the experience! (I may have gotten 4-year-old-at-Disney excited. Just ask Lucienne. No, on the other hand, don't.) I present...Joe's Crab Shack (I highly recommend it if you happen to be in Daytona Beach).

The view from the beach.

The view as you walk down the pier toward the restaurant.

Inside. A very sensible suggestion. Which I followed, of course.

Princess Alethea's bib said: I got 99 problems but my crab ain't 1

 I had a bib too. Our waiter created each of them individually. I forget what it said. I was distracted by the seafood boil pot Alethea shared. It was heaven!

To make the evening even more amusing, about halfway through dinner all the waiters stopped what they were doing and went to the sides of the room, where they proceeded to do a synchronized dance. It was hysterical. In fact, the service, the food, and the atmosphere were stellar. I can't wait to go back next year, if I'm at the con.

Dancing waiters for the win!

 We were all stuffed, so the five of us shared this insane S'mores dessert. Heaven. We might have had to be rolled back to the hotel.

Friday night was also the dance party mixer, where Lucienne dragged me out onto the floor to dance a couple of times, gimpy knee and all. Lots of people dressed up as their favorite novel or movie characters. I loved these costumes so much, I dragged these two out into the hall so I could take their picture!

Author Graylin Fox and blogger Chelle Olson

 Lucienne wore her goddess costume from the afternoon, but I just wore, you know, clothes. Which apparently meant I should be attacked by a dinosaur. Yeesh.

Really, Lucienne? We can dress her up, but we can't take her out. And no, I have no idea where the dinosaur came from.

Can you tell we were having fun?

Thankfully, there are no pictures of my dancing. The bad knee did not add to my gracefulness, although it held up pretty well considering the insane amount of walking I did during the con.

Saturday morning started with another beautiful sunrise. A girl could get used to this.

The view from the 15th floor. Look, off in the distance, it's Joe's!

 First thing that morning I took part in a fun panel called "Remaking Mythology," with Alethea Kontis, Asa Maria Bradley, Lucienne, Gail Z. Martin, and Eric Asher.

Then I snuck out to the beach again for a while. Sigh.

My happy place.

Bare, sandy toes! No snow! My happy feet.

 Saturday lunch was a fun event called "Lunch with an Author," where readers got to sit and chat with the author they signed up to dine with. Then there was the group book signing.

Lisa Kessler and Princess Alethea looking adorable as usual.

Lucienne's gorgeous and charming husband Peter Wheeler rode his motorcycle in for the day to join us.

Afterward a bunch of us staggered back to Bubba Gump's to grab a late dinner (the book signing went until 7:30). Later that evening was Game Night, where authors hosted a table at which people could come and play a game with them. Lucienne brought Cards Against Humanity and we stayed up way too late having way too much fun.

Sunday morning Lucienne and I did our (now traditional, apparently) Mythology Jeopardy game panel. So much fun! I think you might be seeing a theme here. Now you know why I went a second year and may well go back next year as well. SO MUCH FUN and all the good peoples!

Which one of us is Alex Trebek?

All too soon I was on a plane going home, and back to this:

NOT ocean. Unless you count an ocean of snow.

But also back this, which makes it all okay.

Yay for great cat sitters! I'm not even sure the cats missed me.

All in all, another great event(hotel renovations aside, and that was really just an annoyance). Jennifer Morris, who puts on the con, does an amazing job. If you can, I'd highly recommend going next year. I hope I get to do it again. Maybe I'll see you there!