At the end of the spring it was looking like we were going to have trouble getting away for some private time  before fall began, so we went ahead and booked a little beach house that we’d stayed at before:  The Sunflower on St. George Island, Florida.  We remembered such a great experience when we stayed a few years ago and were happy to try for round two and were not disappointed!  Our tidy little half of this duplex on the beach is dog friendly, has its own beach access and a lovely view, with all the comforts of home.  Even when our air conditioning petered out, they still had it repaired before lunchtime.  We can’t say enough about the great folks at Collins Vacation Rentals and we were happy to be staying again for a week.  

What a great week it was…walking the dogs each evening, sampling the Apalachicola Bay oysters at nearly every restaurant we went to, lying back in our zero-gravity chairs under the EZ-up trying to avoid sunburn (accomplished!), meeting nice neighbors, reading a novel, making some cocktails, taking some photos.  Having coffee on the deck at sunrise *with no one else in sight*…no neon signs, no fast food establishments, no ill-behaved vacationers leaving behind trash in their wake.

The people that come here seem to have that understood respect for the space:  leave behind only footprints, take with you only memories.  The beaches are clean and uncluttered, save for piles of seaweed and the yellow tape delineating the sea turtles’ nests.  The natural areas are just that:  palms and pines and native grasses, sea birds and mosquitoes seemingly the size of the sea birds.  (I had to resort to DEET.  I hate DEET.  I hate West Nile Virus and malaria, more, I guess.  Eh, whatcha gonna do?)

Beautiful and natural and restorative.  Returned home to find we’d received nearly four inches of rain and our garden is thriving, our cat missed us but was obviously pampered by the cat sitters, and the weather’s cool enough to finally open the windows and turn on the attic fan and air out the house.  

And now, of course, is the best time to plan our next adventure.  Oh, the places we’ll go!