Florida snaps

I went down to Florida for a few days to bring my mom home, and I brought back a slice of Hollywood Beach to share with you.

Ahhhh.

Here's my mom (on the right) folk dancing in the lobby of her winter place in South Florida. The Israeli woman with her has a large folk dance music collection that she brings on Fridays to share with the residents.

My mom and dad met while folk dancing in upstate New York, and dancing was always one of their great loves. It was nice to see she can still do all the whirling and fancy stepping at 84.

We spent some time on the Hollywood broadwalk, one of my favorite places. In fact, we went there two days in a row.

Mom and her friend, Elaine

One day we had a backwards barbecue at John U. Lloyd Park with some friends from Long Island. Why backwards? Having ignored the weather forecast, we were practically the only people there. Dark, cracking, crashing thunderstorms came through at about noon, drenching the park and our barbecue coals and forcing us under the shelter of an open air pavilion. So we started with dessert. After finishing the rice pudding and fruit salad and all the side dishes, the sun came back out and we grilled the steaks.

I wonder if any of this will appear in a future Emma Trace mystery. After all, Emma's Aunt April does live in Fort Lauderdale. I'm very curious about this character and her reasons for leaving Emma's Uncle Sherm and moving to Florida. It will be fun to find out.

And now, back to my regularly scheduled life. I leave you with another ocean vista. No, those swimmers are not us. What do you suppose that seagull is thinking as I snap his picture?

Only 16 days until
National Poetry Month!