Cumberland Island Christmas

Finally, the pictures from the Christmas Cumberland Island Trek!

This is Fred.   He was a Boy Scout in Idaho and though normally I don't associate with Boy Scouts, he is the only person who was crazy enough to want to hang out on an island with me on Christmas.

 

He took all these photos on his iphone because neither of us remembered to bring actual cameras.  But that's okay, because some of the stuff we got up to, we probably wouldn't want pictures of anyway.  Like the ticks, and the trek we took through the extremely dense brush when we lost the trail and the 800 times I tried to light the stove and failed.

 

We got the stove to work the first night, just fine.  Here we're having a delicious dinner of beef stew mixed with santefe rice.  Yum!

 

Fred was so excited by that dinner that he didn't even worry about the lime-sized blisters on his feet.  We had hiked 10 miles into the Brickhill Bluff campsite--which was probably the best place on the whole island.

 

It was right on the river.  We woke up on Christmas morning to grey skies and wind.  Fred got out his iphone and learned that we were under tornado watches.  Happy Birthday Jesus!  So I told him that we were no longer 'iphone camping' because I'd just rather not know.  We had planned on leaving our gear by the river and hiking further north to the old settlement on the island--where the church JFK JR eloped to is--but we didn't want to  leave our stuff in case of a tornado.  Instead, we suited up and headed south.

 

And we saw ponies.

 

Fred didn't want to pet them.  He is so sensible.

 

"Peace out Fred, I'm sick of walking"

 

"What?  They bite?  Ok, I guess I can trudge on"

 

Later that afternoon, we pulled up at Plum Orchard, which is an old mansion that is maintained by the Park Service.  It was built in the 1880's by the Carnegies and it is lovely and has lots of rooms and a lovely lawn...but most importantly, It has a covered porch.  We made it just in time for the torrential downpour.

 

And we rested and had lunch and nursed the hitches in our giddyups that we acquired while crashing through the brush for 2 hours like a bunch of wild rhinocerouses the day before.  But remember, I don't want to talk about that...

 

And we had coffee for the first time that day.  Because I got the stove to light...which is another thing I don't want to talk about.

 

Lunch:  Sante fe rice and beans + cheddar broccoli rice.  Yum.

 

Didn't burn down the Plum Orchard....

 

We walked south on the private road through the Chimneys--which are the remnants of the slave quarters on the old Stafford Plantation--where they used to grow the famous Sea Island Cotton.

 

 

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We had a nice time and we made it out alive. 

Peace

When Hell Freezes Over...

It's 45 degrees in my office. It's about 50 outside, which isn't that bad except that we don't have heat. Burrrrr. I think they may have finally turned the AC off (You know...when Hell Freezes Over).

In more encouraging news:
It's the annual lizard harvest. They're falling out of trees and ripe for the pickin'. We have a 6 inch gecko inside a cardboard box on the kitchen table. He was frozen solid yesterday morning, so Laura brought him in to warm up. I taped the top up pretty well and I can hear him shuffling around inside. I'll let him out when it warms up again...

MUJER Project

Last year, while I was off in the Alps living the dream, climbing mountains, cooking 5 gallons of spaghetti sauce at a time and generally enjoying myself, my Girl Scouts helped another Girl Scout Troop with a Christmas project. These other Girl Scouts had been hosting an annual Christmas Party for the clients of an organization that helps families with education and support to prevent domestic violence and other horrible stuff (www.mujerfla.org) since they were 1st grade Brownies. They graduated from high school last year, which left the Christmas Party with no organizer this year. So, it seemed natural for my troop to take it on this year. The moms who helped with the party last year said "oh, it's a lot of work..." But I said "We can make it happen" And we did. (Because in case anyone is keeping track, my scouts [and their parents] Rock).

Here's how it went:

First, gifts came by the mini van load to the Scout house from all the people who had been collecting them for the past month. We were lucky enough to be able to use the collecting network that had been established by the previous Girl Scout troop over the years.

Then we started wrapping.....

And sorting...and piling...
And six hours later, we were done.
I had a list, and checked it twice.
The next weekend we headed down south to set up a park for our party.

We got out the presents.
And decorated the pavilion.
And waited for the kids to show up.


Remember the Hip Hop Hulers? That's right. I still got it.
Santa Arrived!
He had toys for every kid.
With new toys in tow, everyone got a bite to eat--thanks to the hard work of another troop that was helping us out.
A ceremonial beating of an effigy followed lunch. Then, families picked up another bag of presents to take home for Christmas day and homemade bread (yet another troop handled that) and a special gift for all the moms (my Seniors pulled that off)


At the end of the day: everyone was happy, the directors of MUJER had only positive feedback for us, and I was so glad to be done. I'm looking forward to next year...I've got some new ideas to make it even better (since now I've actually been to one of the parties).

my tree

Check out my tree. I made it.

South Beach

South Beach is the number one tourist attraction in Miami, so naturally we took Ruthie there too. We went on Thanksgiving morning. [[I'm too tired right now to write anything more than...that...Today was the MUJER Christmas party. Stay tuned for more info on that and why I'm tired! But beach pictures really don't need much in the way of narration, so just follow along folks, I hope this makes you just a little bit jealous]]

It was kind of a cloudy day, but that didn't stop us...