Ah, Siesta Key. 

What a great place for a vacation.  It’s Paradise!

But I live here (and others do, too).  But, so many people don’t and they spend their year working hard in some nice or just-ok part of the country (or world) and save their money to come here for a week, sometimes longer. They spend all day on the sand, eat at restaurants, walk around the shops and buy stuff, schedule their evening to see the sun set, send postcards home and end up with pictures of memories and a t-shirt or ball cap to remind them of where they’ve been.

But I live here.  It has been a blessing.  And I’ll be taking off soon to live somewhere else for a little while, doing some travelling, etc.

I’ll miss the Key and Sarasota and all the nature.  But I’m heading out an another adventure; another vacation.  Our next stop will be Fairhope, Alabama. 

It’s a quaint town on the eastern side of Mobile Bay.  Southern Living magazine has done stories on it in the past and gave incredible recommendations.  We lived in Mobile for a year, 14 years ago and have visited several times since.  It should be a great place to stop for a while.

The great thing about our life is that we travel a lot, move a lot, meet a lot of great people we keep in touch with and have great experiences.    I’ll keep my blog up, but I’ll probably call it something different; maybe My Life on the Gulf Coast or Gulf Coast Gypsy or Goin’ Coastal.  I’ll have to get my husband’s thoughts on this.  I like hearing his opinion especially since he’ll probably come up with something else, totally wacky but great.  So stay tuned.

What will I miss?  My friends; the homeschool group; the kid’s 4H club, the members and all the activities; the nature; helping with the snowy plovers on Siesta Key; shark tooth hunting; manatees; marine critter hunting on S. Lido Beach; shore bird watching; my neighbors; walking my dog with all the other dog owners in the area; biking to the beach for a quick dip and returning in time to fix dinner; walking to the Village for festivals, shopping or the Christmas Tree lighting; Rebecca at Davidson Drugs in the Village; Joe at the grocery store in the Village; Siesta Key Chapel; the great music my neighbors Tad and Tracey play out their back yard which is next to my front yard; our Hokie friends, Catherine and Bob, and their dog Luke, and sitting around their new pool just chatting; $30 electric bills (it’s not much higher in the summer–the house is small); the cool little beach house we’re renting; beachcombing; palm trees; our lanai; talking politics with Joe Volpe; Christmas parties at Michelle and John’s; Evelyn; the Chaffee family on Lido Beach that travels around the country and also lives somewhere else when they’re not here (which means they’ll be easy to track down and hang out with); identifying tropical critters by sound at night;  sitting at a drawbridge and admiring the beauty that I miss when the bridge is down and I just drive on to my destination.  Well, that’s the starter list.  I can’t name all of my friends that I’ll miss; the list is too long and I’ll start crying but I’ll miss everyone of them, until I see them again.  We plan on coming back…