Tropical Escape

While our friends in the Northeast are looking at a forecast like this,

Snow Forecast from meteorologist Kait Parker's facebook page

our forecast looks like this:

25 January 2015 forecast from Weather Underground

It's even chilly in St Augustine, so we're on our annual tropical getaway.  And while I've always said that it's my goal to design a life that I don't need a vacation from, this getaway is more about travel and variety than an actual "vacation" from a life that's plenty fun as is.

A couple of years ago I was chatting online with friend Jorge. He described with excitement a vacation he'd recently taken: a week living aboard a dive boat in the tropics, just jumping overboard any time he felt like snorkeling.  

"But Jorge," I protested, "you've just described my everyday life!  So when I'm on vacation, I want to do the opposite! I want to stay on land.  For me land life is like a vacation in a luxury resort. Just think ... infinite hot water!  A car to go to the grocery store whenever we want!  Drinking wine from real glass stemware instead of plastic!  I want to revel in all the ordinary things I took for granted before we moved aboard and started cruising." 

We've rented a simple 1-bedroom apartment -- ironically, it's about 33 feet long, the same as our boat -- with a view of a xeriscaped garden.  The wind blowing the leaves of the palm trees sounds a lot like surf crashing on the shore.  Home sweet (simple) home for the next month.

The path to our front door winds through the garden.