Well, It's the first of February and I'm finally getting down to entering another travel blog due to the fact that we have landed ourselves in the middle of a Bomb Cyclone winter event and the whole world is closed down in Myrtle Beach. It's cold and windy today and we just got back from taking Kasha for a [very brief] walk on the snow-covered, windy beach. It was a pretty quick storm and, by Pagosa standards, not a very big one but it came in wet before turning cold so the roads are ice covered with a lovely 2-inches of cold snow on top. I was just glad not to be having to shovel the driveway here with a dustpan. At home, this would not even have been worth noting but they have no snow-removal infrastructure to speak of so it is quite a big deal here. We went to the store yesterday and were told all stores were planning on closing as soon as the first flakes started falling. Wimps! As Kelly noted, when I said we were going to be snowbirds this winter this was not what she had in mind.
Our southern stay started off well enough with some very nice, sunny weather in the upper 60's. We were lucky enough to enjoy one of the nicest beach days I've had anywhere,,,72 degrees, no wind and sunny. We spent the day on the beach and had a wonderful lunch outside on top of one of the resorts. I was able to find a decent bike trail system that enabled me to get some good miles in and hone my urban biking skills a bit. [I'm not going to miss the cars. Just crossing at signaled intersections is a life-threatening endeavor] The place we rented is very clean, small and simple with a fenced backyard and only a 5-min walk to the beach. We were getting out for nice long beach walks everyday where we could let Kasha enjoy running on the sand as we watched the dolphins leaping just offshore.
Toward the end of January we took a week to join our friends, Loren and Carol from Brookings, OR, in Palm Harbor, FL. They had rented a nice house near the beach for a couple weeks and invited us down to join them. This place was also located near a great bike trail. The Pinellas Trail was a mere block away and I was able to get out for a morning ride just about every day. This is very well-maintained bike/walk trail that extends from Tampa up past Tarpon Springs. It is plenty wide for all, paved the entire way and a pleasure to ride on. I loved it!.
While down there we also got to do a kayaking tour through the mangroves which was rather interesting. The trail is a narrow waterway through dense mangrove plants...sometimes so narrow that the only way to propel yourself is to pull the boat along by grabbing branches. If you should be so unlucky [or foolish] to find yourself in there during low tide, you would be reduced to yourself pulling your boat along through the low-hanging branches until you reached open water. That was not our fate and we had a lovely paddle. Another day's outing was a kayak trip to an area where manatees winter. There were plenty of them out that day and it was great to watch these huge mammals lounging under our boats. We really enjoyed this area at that time of year and may consider future winter breaks down here.
Upon our return to SC, the weather started getting unseasonable chilly until we found ourselves in the current winter storm situation we are now 'enjoying'. Hopefully, the weather will warm to the traditional 60-ish degree days they expect down here and we can get out more for the rest of February. After that, we will be heading back up to the NY area to babysit our new grandson, Benedict Bae, born to our daughter Hannah and her husband Myung in mid January. I've ensured Hannah that I will be more careful with Bennie than I was with her as a baby [Don't ask] and Kelly and I should get some great baby-time before starting the last leg of our journey back to Pagosa in mid March.
Bennie Bae
