Traveller Returns - After the road trip

It has been two weeks since I came back from my holiday, the fresh faced sun kissed exterior has all but gone as we get back into the routine of every day life.  Having gone away to take time to recharge my batteries I am appreciative in being able to spend 3 weeks away from home in a new environment. 

Along with my husband Alan and son Sekani we went to see my sister-in-law in Huntsville, Alabama, and then met up with a few more members of the family spending a further 2 weeks in Florida.  We had a great time, the weather was very hot - so got my share of vitamin D.   I was able to take lots of photographs, chill out, go shopping for art supplies, and visit museums and art galleries.  We saw a couple of exhibitions at the Huntsville Museum of Art - there were some mixed media pieces, silver and glass exhibits on show.  If you get a chance to go down there it is well worth the visit;

 Here is a small fraction of things on display.  It is alway inspiring to see the work of others.

Sloan Bibb - Life is a Spectator Sport

Gary Chapman - To be with you

Goat - Gianmaria Buccellati

Cappy Thompson - Riding feathers into the future

At the Davidson Centre for the Arts which runs alongside the Museum of Art we were able to catch a quilting exhibition by local quilters, there were some lovely exhibits.  I have had a growing desire to learn how to make a quilt and seeing some of the exhibits really inspired me. 

Susan Keziah Hobbs Fennell Henderson - Crazy Quilt 1887

This quilt is over 100 years old!

Elaine Rowe - All I can see is green

Babara Black - Night

Anne Clough - A string of cosmic pearl

Another highlight whilst in Huntsville, was meeting fellow blogger and author Christina Carson

After finding out that she lived in Huntsville, I couldn't go all that way without meeting up in person and saying hello. It was lovely to meet her and we stopped and had a coffee.  Christina will be doing an interview about her writing and her current books on my wordpress site soon!

I also managed to get to the Botanical gardens which had a butterfly house.  I got some lovely images of the flowers and this will be dotted around my blog in future posts.

I was really good while I was in Huntsville and I managed to get out each morning and go for a walk.  The environment was beautiful, so much lush greenery.

An extremely steep hill that I managed to conquer

Before we left Huntsville we paid a visit to the Lowe Mill Centre for the Arts a venue with artist studios, theatre, exhibition space and a restaurant.  If we had been able to stay a few more days there was a music festival that was also taking place that weekend.

Sekani found a piano and gave us a couple of songs.....

Next stop Florida, stayed mostly in Orlando and then drove down to Daytona, and Miami.  It would have been great to spend more time in both these locations - next time!
 

Enjoying the water at Daytona Beach

Miami

Miami Beach

Miami Sunset

Took some time out at a couple of theme parks - Universal and Island of Adventure.  Went on lots of fun rides and I definitely recommend, the Transformers ride....

The Harry Potter ride was also exciting.  The down side to the theme parks were the queueing and they were charging $70 for a fast pass.  For some of the rides you could go on and cut the cues as a single rider (without a group) We took this option on a few rides, even though they slot people in who didn't mind being seperated in their groups, you mostly ended up with your party in the same car anyway,  and it cut the wait by half. There was additional entertainment around the park and we took in the Blues brother performers

Blues Brothers

Talented  musicians at the Blues Brothers stand

All in all it was a lovely trip there are so many more photographs that we took, I hope you got a flavour.  I developed a chest infection in the last week so had to slow it right down and just rest.  All better now though, and I now have to get down to the business of Art and mixed media.  There are a few classes coming up that I am hoping to take.  I also have some things to share that I had been working on - it's time to step up!   It would be great to hear about a break that you are planning or have done already.  Looking forward to reading your comments.  Blessings for the rest of the week.

Battery Recharged

You can't get to wonderful without passing through alright...Bill Withers

I feel like a mermaid....some retail therapy with my sister-in-law in Florida

 (thought I might as well try on!)

We came back from our holidays on Saturday 20th August, and its taken me this long to get back into some sort of routine.  I had hoped to keep updating of our journey and adventures while we were there, but without internet connection in some places and so much to see it became an 'I'll do it later' promise. 

I have hundreds of images to go through as well as emails, things that were put on hold and of course to refocus on creativity and direction.  The one thing that has been constant is the 365 days of colour, I was thinking of reworking it to post once a week starting from Monday 5th Sept, and you will get the weeks worth of colour, scriptures, quotes and reflections to dip in and out of - going to see how it goes whilst keeping in line with my original objective of injecting colour on a daily basis and less posts for your inbox!  I'm also thinking about other challenges to set myself as time goes on, but we'll see how it goes.

We had a blessed time on our holiday, which seems such a distant memory.  We travelled to Chatanooga,

Seeing many things along side, the Chatanooga choo choo, Ruby Falls,

The beautiful views at Look Out mountain....

We sailed on the Southern Bell along the river that you can see. We then pit-stopped in Huntsville which is where my sister-in-law lives along with her husband and Dexter the dog - who was actually quite sweet!

After flying down to Florida did the malls and the theme parks.... 

One that I would definitely go back to is Epcot, we spent 8 hours there and it still wasn't enough time and did not see everything.  

View at night just before the fireworks

There was a more educational slant to this theme park for those who haven't been, but using fun games, rides, and experiences, and learning about different cultures around the world....

Stopping by Morroco!

Advances in agriculture - Ginger plant

We took time out to rest and drove down to spend time on the beach in Sarasota. Sekani took part in a race that was happening on the beach with the locals..

I spent my time relaxing, reading and making sand sculptures, here is my futuristic city - along with its underground roads....

Overall spending time with family and not only doing the tourist thing but actually becoming part of their daily routine was a great stress free way of seeing a different part of the world, whilst recharging those batteries.  I also had my birthday when coming back, going to treat myself to a massage!  In the coming weeks I will share about creative projects that I am working on, reviews that I have been doing and much more.

Our prayers go out to those who are now in the throws of hurricane Irene and the massive amount of damage occuring through the floods, if your able to support any initiative of help for those affected please do.

Stay blessed!

Opportunity

I am always telling my son opportunity plus preparation equals results. We have been fortunate to have been able to visit Florida many times.  On this occasion we went to Seaworld and I had the opportunity to take this picture of the underside of an arm of an octopus.  I love the shapes of its suckers and how they look like O's .....