Florida

This is a state of many memories and a lot of laughter and much much pain

My mother and my father owned a nice home in Satellite Beach where my sister and her family still live

This is a place where Linda and I took our children almost every Christmas for many years

Florida used to be a State filled with thousands of birds, doesn't seem to be as many left now

We would go swimming at the beach; we would play Jai Lai and often win

We have been almost every part of this large state including the Everglades

We have driven as far as you can drive in Everglades National Park

On the way we saw egrets, eagles, deer, and herons. and mosquitoes on us and everything

We have been to the now defunct Cypress Gardens and loved it

We went many times to Weeki Wachee and watched the mermaids

We have even been to the "House of Babes" with my sister Maggie one New Year’s Eve

Maggie was a big part of each year's visit and we miss her dearly

Disney World, wow, we have had a suite at the Contemporary Hotel

Seen and done everything including seeing Michael Jackson's Thriller when it was first there

Universal Studio's and ET always a neat place to visit

Sea World of Orlando is yet another nice place

Silver Springs when it was all about the fish and the glass bottom boats

The fish are all gone now but they were something to behold

The wonderful Sea World on the Eastern shores of Florida

This was our first venture to a place where sea animals did marvellous tricks

They might be gone also

We lived on Merit Island for a whole year, a difficult one

The incredible flea markets below Ocala, near Orlando and of course the Space Coast one

The Kennedy Space Center near Coco Beach

We have seen alligators everywhere and they are indeed the state animal

We also were grazed by a deer one early morning in my mom's car

The horse farms of Ocala are always impressive

There used to be miles and miles of orange groves

The best oranges used to grow in Mom and Dad's back yard

We have driven on Daytona Beach and we have seen the State Capitol

The drive on I-10 from Pensacola to Jacksonville through forest after forest

We have experienced snow in Pensacola and were not happy about it

We also had a wonderful meal with a piano player playing dinner music one Christmas there

The drive across Alligator Alley and up to Tampa and then up and around to the squeaky white sands

The squeaky white sands of Panama City where I visited when I was very young with my mom and dad

Up near Lake City on I-75 is a museum of the old south and it is beautiful

Driving into Florida from Georgia the orange juice at the first rest area was always neat

I remember driving in a rainstorm so heavy you could not see your windshield

The tower in Leesburg, Lake Okeechobee, an amusement park in Hollywood,

So much overt poverty near Opa-Locke and down that way

Homestead AFB where mom and dad were stationed for a while

The huge and ever present Navy presence in Jacksonville

Most of all it felt like my home because my mom and dad were there

It was a place where I went even though I knew there would inevitably be pain

It was a place I took my family because I wanted them to know my mother and father

I also knew there would be loudness and yes much much laughter

We haven't been back now for a number of years

Perhaps we will have a chance to visit it again just for the memories!

John