Faith, Family, Food and Dogs

The dinosaurs returned to Jacksonville, and like before, they took up residence at the zoo. As I got out of my car I could them roar. It was kind of like Jurassic Park on a much safer and smaller scale. As you enter the era of the dinosaur, they have it decorated like a base camp. Here is a long que area but as I was one of the first 5 people in I didn't have to wait in line. A little further in there is a "dig" going on. The bored children can work on excavating a skeleton. You pass a sign signifying that you are entering Pangea. There were other signs but I am saving you from boredom. This was purely informative. Once you are really in there are dinos everywhere. They're peeking out from the bushes. Or stretching their wings. There were a couple that looked like T-Rex but they weren't. I didn't take the time to get photos if every identification plaque. I would have been there all day. This one would roar and bend down towards you like i...

This has been a long time coming. It was close to 3 months ago that my friend, Savannah, and I took a long weekend trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We rented a wonderful 2 bedroom house not far from where I used to live that was pet friendly so the girls got to join us on the weekend excursion. Now here is a heads up. This was a 5-day trip and there are 4-days worth of photos here. Over the course of the trip, on my camera alone, Savannah and I took just over 70 photos, plus the ones she took with her phone. I slimmed this down to a mere 24 photos. On with the adventure. We rented a car and early morning on Friday, October 6th we hit the road heading for Foscoe, North Carolina. We had rented our weekend home way back in March and had planned our menu. We both love Mexican so I made a pan of beef enchiladas which I froze and we took up with us. They turned out very good. Savannah was a good sport and tried to take pictures of each state line sign we passed but with me dr...

Living in Florida you learn to cope with things like mosquitoes from hell, cockroaches, oppressive humidity and an autumnal equinox that is really just an extension of summer and the occasional hurricanes. Last year when Matthew breezed by offshore I was on the east or the "clean" side of the eye of the storm. I got tropical storm force winds and never lost power. Irma was a whole different story. She was weaker than Matthew but I was now on the west or "dirty" side of the eye of the storm. The eye actually passed further away than Matthew's did, but the winds were stronger tropical storm force, but still not hurricane force. At this point I need to interject my thoughts on evacuation. The Governor started calling for the evacuation of the Keys and the Miami-Dade area days before the storm hit. Friends and family were telling me that I should evacuate also, but I have a full time job and I cannot just up and leave. I close and fund loans for a living and I had...