Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her (Sarah) and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” ~ Genesis 17:16 According to what I was able to find out, the name ‘Sarai’ means princess. ‘Sarah’ means my princess. And what is the daughter of a king called? Thus, by changing her name, God has claimed her as His own.
We were up early this morning. Early enough to catch the sunrise from the resort ‘beach’. And I, (yes I) took about a million pictures of the ever-changing gorgeous morning sky!
Looking behind us 
Looking behind again 
The ocean beside us. 
It looks dark, but it was really bright! 
What a lovely, relaxing morning! We had a good amount of baked goods with us, but eating just sugar for breakfast wasn’t as appealing as it had been yesterday. As it turned out, I was able to throw together a fruit salad! We had grapes, an orange, an apple and a banana still with us!
He ran into that hole by the door when we came out. : )
Eventually, it was time to leave.
We decided to check out the Wild Bird Sanctuary just up the road. It was a nice little stop, but while all the other birds were out for us to see, the pelicans were locked up because they’re renovating their space. We could hear them and catch glimpses of them behind a wooden wall though, so they’re definitely here. 😊
There were spiders EVERYwhere! Not just here, but all through the place. Webs just above my head, and sometimes NOT over Blaine’s! We had to really watch where we were walking!
Wanna know what Blaine’s pointing at? 
Every one of those arrows point to dots.
Every one of those dots? Spiders on webs!!
Picture me, head bowed low, eyes to the ground, shuffling fast, and quivering inside.
A half hour up the road was John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. They’re most known for their coral reef snorkeling tours, but we stopped there for kayaking. It was a gorgeous day! Apparently many others felt the same, because we encountered quite a bit of boat traffic – all shapes and sizes and depth of experience. From first time kayak renters, to large sight-seeing boats.
Then we got to ‘surf’ the waves! Fun!
I think all those Youth Group canoe trips helped us. : )
I checked very well. No webs or other bugs present.
It was the only place we could find shade, and trust me, today, we needed shade!
Blaine checked the free, not-so-easy-to-follow map we picked up from the rental place.
They’re not supposed 
to make wakes in here, 
but they all do. More fun!
There were two, but this is the best view we got.
They were moving pretty fast to wherever they were headed.
The final leg of our vacation was a 1 ½ -hour drive home.
And that’s when, we ended this magnificent day with an episode of “Stink Bug Wars”.
We’ve been battling stink bugs for what seems like most of our full-time years. We kill every single one that makes its way inside our home, in the hopes that each one will be the last. But they keep coming. They’ve become so much a part of our life, that I don’t even mention them, any more than I mention things like . . . well, brushing our teeth. . . .
This evening, after we completed all our post-vacation chores, Blaine took off to ride around the Park, and I readied myself for a much-needed shower. I opened the door and discovered two stink bugs in there. So I grabbed my weapon of choice at the time – a double Kleenex (because using extra paper products keeps the smell down and prevents me from feeling the ‘crunch’. Ick!!). I nabbed one and went for the other. It answered the attack with one of its own – – it flew directly into my eye and let loose its stink juice!
Yes! Body and juice directly into my right eye! And then it took off like a Japanese Zero pilot after dropping its bomb.
Oh! The horrors of war!
I immediately flushed my eye with cool water – lots of cool water, but the burn continued. Next, I dropped in copious amounts of natural tears drops, which seemed to help with the sting, but I think that juice eked into my olfactory system, because all I could smell was – well, if you’ve ever smelled a stink bug, you know.
As I sprayed everything in the bathroom, first with Febreeze and when that didn’t work, my White Diamonds perfume (which still didn’t work by the way), I plotted my revenge against this Number One Most Wanted intruder. And during my aerosol rampage, Blaine spent some time in the Number Two slot, because he’d pronounced the bathroom cleared of all invading species and manner of insects before he left. But it wasn’t long before the Lord brought to mind that these things tend to pop up out of nowhere, so I quickly removed him from the bad Most Wanted list and returned him to the good one.
Number One was not long for the world, as I slipped out of victim mode and back into assassin mode.
But his memory lived on all evening. Believe it or not, during my shower, that juice made it down the back of my throat! I felt like retching! So I opened the shower door and grabbed the only thing I could reach with shampoo bubbles all over me – the Cool Mint Listerine – and chugged some down. Hey, don’t knock it, it worked.
And my eye still burns, but it’s manageable.
And my pride in the kill remains. 😊
And I have a dramatic story to share – with Blaine, and with you. And a really clean eyeball.
At least something good came from it. . . .