Family Visit – Volume II     03/17-23/23

Jonathan Dickenson State Park, Hobe Sound, Florida

No verse today, just a bunch of historical information to expand your mind. 😊

Thanks to the Jewish historian, Josephus we know the horrific manner in which Herod the Great was removed from this earth.  “But now Herod’s distemper greatly increased upon him, after a severe manner; and this by God’s judgment upon him for his sins. For a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly. For it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails (innards/bowels) were also exulcerated (nowadays ulcerated/inflamed); and the chief violence of his pain lay in his colon. An aqueous and transparent liquor also had settled itself about his feet: and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay farther, his privy member was putrified, and produced worms. And when he sat upright, he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathsome on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness of its returns. He had also convulsions in all parts of his body: which increased his strength to an insufferable degree.”  In 2002, doctors determined that he most likely died of chronic kidney disease complicated by a very uncomfortable case of maggot-infested gangrene of the genitals.  Ga-ro-ossss!!  But even as he knew he was approaching death (at age 69), he still sought to bring misery to the lives of others.  He was keenly aware that many would not mourn his death, but they would instead celebrate, so “He commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived, should be called to him. Accordingly they were a great number that came: because the whole nation was called; and all men heard of this call; and death was the penalty of such as should despise the epistles that were sent to call them: and now the King was in a wild rage against them all; the innocent, as well as those that had afforded ground for accusations. And when they were come, he ordered them to be all shut up in the hippodrome.”  He then ordered his sister, Salome and her husband, Alexes to “place soldiers round the hippodrome; while they do not know that he is dead: and that they shall not declare his death to the multitude till this is done: but that they shall give orders to have those that are in custody shot with their darts; and that this slaughter of them all will cause that he shall not miss to rejoyce on a double account: that as he is dying they will make him secure that his will shall be executed in what he charges them to do: and that he shall have the honour of a memorable mourning at his funeral.”  At this time, Herod (as was his common practice), requested an apple and a knife with which to pare it, thinking to end his own life, but his cousin stopped him.  But such an outcry was heard about everything going on, that the heir to the throne, Herod’s son, Antipater (whom Herod was holding in jail) thought he had died and began attempting to bribe the guards to let him out to assume the kingship.  They tattled, Herod was incensed, and had his son killed immediately.  Herod died five days later, but not before he’d changed his will and handed out land parcels, rulership and money to many.  Rather than allowing one person to rule, as Herod had done, he divided up the nation into five parcels (similar to our states).  Judea (where Bethlehem and Jerusalem are), was left to his son Archelaus, but two years later in 6BC, Caesar Augustus (the same guy who ordered the census that sent Joseph to Bethlehem) deposed him and in his place appointed a Roman procurator and 3,000 Roman soldiers to take care of business in Judea.  The procurator was Pontius Pilate – the man who thirty-some years later would order the execution of Jesus.

Fortunately, Salome did not follow her brother’s death wish and instead, upon Herod’s death, released the Jewish leaders being held for execution and sent them home.  Whew!  That’s a lot of information for one day!  And you thought this was just a journal of our travels!  😊

This ‘volume’ begins with St. Patrick’s Day, so “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!”  Since Patrick was a priest who spent his years of ministry trying to convert people to Christianity, I’m pretty sure he would be none to pleased with how we honor him today.  ☹

3/17 – Sandy had today off, thus beginning her week-long vacation time!  We picked her up after lunch and took off for Jupiter Inlet to walk around, enjoy the gorgeous water and weather, and watch the boats coming in and out of the inlet opening.  It’s not as easy as it sounds.  The current is fierce, and many a boat has been capsized here.  Today, there wasn’t much current when we were there, and also not a lot of boat traffic.  Thank goodness!  I sure wouldn’t want to see people in distress in the water!

We felt we had to do something in keeping with the holiday, so I made us Reubens.  I make a pretty mean Reuben if I do say so myself.  It’s all about using quality ingredients and plenty of them.  😊

Blaine’s been keeping up with all the NASA rocket launches, and we’ve witnessed several.  This evening was no exception, and we were able to watch from in front of Eric and Sandy’s home.  The guys even roped in a few neighbors who were out for an evening walk, but had no idea what was about to happen.

3/18 – Today was bike riding, Florida Sour Orange Pie, and the six-pound salad.  I know you’re curious about the salad, but that comes later.

The four of us drove over to Riverbend Park (a Palm Beach County park) and rode our bikes all around.  There are miles and miles of trails here for walking and/or riding!  We spent several wonderful hours here!  Even witnessed a very rare sighting of a Florida Panther!  Blaine and Sandy saw the tail end as it walked into the thick brush, and I saw a tan square (his side) as it turned and walked by – far away and surround by palms, and things.  But at least we saw it!  Thanks to the man on the bike trail who was kind enough to tell us it was there as we rode by him. 

Back home, it was my night to cook, and this time, Adam and Jessica and kids were coming to sup with us.  I made honey lime chicken, but the real story here turned out to be the salad.

A day or two previously, Blaine and I had gone grocery shopping.  He claimed he know what Napa cabbage was, so he went over to pick it up.  $2.49 each, or so he thought.  When he carried the one he’d picked up over to show me, I glanced quickly from a distance and didn’t pay any attention to the size, just wanted to make sure it was a Napa.  So we purchased it.  It was NOT $2.49 each.  It was per pound!  And it weighed in at six pounds!  Y’all best eat every single morsel!

The Orange Pie was time consuming to make and tasted similar to Key Lime.  It was delicious, and the first time I’d topped a pie with meringue, so I was very pleased with the outcome.  😊

3/19 – Another Sunday that began with worship, then turned to a lazy day at Sandy and Eric’s with Adam’s family.  Wonderful time of fellowship!

3/20 – Sandy took me clothes shopping today and spent all our money making me look presentable for the next couple of years.  In the midst of it all, we had a delicious lunch at Thai Lotus conveniently located right next door to one of the stores we shopped at.  I think I forgot to mention that last week, she took me shopping for a new swimsuit.  My old one needed replaced in the worst way.  While we shopped today, Eric worked and Blaine biked at JDSP where the coach is parked.  Once we were finished shopping, we texted Blaine to let him know he could come on over, and we spent another evening eating and hanging out.

Oh!  And take a gander at these pictures!  They’re from one of Eric’s friends.  He goes out hunting when he can and using a pellet gun, removes the prehistoric beasts from this world.  I don’t know what he does with the beasties because we didn’t think to ask. It’s all completely legal, but he doesn’t want his face turning up on a blog he knows nothing about.  Understandable.  😊

3/21 – Today, we hung out with marine life, although it was’t everything we were hoping for.  Our first stop was  Manatee Lagoon.  It’s a little manatee education place that’s situated in an area where a large group of manatees like to hang out.  Unfortunately for us, they weren’t hangin’ today. ☹  Still, it was a nice place to look around and be outside and we did see a nurse shark in what they call the lagoon.

On the way back to Eric and Sandy’s, we stopped at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center – Sea Turtle Hospital.  We’ve visited here in the past, but since then, they’ve remodeled and expanded the place.  Unfortunately, they’ve also lost their ‘manager’ and sea turtle veterinarian had some of their credentials pulled during that time, which means they had to find homes for all their turtles, a new manager and a new veterinarian which is a very specialized field so it took a while.  All that to say that the numbers of turtles were down.  There were quite a few empty tanks, where once they were full.  At least it was still open, and there were a myriad of other fishies to gaze upon!

Back to hang with the Gambles and eat.  (This is getting to be a real habit!  But a good one!)

3/22 – On our last full day together, Blaine took Sandy and I out for a Jeepin’ drive at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area.  There’s 60,000 acres set aside here for 4WD and ATV recreation and also hunting in season.  We’d been here before and remembered it as a decent time, although when you speak of Jeepin’ here, it just navigating sand and trenches made by other vehicles as they drive around.  In other words, it’s nothing like Tennessee or Arizona Jeepin’.  😊

But neither Big Blue nor Sandy had ever been Jeepin’ so it was a good initiation for both of them.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered the only place we were permitted was on the main road.  However, we managed to go off-road a bit when we turned to check out one of the camping spots (G) that looked like a promising Jeep ride.  It was, and as Providence would have it, Blaine was presented with an opportunity to be a hero!!

We stopped at a metal boat dock to check out the Loxahatchee River (more like a practically still stream), and noticed what, at first glance, appeared to be a turkey sitting in a tree across the way.  As we continued looking around, we spotted a large gator over there too.  Then the bird started flapping and dropped a foot or so from the branch and seemed to just hang out.  The gator slid into the water, and we were all convinced we were going to see nature at work, but thankfully, the gator swam the opposite direction and disappeared around a bend in the river.  Whew!  We strolled around the area a bit.  Meanwhile, the bird continued bouts of wing flapping and before we knew it, it was suspended by one wing and dangling like a pinata over the water but near the shore!  Blaine suggested we drive on as far as we could go and then come back.  We’d been planning on lunch there, but I said I couldn’t possibly eat there and watch the poor creature suffer. 

It was still dangling when we returned.  Blaine and I blew up our kayak and he took off by himself to see if he could rescue it, as Sandy documented the heroic effort.  It flapped frantically as he approached, but he talked low and sweet to it, was able to place his hands on either side, and it calmed completely down while Blaine broke the fishing line and removed it from the wing.  My hero!!  He set the bird on the shore, and it walked calmly off into the woods with both wings in the right position!  I think God sent us there to rescue a part of His creation.  “Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” (Luke 21:6)

It feels really good to do good works for Him!

3/23 – This was our final day in Jupiter.  Blaine and I made our way over to Blowing Rocks Preserve once again to catch the wave action and enjoy the spectacular day, then back home to wait for Eric and Sandy to pick us up for dinner. 

I got to wear one of my new outfits since we were going to dinner, but there are no pictures.  Guess the beauty of the setting overtook my own.  😊  Anyway, dinner was scrumptious (we all had various kinds of shrimp), had a choice of side, and soup or salad (the Bahamian conch chowder was so wonderful, I looked up a recipe when I got home!)  They even included drinks in the price!

After dinner, we drove a short distance to Adam and Jessica’s where we were greeted exuberantly by the children, which was enjoyable, but made us miss our own grandkids.  Sorry to say, the ice cream at Beach House made us forget.  What does he put in that stuff anyway?

And of course, no meeting with family is complete without great food – some of which I’ve already mentioned.  Sandy and Eric prepared six dinners (fish tacos, burgers, stuffed meatloaf, grilled chicken, grilled steak and Aldi fresh pizza [which is a story in itself that I’ll not mention, but want to be reminded of just to torment her in the future])  I prepared four dinners (Reubens, lasagna, chicken marsala and honey lime chicken).  In addition, we had meals out at Burger Shack, Dune Dog and Shrimpers and gorged ourselves on the most delicious ice cream ever , all created and made in-house at Beach House which is a short walk from Adam and Jessica’s home.  Blaine and I would weigh 400# in no time if we lived there, and I’m not even a huge ice cream fan! 

All too soon, it was time to return home, Eric dropped us off at JD and we exchanged hugs all around, and that’s it for another two years.  Lord willing. 😊