Home.... again.

I was in Florida yesterday…. and Georgia, and North and South Carolina and both Virginia and West Virginia.

Friday I flew to Jacksonville Florida to visit the University of North Florida with my college bound daughter. Lindsay was born in Florida and we prepaid her college tuition before her first birthday on the off chance that she would want to go to school in Florida. The program will refund your investment with a bit of interest if your child decides to attend school outside of Florida (Like Lindsay’s older sister). Unlike her older sister, Lindsay doesn’t think she will have any trouble studying with palm trees on campus.

We’ve looked at several Florida Universities and although she liked them, Lindsay was undecided.

Within hours of arriving on campus I snapped this photo and at that very moment I knew that we were going to be the parents of a UNF freshman next fall. To Lindsay, it felt like home.

The 80 degree temperature didn’t hurt either. Debby helped by text messaging us the weather report from Pittsburgh on Saturday morning “18 degrees and snow flurries” as Lindsay was walking around in her flip flops.

As a parent I prefer to think that Lindsay’s decision was based more on her discussions with the department heads than fact that campus is just 8 miles from the beach. (stop laughing!)

We did check out the beach and even a few quilt shops. We ate lunch on the patio of the restaurant, did some shopping to enjoy the weather and by the time I crawled into bed on Saturday night, I was convinced that it was the best trip possible.

I should have checked the Weather Channel

We intended to fly home yesterday. If you know anything about my travel woes, the following will not surprise you.

All went well until we checked out of the hotel, returned the rental car in a slight drizzle and went to check in for our Delta flight. Due to bad weather, ALL flights were canceled that went through Atlanta. If you have ever flown on Delta, you already know that ALL DELTA flights go through Atlanta. By the time I waited in the mob to get to the customer service desk, they had already graciously re-booked us on a flight that would get us home TUESDAY morning instead of Sunday afternoon.

To fly home I was going to have to re-rent a car (hotels with shuttles were already full) check back into a hotel (at my expense, airlines do not compensate for weather related delays) and wait 30+ hours to return to the airport in hopes that the weather cleared in time for our flight – which had a 6 hour layover in Atlanta.

Lindsay had a huge anatomy test 3rd, 4th, and 5th period today. I have a class tonight and I had the computer with all of the handouts with me. Instead of sitting around hoping for the best, we hit the rental car counter, secured a car, and drove home – through the weather that wouldn’t allow planes to fly. Being from Pittsburgh I am use to ice and snow (people in North Carolina are not, which is why we counted 13+ cars that had lost control and ended up meeting tow truck drivers and state troupers yesterday). Actually, it wasn’t that bad. All 13 hours and 18 minutes through 7 states and every type of weather you can imagine were spent with my daughter that I am going to miss next year. It was a long day, but we are home safe, the college decision is made, and now my biggest concern is how to keep an acute case of “senioritis” from setting in!

Girls Day Out

Shop Hopping is FUN!!! Especially if you have one of those Garmin navigator systems (it also helps if someone else drives!). Bernie and I hit 3 stores in just a few hours and had a great time doing it. First we stopped for lunch at a tea room in Mount Dora then hiked up the hill to the quilt shop, past antique, craft and cute little specialty stores. Remember, this is Florida, so the hike up the hill was probably all of 100 feet above sea level, and it was "sweater" weather and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Next we ventured over to Fireside Quilts. This is a new store, just a few months old. They are off to a nice start and the owner certainly has her own way of doing things. Nothing in the store was priced, .....nothing. When I questioned them about it, they said that was because all of the fabrics were the same price. Interestingly, the owner said they were $8.60 and later when I questioned one of the employees, she said the price was $8.40, but thought the batiks were more than that. Hmmmmm? It made me feel a bit better about the screw-ups we make sometimes! The patterns weren't priced either, which seemed odd to me. As a consumer, I want to know what I'm buying, as an owner, I know some of them should be $6 and some of them $10. The store was beautiful, bright, well lit, with gorgeous wood cabinetry, so I didn't understand the "dollar store" pricing strategy.

Our last stop was the shop in Deland. We wandered around the store for a few minutes before I heard Judy, the owner say "Karen Montgomery, what are you doing in my store"? So much for working incognito.

We explained the visit and Judy gave me a tour of her new location and a sneak peek behind the scenes at the work she does for Bennartex and the block of the month books that she publishes. I have to say that her finished projects are beautiful in person. We had originally talked at Quilt Market about her first book with a tropical theme. I thought it would be a tough sell in Pittsburgh, but now she has added 2 more, and one of them is a Christmas theme. I brought copies home so that Debby and I can take a more detailed look. You may see Judy's projects offered in Pittsburgh in the near future!

Karen