Thinking about what to do with the upcoming weekend! I'm still a little shaky health-wise, though I have decided it's just allergies run amok. I think my usual allergy-related sinus congestion made its way down into my chest, where it's hanging on for dear life as I mercilessly (and to the annoyance of all within earshot) try to hack it up. I really don't FEEL all that bad, but my voice is hoarse, I sound like a hospice patient trying to clear my throat and cough up ick, and I'm sore in places from the constant coughing. Oh, and I haven't been sleeping very well because of all this, though I think last night was a little better. I don't remember waking up between bedtime and 3:30am or so, anyway, which is an improvement over the past few nights.

So anyway, since last weekend ended up being a bit of a waste--foiled plans and sickness Saturday, and then Sunday wanting to take it easy until my photoshoot in the evening--I would really like to get out and do something exciting this weekend. So I'm making a short list to run by the wife and girls to see what they might prefer:

A) Rainbow Springs State Park, Dunnellon. About 1.5 hours away. The Rainbow Springs and River are supposed to be gorgeous, and they rent neat kayaks with transparent bottoms, which I think would be amazing. Cons: the park is in the middle of nowhere, so we'd have to pack in a lunch, and there's no playground. There's swimming in the headsprings, which the girls would love, but probably on a slightly warmer day--it's not going to be particularly warm tomorrow.
B) Volusia/Flagler Counties. Around an hour away. This would be in part a repeat of a previous trip, but we'd all like going back to the Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens, and maybe one or two of the state parks we enjoy in the area like Tomoka and Bulow Creek.
C) St. Augustine area, about 1.5 hours away. I think this one gets my vote. There are a number of state parks (Faver-Dykes, Washington Oaks Gardens, North Peninsula) that we've never been to and could add to our list, several of which have river and beachfront areas, and the beach off Flagler County looks kinda cool, a bit more rocky than we get further south. And there's always St. Augustine itself, which is fun to walk around and explore. We've never actually taken the girls to the old Spanish fort there, which is a must for Florida kids! Oh, and a few weeks ago the girls were saying they wanted to go climb the Ponce Inlet lighthouse again--St' Augustine has a very similar one that we've never visited and I want to!
D) Gainesville, about 1.5 hours away. We go to Gainesville every few months to visit some favorite places, like the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, and Devil's Millhopper state geological park. And there are always new things we haven't tried too. We're about due for a visit before our annual pass to the museum expires, and they always have butterfly plants for sale, which is on my list for the weekend to get some for the garden. But since we're going to DC next weekend, I don't want to get the kids too museum-ed out yet, know what I mean?

So yeah, I'll drop that in an e-mail to the wife and see if any of those options sound good to the girls. May as well make a day of it, whatever we do! Sunday we can stay close to home, relax, edit photos, work on the pool and in the gardens, etc.

Oh, speaking of the gardens, we were looking around in the butterfly garden the evening before last and spotted our first lepidopteran guests for the spring: a few teensy tiny first-instar Eastern black swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel, and a few monarch eggs on the milkweed. Yay!

Okay, gonna get a little more work done, but I am hoping to cut out early this afternoon and get in some relaxation (maybe even a nap) at home so I can hopefully be all refreshed and better for tomorrow's adventures, whatever they may be!