Back on Long Island

We got back to Long Island this afternoon - to the winter we thought we left behind 5 months ago! Until yesterday we have had temperatures in the eighties during the 9-day drive up the east coast, dropping to 60 this morning in Delaware, but now in the mid-forties. I want to go back!

Our beach in Eleuthera - I'm in the water taking the picture a few days before we left.

Yesterday we visited Southampton Place, near Edenton, N.C., and the day before that Tryon Palace garden (New Bern) and Hope Plantation (Windsor), both also in North Carolina.  After driving up the Delmarva peninsula with the intention of taking the Lewes-Cape May ferry (ultimate goal Leaming's Run hummingbird garden), we arrived at the terminal only to learn that all crossings were cancelled because of "high winds" (actually, only 17 mph at Cape May, according to weather.com). So we re-routed north towards the dreaded I-95, and were able to visit another plantation on the way, the Dickinson House (near Dover, Delaware). At least the traffic was light all the way to Stony Brook (but Christian Ave was the worst surface we encountered in 9 days of back roads and country lanes, including the road to Calypso on Eleuthera). I'll be posting pictures soon. Tomorrow I will check out and report on the situation in Baiting Hollow. In the meantime here are a few more images from our recent northern progress.

A manatee at Homosassa Springs, Florida west coast.

On our balcony overlooking the Homosassa River.

Micanopy, Fl (near Gainesville)

The remote Cross Creek home of Marjorie Kennan Rawlings (author of "The Yearling"); her front porch writing desk (near Miconopy).

Headed to lunch at Crane House, Jekyll Island.

The Crane Courtyard Cafe; our table was just to the right of the fountain, under the cloister and next to a wonderfully fragrant confederate jasmine vine.