Good morning to you all. I trust you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and that you are not suffering from PTC – Post Turkey Consumption.
I have been on travel for most of the month of November with the first two and ½ weeks spent in the Tampa Bay area preparing my parents residence to put on the market to sell and sell it did. I would like to say that my travels have been glorious but car troubles plaque me on the way down to Tampa, again when I was to begin my trip home and finally as I was attempting to head to a photo shoot in Nashville last Sunday. I had to put the car in the shop one last time and it appears all is well with the grand total being a fairly hefty shrinking of the wallet. I was extremely disappointed to have to cancel my shoot in Nashville but when you travel as much as I do by car, you live and die on the road.
I had returned home from Tampa knowing I was going to only spend a glorious two days in my own bed before I repacked the vehicle and headed back to the Florida peninsula to spend Thanksgiving celebrating a dear friends 60th birthday in Cape San Blas. I was extremely excited to be celebrating his birthday but even more so knowing that we were going to be celebrating it in Cape San Blas for a week. I have had the pleasure of visiting the area a few times and it reminds me a lot of the Outer Banks of North Carolina with its pristine dunes and seashore and it’s very laid back coastal nature. It truly is a hidden gem between Port St. Joe and Apalachicola.
Knowing that we were going to have a little time on our hands “between meals”; adventures by foot, bike and car were the major plan of each day and I knew that all of that was going to include a “little” photography. With it being Florida you just knew that over the course of the next few days we would most likely experience every bit of weather costal Florida had to offer. On one of our days we had pretty much been confined to the house due to inclement weather when mid-afternoon the sun broke through and we realized we just might be in for a exceptional treat as a rainbow began to form. The view of the double rainbow from the balcony was nothing short of “heavenly”!
One thing that you can pretty much count on when you are on the gulf coast it the fact that you will be treated to some pretty spectacular sunsets and I must admit that we had more then our fair share, so many that it made it extremely difficult to select just one. On one of our day trips I had spotted a beach filled with old tree stumps and knowing that it faced west I felt like it would be the perfect place to capture on of those evening sunsets. It proved to be a good choice.
Cape San Blas is a memorable destination and add on great friends celebrating a 60th birthday during the week of Thanksgiving and it just does not get any better. Here’s a toast to my brother, Mr. Phillip Sowder and to his wife Kathy and his dear friends Jane, Kim, Henry, Tom and Lisa for coming along for the ride. I think it was truly a bucket list adventure and a bright candle lit celebration.
On one other note, it is never something we want to experience but losing love ones during the holidays is an extremely emotional experience and I wanted to pass on my condolences to the families of Laura Ragland and Jim Xue who both lost their fathers the night before Thanksgiving. I can only wish that your fond memories of the time you shared together would in some small way help ease the heartache you feel today, knowing that they are with love ones and smiling down on you from the heavens.
