2010 March 1 Monday
Another nice warm sunny day. After breakfast, we went to Celebration. Linda and Diane walked around and shopped. Brooke, Paige, and I sat in the sun and shade to watch people fishing and walking buy. Several dogs interested the girls. They also had some workbooks to keep them busy. We had lunch at an Irish pub, Shannon’s of Celebration, and ate at a sidewalk table since it was so nice out. After lunch, we walked through the lobby of the Celebration Hotel where there is a large statue of an Indian stringing his bow, and a large framed array of arrowheads and arrows. We walked out to the swimming pool, and on the bank of the lake, just past the pool, is an area where we have seen alligators in the past, and sure enough, there was a small one right there. I was glad the girls got to see an alligator - you can’t come to FL and NOT see one! The pool brought requests from the girls to swim, so we went back to the resort. They sat in the hot-tub and swam for several hours until it was time to pack up. We left for the airport at 5:00 and dropped them off for curbside check in. Sad to say good-bye, but we left and went to the FL mall to have supper at Ruby Tuesday’s. The mall is just a short distance from the airport. Back to a quiet room - we’ll miss them even though they were here only for a short time.

WEATHER: High 72, low 41. Very sunny, slight breeze.

FL NEWS: “WILD WINTER WALLOPS USA”
Sunday was the last day of ‘meteorological winter’ - the scientific term for what are, on average, the three coldest months. One climatologist calls it the ‘upside down winter’ - lots of snow in some places where it usually doesn’t fall (Dallas, Feb. 11, 11.2 inches) and relatively little in some places where it usually does (Spokane, 2010 was least snowiest winter ever, 13.7 inches). On the same day in Feb. that snowball fights broke out at Southern Mississippi and streets were closed in Andalusia, AL, lack of snow cancelled a sculpting contest in Barre, VT, and a dog sled race in Laconia, NH. Several places in the Northeast had their snowiest winter ever, including Washington, DC, with 56 inches. In mid-Feb., satellites showed that snow covered 2/3 of the nation (average depth: 8 inches), and that was the widest ground snow cover in 32 years. On Feb. 12, the nation awoke to reports that snow was on the ground in every state [even the panhandle of FL!] except Hawaii, where, because of drought, the top of normally snow-covered Mauna Kea on the Big Island was bare. But a scientist found a few patches that together would cover a table top, so that made it 50 states with snow on the ground, the first time since 1978.
Key West, FL, had its coldest week ever Jan. 7 - 13, with an average temperature of 54 degrees. Tallahassee, FL, set a record for consecutive subfreezing days Jan. 3 - 15, 13 days in a row below freezing. Many kids in FL read poems about New England snow, and they wonder, “What’s snow?” On Feb. 12, it snowed in Century, FL, for only 10 minutes, barely enough to make a few snowballs. That that was enough for 6-year-old Kaleb Pace. “I’ve only ever seen snow on TV till now,” he said.