Geo: -34.6118, -58.4173We are soooo happy to be in sunny Buenos Aires on the shores of the Rio de la Plate. It's a balmy 89 degrees so first thing we did upon landing was to start stripping off the clothes. YES! It's good to be back. Isabel, our long time travel agent, says we now know more about Argentina than she does. We've been more places, that's for sure. We're staying in Palermo, just north of the very ritsy Ricoleta, for those who know a little about BA. Our room has those lovely floor to ceiling narrow doors opening out to a little balcony overlooking the leafy street. The flight over was 9 1/2 hours, but uneventful once we got on the plane. We even got a few hours sleep. Everything in Atlanta was late. Arrivals, ... read more

Geo: 29.892, -81.3143You go for the history, but you stay for the eclectic little shops surrounding old town. I could stay a week wandering in and out of tiny, classy, funky eye-candy shops on tiny, narrow, closed-in, cobbled, wobble-d lanes.St. Augustine was Spain's bastioned battle front against the hungry British and French. This was a veritable lifeline of wealth they were protecting. I mean...Spain had been pouring gold and silver from Peru and Bolivia into Spanish coffers for years through these waters, and had no intention of brooking opposition. They could deal with the pirates, but the British were no longer content to pick off a ship or two. They wanted the trade route. They wanted it all.The upstarts were to be nailed!St. Augustine had one of the few usable harbors on this north flowing Gulf ... read more

Geo: 28.9433, -81.3398 They're called the gentle giants and when you see them glide through this crystal clear water you'll wish you'd coined that phrase--it's perfect.I didn't even know what a Manatee was until Veggie Tales' Barbra Manatee got stuck in my head a couple years ago. The silly song made me curious and I couldn't wait to get up to Blue Springs to see their wintering ground. The guide said there were 400-500 of them between the springs area and the St. John's river it runs in to. The river's only about 58 degrees now, so the constant 73 degree spring water is a warm refuge for them and where they spend the colder months of winter. When things warm up again in the spring, they're gone.They're huge and ugly and graceful and harmless. And ... read more

Geo: 28.5377, -81.3774Whoooo. This air! It curls my hair and makes my skin look fabulous--it's not crocodile skin anymore. This is not I-can't-hardly-breathe humid. It's just WONDERFUL humid--the kind that smells like heaven.And what Arizona could do with even one of these little ponds. You ever look at a google map of this place? They have puddles in their puddles. I never saw a place so FLAT with so much water. Alligator infested, yes, but oh my, how wet! We're obviously not in Phoenix anymore--landed in Orlando last night. The flight was easy, the check-in pretty smooth--what with my practice run w/Daisy and all. Our only hitch was with the computer. Bob's never carried the pack w/a computer before and forgot to take it out. But Sky Harbor is used to idiots and everyone was very ... read more

Geo: 33.494, -111.921We asked Daisy--what do you want to do on your last day in Arizona? Do you want to go to the zoo? a park? shopping?No, none of those. She wanted to go to lunch at McDonald's. That was it. Lunch and to Fry's for the Disney Princes coloring book she'd seen the day before.She settled for Old Chicago (where she worked in Billings rolling silverware), the coloring book, and Railroad Park.Railroad Park comes highly recommended by Mary Rose, Bob's 10 year old grand daughter who knows such things, so we were excited.It's a great place with a train that runs through, large playgrounds, lunch deck, railroad museum and Daisy's favorite--the carousel.http://www.therailroadpark.com/index1.html... read more