Adventures don't come calling like unexpected cousins visiting from out of town.

It was excessively chilly. On a side note, right there I almost wrote "kind of excessively chilly". Some time ago I read that men make much more declarative statements than women do. For instance, kind of wanting to say it was "kind of" excessively chilly. I find that pretty fascinating and note that I, myself, tend to do that very thing. Maybe women are just wishy washy. Or maybe men are just too... confident.

It was Saturday and chilly and grey and what one might consider blistery for a north eastern Florida winter day. The temperature meandered near 66, which was the high, but all the weather forecasts proclaimed it was in the 50's. 

Megan, Caitlin and I packed up day bags and headed to Memorial Park. In mine: a white sheet, a journal, a pen, a camera, a deck of cards, the Jimmy Buffet novel "A Salty Piece of Land", two bottles of Cook's champagne, one curry chicken burrito, some 55 SPF sunscreen, a turquoise and purple Moroccan print scarf, and a hair tie.

There was a children's bike party happening over by the fountain. Little kids were doing circles around us, chasing the perimeter. My favorites were the two boys with afros on the scooters and the cherry cheeked toddler on his playmate trike. His poor feet couldn't even reach the peddles, but give up he did not.

[Ladder golf.]

[Come on and take a free ride.]

[Brown bag special.]

I ran into an old friend from yoga class. I drank some champagne kept cool by the brisk breeze. I read the first six pages of my new book. Caitlin recited passages from the latest Men's Health Magzine. Megan laid back and closed her eyes, hands shoved in her pockets to try and keep warm.

[A salty piece of land.]

[Photo by Caitlin.]

It is moments like this when I absolutely love Florida in January.

But I believe in the aboriginal line of thinking that life's adventures are the verses and choruses of your unique song, and when it is over, you are dead. So far, I am still singing, but I would point out that adventures don't come calling like unexpected cousins visiting from out of town. You have to go looking for them...

- Jimmy Buffet, "A Salty Piece of Land"

It wasn't a grand adventure. There is a time and a place for those, as well. But it's all the little adventures inside the grand ones that really make it worth the while.