It’s been so exciting to be back in a city we spent so long in! Thursday morning, Edgar generously dropped us off at the bus station and we made our way across the glades and back to Susan’s. There is still a ton of work to be done in the area, downed signs and tree roots line most roads, but the improvements are obvious. As we look around, we see nature blooming and business reopening. Susan tells us that lately the home decor stores are as busy as the hardware stores as people finally get to redecorate the lives they’ve begun rebuilding.

After a relaxing dinner with her that night, we went into our calmest day on Friday. Evan and I both got a lot of work done before we ended the night with a swim at sunset in the newly reopened neighborhood pool and dinner at a delicious restaurant just up the road.

We started Saturday morning with an amazing organization. Sleep In Heavenly Peace led a huge team of volunteers through the process of beginning to build beds for kids who still don’t have them in the months since Hurricane Ian. We spent almost four hours in a Lowe’s parking lot, sanding wood as part of an assembly line in one of our favorite projects to date. Afterwards, we were able to help Susan a little around the house cleaning window screens and scrubbing rust from the garage doors, checking off little boxes on her dwindling task list. The night again ended in swimming and this time in a quiet dinner at the house. Or would have except for a pesky little personal ER visit. We are all okay but it was a long three hours.

After our late ER night, it was nice to get back in the swing of things this morning. We joined some of Susan’s friends by boat to see the progress on their house, do a little drywall cleanup, and enjoy a waterside lunch and happy hour. Once we were back home we binge watched a good dent in Kaleidoscope which we’d attempted to start the previous night. We’re wrapping the night up blogging and preparing for a Rotary speech tomorrow.