Unlike last month, the moment I’m in is not the best moment of the month. Purely practically, that’s because I’m doing laundry and let’s face it, laundry is not intrinsically a peak moment. Not that it won’t be very nice to have clean clothes and sheets — laundry nights are pretty much my favorite nights of the month, because I really do like having clean sheets — but still… it’s laundry. Not fascinating. shrug

So February included one lovely day in Alabama, several days in Mississippi, two different state parks in Louisiana, and five different locations in Texas — Galveston, Matagorda Bay, Goose Island, Choke Canyon, and Lake Medina.

Lake Medina, where I am right now, is, I think, the most unexpectedly nice spot. I came here out of expedience: it’s a Thousand Trails campground so an easy and inexpensive few days while I figured out my next few weeks. But the campground is big and empty. I had my choice of spots when I arrived, including some with full hookups, including sewer, conveniently close to the laundry room. Of course, I chose the one down by the water, no full hook-up, and not at all close to the laundry room, and it’s been lovely. People have been very friendly, as they often seem to be at the Thousand Trails campgrounds, but it’s also a beautiful place. I suspect I would like it much less if it were more crowded, but I have appreciated it very much like this.

I’ve liked everywhere else, too, though. Not so much my day flailing around Corpus Christi, I suppose, but Choke Canyon was lovely. Not the best place of the month, though. No, I think that was Matagorda Bay. Also somewhat unexpected! Matagorda was where I had to pull out my gloom ammunition (gluten-free brownies) because it was so rainy.

But it’s the only place we’ve been where Z was allowed off-leash on the beach. At other places I’ve thought, “If I weren’t so rule abiding…” In Dauphin Island, we were alone on the beach most mornings. Would it have mattered if I let Zelda run? But rules are rules, and I tend to obey them, so she’s only gotten to roam at Matagorda Bay. She loved it and so did I. We walked for miles every morning and would have walked longer if I hadn’t felt guilty about poor B waiting for his breakfast back in the van.

Other highlights: Wading on the beach in Galveston, after getting my shoes covered in mud. The incredible sunrises in Mississippi–the sky there was so colorful, the water so still. And on Goose Island, a fishing boat came in with fish and with it, an entire flock of pelicans.

A flight of pelicans should have some special name, I think, but I don’t know what it would be.