Friday's Fave Five #540

Welcome to the first Friday's Fave Five of July.  In my mind this is when summer officially begins.  School is done, there is no team sports in the field across the street, our neighbors have gone to their summer cabin, Ladies study group is done until fall and the lazy days have begun.   It's still a great time, however, to look for blessings in our slower, more meandering days.  Please join us in sharing five of our favorites.

1.  Road Trip.  It was a long weekend here in Canada celebrating Canada Day on July 1st.  So I closed the dayhome at 3 on Friday and we drove to see our daughter and son-in-law a province away.  It's a long drive, about 6 1/2 - 7 hours but I always am happy to be there once we make it there.  We had a lovely weekend with them.  Went on a favorite walk around the big lake, tried some new restaurants, did some shopping and just had a relaxing visit.  It's always sad when we have to leave again but I'm thankful we had the opportunity to go.

2.  Safe travels.  I'm also thankful for the blessing of safe travels.  On the way there we saw a huge storm front coming up in front of us.  We kept hoping we'd miss it, but we passed right into the middle of it.  It was like a movie as we entered the storm front, very ominous.  Sure enough, we got hit with a huge thunderstorm with mega lightning, black skies, and torrential rain.  Being in the right lane meant lots of hydro planing so I stuck to the passing lane which was a better drive.  The visibility literally went to nothing as the windshield wipers couldn't keep up and night time came upon us but there was no where to pull over without a risk of being hit.  So everyone just slowed waaaaay down to 85 kph (52 mph) or so.  Thank God except for one fool of a driver everyone was driving to the conditions.  Did lots of praying during that hour.  Then on the way home a deer in the field to our right decided it was a good time to race across the highway right in front of us.  Thank God my husband saw him in the field and just sensed to start slowing down a bit.  As it was he still ended up having to really apply the brakes hard in order to avoid hitting the startled deer who then proceeded to cross the divider ditch and dart in front of another car on the other side of the highway.  I think he was part cat and had nine lives as he barely missed being hit on that side also.   Praise God for safe travels and no accidents of any kind.

3.  Fun Food.  One of the restaurants we tried on the weekend was a sushi place with a "sushi train".  The plates of sushi came by the tables on a conveyor belt in labeled groups and you just took off whatever plate you wanted.  It was so fun and hard not to resist grabbing everything.  I know, we are easily amused.

4.  Toasted Coconut ice cream.  From an artisan ice cream shop.  Oh my.  Another local gem found that is on our have to go list when we visit our daughter.  So delicious.    And so many unique flavors.  It was hard to decide.

5.  Reading time.  Part of getting away for me is unplugging from the computer which means I do not take it with me when we go away.  Sorry guys, that is why I didn't comment on any of your posts last weekend.  But I do take books and I got some good reading time in in both in the car and at the hotel in the evenings.  I find that most relaxing with a nice cup of tea.  Our hotel even had a bookshelf in the lobby where you could take a book and if you didn't finish it, no prob.  Take it with you and you could return it if and when you came back.  Now that is cool.  I should have had my stash of give away books with us and I could have added a few to the shelf.

What were your favorite blessings from the last week?