Lido Key, FL. For someone like me, whose experiences of "the beach" are almost all from South Carolina, the gulf coast beach was a bit strange. The water is a different color, and there's no surf! I missed the perpetual crashing of the waves.

Lido Key, Sarasota, FL

We took a rambling trip to Florida recently, to attend a wedding and see some friends. Starting today, we'll look at pictures from that trip. St. Augustine Beach, FL

Downtown Greenville, SC

A detail of the soon-to-be-demolished Greenville News building in downtown Greenville, SC

Altered image: Downtown Greenville, SC

Wall Street, Asheville, NC

Altered image: Downtown Greer, SC

The last in this series, in portrait orientation to give the photo editor more choices. Lake Conestee Nature Park, Conestee, SC

From the same spot as the two previous posts, except spring has come around. Lake Conestee Nature Park, Conestee, SC

The same spot as the previous post, but on a different day. Lake Conestee Nature Park, Conestee, SC

This is what you see from a very popular viewing platform at Lake Conestee Nature Park. (Blue herons nest in the dead trees in the spring, and lots of people come out to see them.) I tend to take a lot of pictures here because it looks different depending on the season, the weather, and the time of day. We'll start a short series of pictures with this one.