We were on vacation in Miami Beach for the last two weeks.  The first week the weather was gorgeous.  After a day of playing in the white sand and clear blue water, the kids and I would clean up and go out to the wide tiled terrace overlooking the ocean, to sort through the day's collection of seashells and sit on deck chairs reading Pippi in the South Seas (this image is of my childhood copy, illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman; Puffin, 1977).  I think this is my favorite Pippi book, and the chapters that take place on board the Hoptoad (Pippi's father's ship) and on Kurrekurredutt Island made perfect on-location reading.

Pippi and Tommy and Annika set off for home before the start of the rainy season.  We mistimed our departure, and it rained for most of the second week of our vacation [see Tropical Storm Fay].  Now reporting from Arlington, VA:  we're home.