About a year ago, I saw a spider web next to my hot water heater, and some really weird looking eggs in it. I went online to see what they were and discovered they were the eggs of a brown widow spider. Until that time I had never even heard of one, having only heard of the black widow, but was appalled to find out that not only did both the black and brown varieties live in Florida, but a red widow, as well! Only the brown has the strangely shaped eggs, though. The brown widow spider has a more toxic venom than the black widow, but from what I read, was less likely to actually bite. While that's good news, the fact that I had them in my garage, and on my pourch and in my yard, sure hasn't been very comforting! Since then, I've seen quite a few of them, some of which were really large. The house next door has gone vacant, and since it has been empty, whoever owns it has allowed ivy to grow densely all over the back of the house, and since then, I've seen the widows. I'm told they're hard to get rid of, and it seems to be the case, since I battle them regularly, but continue to find webs, and see eggs, and kill spiders whenever I see one. They keep popping up. Yuk. This female brown widow and her eggs was outside where I work. I looked up through the window, and there she was. Yuk again! I hate spiders, especially venomous ones! Once again, welcome to Florida. I apologize for the poor quality, but seeing these things makes me shaky, and well I couldn't seem to focus well. This was hand held, and only a foot or so away from the spider. Cameras make me braver, but not THAT brave!

Our hotel in Lincoln City, The Historic Anchor Inn. The Historic Anchor Inn was started in the mid-1940s, and is the oldest hotel in Lincoln City. The front lobby displays a picture of the hotel under its original name, "The Taft Heights Motor Court." The hotel’s name was then changed in the late-1950s to "The Holiday Motel," and finally became "The Anchor Inn" in the late-1970s. When it first opened it was quite the place, offering outside cabins with their own garage, kitchenette, and a bathroom, while in the main building two rooms would share a bathroom, and the economy rooms shared a bathroom among four rooms. While that may not seem all that impressive by today’s standards, one has to remember that just before the war if you wanted to bathe in Lincoln City you had to go to the Green Onion in Nelscott (about six blocks north of here) and pay five cents to hop in a tub of hot water that progressively got cooler and less fresh and the day went on and number of bathers increased. The Inn is not for everyone. They are lovingly restoring it bit by bit, but there are 14,000 square feet of finicky plumbing and creaky old growth timbers, so sometimes the drains will empty slowly, the water pressure will have a mind of its own, and the old steam heaters will clank and knock. Truthfully you never know what is going to break next, but we loved it anyway.