The brutal weather in the northeast this weekend, which included two separate snow storms and a thick coating of ice, got me thinking ahead to our trip to South Carolina between Christmas and New Years.  That may not be far enough south; weather during the last weekend of December is always a crapshoot along the Carolinas coast.  I've played golf that week in short sleeves and I've played in a ski jacket.  I recall a tenderfoot from New Jersey whom I was matched up with at Pawleys Plantation one year.  He was so bundled up he looked like the Michelin Man, and swung like him as well.
    The only sure bet this time of the year is someplace undeniably warm, like the Caribbean or southern Florida.  Friday's Wall Street Journal, which was not delivered to my driveway because of the snow, featured an article about Americans investing in island homes.  Properties in the Dominican Republic, the article indicates, have appreciated by double digits in recent years.  Sounds good to me; many years ago, I spent one of the most relaxing