In Frostproof for the New Year

Yesterday we arrived at our new park in Frostproof, Florida. The people here are already much nicer than they were in Ft Myers Beach. We will be attending the New Years Eve party tonight. Not sure if we will last till midnight, getting old I guess. This park is really nice, we are parking on a shell base with a nice cement patio and driveway. We have our own street light out front and nice wide roads. This is a gated community that we like a lot. Next week we will be going to St Petersburg to visit with Rick's aunt and uncle for a couple of days. They called us yesterday. We talked to Rick's sister and it was snowing up in Ohio. Glad we are here. Hope everyone has a great New Year. Keep healthy and happy. Take care.

CHRISTMAS AT THE BEACH

Bob and Liz stopped by late morning and asked if we wanted to go to the beach with them. So we did. It was really neat and something we have done before is to spend Christmas Day at the beach. And all you folks up north have nothing on us with all your snow and snowmen. We have our very own sandman. We don't know who made it but it was just down from where we were sitting. I thought that was so cute. They have their own way of celebrating down here. Here is Rick, Bob and Liz in the water. The water was a bit cool until you got used to it. Then it was refreshing. Rick and Bob deep in conversation. Don't know about what. They are probably solving the worlds problems. These birds were standing along the beach looking out into the water. Wonder what they were thinking? We had a good time. Now the turkey is in the oven and just starting to smell good. We already had dessert of pumpkin pie. I love a meal where you start with the dessert first. It had just started to rain as we were headed back to the park and now it is sprinkling again. Clouds have been coming and going all day. The traffic here is really starting to get bad. But we were told that it would get worse by the first of the year. We will be leaving here on Tuesday so just a few more days of real congested traffic.

We talked to both our kids, our parents, and a couple of friends. When Rick talked to our 3 year old grandson, he pretended to be Santa. Jay asked him where he was and he said the North Pole. Then Jay said that you didn't look like Santa and our son asked him how he could tell since he was on the phone. Then we told him that it was just Pappy and he started laughing. They had no electric when we talked to them. Hope it comes on soon. They were headed out to relatives for dinner. Then our daughter called and talked with Rick. They were supposed to go over to our niece's house to have dinner and Rick's dad was supposed to be there also. That will do him some good. He loves his grand kids and great grand kids. Hope everyone had a great day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS

This time of year lately has been hard on us emotionally. I lost my Dad the day after Christmas a couple of years ago and I still miss him terribly. And this year, Rick lost his mother the beginning of Sept and this is the first Christmas without her. So we have been kind of down in the mouth lately. I didn't even get my tree out this year to put up. I know time has a way of healing. I was watching TV the other night and I had a real good memory of my Dad pop into my head that brought a smile to my face. We had spent Thanksgiving with my folks and the memories are priceless. A few days after leaving them is when Dad had his stroke. We will be talking to the kids and hopefully the grand kids later today and that will lift our spirits. We got a beautiful picture collage of the grand kids for Christmas. The neat thing about that is almost all of the pictures were ones that we had taken. All except of my oldest grandson standing outside in a snow storm. I want to hang that on my mirror in the kitchen. It really turned out good. Thanks kids. I will write more later today after we talk to the kids and have our dinner. Hope everyone has a great day!

Pictures

Here is a picture of the cook-out when Robin and Neal came down. It was good to see them. And here is my bowl of shells. At first I thought I would like to fill the bowl completely full, but then you start covering up a lot of the neat looking shells. I have other shells to put in and some coral that I will keep and every once in a while I may change it around. I also bought some shadow box picture frames to put sand dollars and shells into for each of my grandsons. I think I will hand deliver them to each one of them. Rick took a picture of the sunrise this morning. It was shining so brightly that the camera went into over exposure. So now it looks like a sunset instead of a sunrise.

This morning was our last time playing bocce ball and I forgot to take my camera to get a picture of Brian and Barbie. Today was the day that Rick and Barbie won 3 out of 4 games. The last time we played, Brian and I won 2 out of 3. We have had lots of fun playing this game and I hope other parks that we go to have bocce ball courts as well. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe travels if traveling. For you folks up north, try to stay warm and safe from all the ice and snow.  That's why we like it down here in sunny southern Florida.

Almost Christmas!!

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I blogged. Sorry Shelley. We have not been doing a whole lot. Enjoying the weather and playing bocce ball. Tomorrow will be the last time we play since we are leaving here next Tuesday and we only play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And Thursday is Christmas. Last Friday Neal and Robin (we met them in AZ last winter) drove down and we had a cookout for lunch at Barbara and Darrells with Bob and Liz. Then we went to the Edison Country Club for free food and half price drinks. They even have live entertainment. We had pizza, pork tenderloin, and a pasta dish. After we were done there, we went back to our park for a free dance. We love free! A good time was had by all. Then we got to talking about meeting for breakfast the next morning before Neal and Robin left. Well, it was decided to go get breakfast now and not wait till morning. So at 11:00 at night we are eating breakfast. Oh well, I guess when you are retired, you can do what you want. It was good seeing those guys again. They will be spending Christmas with their son in Virginia. Today they called to tell us that they were on their way back to Virginia and that it was cold. It has been cool here today also. I don't think it got up to 70. But the sun is out and the sky is blue! Went out and got a turkey today for Christmas dinner. Didn't have leftovers from Thanksgiving so that is why we are having turkey for Christmas. I love leftover turkey and gravy. Yesterday we went to Michael's to find some picture frames and a bowl for our shells. Found a really neat one that is basically a half bowl. I will get a picture another time of that. Not sure how to secure it while we travel. But will figure something out. Looked at the hometown newspaper this morning and it was 7 degrees. Hope everyone is keeping warm. We sure are. LOL!!! Had to put that dig in. I'll hear about it later. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. Please pray for our country and the hard times that are coming.

Pictures from Lovers Key State Park and the shells

Yesterday I promised that I would put on the blog the pictures of the beach and the shells and coral we found. So here they are. The first picture is of a horseshoe crab. Now this is the underside. These were littered all over the shoreline. They were all dead. Now I want you to look for the round items. These are urchins. And the fan like shells are called pen shell. These break real easy. Today we started cleaning up the shells and bleaching the sand dollars. This one we did not bleach and I don't think we will. When you see it, you will know why. Here I will tell you the legend of the Sand Dollar.

"There's a pretty little legend that I would like to tell of the birth and death of Jesus found in this lowly shell. If you examine closely you'll see that you find here four nail holes and a fifth one made by a Roman's spear. On one side the Easter Lily it's center is the star that appeared unto the Shepherds and led them from afar. The Christmas Poinsettia etched on the other side reminds us of his birthday, our happy Christmastide. Now break the center open and here you will release the five white doves awaiting to spread good will and peace. This simple little symbol Christ left for you and me to help us spread his gospel through all eternity." This is the poinsettia side. The front to us symbolizes the star shining down and guiding the way. We feel that this one is very special. If anyone knows anything about this particular one, let me know. This is what most of the sand dollars look like. If they are not as white as you would like them to be you just bleach them and let the sun do the rest. We were very fortunate to find as many as we did. Rick even found a way to make them stronger. They are very fragile but if you mix half white glue and half water and spread them with this mixture, they harden so you can use them in projects. We will try this to see if they harden enough to send to the grand kids. If not, they will have to wait till we see them to hand it to them by hand. Here is some of the coral that we found. Our oldest grandson has expressed interest in some of the coral. Here are some of the shells I found. I want to make up some type of bowl or something to display some of the shells and coral. We will probably do a shadow picture frame for the sand dollars. Rick hard at work. This next picture is of a turtle that we saw as we were leaving the park. He just let me take his picture. Like he was posing for me. After I was done, he turned and started off again. Last night Rick went out and took pictures of the moon. Our palm tree in our front yard. Hope everyone is ready for a Happy Holiday and all your shopping is done. Only 11 more days!

Lover's Key State Park

We got up this morning and Rick said to get dressed and we are going out. We went to Lover's Key State Park. Liz had told us about the shells there being a couple inches deep in spots. We have had two days of high winds and one day of rain. After a time like that is the best time to go shelling. This place was better than Sanabel Island. We started looking for the sand dollars. Tomorrow I will put pictures on of all the ones we found. We brought home 33 sand dollars and 19 of them are perfect. A lady at the beach told us to put the shells in vinegar to take the smell away and to kill any bacteria. Then for some of the sand dollars we need to use bleach to make them white. So tomorrow I need to get more vinegar and some bleach. Rick found all kinds of coral. I will have pictures of them also tomorrow. It got to be to late and we were tired from 4 hours of shelling. We then went to Bonita Springs to a Chinese Buffet for lunch/dinner combination. I want to figure out how to package up some shells to send to the grandkids without them getting broken in the mail. Lots of bubble wrap and packing peanuts I guess. Buddy and Shelley were supposed to come on Monday but Buddy has a doctors appt and depending on what the outcome is, they may come a couple days later. Keep Buddy in your prayers. Have a good evening.

Stormy weather

This morning we got up and it was a bit breezy and the temp was 75. We did go up to meet Barb and Brian for a game of Bocce ball but it started to lightning. So that put a stop to the game. We sat up at the Activities office and got to know this couple a bit better. Then it started to rain, and rain, and pour and lightning and thunder and more rain. Then we made a run for the truck and took Barb and Brian back to their camper so they wouldn't have to walk in all this rain. In turn she gave me blueberries that she had brought with her from Nova Scotia. They have all kinds of blueberry bushes on their property. Can't wait to have the blueberry pancakes. We haven't been doing a whole lot. We got our Christmas present to each other the other day. We bought a 32" TV and boy, do we love it! I guess our eyesight was worse than we realized. Rick figured out how to keep it in place as we travel and the test will be at the end of the month when we head north. We have been enjoying this weather knowing that back home it has been cold and snowy. But guess what?! Rick just talked to our son in Mississippi and they had 2" of snow today! He couldn't believe it. I asked how the kids liked it and he said they had a blast. I'll never complain about the mid to low 50's ever again. Even the 40's doesn't sound to bad. I wandered about his weather when I saw it was 39 in New Orleans. The weather is getting stranger and stranger. We won't be doing a whole lot until Monday. Buddy and Shelley are coming down and we are going to go to the beach and just hang out and have a good time. Maybe I'll get some pictures to post then. Take care all.

Visiting Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte

Today we went to have lunch with Buddy and Shelley up in Port Charlotte at a sports bar called Gators. Wednesday is wing day and you can get wings for .25 each. They were great. I got the mild ones and Rick got the BBQ ones and his were actually better than mine. They were messy and they keep a roll of paper towels on each table. You can either eat outside or in. It is really a neat place and I'm sure we will go back. Prices were good too. Sunday special is 2 pulled pork sandwiches with fries and coleslaw for 3.99. Not bad. After that, Buddy drove us around and showed us Punta Gorda. Here is the Banyan Tree at the park. It was a really neat looking tree. Rick and Buddy being dwarfed by the tree. Not hard to do since neither one is very tall. Shelley and I just hanging around. Then as Shelley and I were walking around the tree taking more pictures, Rick and Buddy got in the car and took off. Actually, they were just moving it to another spot. This park is along the sound or river or inlet or whatever it is called. This gazebo is all decked out for the Christmas season. This is just off the water. This is a statue to Ponce de Leon. Then off to the Fisherman's Village. This is along the marina and has all kinds of shops, restaurants, and bars. We had fun window shopping. Then we posed beside the big shark. The next couple of pictures shows that Rick and Buddy got the catch of their lives. It was a fun place to visit. Then we drove around the area and saw how the other half lives. Big houses with the big boats docked in the back yard. Everywhere you looked, there were canals and big houses and boats. We even saw a huge condo complex where you could also park your boat. Shelley said that a lot of this was new because of the hurricane had been so destructive to that area a few years back. Then it was time to head home. As we got closer to the park we had a couple of police cars and an ambulance pass us. Sure enough, down the road on some car had gone thru the guard rail and ended up on its wheels down in the ditch. Thank goodness, the traffic was not backed up real bad yet. I guess come January, the traffic in this area is going to be real bad. Glad we will not be there. We figure from here on out, if we need to go to the store, we will go after supper. Hopefully, the traffic will be thinner. Off to another subject. Our son had gotten a job and starts next Monday. Continue to pray that Autumn finds one just as soon. Thanks for your prayers. We were talking to our grandson Jay and he told us that Santa was going to come with presents and toys to his new house. Then he preceded to tell us how old he was. Josh told him he didn't need to tell us because we already new. Then he told us "But I love being 3!!". We laughed at him. He is at just the right age for a really neat Christmas. Hope they take lots of pictures. Tomorrow it is going to warm up enough to get back into the pool. Can't wait. Sorry for all of you up north where it is cold. Take care all.

Bocce Ball Goodbyes

Tuesday we had our last bocce ball games with the other 3 couples that we normally play with. This is Derek and Jill from Kent, England. They own a beach house and also a house here in the park. They have been coming to this area for the last 23 years. There daughter attends college in the area. They left today and will be coming back in Jan and in April their daughter will be getting married on the beach. They have a great sense of humor and we really enjoyed our time with them. They said if we ever get to England, we are to look them up. This is Bob and Angie. They are in charge of the Bocce Ball games that start in Jan. They are the ones that taught us how to play the game. They stay here in the park in a park model but are going home tomorrow to New Jersey for the holidays. So we said our goodbyes to them also. Here is Brian and Barbara. They are from Nova Scotia. They are in a 5th wheel like us and will be leaving this park at the end of the month like us. I think they said they are going up to the Tampa area. We will continue playing bocce ball with them until we leave. After saying our goodbyes to the gang, we went to see if we could see the manatees. It was after lunch and the best time to see them is in the mornings but we went anyway. I forgot the good camera, so we did not get a lot of pictures with my little camera. We did see quite a few and it was neat when they actually brought their entire head out of the water. Didn't get any good pictures of that. There were a few out in the river playing. All we could see where their tails coming up out of the water. It was neat to watch. We will go back some morning with the good camera to get better pictures. After that we took a run up to Camping World. Came back home and shortly after we got here, we saw the fire truck and an ambulance show up next door. The elderly lady from Canada had a major stroke. They ended up life lighting her to the hospital. They have only been down here for 2 weeks. What a shame. After supper, we lounged around and watched TV.

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We ate up at the hall with Bob, Liz (Liz was our hostess and did a great job on the table and food.), Barbara, Darrell, Bob, Debbie, Vicki and Joe. The last two are Barb's neighbor. After eating we went on a long bike ride with most of the group. Then we went to play cards and eat dessert. Darrell won the pot of gold. On Friday we went out to look at TV's and then we took a drive up to Punta Gorda. We just went up Rt 41 and stopped and got ice cream. Yum. This was of course after we played bocce ball. Two of our players will be leaving on Wednesday to go back to England. Derrick and Jill are not looking forward to leaving since it is cold back home. We all know what that is like. But I must say that it has been cold here also. Getting down into the upper 40's to lower 50's at night and barely getting to 70 during the day. Yesterday we had some good storms roll thru. We were under a tornado watch for most of the day. Luckily we took down our awning because the winds were terrible. Today we got up and did our work out and then we rode our bikes for about an hour and a half. Stopped by Derricks and Jills on our way home and met there daughter and soon to be son in law. Tomorrow we go up and play bocce ball for the last time with them. When they come back to the park in January, we will be up in Frostproof. So we will say our goodbyes tomorrow. Since today was payday, we went to the grocery store. I hate seeing all the prices keep going up and up. But if we eat less, we just might lose some weight. LOL! Our daughter got layed off from her job today until next semester at college. That hurt just before Christmas. We hope all had a good turkey day and hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday also. Travel safe in all the snow up home.