Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Flordia Nov 2010 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

    Wow, time flies buy so fast. After our arrivial at the Thousand Trails here in Orlando 3 week's ago, we have been very busy. The day we arrived we met friends and had dinner with 5 other couples that night. Since then we had another dinner with 9 couples a week later at Manny's. Then we had a dinner with about 50 cast members from Disney. We had work with about half of them in the passed. What a great time reconnecting with old friends. 
    Then we met our son Mark and wife Tracey's  neighbors, Chris and Susie in Winter Haven. They have a vacation home there. They also have a boat and do a lot of water sking. We went out on their boat and had a great time. We did not ski, but enjoyed watching them ski and the boat ride thru some of the lakes in the Chain of Lakes. Of course we had to go out to dinner after that.
    We then met my cousin Jane and her husband Nick is ST Cloud for dinner. We ate at the Catfish Place, were they have "home made shrimp"(sorry an inside joke). We do seem to eat out a lot. The first two weeks here went so fast.
   We then went to Clermont and Bee's RV Park for our week out of Thousand Trails. We did meet up with friends we volunteered with in Livingston TX..Tom and Paula saw me ride by on my bike and found us the next day. We didn't know they were going to be there. Just one of those chance meetings.We did meet with them in PA this summer. Bee's has two great dinners, all the chicken you can eat with all the fixin's on Tues. night and all the fish you can eat on Fri night. Both are super.  People start linning up about a half hour before they open. The line goes very fast. Of course, what do you think, we did join them. Two couples we worked with at Disney and are in our Escapees chapter, Burt and Rosie and Butch and Evelyn, came up and joined us and Tom and Paula for dinner. This wasn't the end of it. Friday we did it again. Just Tom and Paula and us. But wait here comes Pam and Larry, another couple we worked with at Disney. they also had dinner with us about a week before at Manny's. We do other things beside eat out. We did go over to Disney with friends Jim and Linda after the big cast dinner. They are the couple we spent a couple of weeks with in LA at Mardi Grai last year. The circle of friends is like throwing a stone in a pond, the circle of waves gets bigger and bigger, just like the circle of friends.
   We are now back at the Thousand Trails for two weeks. We got the same site we had here three weeks ago. Of course we saw friends Fran and Larry, the first couple we saw when we arrived here three weeks ago. We got here on Mon and they came in on Tues.. We keep saying what a small world. What a great life.
     We started out to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING, but got carried away. We are planning to have dinner with friends tomorrow.  But today Linda got up with a very sore throat and the start of a cold. Not sure if we'll make it.
           First photo, trailer on a bike, 2 the bike and trailer,  3 The happiest place on earth, 4 Site at Bee's, 5 and 6 site at thousand trails, 7 and 8 wildlife at Thousand trails.







Saturday, November 6, 2010

ST Augustine FL



Cy and Dawn on their visit with us waiting for trolley at the winery, Linda drinking from the Fountain of Youth, Linda with our new toys.

Churches of ST Augustine

1-ST Benedict Catholic Church   2-First United Methodist 3 -4 Greek Shrine 5-Ancient City Baptist Church





Churches of ST Augustine-Catholic Church




Churches of ST Augustine-Flager Memorial Presbyterian



Churches of St. Augustine-Grace United Methodist




Thursday, November 4, 2010

Florida 11-2010

    Wow! hard to believe its been a little over 2 months we have been in FL..The end of Oct. ended with a bang for us. Our oldest son, Cyril and his wife Dawn came down for a visit. We were really thrilled to have them visit because this passed summer when we were in PA. Cy was only home a few days before he had to go back to Afghanistan for work. We enjoyed their visit, and  acted as tourist. We had some great meals and just hung out.  They treated us to a drink of the water from "The Fountain Of Youth".  We did the "Old Town Trolley" tour  http://www.trolleytours.com/ ,for three days, getting on and off many times around the town. We are now anxiously waiting for our son Mark and his wife Tracey visit later in the year.
        We  really enjoyed Anastasia State Park. The beach was great. The work was easy, and the weather was super.  We made some new great  friends while volunteering. This is one of the best things about volunteering.
       St Augustine is a super little city with great history. We did all the touristy things plus rode our bikes on many of the narrow roads. That's right, our bikes. Santa came early. We purchased two folding bikes for our Xmas gifts to each other. They are 22" and fold and fit in the basement of our 5th wheel. We will upload pictures soon. Touring  St Augustine on our bikes was great. We found many things we missed while driving around. We found several old Church's. The Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine, America's first Catholic Parish, http://www.thefirstparish.org/ . Also the "Memorial Presbyterian Church", http://www.memorialpcusa.org/ . Next was "Grace United Methodist Church". http://www.graceumcstaugustine.org/  Riding around the town on our bikes really got us a lot closer to the history of the town. We saw many small plaques on many buildings we missed driving around.
       We arrived at the Thousand Trails park in Clermont FL. and while driving thru to our site saw two  friends,  Larry and Fran setting up on their site. We had spent some time with them in PA this passed summer. We stopped and said hello and were invited to go our with them, and  several other couples we had worked with at Disney, to dinner.  That evening we went to the "Arabian Nights " dinner show. We had a great time  with five other couples. It was great to reconnect. We will be in the Orlando area till the 3rd of Jan 2011. Then we will move farther south in FL  for the rest of winter. When we arrived here the temperature was 85 and humid.  We will take all the warm weather we can get.
          From Blazer: don't know what Mom and Dad see in the beach.  I got sand were sand doesn't belong on a dog, in my hair, between my toes and other unmentionable  places.  Its hot, I like it cool, you know I have a fur coat, need I say more. But there were a lot of new great smells. Of course just when I was getting settled we moved. But this places has a bunch of great looking four legged furry dogs. Saw a couple of cuties going for a ride in a golf cart. Boy some dogs get all the breaks.