R and R

I know, I know, you don’t want to hear about it, but I can honestly count the nights I’ve needed a sweater.  This is a winter we’ve never experienced before but this isn’t to say that it won’t cool down.

The park is definitely filled up at this point, lots of activities, people, and DOGS!!  Trees are starting to bloom as it is Spring here now so it’s looking good.  Unfortunately by the time we leave the grass is just starting to turn green.  We’ve been told it’s very lush over the summer.

Time moves quickly here, we get involved in a lot of things. We did a 3 mile hike around a state park one day.  Were warned about the alligators but never saw any.  As you can see Ralph stopped at every exercise station along the way.  He told me to tell you that he was just hitting 100 in the picture below, yeah right.

See pic below of Amish friends of the young pro tennis players in the park enjoying a game of tennis (to the right in the long dress).  Oh, and here’s a pic of Ralph again hitting number 100 as he exercises in our living room.

We went away for a few days to Naples, about a 2 hour drive south of Sarasota.  We had stopped in there for a few hours once many years ago while we were camping in Fort Myers.  It is a beautiful town, very high end, you know there’s lots of money there.  Started off by having a huge lunch at The Dock restaurant along the water.  Should have shared a meal, yikes, although my sea bass was great.  Needless to say we didn’t eat dinner that night.  Naples is famous for an area of shops and restaurants called Tin City as well as a street of shops on Fifth Avenue.

We were in a great location at our hotel, nice view of the waterway from our window (as you can see below).  Beautiful grouping of buildings next door also which housed art galleries as well as high end restaurants.  We found Roy’s which had a great Happy Hour, martinis, small plates at reasonable prices.  We dropped in twice!

On a funny note, as we were getting ready for Roy’s, I was about to walk out of our room when I started tugging at the neckline of my dress.  Yes, one feel at the neck convinced me that my dress was on backwards.  After a quick swing with jewellry on I was able to correct it.  Off we went to Roy’s.  Took me about 5 minutes staring at Ralph across the table to realize that he in fact had his golf shirt on inside out.  We were laughing so hard that people were starting to stare at us.  Of course Ralph wanted to correct this right in his seat but I finally convinced him to walk to the bathroom!  Enjoy the pics.

After wandering along Fifth Avenue we walked through a residential area of beautiful homes and found our way to Naples Beach.  Wouldn’t mind that house under construction below.  The streets are very quiet and the vegetation is so lush.  Some homes you know are on the national registry but then you will see a brand new house in between.  It has all been done tastefully as to keep the homes in the neighbourhood similar.

Naples Beach was as I remember it, very beautiful.  You could walk forever.  Got to see a dolphin as we walked along the fishing pier where many of the locals fish (okay it’s that dot in the last picture).

Here’s a few more pictures of Fifth Avenue and a pic of our great dessert after our yummy lunch at a Thai Restaurant.

After a final swim at our hotel we decided to drive a bit further south and visit Marco Island.  We had heard about it from others.  Unlike Sanibel Island which is more north, Marco Island consists mainly of large highrise hotels and condominiums making beach access difficult.  It’s not to say that it isn’t beautiful but makes you realize what development can do.  Sanibel Island is protected and most homes were once old cottages.  There you can park and walk the beaches easily.  We were glad we checked out Marco Island while we were there, good to know what it was like.  Some people love it, it was just probably not for us.

As we drove off Marco Island, where a lot of new development is taking place, we saw a lot of  signs that said ”Panther Traffic”.  They are trying to protect these animals and their numbers are dwindling.  With all the development I doubt they will survive.

Our final stop before heading home was to visit our good friends Moe and Diane from home.  They were staying in Estero, Florida in their motorhome.  We met quite a few years ago in Texas, along the Mexican border while we were RVers.  Nice to get together and get caught up, had a great lunch.  Check out their resident squirrel, they’re just as smart in the U.S. as they are in Canada!

Final story and promise, I’ll let you go.  Friends Linda and Bob had yet another theme party.  Last year it was crows, this year it was trees.  We tried to dress for the occasion as you can see Ralph struggling to keep some branches on his head!  Joining us were Diane and David, JoAnne and Ken.  The evening consisted of a question and answer test, followed by wine, a video, followed by wine, and another video followed by wine.  I do believe we got smarter as the night progressed….

Footnote to tree party above.  Never ride on the back of a golf cart late at night when your husband is at the wheel – I flew off the back with camera in hand, camera is good, ankle, knee, wrist, shoulder healing nicely thank you

Well, we’re expecting the first batch of friends from home next week.  The next six weeks will be pretty busy.  Some are staying in the park, others have rented places outside.  I was feeling a twinge of home sickness in the last week so that’ll take care of it.

Take care everyone, until the next time,

Rachel and Ralph

Well, no matter what the weather, I couldn’t get away with it.  I’ve had a two week head cold hence I’ve decided to sit quietly sipping tea and updating the blog. 

The good weather continued through New Years so it was easy to celebrate in style.  Friends were getting together with pizza and wanted to watch the sunset New Years Eve but didn’t want to go out of the bubble (park).  Quick call to us and before we knew it we had a crowd sitting out on our deck.  It was easy, no muss, no fuss.  They brought all the food. 

From there we headed to Woodland Hall after getting dressed up.  There was a great band and everyone had lots of fun.  Check Ralph out trying to keep up with Marilyn.  She recently lost a ton of weight and is in high gear, can’t slow her down.  Last picture is of Barrie Lee and Gordon making use of the hall decorations at the end of the night.

All of the above was followed by New Years Day supper at Jacques, Anny and Toby’s (the dog).  They put out a terrific spread of food.

After all of the festivities I decided to get down to work and paint out the trim in the living room.  Had been wanting to do that for some time.

Our 5.5 million dollar wellness centre had its official opening.  I took a tour through on day one, wow, brand new top of the line equipment.  People in the park are so excited.  Now if I can just get myself motivated.  Notice the treadmills look down to the indoor lap pool and hot tub area.  Last picture is of me checking out the Chi Machine!

We took a Sunday drive out to the City of Bradenton, not far away.  They were having a street market of local produce.  We also sat along the water enjoying the view of the water and that’s the bridge going over to Palmetto.  Check out the electric car charging post.

We recently found a little visitor on our deck.  I believe it’s a white (albino) toad (I’m making this up of course).  He hung around for a few days, couldn’t close down the umbrella until I was sure he was gone.

We have been thinking about rebuilding our kitchen table with a sort of unique top so a few days ago we headed downtown to Sarasota Salvage, a neat warehouse of all sorts of funky things.  We didn’t find a material that we could use but sure had fun looking at the stuff.  We’ll keep on searching, no rush.

So our friend Gary was asked what he’d like to do on his birthday.  Seeing the suset on the Gulf was number one followed by dinner out.  He picked us all up in his new/used van (which we all call the Shag Machine).  It has lights, tv, soundsystem, all you need to hit the road.  Although we couldn’t sit around the firepit at Pop’s Restaurant because we were too large a crowd, it was neat to see.

Another celebration here at SunNFun is the yearly Homecoming Parade where people dress up their golf carts and themselves and parade through the park.  This year’s theme was television commercials so you may see people like the Jolly Green Giant if you look close.  That’s Gary on his motorcycle.  It was one of our coldest days so we look all bundled up, after all, it was only 61F.

 Things to note, there are quite a few movie type stars in this area.  The newspaper usually mentions that someone famous has sold their property in the area.  Well, what are we up to?  We’ve just booked a two night getaway, yes, I know, to get away from what, we’re already away.  End of January we’re heading to Naples, Florida and staying in the Bayfront Inn Fifth Avenue, supposedly a very nice hotel close to shopping, restaurants and the Gulf.  Our plans are to also visit our good friends Moe and Diane who are in an RV resort in Estero, Florida nearby.

Hope this finds you all well, Ottawa is under snow now, we’ve seen some pictures!

Cheers until the next time,

Rachel and Ralph