Adventure Logan

Goodbye February

This has been a superior month of weather with most days above normal and many record breaking.  We tried to make it to the beach as often as we could. The water temperature increased about 10 degrees F this month. At this rate we will have very warm water earlier than usual. There are always people sifting sand looking for sharks teeth but as the pics show the bad angles that people end up having in pictures. I do not need a photo of my behind so unlike this unfortunate gal I remained in my chair, LOL!

I never get tired of the birds at the beach and I really love his fashionable tail feathers.

We have been going to the South Brohard Beach and this is the walkway that takes us to the sand.

With this record breaking weather there have been many kids at the beach.

Dave was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica on Valentines Day and began a 6 day treatment with prednisone. He is such a healthy guy and so unfamiliar with pain it has been quite a challenge dealing with the pain and getting a diagnosis. He is now on a maintenance dose of prednisone that is keeping the pain at bay. This could be a long struggle as the doctor told us it often runs for a couple of years. We will see what the future holds.

I have had great fun painting kindness rocks for the Venice Rocks Group. I leave them at the beach each day and at restaurants and stores. The group is quite busy with painting and many “rock finds” are posted in the Venice Rocks Facebook page. Here are pics of the latest finished rocks.

Seventeen (17) of us had a beach BBQ on the 22nd and it was a record breaking temp day. Liz and Earl had their family here for a week (Scott, Julia, Emerson and Ava), Gus and Mary Evelyn had Janet, John and Justin here, and we were also joined by Molly and George and Marilyn and Danny. Dave cooked sausages, hot dogs and hamburgers  and we shared a pasta salad and broccoli salad.

This little guy is a new baby and he did not react to Marilyn’s finger being close to him.

On the fence post we spotted this guy/gal and wondered if he/she was the parent of the tiny one on the picnic table.

Liz and I painted rocks for Emerson and Ava then sent them on a treasure hunt to find them. It was so much fun and they were so excited with the whole painted rock thing.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentines Day to you all. We celebrated as a group on Friday night at Rosebuds – a place best known for their prime rib. All 10 of us ordered either Queen or King cuts of the prime rib. It comes with salad and potato but the beef comes on a plate by itself and it was DELICIOUS!!!

Love the flowers that Dave bought me.

We have been to the beach 3 times this week and it has been great to have the weather back to hot and sunny. We even managed to see some divers enjoying the opportunity to spend time in the water. Made a heart and then watched the waves take it away.

Liz and I have joined a Facebook group here called Venice Rocks which is involved in the Kindness Rocks Movement. Basically people paint rocks with pictures or sayings and then hide them for people to find. The idea is that the finder enjoys the rock and then moves it along to someone new by hiding it for someone else to find. I have hidden 2 rocks at Swirls the frozen yogurt shop, 4 at the beach boardwalk, 3 at the jetty, 2 at Rosebuds Restaurant, 2 at Walmart, and one that I gave a little girl in Goodwill. A lady posted to Facebook that she found one (the fall shades one in the pic below bottom right) at the jetty while on vacation here – she took it home to Kentucky. She also told me she saw the lady who found the second one that I hid there. Apparently she explained the whole thing to her. It will be interesting to see if others get mentioned. Today I met a lady who found one I placed in Office Depot – she loved it and told me she plans to keep it.

The sunsets are always fun and no matter where we get to see them they remind us how lucky we are to be here in this sunny paradise. The jetty is one of the places we like to visit at sunset.

February Already???

The time is flying and I am never sure who is waiting for one of my posts but if you were, here is one finally. When we arrived in Venice 2 months ago, I vowed to post every two weeks and was doing well until mid January when I attempted to post and could not access my photos. The plug in drives were not working and I trekked off to the computer shop to see what was the problem. Earl helped me do a restore of my drive and I  retrieved of some files I needed (I do the annual directory of names for the 185 residents here in the park) and I had to live without the drives and access to pictures. I worked on the directory and then the drive totally stopped working – so long story short – I needed a new drive and that is finally done. My computer now allows for reading of my external drive and all my files, as well as, my camera card.

We have been doing our usual activities – movie night, bingo, Friday at the restaurant and dominoes. Other events come up naturally and we have learned to be ready for anything.

The Guys Table

The Gals Table

Liz and her Margarita

Yes, they were 2 for 1

Last year we were lucky enough to be invited to see Herman’s Hermits at the Venice Theater and we enjoyed it so much we went again this year. The Munroes joined us for a great evening of music and laughs.

February 2nd was Earl’s 70th birthday so we celebrated. It also happened to be Lin Watson’s (67th) so we celebrated hers too. The lobster roll at the Burgundy Cafe is the best I have ever had so it was my choice again. The owner told me he had sold over 50 of them yesterday. All the gals ordered it too. We came back to our house for the cake and cards (along with some rum for the guys).

Happy New Year

Happy 2018 to all of you. We are settled into life here and although it is a cold week here we have mostly had very warm days. I did my first Red Hat event and was pleased that all the ladies (4 are over 90) were all in fine form. It always amazes me that they are interested in getting out to lunch twice a month. We went to the Jacaranda West Golf Club which is under new management. Their decorations have always been great and although they were not quite as lavish they still managed to make a statement.

We managed quite a few days at the beach and were surprised at how many people were there – lots of families as this was a great weather spell for Christmas. There were lots of pelicans and they are so much fun to watch.

Our New Year’s Eve plan was to go to a late movie and then head to Sharkys for their fireworks at midnight. When we got to the theatre, we discovered that they had cancelled their late shows and were closed. So home we came – watched a Netflix movie and then headed to the beach. There were so many cars at Sharkys that we ended up parking at the dog beach and walking out to the south of the pier. The moon was full and the temperature about 15 degrees C. The fireworks did the trick!

Beach House Winter

We arrived for our winter stay 2 weeks ago today. The flights down were all great and we were picked up in our own car by the MacIntyres. So we started with a brunch at Popy’s on the Island on Tuesday before Gus and Mary Evelyn returned to Nova Scotia.  The weather has been great – mostly high 20’s except for a few cool days when temps were low teens. We managed to rearrange and replace some of our outside furniture and get setup for the season.

Each day we worked on deep cleaning the trailer (slowly we have finished the clean and I have managed to decorate the living , dining and bathroom for Christmas). The tree is not up yet but I hope to do it before mid-week. As we have cleaned and decorated, we constantly think of the 5 days this fall when Category 5 Irma was barreling its way up this coast and when we feared that the trailer would be reduced to match sticks. That has made the task much easier as I was happy that we actually had a trailer to clean.

The beach called us yesterday and we put down the to-do list long enough to make a trip to our favourite spot. Life is always good at the beach.

Life in Venice is resuming – We have made two trips to Costco ($400 and $100) and several to Lowes. Publix is on Dave’s daily schedule. Golf is happening – 7 games so far. Dominoes began small with just Molly, George , Dave and I available to play but we look forward to our weekly games with the gang when they all return . Our favourite restaurants are all awaiting our visits. We had dinner with Molly and George at the Burgundy Cafe (where I had their delicious Maine Lobster Roll), a take out pizza from N’tinos, and dinner at famous Sharky’s with Daniel and Karen. I am still waiting for a Panera Bread fix and an Applebees visit. 

Supper at Sharky’s
First Mango Bango of the Season

Dave Found Captain Morgan

Beach Fun and Last Days

We are quickly winding down our time here in Venice – the beach is our “happy place”.  Every year we soak up the sun and enjoy the scenery at the beach. The birds are interesting.  The pelicans do a flyby that is awesome and then there was this very noisy cardinal.

The flowers are so beautiful this time of year – hard to imagine that it is only springtime and that many more months of flowers lie ahead.

There are lots of boats that we can watch enviously.

The water temp is about 80 degrees so we are happy to sit in our beach chairs and let the water flow over us. When it is really hot, we have to go in with our noodles and paddle boards.

We have had 2 birthday beach picnics – first Scott Corkery celebrated his.

Liz, Earl, Emerson and Ava

Then Janet MacIntyre celebrated hers.

Janet, Michelle, Emily, Maddy, John and Justin

This past Friday after supper at the Burgundy Cafe we walked over to the Centennial Park where Robin and the Retros were playing a free concert. Robin lives in our park.

Karen, Daniel, Liz, Earl, Kiley and Abby

World Golf Hall of Fame

After our hasty retreat from Augusta, we headed south and after a night in Savannah, watching tornado warnings we continued our trip home. On Thursday we drove to St. Augustine, Florida where we visited the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Dave at the entrance to the facility.

Dave and I both enjoyed the displays.

Pretending he is in the final round.

We both made the leader board.

Replica of the Masters Trophy

Replica of the Masters Green Jacket

Each player who is in the Hall of Fame has a locker with items that they contributed. They contained some very interesting items.

Guests can take their swings at the Challenge Hole — a 132-yard island green reminiscent of the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass .

The Masters

Our family has been extraordinarily lucky –  for the last three years we have won the chance to buy Masters tickets. Dave got to go last year and then when my sister won this year he got a second chance  – and I used a ticket too. We drove to Augusta on Tuesday and met  my nephew Trevor and his friend Blaise for supper. The next morning (with a forecast of rain) we headed to the site. At 8AM we managed breakfast and then headed onto the course. We worked our way down to Amen Corner where we sat in the bleachers. The horn blew and the announcement was made to evacuate the property. So – along with thousands of others – we made our way back to the parking lot and that ended it for us. The course was reopened for an hour at noon but by then we were headed south to Savannah (just ahead of the rain and tornado threats).

The walk from the parking lots to the main gate was through very beautifully manicured grounds.

The Putting  Greens near #1 Hole

This was breakfast – Dave had coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I had the chicken sandwich and water. The whole thing only cost $8. The Masters is one of the only places I have ever been where the concession items are cheap.

Trevor and Blaise

The Eisenhower Cottage – one of the famous 10 cabins on the site.

Leaderboard at Amen Corner

Rae’s Creek

Hogan Bridge

Nova Scotia Picnic

The annual Nova Scotia picnic was moved from February 13 to March 24 last year – so we headed off today to enjoy the event in its new time slot. Of course, the main advantage of the date change is the better chance of warm weather . The numbers were down somewhat although the 400+ people enjoyed the day. It is really only a picnic lunch with some music and lots of ticket draws and 50/50 draws.

Carol and Dave

Marilyn and DannyEarl and Liz

Earl, Liz, Dave, Carol, Danny and Marilyn

Waiting for names to be called.

Snowbird Association tent

Then there is the intense looking at the tickets while they do the many draws. This took about 45 minutes.

Dave, Bert and Kenny

Danny, Earl, Dennis and Marilyn

Larry and Dave

Janet and Peter Randall , Earl and Liz

Dave and Carol

Mary and Bob

The park is on Lake Seminole and the birds were plentiful.

Dennis, Bob, Earl, Danny and Dave

Mary, Gerrie, Liz, Carol and Marilyn

Mary and Bob Visit

Bob and Mary arrived for a week-long visit and we have been very busy. They weren’t here last year so I was thrilled that they got here in time to celebrate my birthday. (Mary is always more excited about the birthday than I am) After a few cooler days this week, I was pleased that the weather warmed up nicely for my big day. We made it to the beach which was windy but beautiful.

The four of us enjoyed a steak BBQ, with rice and salad. Dave bought me my favourite cake Raspberry Elegance which we shared with the gang of 14 who came over for dessert.  A super way to turn 67!

Today (Wednesday) we headed to Sarasota for lunch with Steve and Carol Hiltz. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory then headed out for some shopping (Carol, Mary and I) to Bealls and the guys in their car to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

At the Hiltz trailer. The birds were next door eating lawn bugs.

This evening we headed to the Rookery to show Bob and Mary that interesting sight. The island is the location for hundreds of birds who arrive at sunset and settle in for the night.

The mother arrived several times and the babies – who are actually quite large – grabbed at her beak and yanked it down. They were obviously very hungry and were beyond noisy.

Then we walked down from the viewing area for the birds to see the bat houses and to wait for sunset. As darkness began they began to leave. Hard to imagine that so many bats live in such a small space.

The pic below captured the first ones which flew out.