A picture(s) is worth a thousand words!

I think I remember him telling me the other day to post more pictures and less words!

It was a busy week!

Guy has suggested that I write less and post more pictures, so I'll do my best to comply.

We left Tuesday morning, heading to St. Augustine, stopping in Port Orange to visit Joyce and Gerry Betz.. They took us over to So. Daytona for lunch and then showed us around the area.

Visited the Fly-In community where John Travola used to have a home. The neighbors complained so much of his Boeing 707B and Gulfstream planes that he moved to another Fly-In community. This was so interesting to see...there were small runways running between the streets. Sorry Guy...I didn't take any pictures!

Then they took us to the beautiful home they own and just moved out of. We picked some fresh grapefruit, oranges and the juicy lime (I have ever tasted )from their trees in the back yard.

It was getting late, so we had to continue on. We certainly spent an enjoyable afternoon with them and made plans to get together next weekend when the South Portland, Maine Day will be held in Ocala.

Our visit to St. Augustine

We used our good old Holiday Inn points and stayed on St. Augustine Beach. It would have been a breath taking view of both the ocean and the pool, but it was stormy and cold...Yeah, I know all you people from the North East have no pity on us....(can't say as I blame you)









We took The Old Old Town Trolley Tour so we could chose what sights were interesting to us. Our first stop was Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. They gave each one of us a taste of the magical water and in case you don't recognize the Gentlemen standing next to Ponce below on the left hand side...it's Guy! so you can see for yourself that the water does what it claims!

On the right side above, if you look really close, you can see a peacock in front of the big bush. They were wandering all around the grounds...was hoping to be able to see one spreading his feathers...guess they were shy that day, because they stayed pretty low profile.

Our next stop was "The Old Jail". This was a fun tour. Our guide, Sarah, did a re-enactment by capturing the visitors and bringing them through the steps a prisoner would have gone through, ending up on the 3rd floor in maxium security. Looks like she caught someone that was on the 10 Most Wanted Poster!

The Lightner Museum

The Lightner Museum was a gift from Chicago publisher, Otto Lightner, founding editor of Hobbies Magazine. His collections were varied and covered 3 floors. Among them was a Russian Bath, Tiffany lamps and numerous cut class and colored glass dishes. He also brought back an Egyptian mummy. The lobby was recently renovated...the floor itself cost over $3 million dollars.

This is where the swimming pool was....it is now a small restaurant with lots of antique shops and boutiques.

He had the world's largest indoor swimming pool.

Mr. Lightner loved music and collected many musical machines. They all still are in working order. Twice a day, they are wound up and played to the visitors. On the left is a violin and piano machine and above on the right is a German Orchestron which plays several instrument..sounds like music played in the center of a carousel.

San Sebastian Winery

Time was getting short, but we managed to squeeze one more tour in before we left.

San Sebastian Winery was on our list and we were glad we stopped. After going through the winery, we had a wine tasting experience and of course, ended up buying a bottle of our favorites.
Poor Guy...no Merlot here.







We weren't able to see it all and hope some of our visitors will also be interested in joining us re-visit St. Augustine.

A great little diner where we had lunch.

I love Deland!

Thursday night we spend with Don and Anita McFeeters. They live in a lovely, gated community in Deland.

I immediately fell in love with it, thinking if I were ever to re-locate to Fla., this would be where I'd want to land!

Their community center is close by and offers about every activity you would ever want to engage in (a weekly quilting class immediately caught my eyes)

The grounds are immaculate and landscaping very pleasing to the eye.

We left Friday morning, after making plans for them to pay us a visit in February. Thank you Don and Anita...the perfect Host and Hostess for sure:)

One thing we've noticed since we've been in Fla., is that it takes forever to get something done....everyone we've visited has shared stories about how long it takes for things to get fixed, repaired, built, delivered etc. We can certainly attest to that as we still don't have our garage door opener or screens put on our 2 sliding glass doors. So when we arrived home on Friday afternoon, we were delighted to see that they had been installed..(well, only one will open, but at least they were ON).

Saturday morning as I was bringing breakfast out on the patio, I completely forgot that they were there, and guess what? yup! I walked right through the screen, knocking it off its tracks and into the rails on the deck!

So now, we will have to have them repaired and re-installed...I wonder how long it will take this time???

This is too good to be true..

A view of our condo from the beach. We're only a few steps from the beach.

Another unbelieveable gorgeous day...sunny skies and oh, so warm temperatures! With fisherman arriving soon, Guy thought he should tone up on his surf casting skills. He went down to the beach where he waded in and threw out a few lines.....behold he caught us dinner! (Does anyone have any good seaweed recipes?)

Seriously, we are still pinching ourselves to make sure we're not dreaming...how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing. I certainly never in a million years thought I would be so fortunate as to be spending the winter here in Cocoa Beach, in a condo with the ocean within a few yards of me. I do not take this for granted. I will never stop appreciating this breathtaking view and the sound of the ocean waves putting me to sleep every night.

On one of our morning walks, we spotted this beautful jelly fish. It had dug itself down into the sand.

I find myself taking so many of these shots....thank God for digital cameras, because once you download them and realize you have taken about 2 dozen of basically the same scene, you can delete them and start over the next day.

Wednesday we set out with a purpose...

Instead of driving around aimlessly today, we set out with a purpose! (well, sort of)

Company will be arriving and being the good hosts we hope to be, we need to find the best places to go,the best things to do at the best prices.

Gary and Paul will be coming soon and those boys want to go fishing! Drove over to Cape Canaveral and checked out the fishing fleet. Up and down the canal those boats were ready to go out and bring the biggest catch in...They claimed Day and Night..Deep Sea Fishing.. Think we found one that will fit the bill!

And of course, there's fishing off the pier right here in Cocoa Beach...only $4.00 bucks and you'll catch so many fish, you won't be able to carry them all home!

Our next stop was Kennedy Space Center. We were thinking we might go in, wander around and maybe go to the Imax theatre, but the ticket prices stopped us dead in our tracks. If we take advantage of Patrick's Air Force Base, we can buy the tickets cheaper and then come back and upgrade....so that's just what we did later in the day.

That's when Guy's day started to go bad! We were driving and he saw a sign that said US Coast Guard Base. The tires squealed and around we turned...had to go on the base and check it out...Why? because it was there, that's why. He flashed out his ID and the duty officer handed us a slip of paper that said we had to turn around at the next road and get out of this area. We did....but not without trying to get in another way to see what the exchange looked like. Chained fences changed his mind and we were on our way!

Cape Canaveral Air Force Base....another sign spotted, an ID shown and again, we were told this was a closed base...no admittance, turn around and get out! I could see the disappointment in his eyes.

OK...now we were on our way to Titusville ..... what was there?? pretty little town....we were now aimlessly riding around again....I don't mind going for a ride, but gee whiz, this is what we do everyday....let's go somewhere......I think he's not completely in the retirement mode. Has to get up every day, go for his walk, eat breakfast and then get in the car and go......go somewhere....no accounts to call on, just that long road ahead of him makes him feel comfortable....BUT the company's not paying for gas anymore....and it certainly isn't getting any cheaper.....and HEY! there's a sign over there that says only $3.05 a gallon....

We cut across 2 lanes of traffic, horns blowing, tires screeching into the gas station. First he pulls up to the wrong side of the pump....then we move to the right side.....he gets out....&^%$## forgets to put his glasses on, starts pressing buttons...bang!bang on the pump...something doesn't work right (oh, boy can I identify with him on that)..jumps back in the car, whirls around to another tank, all the time spurting bad words, jumps out, I hear buttons being pressed, then punched , then I hear the flow of gas....good! things must be going well.......NOPE..not so good...back in the car he jumps, this time screaming how stupid he is and its quite a ways down the road before I find out that he pressed the wrong button and we filled the van with the premium gas at $3.35 a gallon....

Retirement is a constant compromise, I swear. It's past lunch time and Guy has seemed to have calmed down enough to be able to eat. Where? I'd like to eat somewhere where we can overlook the water....somewhere maybe, calming.....He wanted KFC....we compromised...we ate KFC in a children's park overlooking the Banana River.

Poor Guy...he gives up! We go out to the AFB, get cheaper tickets to Kennedy, turn around and come home....Tomorrow has to be a better day!

Meet Your Neighbors Party

It's been a busy week and we haven't really done anything! Such a social calendar we have! We were invited to another dinner at the Elks Club on Tuesday night, but completely forgot about it...when we were reminded, we embarrassingly chose to go to the "Meet Your Neighbors" Party in 203.

Pat Call and her daughter Jan, hosted it.....Jan is from upper New York State (a college professor) and was here to get her Mom settled in for the winter. I think she wanted Mom to meet her neighbors, just in case she needed help etc. Pat is a sweet lady and we're happy to help her when needed. She is from New Hampshire and owns several homes there...she's a recent widow and this is her first time to this condo complex.

Lyn lives down the hall from us, an elderly gentlemen (oh no, he's our age and I'm calling him elderly!!) we've met him around before and he's a real friendly "young man"!

Then there is Pat who lives above us, does Qigong on the beach every night. We've seen several ladies doing those breathing exercises and wondered what it was all about. She owns a unit here and is very pleasant. She only stayed a short time, because she had to go out and meet her exercise class. I'm hoping to learn more about it and maybe even get involved.

Then there was Wayne and Sparkles! We call her Sparkles because we keep forgetting her real name and she sprinkled her face with sparkly makeup before she arrived....They are a much younger couple, retired from Washington DC. Wayne retired as some sort of govt investigator and Sparkles was an appointee with the Clinton administration......Now right there...that has to bring many questions to mind. What was Guy's reaction? Well, he actually handled himself quite dignified and didn't lunge to her jugular vein. After a few minutes of praising that administration, they thankfully changed the subject to boats! Phew! That was a close one...I could see Guy's face getting redder and redder (and it wasn't the Merlot he was drinking that was causing it)..

It was a pleasant evening after all, and true to form.....my husband invited everyone to our place next week for another neighborhood social hour(s)

Settled in and enjoying life!

We've finally settled in and pretty much established our new routine. Go for a long walk in the morning, have breakfast, shower and then go out and get familiar with the area(s). We've been to a flea market and thrift shop to pick up odds and ends we need at the condo. Toaster for $1.00, radio for $2., glasses, measurings spoons etc. Guy thought I'd pretty much brought everything I could possibly need, but I proved him wrong! You can never bring all that is needed!

We've found the community Farmers market where they sell the freshest, most delicious fruits and vegetables. You can't even imagine how much better those tomatoes, lettuce and cantaloupes taste! (and cheaper too).

We've been to a steak dinner at the Elks with our friends, the Little's and are invited to a "Get to know your neighbor's" party tomorrow night. We're even going to try the church across the street next Sunday!
Here's a friend we made on our beach walk this morning!

Eating outside on our balcony is a routine now. You can even see the launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in the distant. We're on the 3rd floor and the view(s) are spectacular!

We usually walk into town in the morning and then come back via the beach. It's such a beautiful, peaceful time of the day.

This sign is posted out by our beach access....lucky for us, we can come back home to get more supplies, once our gallon has been consumed!!!!

Guy just can't seem to stay still...you know him....he's always puttering, trying to fix something (and then we call the Super to come up and really fix it!) Some things just never change!

Now that I've somewhat caught up on this blog, I will do my best to keep it updated every day or couple of days so you can see what we're up to.......

Keep warm everyone! We've managed to exhaust all of our Verizon minutes (due to checking in with Family on our trip down and when Guy was in hospital), so we'll be real stingy with calls until the 20th of this month .....If you are with Verizon, it's a free call....we can send and receive free after 9 and on weekends.....So we'll try to communicate via email until the 20th....

Love to you all....

Joni and Guy

Arrived at last!

Left Tampa about 9:30AM, heading to Patrick AFB to get housing for New Years Eve! We were told to come back at 3PM to check-in. We were so excited to see our home for the winter, we took a ride into Cocoa Beach so we could see what our condo looked like. We got out of the Van, walked around like 2 little kids in a candy store.

We saw a nice Chinese Restaurant across the street, Yen Yen's and decided to have lunch there. It will be a place we will frequent often this winter and most likely bring our visitors too.

After lunch, we walked around and passed our realtor's office, deciding to go in and introduce ourselves. We chatted and they said they didn't see any reason why we couldn't move in that afternoon. Back in the van we got, headed to the AFB to cancel our newly made reservation.

We decided we need supplies, so stopped at the commissary to load up on the essentials: milk, bread, butter, eggs, Merlot and vodka!

When we had left Maine (what seemed like so long ago), the Van had been systematically packed....suitcases with clothes for Maine to Ft. Myers, Ft. Myers to Tampa and then Tampa until April. Well, along the way, somehow our organized van became such a disorganized mess!! We pulled bags we didn't think we'd need, put things in other places and now it was utter chaos! After we came out of the exchange, with the cart piled high with all these new supplies, we looked at each other and wondered where we'd ever find room for everything. I was in the front seat, hidden by grocery bags.....one sudden stop and I'd be covered with scrambled eggs!
Thankfully, the driver hit no bumps and we pulled into the parking garage, opened the sliding doors and everything fell out! It took us about 6 trips up in the elevator with their provided carts to unload it all. boy, didn't it seem good to finally be able to get settled in!

Happy New Year!!

Our home away from home for the Winter....

Kitchen looking into the Dining room and Living room

Dining room looking into the kitchen.

From No. Ft. Myers to Tampa...

Left Dobson's Friday morning..stopping in Englewood to see Ed & Maria Jensen. What a beautiful home they have. Visited a couple of hours, had lunch and then headed up to Tampa.

Again - the GPS is our hero! What a busy city, Tampa is and that ol' electronic device brought us right to our doorstep again!

On Saturday, Don & Anita McFeeters came up from Deland to watch Andrew. We met them for a quick bite to eat and get caught up on all the Family news, then headed to the gym for the game. Colby- Sawyer was defeated by St. Joseph's, but put up a good fight! (Colby's school enrollment is 898 compared to 2282 for St. Joe's.) During the game, Andrew fell and bent his hand back, having to play the rest of the game bandaged. We later learned that he took a trip to the ER to make sure nothing was broken...he had pulled some ligaments. (What's this with all the males and their visits to the ER?)

Sunday, they played their 2nd game, this time paired up against Case Western of Cleveland, Ohio (enrollment of 4186) It was a nail-biter for sure. Colby ended up beating them 92-80!

After the game we went into Ybor city (Cuban part of town) where we ate at the Green Iguana. Very quaint little restaurant with outside seating for us snowbirds! Saw Andrew and the team briefly, as they were headed out for some food and R&R.

Temps have been in the 80's while we've been here. This is what we came to Florida for...bring it on!!!!

Ave Maria, Florida

Wednesday we took a ride to Ave Maria, Fl.

The University of Ave Maria was originally located in Ann Arbor, MI and is re-locating here. It is a town that is being newly created and will be self sufficient. It is a religious environment and invites people who choose to live in this setting to join them... visit their website at www.avemaria.com and click on Who We Are and in the drop-down box Join our Email List for further information.

We strolled around the town, had lunch and visited a couple of their model homes. It was a fun day.

Christmas in No. Ft. Myers, Fl

Good job Carolyn! You look exhausted! It was wonderful....thank you:)

Carol cooked Christmas dinner for 5 couples....neighbors, friends and Family.

Monday...Christmas Eve. we left Savannah, Ga. and headed to Carol & Sid's in No. Ft. Myers, Fl.

I did most of the driving...Dr.'s orders not to drive for more than an hour....It felt good to finally arrive. After dinner, we took a walk around neighborhood to see Christmas decorations.

Saturday, Dec. 22nd

Saturday started off on the wrong foot to begin with. No hot water to take a shower and then Guy figured out he had miscalculated the mileage and instead of it being a short day of travelling, it was going to be the longest one. Little did we know how it would all turn out.

Driving on I95 was horrible, to say the least! Most of the highway was like a huge parking lot...stop n' go for almost 4 hours....and the temps were getting hot! Guy began complaining of a cold and not feeling well, so when we got to the next Holiday Inn, he was not up for going out for dinner...we ended up going across the street to a grocery store and picking up sandwiches to bring back to our room.

Then he decided to tell me he wasn't really feeling that well...was experiencing light-headiness, limbs were "tingly" etc.......it wasn't long after that I decided a trip to the nearest Hospital was in order......We arrived at St. Joseph/Candler Hospital in Savannah, Ga. about 10PM...they were wonderful!...took him right in, did blood work, Xrays etc. and decided about 3AM, after talking with the on call Cardiologist, that they would admit him and do a cauterization the next morning.

Anyone that knows me, realizes that I have no sense of direction at all...so we were both worried about how I was going to find my way back to the hotel, some 30 minutes away in this strange city. I left at 3:30AM in rain and heavy fog, and thanks to my trusty GPS, I arrived safely at the door of the HI, we were staying in. I cannot stress enough what a life-saving piece of equipment that GPS is! It has saved us making many wrong driving decisions (plus the countless arguments we might have had!)

Now...back to my story....Sunday morning they transferred Guy by ambulance, over to St. Joseph Cardio Hospital, across town for his cauterization...Needless to say, he was scared to death! The Dr. said there was no blockage..no issue with his heart...in fact, for a man his age, his heart is very strong and healthy. Phew!! What a relief....After a couple of hours of rest, they released him and suggested we stay in a nearby hotel for the night, just in case of any unexpected bleeding. We checked into the Days Inn next door and went over to the Olive Garden for a celebration dinner!

Our plans to visit St. Augustine were cancelled and we went to bed that night for a much needed good nights sleep.

Then why did he experience all those pains in his chest? No one knows for sure, but I'm betting on agitation and stress. We started out in a snowstorm, we drove for miles and miles in heavy traffic and those who know my Husband, realize he has little patience and must have just let it build and build until it surfaced with the symptoms he experienced. We now know his heart is healthy and strong and he has to learn how to relax and slow down!

Let the Retirement Days begin!

We left Portland, Maine on Dec. 20th at 11AM in a snowstorm, heading South. After 3 hours of seeing cars and trucks off the road, upside down and in snowbanks, we finally drove out of the storm

and onto clear roads at 495 Framingham, Mass.

Arrived in Clark Summit, Pa about 7PM to spend night with our friends, Steve & Linda Matsko.

They graciously fed us dinner and a few adult beverages. After some good conversation and a half hour in their Hot Tub, we had a good nights rest and were back on the road the next day before 8AM.

Friday was dreary and overcast but by the time we hit the VA. line, it was sunny and in the 40's, which felt pretty good to us. After driving 514 miles, we arrived at the Holiday Inn in Durham, N.C. Along the way, Margie and Walter Little phoned us to let us know they had been to our Condo in Cocoa Beach with the realator, and it was ready for us....Everything was in working order and they assured us just the view was worth the money we were paying for the rental. We couldn't have been more excited to hear that news!