A Day with the Animals

Friday was spent visiting the Brevard Zoo.  It was a cool day, cold by Florida standards, so it seemed to be the ideal time to go there and enjoy all the walking in cool temperatures. We discovered that was not a good idea because many of the birds and animals were under cover or using heat lamps to stay warm. On top of that there was no school in Brevard County on Friday, so at least half of the kids who were out of school decided to go to the zoo! Even Disney brought in a couple of tour busses. So our quiet, leisurely tour of the zoo did not happen. However, it was a lovely day and we enjoyed being in the outdoors enjoying nature.

By far the most fun was the Meerkats. They are in a sandy area where they did huge holes, stand guard to watch out for anything threatening, and run and cavort like crazy. There were two babies there, and lots of fun watching them all act out.

Here's one of the babies with its mother.

Here is one of them acting as a lookout.

There were lots of large animals, like these zebras. They didn't seem to mind the cold.

The rhinos were out and about and rooting in the dirt and mud.

I don't know what the name of this bird is, but it was the ugliest thing we saw all day!

The most beautiful birds were the flamingos. They have just added a new flock of flamingos to the ones they had. Gorgeous birds!

Even the alligators seemed a bit sluggish in the cold. Once the sun came out in the afternoon things were a little livelier.

The aviary is always fun as birds fly around you and land on people. The birds seemed a little overfed as the huge crowd all wanted to feed them.

Here's Gary feeding a cockatoo with seeds on a stick.

This is the best picture of the day as this huge cat finds a bit of sunshine to rest in.

By far the most popular spot in the zoo is the feeding platform for the giraffes. There was a mother giraffe and two young that we caught a picture of feeding.

The biggest thrill in the zoo for a child is to feed the giraffes. They walk right up to the food and take it out of people's hands.
It was a good day at the zoo and we hope you enjoy the pictures of some of our adventures!

Why we love Florida in the winter

Here we are in our last month in Florida this winter. The time has passed so quickly. We thought we would reflect briefly on the reasons we love it here so much.

First of all on the list is the weather. It is truly warm. We have not had a cold day this winter. To wake up every morning to sunshine and warm breezes is in itself priceless.

The second item on our list is the beauty of it. We are living in an area of beautiful homes. Landscaping is beautiful. The homes are such cheerful colors - gold, beige, light blue, peach.

Here is an example of one of the homes along the road. And another:

These are just the ordinary homes along South Tropical Trail. Some of them are vast estates with incredible homes. One near here even has a service entrance! Most of them are gated.
The skies are so blue and everything is so green. The lawns are beautiful. We watched a load of sod being placed across the road.

One of the favorite trees are the old live oaks. They have annoying little leaves, but the live oaks spread out with crossing branches, spreading in every direction. They sometimes form a canopy across the roads. Some of them are hanging with Spanish moss. They are now dressed out in new green leaves.

The third reason for loving Florida is the ease of life here. There is no rush. There is a peace about the place. There are many places to go and things to do. Here we have the farmer's market that we visit every week.

The beach is always a source of peace and beauty.

The flowering bushes are blooming to add vibrant color to the atmosphere.

It is so beautiful to just go for a ride down good roads with beautiful sights to see. The color is incredible. The sound of the wind blowing through the swishing palm trees is relaxing. When the spirit moves us there are literally dozens of places to go out and eat.

Here we had lunch at Molly's Seafood Shack, outside on the deck with the breeze blowing through.

Right now we are both sick with a nasty cold and sinus infection, so it will be a few days before we get back to the beach and dip our feet in the sand, but we hope this has explained a bit why we head south in the winter. We know there are many people who love winter, snowsleds, snowballs, and the white world that lasts for months. We did that in December. Each day is a joy in Florida when a person prefers a world that is warm and colorful!

Sunshine and Sand

What great weather we are having. We have never seen a January when the beaches were full, but they are this year. Yesterday we went to the beach with Sherry and David. We chose Canova Beach in Indian Harbor because of the facilities and ease of parking. We spent about six hours on the beach enjoying the sun, the breeze, and the sound of the waves.

David and Sherry bought a new canopy and we bought a new umbrella. Both of them blew down several times in the sea breeze!

Sherry and Louise did go visit the water a couple of times.

It was a perfect day for the beach!

As the tide came in the breeze increased, and we decided to go out to an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

After we returned home we watched a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. We were able to see it clearly from our yard.

This launch was scheduled for Thursday night and we spent an hour standing around waiting for it, but it was scrubbed at the last minute.
Today we went to Cocoa Beach. Louise knit at Juice n Java for a couple of hours, visited the library, and then we went to the park on Ramp Road to watch the kayakers and boaters, and eat a lunch.

This is located on the Banana River, and we often see birds or manatees, but not today. It was 84 degrees here in full sun, so it was a warm day!
Finally we stopped at a produce store and bought some fresh fruit!

Here we have oranges, grapefruit, a mango, bananas, a pineapple and an orange tomato.
We are enjoying ourselves here and absolutely love the weather.

Busy Days

What have we done in the almost two weeks we have been in Florida? We have settled into the life we live here. Gary has been to his painting group twice and Louise has been to her two knitting groups three times. We have shopped for food and things we needed and did not have. Mostly we have enjoyed the warm days, warm nights, and beautiful surroundings.

Yesterday was Gary's birthday. Louise made a cake, which we shared with David and Sherry.

They took us out to dinner last night at Olive Garden, for a really great meal.

Today we went back to the gym for the first time this year. We spent over an hour in the pool.

There is an ease of life here, no deadlines, no rush, just doing what we like when we choose to do it. No snowblowing! We are in beautiful surroundings and enjoying it!

2017 - A New Year

It has been so long since we have worked on the blog that we had to go through a whole process to get into it! This is a new year and we will do better with the blog.

As you can see, we are back to our January destination in Florida. We arrived yesterday and have settled in our apartment. It was a long journey from the snowy roads of Maine. We got to see every member of the family before we left. We had Christmas at home, then visited Jon and exchanged gifts, then left for Bob's where we spent two days. The kids are at an age where they are a lot of fun and we enjoyed our time there.

We left Massachusetts on Wednesday morning and made it through Connecticut with no problem. The traffic was a little slow in New York, but we made it to Scranton for lunch. We reserved a room in Chambersburg, PA and expected to be there by 3. We knew there was a big storm coming through on Thursday and we wanted to be south of it. We hit traffic around Harrisburg that was literally tied up for hours. We did not get to Chambersburg until 6:30. We ended up with a suite in a Clarion hotel.

When we got up Thursday morning there was a coating of snow and ice on everything. We started out again and had a wonderful day driving through Virginia. We got off I-81 and took I-64 across the state. It goes through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the day was just beautiful.

We had an uneventful day Thursday, and decided to stop for the night at Smithfield, North Carolina.
To our surprise, Sherry and David Cole had caught up to us with their RV. We went to visit them before we left for the trip south. Friday was South Carolina day. If we could eliminate one state from our trip this would be the one. The traffic barely moved all day. Apparently the roads in SC aren't able to handle the amount of traffic they get. It was a slow and frustrating day. We were most happy to see the Georgia border. Traffic flowed nicely in Georgia. We spent the night in Pooler, just outside Savannah.

Saturday morning we headed to Florida. Our landlords told us to come a day early if we wanted to, and we did. The sight of palm trees, blue skies, sunshine, and warm air was welcome. We arrived Saturday afternoon and are all unpacked and moved in. Gary put on one of his Christmas gifts, and we checked out the beach at Patrick AFB today. The feel of that sand under your feet, and the sound of the waves breaking create a feeling of happiness.

We are glad we had the time with family before we left. We are very proud of the family we have.
However, the cold and the snow are getting harder to take as we get older. We are happy to be here! Stay tuned and we will share our adventures!

Florida Life

Today is March 1. Our winter in Florida is down to one month. So much for keeping this blog up to date as things such as two weeks without a computer have interfered. However, it is time to update it and explain what we have been doing for two months. First of all we have not been having adventures and visiting tourist attractions. Instead, we have been living in Florida and enjoying it greatly.

This is the house where we are living, on the Banana River. It is a split level and we have the downstairs. It is comfortable and quiet and we are enjoying it greatly. Notice there is a fence in front of the house. There were three white pelicans (one of them broken) on the fence. The rest of the posts were empty. Gary has spent lots of hours getting a great suntan while designing and sculpting eight new white pelicans and repairing the three that were there. There was no mold or pattern, just handful after handful of cement. Each of them is different. They were painted last week and are now complete. Many people going past have stopped to talk to him about them.

Here he is midway through the process with the birds coming into existence.

And here is the finished product. There are 11 penguins in all.

And a close-up of one of them.
In addition to the fence, Gary has painted several new paintings. He paints on Tuesdays in Cocoa Beach at the gallery where he has been painting before.
In addition to art, we have been to the beach a little, although the weather has not been very cooperative. The ocean is beautiful, and to smell the air and hear the waves is one of life's pleasures.

As the weather improves we plan many beach visits this month.
Gary celebrated his birthday shortly after we arrived. Here you see his "cake."

Louise has been busy knitting. She has finished a sweater for herself:

Also a shawl as well as several smaller projects. She knits twice a week with two different knitting groups.

We have seen many manatees as the cold weather has drawn them into the canal to stay warm.

We have joined a gym and spend much time there. We are doing weight machines, water classes, and cardio exercises. Gary is doing two miles on the treadmill. We go at least every other day. So life has been busy, and we are happily engaged in social and physical activity. We have even joined our landlords in playing Bingo on Monday nights. There is an ease of living here that has made us happy this winter. There is no stress, the pace is as slow as you want to make it, and it is easy to find things to do. Gary is picking up watercolor supplies for a watercolor painting class he is going to teach for SAGE shortly after we return home in April. In summary, life is good!

Christmas with the Grandchildren

Over a period of three days we enjoyed Christmas with the whole family. These pictures will show some of the memories made.

Christmas morning included a gathering of family to open gifts. Here we have two of the grandchildren, Meghan and Ryan. The most exciting gift seemed to be the toaster oven that Meghan loved.

Jessica looks happy with her new hat, mittens, and scarf!

Next we moved on to Jon's. Here is a picture of Emily sporting her new Christmas sweater.

Finally we moved on to Massachusetts and want to share some pictures of Alex and Bridget.

Here we have Bob, Alex, and Bridget, each wearing a new sweater they received for Christmas.
Even Bridget's doll received new Christmas clothes:

The hit of this celebration was the huge truck from Uncle Matt. First we have Alex looking the box over:

Finally the truck was discovered in the box and the play began.

Alex was in truck heaven as his collection increased. We had a good time and feel very fortunate to have six wonderful grandchildren!