The girls out number the boy 2 to 1 in this family. As retirement has officially kicked in, we'll share some thoughts, memories, and life's lessons along the way. As we travel down Lifes Highway!
Dolphins anyone??
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Fun with Flipper and the gang off the coast of Sanibel Enjoy
On Thursday morning our plan was to spend a few hours at the State Park on St. George Island. The park was on the east end of the island. The terrain and vegetation is much different here compared to our island paradise of Sanibel/Captiva. We had high hopes of finding some different shells. We briefly scouted the area out on Wednesday afternoon and saw many different color variations of bivalves that we are not use to seeing on Captiva. We also found several shark eyes on Wednesday but many were too broken up to keep. The park opens at 8:00 a.m. The cost to enter the park is $6. There is about an 8 mile stretch of beach with several access and parking areas along the way. There are two large parking areas with shelters and restroom along the beach in the park and several smaller parking with access to beach along the 8 mile stretch of the park. The restroom and shelter areas were well maintained. There are a lot of dunes ...
At the end of February, my life has changed. No more 9 to 5 for me, every day is a vacation as retirement has officially kicked in! My blog has been mainly devoted to our experiences on some small islands in southwest Florida, Sanibel and Captiva Island. While I hope to still visit and share more experiences from this magical place, I will be sharing other trips and experiences as we continue to navigate along Life's Highway. Before, it seemed like I only wrote about the annual trip to that special place. My intentions were to share a bit of humor and to memorialize some of our precious memories and life's lessons we learned along the way. Most recently, I have become a Soccer PaPa. No, I don't drive a minivan, I'm not overly vocal when sitting in the stands, and I'm not jumping up to dispute the referees calls (although I have questioned the lack of a call from time to time). My gosh, since when has soccer become wrestling at the Chase? ...
Posting a little later today sitting out on the lania listening to the thunder roll and having a glass of Liquid Lubrication. Strawberry/Plum wine 2008. (It was a very good year). As you regulars on the forum know I enjoy making homemade wine. This one was actually made by a friend of mine. His name is Gil. He's the one that introduced me to the art of winemaking. Strawberry Plum 2008 Gil is best described as one of those country boys that can survive. He's does it all from making his own deer sausage to turning various fruits into liquid lubrication he makes some good stuff! The first time I saw him making deer sausage I was a bit perplexed he was using the camper on the back of his old Ford pickup as a smoker. I thought the darn truck was on fire when I first saw it. Some of the best deer sausage I ever ate. Before I get to todays agenda I should back up a bit to dinner last night....
So today is Lexi birthday! For her birthday she was given the present of a perfect beach morning. Calmest water we've seen all week. The sky was filled with sunshine and the ocean was full of sailboats, paddle boaters, Parasails, pelicans, people and even a manatee. It was just like when you have a bad round of golf somewhere during the round you hit a great shot and its enough to make you want to come back and do it again. Today was that good shot! Around 1:00 the sky opened up and we made a hasty retreat to the house but it was ok because Lexi dinner of choice for her birthday was where else but Cheeburger Cheeburger. This little 60# is going to tackle the monster burger. She determined to get her picture on the wall. I don't classify Lexi as a big eater but to all of our astonishment she polished that thing off. She challenged Don to take on the one pounder and he didn't disappoint. So early dinner and back to...
The first step is being able to admit your addiction. "I'm RC and I'm addicted to paradise". While I'll be the first to admit paradise was not as good to me this year as she has been in years past. She is still of course paradise and who can resist her sweet temptation. I don't think we will make the trip again during a holiday weekend. The crowds were much larger than we are use to and well I guess I'm spoiled and I like having Paradise all to my self. I can now imagine what it must be like during peak season when paradise has many suitors. She can't please them all and hey she doesn't have to she's paradise. My addiction with her began many years ago and there is no 12 step program that can release you from the grips of paradise. You'll accept whatever she throws at you because you just want to be with her. It does't matter if her seas are rough or her sunsets are few as long as you can be with her its all you long for. ...
So I have been a little behind in posting to the blog this year. The time is flying by way too fast. Wednesday's plan was a day at the beach. I started off by getting a few shots of the sunrise from the dock. Nothing like watching the world wake up in paradise. I was then off to Baileys for some Doughsants. This was another first for us. We never heard of a doughsant before but thought what the heck lets give them a try. I kind of envisioned the light airy texture of a croissant mixed with the glazed goodness of a doughnut. The folks at Baileys are so polite. The lady at the Bakery counter told me this batch came out smaller than normal so they gave me double the amount for the same price! The outside was like I expected but there was some sort of filling inside a little like a cream cheese but with some sort of flavoring that was not sweet. Sorry not a big fan of the doughsant...
Our time with paradise is almost over, but the journey continues. We will be leaving on Tuesday morning. We got a call from the condo owner on Sunday morning. We had rented the condo for 9 days. She was going to come down and spend some time after we left on Tuesday but her schedule would not allow it. She called to let us know we were welcome to stay till Friday if we wanted. How nice is that? I would have jumped on the opportunity but we have made plans to travel about 4 hours north to Fruitland Park FL to visit some old friend we have not seen in ages. We are then going to take a slower route home and stop along the way to bathe in the ocean breeze a few more times before heading back to Missouri. We have a stop planned at St. George Island FL and Gulf shores AL. We have not traveled through the pan handle of Florida before so we our planning routes along the coast. New hig...
S0 I have been up around 6 all week. This morning was no different except I needed to be extra quiet because sometime during the night I got room visitors. There were two Beach Angels sleeping on my floor! Why they would give up their bed for the floor beats me. Looks Comfy doesn't It So with camera in hand I headed down to the dock to capture some shots of the Sunrise. I would normally have my photographer in tow but due to her bum ankle I'm on this mission alone. I wanted to also head over to the Beach and walk down to Blind Pass. Another First this year capturing more Sunrises than Sunsets For some reason when it comes to the ocean I'm like that kid you tell to stay out of the water puddle. If I'm near it I'm gonna get in in it. What usually starts out as ankle deep ends up being knee deep in no time. Just me and the relaxing sound of the waves to serenade me as I put on my best "Shell Whisperer" impressio...
Today we skipped the morning breakfast and the cast walked down the beach to Blind Pass. We were hoping for a little help from the shell gods but all we really got was a few augers, olives and wet. The gods decided to give us rain and the closer to the house we got the harder it rained. Oh well it was warm and was keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Today The Roadie and the Executive Producer went to play golf. The Dunes was closed for aeration of the greens so we settled on Beachview. I couldn't find the balls I used last year Callaway "Bite" I liked those because they really fit my game.(It bites too). Well I settled on a new ball this year from Nike It Nike SFT after the first few holes I figured out what the SFT stands for. heading STRAIGHT FOR TROUBLE! Highlight after the golf excursion was to stop by Tropical wines and I FINALLY got my bottle of Watermelon Wine. I been waiting for it for over a year. Hope its worth t...
This trip only came about because of a suggestion from my co-pilot. While Yellowstone was mentioned in our initial conversation, I didn't want to fight July crowds in Yellowstone. We plotted out this path instead. I'm so glad that we did, Glacier National Park is an amazing place. This was technically just a road trip, we were basically just passing through the area while making our way back home from Oregon. Our path exploring this area would take us along the Going-To-The-Sun Road. It's a 52-mile route that takes you West to East through the park. I would consider going back sometime. The raw, undeveloped beauty of this area, leaves one without words to describe the impression it has left in my memory. Coming from a guy who has spent most of his vacations at the beach, you know I was impressed. The views are jaw dropping. We were up early and at the West Glacier entrance before 6:00a.m. We made a reservation and purchas...
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