The Key to Florida!

Ever since I started blogging well over 3 years ago, have I ever missed 3 days of Blogs in a row! What is going on you may ask... Well, it was called Key West! We simply had a blast while we were there and time for Blogging was at a minimum.... so it just didn't happen.

Judy and I had taken to kids to Key West about 20 years ago, but we never really did see all of Key West at that them... I did not know what it was really all about... we do now!

If you are a tourist.. this is the place to visit. The temperature was amazing and there was lots to do.

The reality of it all was that I did not get a whole bunch of very good pictures... we had a nice house rented while we were there...but we did not get pictures of it.... I don't know why... but I got a few abstract pictures of Key West, like the one of many bicycle tours available to the tourist.

There was lots of these electric cars that people rented to move around the downtown area...

Cardinal had one of the big ships tied up at the dock, while all the tourists got off and spent all their money in Key West!

Judy found this Eco Discovery Center for us to tour... it was free, and represented the ecology of the area very well.

 

I took this picture above from one of their tanks with Coral inside it... very cool. We ended up going on a nice snorkelling tour over a coral reef while we were there also!

Not sure what to call this fish above, but I saw the same one while out on the snorkelling tour!

These elephant fish above have become a bit of a problem... they were imported from elsewhere and do not have any predators here...

Now most people have probably heard Jimmy Buffett sing his famous song "Margaritaville"... We had to go in and have a refreshment while we were there!

 

It was a very busy Restaurant and Bar... we enjoyed!

I found this really old Jeepster! Don't know what year it was, but it was in mint condition.

 

You could get a tour just about anywhere here, and on anything... including this kind of train thing going on above... no shortage of tourist dollars here!

Yes, it is only 90 miles from here to Cuba, and there is a very big Cuban influence on everything around here...

The first day we were there, we just walked around, and enjoyed the atmosphere... including the waterfront area.

It is starting to get a bit dark, but that is the restaurant behind us... lots of sea food available on the menu of course.

These are like restaurants in Palm Springs... all open air, as it is always so warm.

Well, that is it for tonight, but more to come...

Till tomorrow...

 

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It was a Circle B kind of day...

Yet another hot day here in Florida... high 80's again. Nice to see Deb and Gerard get some of the good weather on their vacation down here.

This morning we all loaded up the Jeep and headed over to Holy Cross Church to attend. We all enjoyed a great service...

After lunch, we decided it was time for Deb and Gerard to take in some of the wild life out at Circle B. I have reported a few times on Circle B on the blog, but to me it never gets old. It is a great spot to spend a couple hours in the afternoon, standing and walking in the awe of nature!

 

Deb was all excited about being able to use her fancy camera equipment in this preserve... here she is getting loaded above, ready to shoot!

There was no shortage of targets again... check out the Rosetta Spoonbill above... I love these birds...

 

Gerard named the one above the Phyllis Diller Special!

II love trying to get shots of the birds in flight... makes it harder!

There was no messing around with this guy above... I think this is one of the best Gator shots I have been able to get! He was a mean looking one!

This guy seemed to be posing on this stump for us... with one eye on the bird in the background!

We ran into some new flowers today, just not sure what these are above...

 

I figured all the birds above were doing their "tree mail" for the day...

Ya, we found just about everything out on the preserve today!

This racoon seemed to be in a hurry with all the Gator's around today!

As we were leaving the preserve, we ran into a family of wild hogs...great way to end the day! They had a whole family of babies with them...Phew... what a day!

Tonight we are all preparing, as we head out on a road trip tomorrow to Key West!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Play Ball!

Another temperature record setting day here in Florida, as it got way up to the high 80's again, setting temperature records again! It has been a hard winter in Florida if you like snow!

We took life easy this morning, and enjoyed breakfast with Deb and Gerard. By 11:00 we were on the road to Lakeland to catch the Ball Game.

We had great seats up in the very last row of Joker Marchant Stadium, and it was a good thing we had that roof above us, to keep the sun off of us!

You can spend $10.00 for a ticket and sit out in left field on the berm... love the palm trees out there...

The Stadium was full, not sure how man people in attendance, but there were quite a few... above is our view of the home plate area!

Yes, the score was 10 to 3 for the Blue Jays at this point in the game, as Lance Zawadzki had just hit a grand slam home run!

The fans were loving it!

Debbie was our guest photographer today with a bunch of great camera shots with her fancy camera.

Above is Prince Fielder for Detroit, who just hit a hommer...

This was an autograph frenzy, but I think Gerard lost out... good time had by all.

We made it home and enjoyed supper, and then Deb and Judy went down to music night in our Club House, while Gerard and I watched the Leaf's lose to Ottawa tonight on the TV.

Yup, sure was a sports day!

Till tomorrow...

 

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The Kraemers have landed!

Too much happening yesterday to get a blog put together, but that is life... Judy and I made our way up to Orlando yesterday afternoon to pick up Deb and Gerard, and did a little sight seeing along the way.

Well, turns out we got screwed up with our GPS a bit, and hit some traffic and ended up being late to pick them up, while their plane actually landed early... but in the end, they ended up in the Jeep, heading towards Winter Haven and all was well.

We stopped and enjoyed dinner thanks to the Kraemers at Perkins Restaurant... it was good.

This morning we all kind of slept in, as they had travelled all day, and it seemed so did we. We got together for breakfast, and then soon decided a walk around Lake Wales would be in order.

 

Deb and Gerard were thrilled with our nice warm Florida temperatures, and quickly found their shorts in the luggage.

We walked for a mile or so, just enjoying the nice warm sunny morning and getting caught up with all that is going on in Ontario.

 

This afternoon was spent over at the pool, and it was a perfect day for swimming around here... and we ended up back at our RV for a nice BBQ Roast Beef Dinner.

Busy day planned for tomorrow, as we will head over to Lakeland to catch a Blue Jay Game!

Till tomorrow...

 

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What do you do when your Team is a non-winner???

Judy and I had a great trip last night over to Tampa Bay... what a great place to watch hockey!

 

As you can see, there was one or two people that showed up before the game to take in the tail gate party out front of the Tampa Bay Times Forum! Lots of energy here... There was also a band playing rock music. Yes, it was really warm, and guess what, Judy and I were not the only Canadians at the game!

 

Judy and I found our seats, only 8 rows off the ice surface, and soon figured out we were surrounded by a bunch of Canadians from the Windsor/Sarnia area! 22,000 people showed up to watch the game! They always sing the National Anthems of the Countries that are playing, and you had to be there when the Singer was doing Oh Canada. Everyone in the Forum was singing along! It was like being back home in Canada for 2 minutes! The Americans here totally embrace the Canadian Invasion, and make us feel at home! Good on you TAMPA!

 

We got there Virgo early, and were able to watch the warm ups... glad I was born in September!

I could not help it, that this nice young Lady had to come and do her job, right beside us during the game, cheering on the Tampa Bay Lightning, however she was fun to watch, with all of her co-workers!

 

Ya, it can be lonely being the Goalie... Ben Scrivens had a bit of a rough night, with the Leafs being the non-winners of the game, with a final score of 4 to 2 for Tampa.

Nice and hot again here today in Florida, which is great news for Gerard and Debbie, who are going to fly down here tomorrow afternoon for a nice, well deserved, holiday in Florida. If we remember, we will go up to the Orlando Airport and pick them up tomorrow afternoon. Just in case I do remember, I got the Jeep all cleaned up and detailed for them this morning... it looks like it just came off the showroom floor tonight!

This afternoon, we had a bit of a system failure at the RV... yikes... After lunch our lights were flickering inside the RV, as was anything that runs on our 12 Volt RV system. We were soon reaching for the phone book to call in an RV Repair Company, when Judy suggested I talk to our neighbour Turk. He is a bit of a handyman, and right away he was over with me checking out our RV electrical systems, which involve a power inverter, and a big 3 way switch. After 20 minutes of trouble shooting, Turk suggested we check the voltage of the house batteries. When we did, we found the voltage was just perfect! The problem soon showed up though, when we saw all the corrosion, and soon found the main power line leading from the batteries had corroded right through! Looks like this is the problem!

 

That is me on my knees working on the batteries, with Turk right in front of me... As you can see, when you have a problem at our Park, all the Guys show up to fix it! I had lots of Supervisors, and thanks to Archie for supplying the Bud Light to take the edge off of the afternoon for the workers and supervisors!

Good news is, we got it all cleaned up and repaired, and happy to report all is good again at the RV tonight!

Till tomorrow...

 

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