Bacall Recreation Center

Bacall Recreation Center is one of the places that Donna and I have visited to play Bunco.  As with the other buildings here, it is decorated in a theme.  This one is Hollywood themed and it is really cute.  Donna took some pictures while we were there the other day, and shared them with me.

I really need to find a small camera to stick in my purse when we are going to places like this, because I am missing so many pictures that I know I'll wish I had later.  Isn't this place so neat?

And here is the outside pool area:

Living the life in the lovely Villages!

Anniversary Celebration

This year we got to celebrate our wedding anniversary here in The Villages.  Which means we did not have to go far or work hard to make it a fun day.  We started out with a lazy morning, hanging out at the house with Ava.  Then we headed out to Spanish Springs for a movie.

I have wanted to see "The Heat" since I saw a movie promo a few months ago when we were in Virginia.  I love Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy is really funny too.  I was hoping this would be as funny as it looked in the trailers.  I'm happy to report that it was.  Nathan is a hard sell when it comes to comedy and he said as we left, "Most movies have some funny parts.  That movie was funny the entire movie".  So I guess that means we both gave it two thumbs up.

After the movie, we walked around the Square for a bit, headed over to the Ay Jalisco for a plate of chicken nachos and then drove over to Orange Blossom so Nathan could see the houses over there.  I am telling him how much I would enjoy having a house here.  He is ignoring me so far!

Next we headed south to the Havana Country Club.  I heard about this place online, but then had a first hand recommendation while sitting on the bench at pickleball yesterday morning.  The woman who had visited there said the food was ok but the experience was really unique.  They have a singing waitstaff there.  So we invited Rich and Donna and made reservations to see if it was as neat as she said.

We were seated right away when we entered and I noticed we were right next to the piano, which I was hoping meant we would be in the middle of the entertainment.  As it turns out, the waiters and waitresses moved around while singing, so there was not a bad seat in the house.  So how was it?  I'm happy to report that this place was another win!  We all enjoyed it, including the guys.  Our waitress, Veronica, was wonderful.  We all enjoyed our food.  It was much better than ok.  And the singing was top notch, with some very talented people entertaining us.

Donna has nice pictures and descriptions of the food on her blog here: Florida Picklers  The portions were big enough that I brought home half my meal, to enjoy for lunch the next day.  It was loud while the singers were performing, but there were breaks in between songs, so dinner conversation was still possible.  I really enjoyed our time there and it made it a nice treat for our anniversary.

While we were leaving, I was snapping pictures of the outside when a gentleman asked if I was trying to get a picture of him.  I told him that I sure was, so he posed for me.

 The rest of his party was as amused by him as I was.  What a fun group!

We had a wonderful day, and it was made even better by sharing it with special friends.  Happy Anniversary honey!  Here's hoping for many more years together!

Brownwood Paddock Town Square

After line dancing yesterday, Donna and I grabbed some lunch.  Then we headed down to Brownwood Paddock Town Square.  Just as the recreation centers are all themed, so are the town squares here.  There are three of them and Brownwood Paddock is the newest one.

In fact it is so new, that it is still in the process of being built.  There is a movie theater and a few restaurants and stores that are open.  Other than that, it is pretty quiet.

That worked out great for us, because that allowed us to take lots of pictures.  Just like the recreation centers, the details in the decorations of this place are just incredible.

I'm so glad we got down here and finally I have some pictures.  It really is a neat place!

Line Dancing at Colony Cottage Recreation Center

Every night Donna and I email each other and decide what we are going to do the following day.  Last night we decided to go line dancing at a new place, the Colony Cottage Recreation Center.   We got there early, and I'm so glad we did because shortly after we arrived, there was a line waiting to get in.

 Because there were so many people, it meant a very crowded room while we were dancing.

Donna took some of these pictures, which meant she captured me while I was dancing.

The line dancing class starts at Beginner level and works up to Intermediate level.  Each week we are learning more and more, so we are able to stay and dance longer.  Donna is a former professional dancer, so she is incredibly fast at learning and she is an awesome dancer.  I move along at a much slower pace across the board, but still manage to have a lot of fun.

After we hit the level where we needed to stop we made sure to take some pictures of the recreation center we were in.  We both managed to take some, so I have a mix of pictures from my phone camera and ones Donna shared with me.  I will try to take more pictures of the recreation centers, because they are all incredible.  There are 63 recreation centers in The Villages.  Each one is decorated in a specific theme.  Colony Cottage is a regional center and is gorgeous.  The details in each of the centers is truly exceptional and I love just wandering around and looking at each one.

This one is so pretty and relaxing.  It really does feel like a beautiful cottage.

I'll try to write about the rest of our day tomorrow, because we have an early for me day in the morning so I need to head to bed!

Living the life in The Villages!

Turkey Feast at Rich and Donna's

Rich and Donna invited Nathan, Ava and I to their place for dinner.  Dinner doesn't really cover it though because she really made a full Thanksgiving feast.   She had so much there, I could even fully remember all she cooked for us so I took this from her blog:
Hors d'oeuvres included fresh carrots, celery and tomatoes with ranch dipping,  and crackers -and cheese.

Pre - dinner cocktails: Your choice of  straberry dacquari, pina colada, marguarita, wine or beer 

Dinner include a 13 lb turkey, beautifully browned and perfectly moist with sausage stuffing, ( that's the dish with the foil still on it!)  mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, fresh rolls and cranberry bread, and cranberry sauce. 

Unfortunately I had to take the pictures from her blog also, because they were not on Nathan's phone when I went to get them.  Not sure what I did wrong there, but I sure am glad that she had some.

This was a wonderful treat for me, because I did not get Thanksgiving dinner this past year due to having strep throat on that day.  Donna more than made up for it because everything was fabulous!

After dinner we headed to the pickleball courts which is always an interesting experience for Donna and I.  We hobbled along, while the guys barely broke a sweat.  We had great fun though!  I love nights like this and we sure have been spoiled by them since we have been at The Villages!

On a completely unrelated note, our poor girl came back from her nightly walk with green feet!  I'm not sure what was on the grass to make her feet look this way but she was not a happy camper and I imagine it is probably not a healthy thing for her to be walking on grass that produces this result:

Buddy and Diane Visit Us at The Villages

We had a visit from some of our favorite people in the world: Buddy and Diane.  They came during the week that Nathan and I went back down to Wauchula, but luckily they waited for us to get back for a night out with them and Rich and Donna.

We headed down to Wildwood to eat at a place that Rich and Donna had been to before, the Cotillion Southern Cafe.

We had dinner reservations at 4:30.  We arrived early enough to peek at the menu that had sitting out front.  It looked like a wonderful country cooking menu to me.  Once we were inside I could see how unique this place really was.  The decorations were so down home and relaxing, right down to our mis-matched dishes at our table.  Most importantly was the food there.  It was very good!  We ordered a variety of dishes and we all agreed that our food was wonderful.  I highly recommend this place to anyone in the area.

We enjoyed our night of fun, food and most important of all: Friends!

Short Trip Back to Peace River

I am having so much fun in The Villages, that I think the only thing that could get me to leave would be the horses at the horse sanctuary that I volunteer at.  The owner took a much needed vacation, so I agreed to come down and help our group of core volunteers cover while she was gone.  I was happy to be greeted by some of my favorite horses as soon as I stepped out of my car.

I was also happy to see all of the horses looking healthy and happy.  Even Joe, who is still recovering and underweight was much better than a month ago.  Dixie, the newest mini, was walking around well.

Chevy, who makes my heart pitter patter like no other male beyond Nathan, was an handsome as ever.  His gorgeous side kick was as feisty as ever.

There is a beautiful storage barn for the hay.

In fact, the only thing that wasn't wonderful while I was there was this:

We had an abundance of rain last summer, but we have much more flooding from it this year.  I think the horses are as sick of it as we are.

I did get lots of exercise the four days I was there.  I normally walk a lot while there.  In fact, I wore my pedometer one day and this is how many steps I logged during that day:

Now factor in many of those steps being in the mud, and you can imagine how tired my legs are right now! I have blisters all over my feet and legs.  My shoulders and arms ache.  Luckily the horses make every minute of the hard work worth it all and then some!  I love spending time out there, and I love each and every horse.

Living the life in wet and muggy Florida!

Another Fun Night with Rich and Donna

It has been so great to have friends here at The Villages.  It has given me someone to do things with during the day while Nathan works and it has also given us a fun couple to do things together with when Nathan is not working.

Tonight is a great example of that.  First we went out to eat at Olive Garden tonight, enjoying their 2 for $25 special.  Afterwards Rich and Donna invited us to their place this time, and Donna spoiled us with pumpkin cheesecake for desert.  It was delicious!

I think we might have found a game that Rich enjoys, or at least tolerates for the rest of our sake.  Nathan is hoping we will move to Rook shortly because that is his favorite card game.  In the meantime, I am enjoying a game that I sometimes have a shot at winning.

What We've Been Up To

With hundreds of weekly activities available here at The Villages, the hardest part of being here is picking and choosing just what to do each week.  Last year while visiting, Donna introduced me to Bunco.  We have continued playing that together this year.  We have played at Mulberry, Seabreeze and Bacall and Donna has played at Churchill.

We are tackling line dancing, which comes very easily to Donna due to her professional dance background.  Even though I am limping along compared to her, I am really loving it.  Donna snapped this picture the other morning as we were heading out.  We started at 8 am that morning and danced until almost 11 am.

 I have finally moved from the bench to the court with pickleball and my muscles are feeling the effects of that.  It is so dreadful hot and the level of play is so much higher here, so between the two-it is exhausting to play each day.  It is great fun though and I hope that it will improve my game quite a bit.  I can see a huge difference in Nathan's game and his weight already so hoping the same happens with me.

We have enjoyed playing Mexican Train several times, which allows us some "down time" from time to time and is a nice filler in between other activities.  And all of that is just the daytime fun.  At night it is more Bunco, Pickleball and of course-going out to eat.  I am sharing two more of Donna's pictures from some of our eating out trips together.

We are really loving our time here so much!  It was a good decision to spend the summer here!

Swimming With The Manatees

Before Aric even came to stay for the week with us, we planned a trip to swim with the manatees with him.  Nathan and I went last year and enjoyed the experience so much, we highly recommended it to Aric.  This trip was with a much bigger group.  We had less encounters with manatees and the water was cloudy, making it impossible to see the manatees.  I decided to stay on the boat and take pictures and let the guys hang out with the manatees.  It was still a great day even with those factors.

According to the information they gave us, this is the only place you can swim alongside the West Indian Manatee.  In the winter, they estimate up to 700 manatees are in this area.  During this time of the year that drops to 70.  They are not sure why some migrate north and some stay put here in Florida.  We encountered a mama and her baby.  You are not allowed to touch babies until they reach a certain age/size but it is still neat to see them like we did last year.  It is amazing how gentle the manatees are for their size.  They are not intimidating at all to hang out with, beyond I would not want to be trapped underneath one!

I hope we can make this trip with all of our kids at some point.  It is one of the neatest animal encounters that we've ever experienced!