Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

We have been in The Villages for two weeks now and it feels like we've been here much longer because of all we have squeezed in during that time.  We have so much here that it is easy to see how some people never leave The Villages!  We did decide to leave and venture out this weekend though.  We headed to Gainesville and visited Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

We were really impressed with this botanical garden and liked some of the unique features it offered, like its vinery.

 I loved the Herb Garden!

The Children's Garden was so whimsical and pretty.

A few signs of human life could be found.

I'm happy to say, much more signs of animal life were present than human.

Most of all, I noticed how very relaxing it was here, even with the sweltering heat!  We had a great (Father's) day here.

A Night at Spanish Springs

We have enjoyed our first week here in The Villages.  Nathan has been able to play lots of pickleball and I've been having fun playing bunco and Mexican Train with Donna.  Last night, we finally got to meet up with both Rich and Donna at one of the Town Centers here.  There are three Town Squares here and each one has its own theme.

We had a great dinner at Ay! Jalisco.  Then we walked around Spanish Springs, where the night's live music and dancing was going on.

One of the unique things about The Villages is the golf carts here.  Golf carts are one of the main modes of transportation here, so it is common to see this outside of businesses.

It is so nicely decorated and laid out, that is is pleasant just to walk around and take it in.

After our time here, we headed over for dessert at Ollie's.  It was wonderful and I think we will have to visit both places again while we are here!

YUM is exactly right!  It was a great first week here!  Looking forward to many more.

Summer at The Villages

We have been settled at Peace River for so long that we have started to grow roots there.  It has been a great place to grow some roots and yet we have still looked forward to traveling again.  We considered heading out to travel this spring but decided to stay put for just a bit longer.  To give us some sort of a compromise between traveling and staying put we decided to go to The Villages for the summer.  

The Villages is the place we visited Rich and Donna last summer.  We fell in love with it during our short stay here with them.  There is pickleball everywhere in The Villages.  Beyond the great pickleball, there are tons of other activities to do here.  It is a great way to have a lot of options while staying in one place.  We rented a place for the summer so we could have plenty of time to soak up the fun there.  

We were up and ready to head out before I am normally even out of my PJ's this morning, which says a bit about how excited we were to get to our summer spot.  We had a nice drive up, passing right by Aric on the way.  We were tickled pink with the house and the neighborhood we will be at for the next few months.  I think the outside space will be our favorite space when we are at the house.  Ava seems to agree so far! 

Since Aric is so close by, we also managed to get him to come and spend the night with us.  We are hoping he will visit us a lot while we are here!  We have plenty of room for him and the other kids so we hope to get visits from all of them.  We are looking forward to many good memories this summer!