Visit to Lake Placid

Last night we drove over to Lake Placid to meet Rich and Donna for dinner.  I have missed Donna so much since they moved into their house.  I got used to seeing her so much this summer and enjoying her company, that it seems hard to believe it has been months since we have really spent time together.

After arriving at their house and seeing a few of the new changes/additions to it, we drove over to a Mexican restaurant near their house.  Here are Donna's pictures of the place:

We loved catching up with them!  Donna and I mostly talked about house stuff, which is still very strange to me.  I guess very soon it will seem very normal again, but we are still transitioning.  I am glad she is at the point she can answer a bunch of questions for me and did.  Thank you, Donna!

The food was fabulous!  I wish we had a place this good near where we were moving to!

The time we had together was wonderful and it flew by.  We are making plans to hopefully get together when Lake Placid has their next Farmer's Market.  Hopefully it warms up by then!

Day Two of Liberty Cruise~Day at Sea

Day two of the cruise was a sea day.  We decided the day before to spend this day on the Serenity Deck, which is our version of a spa day.  We love this space more than words can describe.  We noticed that the little wicker pods that we wanted to sit in only had one that had a cover though.  So Nathan got up at 6 am to snag that one and only pod and I joined him a few hours later.

We sat and relaxed and read all day long.  Yes, all day long.  We only got up to use to eat or use the bathroom.  It was awesome!  I could see and hear all that was going on down at the Lido deck while relaxing on our deck.  Perfect!  Only one shot of the food today because I got so relaxed here, I didn't even take many pictures.

Our First Happy Hour of the Season

Jack and Diane let us know when we arrived last night that there was a Happy Hour today.  We were thrilled that we got here in time for it, and this made it our first one of the this season.  Diane is known as the Happy Hour Queen and with good reason.  Nobody throws a better party than Diane!

There was great food and great company to chat with while eating.  I got to see the inside of their beautiful rig and to admire their newest four legged family members.  Rene brought his cornhole game and we either played or watched others play.

I planned to bring tortilla chips and spinach dip but saw a flavor of ice cream that my cousin recommended on Facebook, so we brought that instead.  It was very yummy!  We had a fun night and look forward to many more this season.

Dinner With Friends at Oakwood Smokehouse

This past week has been quieter than normal as far as doing activities here in The Villages.  Rich and Donna have been house hunting and are now the owners of a beautiful house in Lake Placid!  That means I have had more quiet time at home.  I have been able to do tons of scrapbooking, so I have been quite content.

We have managed to get out and play pickleball, deciding after a day at Mulberry to return to Churchill.  They are very friendly at Mulberry, but nothing beats the fun level at Churchill.  

We also managed to fit in another dinner with Buddy and Diane who are still in the area.  This time we chose Oakwood and took advantage of their rib special.  They offer a full rack of ribs, two side dishes and garlic bread for $10.99. All of us did not have the ribs, but we all agreed the food was delicious.

We are winding down here for our time in The Villages.  We are enjoying every minute we can in the next few weeks, being sure to not waste any time before we do have to leave!  We have not had rain every single night for this past week also, so knocking on wood that it stays that way until we leave.  When it doesn't rain, we can sneak in pickleball at night and play twice a day!

Living the life in wonderful Florida!

Dinner's at Cody's Original Roadhouse

Tonight we got together to take advantage of Fajita night at Cody's Original Roadhouse.  We planned to go last week with Tim and Marlene and cancelled when we learned there was a big event there.  It worked out well for us because this week Buddy and Diane were back in our area, so they got to come join us!

The food was just as good as last time and we enjoyed the company too!  We don't have a whole lot more weeks to do dinner here so we are enjoying the last few times we have.

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!

Cocoa Beach and Good Friends

I had the chance not once, but twice this past week to share with family members of ours how great of friends we have made since living this lifestyle.  I was so fanatical in my sharing with one of them that I think I may have scared them a bit.  It's hard not to be really passionate when trying to explain how special of a crowd we have been lucky enough to hang out with the past few years though.

We have said time and time again what exceptional people the pickleball crowd in particular are. This past week was a great example of that.  Rich and Donna invited us to their beach condo.  I can honestly say we have never had friends invite us along on their vacation to stay in their condo with them, let alone a beach one!  I am so grateful to them!

We had to squeeze this trip in around my work schedule so we only had a few days to visit, but we made those days as fun filled as possible.  We were also spoiled rotten by Rich and Donna who definitely have the gift of being great hosts.  I do not have this gift, so I will have to bake extra goodies when they come to stay with us to make up for it!  First thing we got to tour the facilities at the place where there condo is at, and we were very impressed with it.

We then headed out to do a bit of sight seeing.  We have never actually visited Cocoa Beach so it was neat to visit some place new in Florida.  There was the typical touristy Florida beach stuff of course, but they took us to some non-touristy unique spots.  We stopped at Manatee park where they have been able to see manatees and dolphins in their previous visits.  Sadly, we did not encounter any wildlife but the park was really pretty so we still enjoyed the stop.

We then visited the pier there, which Donna already wrote about so I'll just send you to her blog Florida Picklers.  The first thing I saw there was this cool 3-D mural on the side of this building.

We stopped to catch a few waves, with the ladies trying out the surfboard first.

Then on to the pier, where we visited a shop and I found a pair of flip flop earrings that I loved (and bought).

We saw some fishing being done, birds flying around, lots of beach activity and real surfing in the water.

I thought the pier itself was really neat.

Donna had a great idea for a group shot, taking a picture of our reflections in the water.  Love this!

We also managed to squeeze in dinner at an Italian restaurant they have eaten at before.  Nathan was able to try one of their small stombolis.  Yes, folks, that is their small size!  The food there was very good!

After all of that, we still were not done with our day.  We took our drinks outside and lounged by the pool and chatted for a bit.  Once we digested enough of our dinner we headed over to the tennis courts and chalked off lines for some pickleball.  It was very windy and we had fun even with the frustration of not knowing at all where they ball would go after we hit it.  I didn't realize until the next day how hard I had really played because the wind really kept me cooled off.  After so much fun, we headed to bed for the night gearing up for another fun day the next day. 

More Happy Hour Fun

We have had some really nice Happy Hours this winter, even without the Happy Hour queen Diane around.  We have noticed that each year the food and the crowd both get larger in quantity.  This week's Happy Hour was no exception to that.  This one was hosted by Travis and Baxter and I'm guessing at least 40 people showed up.

Travis made two hams that were delicious.  He provided mashed potatoes and Woody and Pat made gravy and the rest of the feast was provided by all of us who came as guests.  There were three picnic tables full of food and lots of great company.

Once again, I was camera lazy so I'm borrowing Donna's pictures.

Living the life in wonderful Florida!

Day Trip to Gulfport, FL

Today I took a day trip over to Gulfport.  I was supposed to go last week, but ended up being too sick to go so I was glad I felt well enough this week to make it.  I would have been very disappointed if I had not been able to because I was going to see some of my dearest friends, Marianne and Barb.

Barb and her husband John visited us this summer at OBX.  We visited Marianne at her house in PA a few years ago, but I have not seen her since.  They have decided to try the life of a snow bird and have been here in Florida, so I was thrilled to have both of them close enough to see and hug in person.

I have never been to Gulfport, so it was fun to visit a new place.  As I drove over the bridge that spanned the water, I was soaking up the goodness of all of the water!  Once I arrived at their condo, we went outside and soaked it up some more.

It was such a pretty view!

I even saw their water friends, a pair of dolphins...although this is the best picture I managed to capture of them.

We even got to grab dinner together at a place that I think was named O'Maddies, where I learned something new: orchids are edible.  I had no idea!

The visit felt too short due to it just being a day trip, but it was still so worth it to see my special friends!  I told them if they come back next winter to plan on another house guest for at least some of their time here so we can really have a gab-fest!

Christmas Goodies

I am really enjoying our new convection oven and have used it as much as possible.  I have especially enjoyed it for making Christmas goodies!  I have so many wonderful memories of doing Christmas baking growing up, then with my own children and now I am having fun still continuing the tradition. 

I am looking forward to the Princess being old enough to help me!  In the meantime, I get to lick the beaters!

Living the life in Florida!

Going Away Dinner at Paul's Kitchen

Since we have been coming to Peace River, we have enjoyed one of the local restaurants here.  The place isn't fancy.  The food isn't really fancy.  But it is good food at great prices and we love the comfortable feeling of the place.  The restaurant is named Paul's Kitchen but I think of it as Paul's House because the place is in what used to be a small house and it just feels "homey" to me.

  The staff is always great here.  Pleasant and efficient.  It is decorated in a simple style, but it neat and clean.  The most remarkable thing about this place though is the size of the meals.  They give you an insane amount of food for the price.  I love it because that means I never have to worry about lunch the next day!

Last night, many of the pickleball players gathered here to have dinner with Keith and Marie who are heading out today.  They are such a popular couple they ended up with a whole crowd, seventeen in all in fact!  Because the meals are so giant, they normally have to give you two plates each to hold it all.  So it was kind of comical seeing all of us trying to fit our meals on the table with so many of us.  They were so accommodating of our giant group, they even gave us free carrot cake for dessert.  I can't recommend this place highly enough.  It is the kind of place I would love to see our oldest daughter Ashleigh own someday!

I didn't get pictures of our time together, but you can read more about it and see pictures at Donna's blog here:  Florida Picklers.  I can be really lazy with picture taking when Donna or Faye are around because they always take pictures too!  And my kids don't hide their faces behind their hands when they are snapping shots so I manage to get a few great pictures of them too.

After dinner, Karen, Buddy, Nathan and I hit the courts to burn off our giant meals.  We had some great games with each of them being very evenly matched.  We are loving our time here this winter so far!  I look forward to many more great times as we move through the season.

Living the life in Florida!

Benjamin's Calabash Seafood Buffet

I don't tend to write about the places we eat at that often.  We don't eat out tons and when we do it tends to be when we are out on a date so I'm not thinking of taking the camera out then.  I really couldn't resist this week though.  We saw a bunch of advertising for different seafood buffets and it had me wanting to sample one before we left.  We picked Benjamin's Calabash Seafood Buffet as our pick. 

The place was very nice, our service was terrific and with over 170 items on the buffet-we ate more than enough seafood before we left.  Yummy!

Afterwards we went to Outdoor World/Bass Pro Shop and I have to tell ya, the guys just crack me up in this store.  It is one of the few places that Nathan actually enjoys shopping at and Austin has every camo inspired gadget that he could dream of all in one place.

Living the life in South Carolina!

Shrimpfest at Camp Hatteras

Last month we had a Crabfest here, this month was a Shrimpfest.  Jack was the cook again and it was fabulous food again!

Crabfest at Camp Hatteras

Tonight we gathered with our co-workers and had a crabfest with them.  I think this might be somewhat of a yearly tradition here, but I'm not sure of that since this is our first year here.  Camp Hatteras provided the crabs and other people brought side dishes.  I didn't eat any of the side dishes because I stuffed myself with crab instead.

I've never eaten crab like this, meaning crab I had to work for.  It was a really neat thing to learn how to do it.  It was well worth it because the crab was fabulous!

Jack was the chef and the seasoning he used was just perfect.  We have really enjoyed our time here so far.  Not only is the location wonderful, the people are really great.   The time is flying by and I think it's because we are having so much fun.

Project 365~Jan 20

The second batch of cookies in my quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe out there.  This one can be found here: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Nathan thinks this one is the best chocolate chip cookies he has ever had!