L....again!!!!

Bowling and bingo...I'm not very good at either!  I bowled 2 decent games and then I couldn't break 100 in the 3rd game!  Why, even my brother beat me the last game!!  Dave too!  Grrrrrr!  I think I should only bowl 2 games - by the third game, I just don't have the strength in my arm or my leg to bowl it well.  Maybe I should start lifting weights!  Ha!!

Then there's bingo...I needed 1 number on 3 different games...do you think he'd call MY number...NO!  So, I'm a loser again!  I really thought I was going to win tonight, but it didn't happen!

Tomorrow's a big day!  I think I'd better get some rest tonight!  More later...


Gonzo

Sarasota

This was our day to go to Sarasota.  Dave thought it would be too cold for fishing, so he didn't even take his pole.  His dad assured him, however, that fish weren't affected by the cold in the water at Lido Beach.  Too bad.  So instead of fishing, we had to come up with something else to do.  We heard that the Lipizzaner stallions were housed near Sarasota, so we went to try to see them. 

We drove to the place where they live and there were no cars, but the barn was open and there were 4 people in there.  So, we went in and asked if we could just look at the horses.  They had no problem with us being there, so we walked around and looked at these BIG horses.  They are beautiful and powerful and a bit unpredictable...they are stallions, after all.  This first guy just laughed at me when I told him that he was beautiful!! 

I thought these two just looked angry!  I know that as a general rule stallions like to fight with other stallions.  It must really be loud in this barn sometimes.  One of the trainers took on the of stallions out to let him get some exercise.  As she was putting his halter on him, she said that he screams when he comes out of his stall...AND BOY DID HE EVER SCREAM!!  He was excited to get out and he let everyone know it!!



Aren't they just majestic looking?  I love this picture.  He's so regal looking...hmmmm, I think they're called the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions from Austria...no wonder he looks so royal!!!






The trainer took this big guy out to lunge him.  He'd been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days.  The owner said he didn't like it when low pressure systems came through - they really bothered him. 

He's 23 years old and they said that wasn't unusual for Lipizzaners!

These two stallmates got after each other at the show this past week and the owner said she had a really hard time controlling them.  The owner is a very small lady, probably about 45-55...and the trainer, as you can see in the picture above is also not very big.  She's younger...maybe not even 40.  When she was exercising the 23 year old, he got pretty frisky and she really had to hold onto him. 

It was fun to see the horses and smell them!  It reminded me of home!  We're going to try to catch one of their shows before we go home. 

Tonight I played 7s from Hell...got beat again!  Sandy and I lead 3 hands and on the 4th hand, we got clobbered!  I hope my luck is better at bowling and bingo tomorrow!!

More later...

Weird!

Something weird is going on with my internet down here...I click on one of my most frequently used pages (say Facebook) and I get an error messsage "Cannot connect to internet."  I open another tab and do the same thing and it connects.  Each time I first get the error message and then a connection...weird!  In essence I have 2 tabs for each thing I open...one that works and one that doesn't.  I wonder why that is?

Today was a pretty laid-back day for us.  We went to church, of course.  About a half hour before we left, all I had left to do was my hair, the electricity went out.  It was really, really windy this morning.  I suppose that is what caused it.  I believe the entire park was off, as well as the buildings west of us.  CVS didn't have any lights.  I went to church with wet hair...I'm sure glad I have naturally curly hair!  On the way home from church, we stopped at Lowe's to get some things for Dave for his shed.  I watched the race and gathered together all of our tax papers.  I'm hoping Ann will take them to TD&T the same time she takes hers in. 

Tonight Dave is sleeping in his chair and I'm playing Angry Birds on Facebook!  My 4-year-old grandson plays this game, so I've got to practice!!  Tomorrow we're going to Sarasota to see Dad & Roberta. 

More later...

More pictures!

Another gorgeous day in Florida!  We were a little slow getting up this morning...I guess we needed to rest after our week in S Florida!  After we got going, we both read until our new recliners were delivered around 1:30!  They really look nice in our living room AND they are waaaaay more comfortable than the old ones!  After the chairs got here, we went to Madeira Beach to the American Legion for a late lunch.  Bob, Ann, Keith, Barb, Ron and Marcia were already there enjoying the music and the sun!  It's a wonderful place - right on the water! 



This afternoon we got me a new wireless mouse - mine died about 3 days ago!  I love a wireless mouse, so I'm much happier now!!  We came home and decided we ought to take a nap.  We now know that our new chairs "sleep" well too!! 

I thought I'd share some more pictures with you.  These are all from the everglades unless I noted otherwise.  Just beautiful scenery!

Here's a good shot of an osprey.

 ...and a prehistoric critter up close and personal!

This black leopard wanted to be scratched and loved on. 

A Florida panther...we call these mountain lions!

This is a picture of the Ft Lauderdale beach from our table at Fat Tuesdays where we had lunch on Thursday.  It was a wonderful day for eating on the beach!!

More later...

Friday's Thoughts!

I'm too tired to think too much!!  We left Ft Lauderdale about 9:00 this morning.  It was a gorgeous day to drive and our route was beautiful.  We went across the north route this time, because we stopped in Lakeland to see my friend Nancy on the way home!!  We saw mile after mile after mile of citrus trees - some picked, but most of them completely loaded with fruit.  We also saw miles of sod farms and huge cattle farms.  It was just a beautiful drive!!

We got to Nancy and Rod's about 2:15.  It was really good to see them again.  Their place is really nice and I loved their park!  We left there about an hour later and got in traffic on I4 that was completely shut down.  It took us until 5:15 to get home from there.  We sat and sat and moved a few feet every once in a while!  This leg of the trip wasn't much fun!!  But we got here safe and sound and that's all that really matters.

We went to Cheddars with Bob, Ann, Keith & Barb for supper.  Great food!  Now we're ready for bed.  It'll be nice to sleep in our own bed again! 

More later...

Last day in Ft Lauderdale

Lots of pictures today!  The first 2-3 are of our Water Taxi ride yesterday.  This first one is just a gorgeous home on the intercoastal.

This is leaving the Port of Everglades and heading to Hollywood.  Those structures are loading "cranes" for containers on the big freighters.

Here we're in the Hollywood area - they have a huge park on the west side of the intercoastal...lots of hiking and biking paths, birds, scenery, etc. 

 Today we went to the Sawgrass Recreation Area to ride an air boat with the possibility of seeing an alligator in the Everglades.



Sawgrass in the Everglades...where alligators live...

 There's a gator!  It's a male about 8 years old!  It's mating season, so he's been up all night looking for females...now he's sleeping!!

There's an area at the Sawgrass Recreation site that houses other animals.  These 3 turtles were all trying to eat - notice the differences in their shells. 

 In this area was a part of the Everglades that wasn't fenced in.  Look what we found!!  I'm so glad he/she was sleeping.  Dave's pretty darn close to him/her!!! 

We had a great visit to Ft Lauderdale!  We're going to see the kids again in about 10 days, then we won't see them until next fall. 

More later...

Great Day for a boat ride!!

Since the weather was supposed to be wonderful today, we decided to take the Water Taxi and ride the entire route!!  We did and the weather cooperated.  In fact, it was pretty hot!!  The back of my neck got sunburned!!  We even rode the new loop - down to Hollywood and back!  That's a beautiful, scenic ride!  We didn't get off all day!  We left on the 10:30 taxi and got back to Shooters at 4:30!  We didn't eat or drink anything all day and by the time we got back to Shooters we were pretty hungry!  Supper was supposed to be about 6:30, so we stopped at Razzleberry's for a quick ice cream and then hurried off to pick up all 3 kids! 

The kids were wild tonight.  I think it's about time for us to leave!!  They all wanted to watch Survivor, so we left there about 8:00 so they could see the entire episode.  Now, Dave's reading and I'm trying to catch up on facebook and my email.  More later...