Visit with Carn and Mike

Thursday, April 14, 2016 - Citra, FL

This morning I was up early to get a few hours of work in before heading south to The Villages, FL to visit with Carn and Mike.  It was about an hour drive down there and Mike and Carn were outside waiting for us.  This was the first day since we arrived in FL that it worked out for both of our schedules for us to get together.  :)

Once we arrived Mike and Carn gave us a tour of the beautiful home.  Mike did a lot of nice upgrades to the home.  Next they took us for a tour of the area.  Each area (village) has a recreation hall and each recreation hall has it's own theme.  Our first stop was at a recreation hall that was themed for our different branches of our military.  With all of the memorabilia it was almost like a museum.

We drove around a little more seeing several of the different areas and even went to a couple of open houses of the new homes being built.  Mike and I could sure understand how they are enjoying themselves living here.  There is so much to do!  Eventually we made to OakWood Smokehouse & Gill for lunch.

After a wonderful lunch we went to the village square of one of the villages to listen to a little of the live entertainment at goes on each afternoon.  Wow what a neat area to live.  Eventually we made it back to Carn and Mike's house.

We finally said our good-bye's and headed back home.  We had a really nice time and are really glad we were able to meet up with them.

It was another wonderful day!

BBQ at the Main Hall

Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - Citra, FL

Mike worked on packing things up today while I worked at my job.  :)  This evening we headed for the Main Hall to have all you can eat BBQ ribs for $12.  We went up there with Bob and Tina and met up with several other couples.  The ribs were great!  The company and the conversation were great!  We had a really nice time. 

When we got back home we did some more packing.

It was another wonderful day!

Wing Night and Euchre

Monday, April 11, 2016 - Citra, FL

This morning Mike and I were up early to go pick up Gracie from the vet clinic.  They do not have Sunday hours, so this was the first opportunity we had to pick her up since we returned from Sun N Fun.  They open at 7:00am and we arrived around 7:30am.  Bob and Tina were also glad to see her home.  :)

This evening we went back to the Eagle's Nest for their $0.50 wing night.  These are some really good wings.  After another good wing night meal we headed over to the VIP Hall to play Euchre one more time.  You sure can tell a lot of people have left the park.  We only had 3 tables of euchre.  Last week we still had 6 tables.  Neither Mike or I won anything tonight, but as always, we had a nice time.


It was another wonderful day!

Dinner with Ivan & Debra

Sunday, April 10, 2016 - Citra, FL

This morning we went to Mass at Christ the King in Citra for the last time on this stay.  We will start our move north on Friday.

When we got back home we started the process of putting things away, so we can move.  When we are at a location for an extended period of time we find that we get a lot of things out.  :)  That and we have a busy week ahead of us.

We only had about an hour to work on getting things put away when Debra came over to see if we were ready to go out to eat.  We had planned to go out once with them before heading out.  We headed out to The Yearling.  Debra and Ivan had not eaten there and we told them about, so we headed over there.

We had good food and great conversation!

After dinner we went back to Ivan and Debra's place to enjoy some more conversation.  Eventually we made it back to our place and did just a little more packing.

It was another wonderful day!

Sun N Fun Day 2

Saturday, April 9, 2016 - Lakeland, FL

We were up early again this morning.  Had breakfast down in the lobby of the hotel, checked out and headed for another day at Sun N Fun.  Today I was able to attend with Mike.  :)

We saw several planes that would be fun to have.  It is always fun thinking and talking about having a plane again. 

Then we stopped by a booth for the Broken Wing Project.  They are an organization dedicated to help injured veterans achieve their dream of flying a plane.  The gentleman we spoke with used to be a cameraman for The Weather Channel.  He was very interesting to talk to and the organization is doing great work for a great cause!  They modify the planes to allow these injured veterans the ability to pilot the planes.

Next we went out the the flight line to see some of the big planes.

I saw a good sign above Mike that said welcome to Sun N Fun and I just had to take the picture.  Mike was not excited about it, but I took it anyway.  :)

Around 3:30pm we decided we had seen all we wanted to see.  (Mike's idea, not mine.  :) )  So we walked back to the car and headed home. 

It was another wonderful day!

Sun N Fun Day 1

Friday, April 8, 2016 - Lakeland, FL

This morning we were up early.  Mike wanted to get down to Lakeland, FL to go to Sun N Fun.  :)  I still had to work today, so I used my hot spot all the way down, then we attempted to check in to the hotel, but it was too early.  I told Mike he had to get me some breakfast before he left, so we went to Bob Evans.  I did tell him that McDonald's would be fine, but he wanted to eat something better before going.  :)

Then he took me back to the hotel where I worked in the business center until our room was ready at noon.  :)

Once I was checked in, I took a nice long walk around the business development area that the hotel was in.  I walked a little over 2 miles.  It was nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  :)

Mike finally made it home around 5:30pm.  He had a real nice time at the show.  He said it was about 1/2 the size of Oshkosh, but there was still lots to see.  I am just glad he had a nice time.

We asked at the hotel desk where to eat and the guy just told us there were several restaurants at the next exit down.  We headed down there and drove around a little before settling on TGI Friday's.  It was a good meal.

After dinner, Mike was very tired after walking all day so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.  But Mike was able to get another thing off his bucket list.  Attend Sun N Fun...check!

It was another wonderful day!

The Yearling

Thursday, April 7, 2016 - Citra, FL

This afternoon we decided we go out to lunch.  We were told a restaurant we needed to eat at while we were here is The Yearling.  And we are getting down to the end.  The Yearling is only open Thursday through Sunday and we have plans for the weekend.  And we will be leaving the area on Friday next week.

When we saw the place we were not very impressed, but the parking was completely full.  We had to park across the street.  When we got inside we asked if it was ok to park there and they said it would be fine.  :)

We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table.  While we were waiting I walked around the place.  It is very cool inside.  Mike took a picture of me after we got our table and tried to get as much of the surrounding in the picture as possible.

All of the books are for sale.

Mike also took a picture of one side of the menu.

We order alligator for an appetizer.  Before ordering it we asked the waitress what alligator tasted like and she said it is hard to describe.  "It tastes like alligator".

I am not one to try different things, but I actually did try it and I liked it.  When the waitress came back, she asked how we liked it.  Mike told her he thought it tasted like bearded dragon and that I thought it tasted like iguana.  :)  She looked at him kinda funny and we laughed.  I told her she was right it tasted like alligator.  :)

This was on the other side of the room.

This is better picture of the entrance.

It is a very good place to eat and I am really glad we took the time to come here.  :)  We did take a wrong turn on the way back home and ended up in Gainesville.  It ended up being a 2 hour lunch, but well worth it.

When we got back Mike needed to hussle to the vet to drop Gracie off for the weekend.  We will be headed for Lakeland, FL in the morning to go to Sun N Fun.  He also needed to get down to Ocala to pay for the work we had done on the truck and get the keys before they closed.

Once he got back we played some pickleball, then went back down to Ocala to pick up the truck. 

It was another wonderful day!

Wings and Euchre

Monday, April 4, 2016 - Citra, FL

This evening we went to Eagle’s Nest Café for wings again. 

This little lizard was on the railing next to our table.

After dinner we headed over the VIP Hall to play euchre again.  Tonight Mike came in first place and once again I was in the middle of the pack.  :)

It was another wonderful day!

Silver Springs State Park

Sunday, April 3, 2016 - Citra, FL

After Mass this morning we decided we would finally go to Silver Springs State Park.  It is a very nice park.  It just became a state park in 2013.  It was at one time the big attraction of the area, but in the 1960’s Disney came along.  It is a beautiful park and well worth the time!

When we arrived there was a soft shell turtle by the entrance.

This used to be the entrance.

There is a restaurant here also.

We went on a nice long hike.  We took the blue trail, which connected up with the Sand Hill trail, then the Sink Hole trail.

We eventually made our way up to Silver Springs River.  What a nice river.  The water was very clear.

While sitting enjoying the view at the river we were talking to another couple and found out that the Tarzan movie was filmed here as well as the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon.

We had a really nice time.  Gracie really enjoyed the walk also!  :)

It was another wonderful day!

Visit Tony Hamilton!

 Saturday, April 2, 2016 - Citra, FL

We were up early this morning.  We were planning on heading south to Palm Bay, FL to see Tony Hamilton.  We have not seen him for about 30 years.  He was the best man in our wedding and we lost touch, but recently tracked him down.  :)  Tony called Thursday to let us know he had a couple of things he needed to do today, but really wanted to see us, so off we went.

We arrived at his house around noon.  The GPS said we had arrived, but this is all we saw.  :)

His house was at the end of the lane.  We met his wife Dawn and daughter Maddie and step-daughter Stephanie.

After spending a little time catching up, we told them we would be happy to help them with whatever they need to get done.  Well they wanted to separate the yearling calves from the rest of the heard.

Once we got the yearlings separated, they wanted to band the male calves that were just born a couple of weeks ago.  We tried to wrangle the cows, but they wanted nothing doing with it.  Maddie let her dad use her pink rope.  :)

We still did not have any luck catching the calves, so we gave up!

After words Dawn and I headed inside to enjoy a cupcake that Stephanie had made.   The guys stayed outside to catch up a little more.  :)

Dawn and I finally went out to join the guys.

Mike and I had left Gracie home, so we needed to head back home.  It was so good to see Tony again!

It was another wonderful day!

Eagles

Thursday, March 31, 2016 - Citra, FL

When the weather outside is nice I leave the door open and this afternoon Tina called out to me to come see the eagles in the field next door.  There was 2 adults and 2 kids.  It was really awesome to see them.

It was another wonderful day!