Sweet Heading-For-Home Alabama

Well, we aren't home in Alabama, but we're heading for home.  We left Orlando this morning at about 8:00 am and drove a little more than 500 miles.  Tonight we are in Mobile, Alabama.    Our drive took us up to Tallahassee and then across the panhandle through Pensacola and into Alabama.

We had planned to drive up the east coast, but changed our itinerary because of the weather and aftermath caused by hurricane Sandy.  We hope to be home by Friday.  I'll keep posting so you'll know where we are.

By the way  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

More tomorrow.

Spaced Out

Today we went back to the Kennedy Space Center with Sean.  This time we went to the IMAX movies.  They are both done in 3D and the one about the Hubble telescope was awesome with the scenes about the nebulae and stars.

We also went to some of the exhibits and walked through the Rocket Garden.  Here are a couple of photos.

Tomorrow Sean and Amy leave and then we head for home on Wednesday.  It's okay because it has cooled off a lot since we came, temp in the 70s the last couple of days.

I'm looking forward to getting home, but I will really, really miss the pool.

More tomorrow..or the next day.

No Pearls Today

Today was kind of dark and dreary.  We are getting some weather from hurricane Sandy with wind, rain and clouds.  Last evening was gorgeous, breezy, warm and dry.  So, I guess we can take a rainy day today.

For dinner tonite we went to Big Fin Seafood. It was fantastic!  I had the half dozen raw oyster appetizer and blue crab crusted grouper.  John had stone crab, blue crab and cioppino.  It was delicious.  Here are a few pictures.

Sean and Amy will be here tomorrow.  We can't wait to have some guests.  They leave on Tuesday and we leave on Wednesday.  I will be sorry to leave but glad to go home.

More tomorrow, or the next day.















bog

A Golden Day

This was probably the most beautiful day yet.  It was about 84, low humidity, absolutely clear sky.

After dinner at Bob Evans we went driving around and stumbled on the "town" of Celebration.      
It;s actually a Census Designated Place and master planned community.  It was built by the Disney Corporation and looks like the perfect town.  I honestly expected Beaver Cleaver, Ozzie and Harriet, and Mary Tyler Moore to come out of the houses!

Here's a photo that doesn't do it justice at all.

Staying here would be like living in the Magic Kingdom.

More tomorrow...or the next day.

Gator, Anyone?

Tonight we drove to St. Cloud, Florida and had supper at Catfish Place.  We both had the Florida Cracker Special:  Catfish, Frog Legs, Turtle and Gator.  Believe it, or not, it was all VERY good.  Of course, the hush puppies and sweet tea were great too.   My favorite was the alligator.  Seriously.

More tomorrow, or the day after.  

Roller Rinks And Drive-In Movies

Today we went driving the back roads again.  This time we headed west, toward Tampa.  Our route took us through Plant City, Lakeland, Winter Haven and finally Tampa.

There are a lot of interesting things to see along the way taking the back roads.  In some places it's like being time warpped back into the 1950s or 1960s.  In one short stretch we went by a roller skating rink and a drive-in movie theater.  And the old motels, the ones with the little cabins are all over the place.

When we got to Tampa we found a great place for lunch.  Brocato's Sandwich Shop.

This is a great little restaurant.  It's pretty small, but they also do take-out orders.  They make fantastic cuban sandwiches and incredible devil crabs.  It was well worth the drive and we even brought home supper since neither of us could eat the whole sandwich!

More tomorrow...or the day after.  

Cruisin' The Backroads

Today we went driving around the area.  We just drove around the backroads for about 50 miles.  We found a small citrus grove and bought some really good early season fruit.  We had never heard of red navel or Page oranges but we tasted both and they are delicious!

After we made our purchases of fruit we found a roadside barbecue stand.  We bought a rack of ribs and picked up some beans, cole slaw and mac and cheese for a great supper.

More tomorrow.

A Gecko By Any Other Name

We didn't do much away from the house yesterday, but I kind of like that.  I've gotten a lot of reading and counted cross stitch done.  Just like I'd hoped.

One thing I have been doing is watching the "wildlife" in the backyard and around the pool.  I can't resist naming the regulars.  There's Whitebelly, Petey, Pepe and Gramps, the geckos that climb on the screen every day.  Laverne, Shirley and Fonzi are the squirrels that play in the yard, trees and on the fence.  I haven't seen Lenny and Squiggy, the sand hill cranes, for a few days.  I haven't been able to keep track of the butterflies, there are too many of them but they are very pretty and very colorful.

I  think it's about time for me to get in the pool again.  It's a tough job but somebody needs to do it.

More tomorrow.
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Disney #1

We visited our first Disney venue today when we went to Downtown Disney.   Mostly we just walked and shopped.  So much stuff, so little time and money!

More tomorrow.

SOSDD

Same old stuff, different day.  We went out exploring a bit today to check out what's around us as far as stores and restaurants.  Went shopping for a few supplies at Wal-Mart.  The rest of the afternoon we spent...you guessed it, in the pool.  Today was the best pool day yet.

More tomorrow.

Three...Two...One.........

Last night we went to the Kennedy Space Center to see the launch of a Falcon rocket.  The Dragon cargo pod is scheduled to rendezvous with the International Space Station on Wednesday..

It was a nice evening and we were sitting in bleachers across the causeway from the launch site.  It was very thrilling to watch.  I guess we can cross that off of our bucket list.  

The picture is from the Los Angeles Times online.  We saw the same thing, but their pictures are much better.

If you want more information about the rocket here is the site for SpaceX, the commercial venture behind this rocket launch.

http://www.spacex.com/

More tomorrow.

Worth A Thousand Words?

I finally figured how to post photos in the blog.  Here are a few from our drive down.  I'll have more for you in the next few days and the rest of the trip.

More tomorrow.

A Small Case of Crabs

We spent a couple of hours in the pool today doing exercises with our noodles.

Dinner tonight was at Joe's Crab Shack.  We shared a small case of crabs which were delicious!

Tomorrow we are planning to go to Kennedy Space Center for night launch of a Falcon rocket.  Hope the weather holds!

More tomorrow.

Just Noodlin' Around

Boy was it hot today, about 89.  But we beat the heat in the pool.  We bought a couple of those foam noodles and floated around most of the afternoon.

I'm having some trouble getting my photos added to the blog.  I'll keep working on it so keep watching.

More tomorrow.

Too Cool Pool

Okay, today we did absolutely nothing!   We spent most of the day in the pool.  There is a pair of sand hill cranes that visit in the backyard every morning so we watched them for a long time.

I will be working n getting my pictures on here so you can see some of what we've been doing.

More tomorrow.

Flipper? Is That You?

Another nice day here in the tropics.  It's hot and humid today with the temp up to 93.  But that makes the pool feel all that much nicer.  I love having the private enclosed pool.  Right now I'm sitting on the lanai with my glass of wine blogging and trying to play Words With Friends.

We took a little drive today over to the Atlantic coast.  We found a wonderful restaurant for lunch, Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty.  Don't let the name fool you, it was a very nice place with    
very good food.

Just as we were seated at our table four dolphins appeared in the water right next to the dock outside of the window next to our table.  We watched them and the pelicans play in the water.  It reminded me of being in Clearwater Beach with mom and dad and watching the dolphins play in the Gulf.

More tomorrow.

Cranes and Squirrels and Geckos, Oh My!

Today was a relaxing day.  We went out and did a little shopping, getting our housekeeping essentials.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and sitting on the lanai.  It's very quiet in this neighborhood.  We sat and watched the cranes walk through the yard the squirrels play on the fence and the geckos run through the grass.

More tomorrow.

We've Arrived!

We arrived at our home for the next month at about 4:30 PM.  It was a comfortable drive from Georgia to Orlando.  And we found our house with no trouble at all.

It's hot here, in the 80s or low 90s but then the pool felt great.  We had drinks in the pool and were greeted by the geckos and palmetto bugs.

Tomorrow we're going exploring to find where the essentials are, like groceries, wine, etc.

More tomorrow.