2014 Nov - 2015 June Fun in Florida

Fun times in Florida ---

Nov 11, 2014; We Rolled into Vacation Inn RV Resort ( VIR) in West Palm Beach. The RV Park is a gated community with many full time residents who own their site. The park has many activities such as: Bingo, Karaoke, meals for a reasonable fee on holidays, water exercise, tennis and coffee and donuts on Saturday morning.  We are 8 miles from the ocean and 18 miles from where our son, Eric lives. My Sister, Peg and her family - husband Mike and son Garrett live 3 miles from Eric's.  It was such a treat to arrive and get situated in our new home for the next months - we are renting this lot. 

Coffee on the Patio at 0700 -- 80 degrees and loving it !!

Enjoying looking at the Palm trees

Sunset from our Patio

 Breakfast with Eric at Sailfish, on the inner coastal waters

Santa enjoying his coffee - both of them !!

Walking the streets on Worth Ave in Palm Beach  -- window shopping only... this is where all the fancy stores are...


Day trip to Fort Lauderdale

New Hair cut --  Love it !!!
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Christmas program in Wellington with Peg 

Sand Castles downtown West Palm Beach with Steve

Tree Lighting and  Music on the Green -
 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach with Steve

City Center, West Palm Beach tree lighting with Steve

We are enjoying our Time in Florida, this being our first year at Full Time RV-ers.  Do not miss the snow and cold......

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 New Year's eve we went to a dinner and dance at VIR. Garrett came over the next day to help us continue to celebrate.

Jacob - Grandson # 1 moved in with Eric the beginning of Jan.

Jacob  & I volunteer at Habitat -- we had a fun time
pounding nails

Jan ---  Nancy and Dave (from Seattle) fly to Fort Lauderdale - we met them on Hollywood Beach, then traveled to the Keys

Joe & Kathy (Nancy's Bro & wife) joined us.  We all stayed  near Key Largo

Heading to the Beach Cafe

Fishing Trip --- in total we caught 6 snappers... the seas (for me) were rough -- I was OK as long I focused on fishing -- otherwise, it was not a pretty picture..... 

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Hangin' out in the condo

On the Patio of our Condo

A day in  Key West  -- Lovely city !!
 With a few interesting sites....

The town's Pet Pig

Chicken crossing the road - Nancy heading in the opposite direction ........

Lovely restaurant -- we did not find the six toed cat.

On our next visit we plan to go to
Hemingway's museum
and
Dry Tortugas National Park -
an Island that is 70 miles off the coast

Many lovely trees

 
 

Mini - "Dragon"

These guys are everywhere
"I've been Everywhere Man,.........."

Rudolph and Santa with the scary snowman

Artists are everywhere....

  The best was......

Ford Truck -  looks like it lived in the ocean for a few years... 

 At the farthest most southern point.....
 

 




We walked a good distance, 
from the southern most point back to the main section of town - Duval Street.



And ended the day with a fabulous Sunset

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We found many lovely places in Islamorada

A walk along one of the bridges

 

Marker 88 Restaurant

 John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

 We found the Well --- for you history buffs --

Water coming from the Well.
The  First Post Office opened in 1896, in Key Largo.
The Overseas Highway is a 127.5-mile (205.2 km) highway  through the Florida Keys. 
Completed in 1912, the Overseas Railroad was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.  The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed and remaining bridges were sold to the state of Florida for $640,000.  Since the 1950s the Overseas Highway has been refurbished into a main coastal highway between the cities of Miami and Key West 

  One more meal in Fort Lauderdale before Nancy & Dave head back to Seattle

 

  Next adventure............................................
Jacob and Bette at KISS Chili Cookoff --  Line up -- 
Brad Paisley, Cadillac Tree, Jerrod Niemann, The Band Perry , and The Swon Brothers 

 

Sunset at the end of the concert

Walks and riding 
our bicycles
at Dyer Park
which is only
a few blocks
 from VIR.


Jan 2015 -- We drove to Orlando to see Ron (Brother) , His wife, Melissa , Blake and Faith ( Blake was there for a soccer tournament - He is a fabulous goalie .. We hung out at the pool, played games in their hotel room, had a fabulous meal at Olive Garden

 
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Bette and Steve enjoying some time in the back yard at Eric's

Dawn and Eric.... Enjoying some quiet times at the house.
Jacob lands a job at Wellington Hospital in the ER -  

as an 
orderly -- 
good 
experience 
for seeing 
what hospital life is like...
...next plan:
 take more college 
classes
 and then 
look at a Master's in Business;
 then Med School ...

At Vacation Inn Resort,  There is a non-denominational church service on Sunday Morning.

 Bert (Minister) and Marie are here from Thanksgiving to Easter - the services were very healing & a good way to meet more people.

We also went to St. Edwards on occasion - with our friends,
Dick and Mary. This is the church that President Kennedy would go to when he was at this West Palm Beach home.

 We meet George and Marilyn in Pender Nebr. shortly after we purchased our RV - their 2 children live in / near West Palm Beach. They stayed at Vacation Inn Resort a couple of nights, so we were able to have a short visit with them.  We plan on visiting them, in the future, at their home near Pensacola, Florida. One wonderful advantage of being RV-ers is all the lovely people we are meeting.


READY for the Super Bowl !!!!!!
My girlfriends in Seattle are ready-- the outcome of the game was not what we wanted; yet it was a fun time text-ing back and forth during the game...          
                              Nancy & Chris in Seattle...
 























At Eric's watching the Game....




Harley and Jonesy are Ready for the big Game !!!!!  yah right....
 

 Bette's Dad, Jerry - from Iowa - come to visit
                                          -- A day at the beach ----
Dawn, Eric, Jerry



Jacob -- and Kierstin


A great day 
to be at the 
Beach







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 My (Bette's) plans changed suddenly the end of Feb. after I fell and fractured the neck of my left femur (top part of the upper bone in my leg). Long story short -- 3 screws were put in, the bone was stabilized and has healed nicely, I had some experienced medical people and Physical Therapist - 3 months after surgery I am back walking 5 miles, with a plan to continue my exercise program so I'll be ready to go to Spain (Sept and Oct) and walk the 500 mile pilgrimage (Camino de Santiago) .. 

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Dad had some great adventures with sister Peg & Mike and Eric, Dawn and Jacob; including going to 2 Cardinal baseball spring training games in Jupiter, Fl.

Swimming at VIR




Our friends, Dick and Mary head back to Canada -- we'll see them next year when we return in November.

With Jacob at Benny's on the Beach in Lake Worth

Garrett, my God- child

  Mother's Day -celebration with sister Peg and neighbor Marcia

Jacob's friend,
Joey comes to
visit -- they enjoyed
the ocean and
hangin' out....



















We bought a Lot at Vacation Inn Resort - sooooooooooooo 
we'll be back every year -- fun in the sun !!!

Our Lot # 273

Memorial
Day at 
VIR 
Flags were 
placed along
the main
road.
















We have lizards at VIR ...

We celebrated Steve's 60th BD before leaving Florida --

Birthday Boy

Bette, Dawn, Eric, Angye Jacob

Emily Logan Peg

Butch, Marcia, Steve Lois, Lenny

Saying good -bye
to Florida Mid- June,
heading North with
final destination
Northern Indiana 
to visit the RV
factory and have some
warranty maintenance
work done.....