Circle B Bar Reserve

Today was our Circle B Bar Reserve day.  But we were hardly out of the resort when we saw a Wood Stork convention.

 

Then it was on to our destination.  Carry on Jamie, through the Live Oak forest.

And the sightings began.  Red Shouldered Hawk

Brown Watersnake.

|Our first gator, less part of his tail, posed for pictures.  

One of many Anhingas.

Osprey.

Lots of GBH's today.

Turtles.

Two Gallinules fighting over the young lady beside them.  She appears to be egging them on.

Lots of big gators today.

But only one small one in sight - this two footer.

Giant Egret.

Whistling Ducks (not whistling).

Ibis.

And finally, as we were leaving, an Armadillo.

By the time we had done our tour, about five miles of walking, Jamie was in overload.  A great day!

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After a short nap it was off to the Olive Garden for dinner.

That's Mardi's Italian Margarita in the foreground.  

A nice way to end the day.

Nothing planned for tomorrow.  Stay well.

Ribs Anyone?

 It was a bit foggy this morning, as you can see by this picture of "Sarah-Jean's Island Green" (more about that when she comes here in February).

Our Jamie is an animal activist and she saw a lizard caught between the window and the screen.  Sean removed the screen and they made sure it got away safely.

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Attended a timeshare presentation today.  Got us a $120 credit card for use at the resort, $12 reduction for every round of golf we play here in the next eight weeks, and $21 reduction in 3 day play passes (rock climbing wall, miniature golf and tube rentals, which could save Sean and Jamie another $100).  Not bad for an hour and a quarter of our time.

Also discovered that to match our current timeshare package that cost us less than $10,000, we would have to spend $150,000 today if we bought it through the resort.

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The following picture is for Matt's benefit.  A Monday evening at Miller's.

Monday night rib special!  See you later this month Matt!

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Tomorrow we head for the Circle B Bar Ranch, a conservation area that has hundreds of alligators and lots of birds.  Jamie will be hard to contain!

See you then.  Stay well.

Losing My Mind

 Some folks that I'm with have pointed out that I didn't finish yesterday's blog.  To be fair, my mind was mush after that many hours on the road.

So, at about 10 o'clock we all awoke from our nap and Sean and Jamie asked me if I would drive them down to the fireworks show, about a three mile drive.  They said that they could walk home............it would be dark, in a U.S. city, with an extra order of drunks, so I decided to hang around.

We got down to the pier before 11 p.m. and headed for a local bar.  Jamie participated in the Cha-Cha Slide.

Then, we headed out to watch the fireworks.

An awesome show.  Every bit as good as Disney's!

I think I'll check with the rest of the crew before I post each night.  They can tell me what I'm forgetting.

First Day in Paradise

 Happy birthday/New Year's to Greg, a New Year's baby.  All the best.

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A footnote to yesterday.  We set the GPS to the address of our Daytona Beach hotel.  And when it told us we had arrived, this is what we saw.

A frat house!  A little bit of panic set in.  

But then, Sean looked a couple of lots down the street and saw this.

Very nice and clean.  Happy campers.

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Drove to Orange Lake and we are staying here for the next eight weeks.

Then we were off to tour the resort.  Lost our way at a bar.

Sean tried to keep the ladies' drinks.

But they're hard to deal with.

Showed Sean and Jamie around the resort.  Did some food shopping.  Had a couple of drinks.  Played cards - Sean and I won!!!  Did this blog.  Going to bed.

Good night and stay well.

Our Overnighter.

 We arrived at the greenhouse at noon, as advertised.  Just a few minutes and packing was done.

Five sets of golf clubs, plus some less important items.  And four bodies of course.

Before we headed south from Erie, Pennsylvania the temperature along the Erie shore hit 18C!  We reached North Carolina at midnight in fog conditions.  Followed a truck for an hour before he turned off and left us on our own.

That situation drained our energy, so we stopped at the South Carolina Welcome Centre and had a short nap.

Arrived here at Daytona Beach mid morning and the temperature was in the mid 20's.  So the old familiar question was asked once again "can we get our feet wet?"

Even Sean got in the act, but he doesn't like sand between his toes.

We had drinks, and later dinner, at Joe's Crab Shack on the Daytona Beach pier.  And Jamie saw some "sharks" in the water beside the pier.

Checked in to the Sunset Inn at 3 p.m. and that was the end of our 31 hour day.  No New Year's celebration on our schedule tonight!

Tomorrow we head for Orange Lake and begin the real vacation.

Stay well.

Almost Time To Go

 We enjoyed a really nice visit from A.J., Michelle and Reggie today.  And they presented Mardi with a beautiful set of diamond earrings that they had intended to give her in Jamaica for Christmas.

This picture doesn't quite capture it, but the light angles make them  just glisten - and reminded me of the Swarovski crystals that Mardi gave her granddaughters each Christmas.  Beautiful!  She will wear them with pride.

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Took out my camera this morning and turned it on.  Surprisingly, after at least a year gathering dust, the camera still had battery life.  It is better for zoom shots of animals and birds, plus I won't have to turn my phone on for use as a camera in Florida.

Tomorrow we plan to leave, with Sean and Jamie, from the greenhouse at about noon.  That will get us to Florida in daylight Saturday.  We'll spend the day walking the beach at Daytona, watch fireworks in the evening, and (maybe) stay up long enough to bring in the New Year.

Then on Sunday, after another walk on the beach, we'll head for Orange Lake and settle in for our eight week stay.

I won't be transmitting tomorrow - next time will be Saturday evening.

My phone will be silent while we're away, but if anyone needs to get in touch, Mardi's will be active.  905-928-4943.

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And now it's back to the Blue Bloods reruns😕.

Stay well my friends.

Excitement

 Took Mardi to the Winterberry Health Clinic this morning for a nose swab to determine if the cough she has is related to RSV (the vaccine trial we are in).  Then a short shopping trip for a few items we're running short of due to our extended stay home.

That was all that was on our calendar for the day.  Thought briefly about taking my new grandson, Al, for a drive to Dogs Nest, Ontario (you can look it up).  I remember driving through Dogs Nest on our way to Port Dover and always enjoyed seeing the name place sign.  Unfortunately, so many were stolen that they stopped replacing them so it wouldn't be as much fun today.

So, ultimately, we decided that the excitement we had shopping this morning was all we could handle and it would be all we can handle to stay at home and continue to watch Blue Bloods reruns.

An exhilarating day for we elderly grandparents!

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Tomorrow promises to be much of the same.  But Friday we can rest in the van for a day or so on our way south.  Can't wait!

Stay well.