Flordia Vacation Days 3 & 4

Sunday morning we had to be at our presentation at 8:30 in the morning.  We show up and there were some other people there.  A lady came out to get us and  told us it was her first day on the job and she was really nervous.  It turned out to be  like a time share only they had a different name for it.  We told her straight up that we were not interested and were not going to buy anything and she said ok but I have to do the presentation.  To make a long story short our 1 hour presentation turned into a 2 1/2 hour hard sell for  their vacation homes.  I was about in tears.  Everyone kept saying wasn't it a good deal and didn't we want to join and we kept saying no but they just wouldn't listen.  Finally we escaped and headed for the ship.  with our VIP pass in hand.  We got to the pier, paid for valet parking and  went to board the ship.  Guess what!  No lines!  Our VIP pass and the 2 1/2 hours "presentation" was for naught!  We boarded easily with no problem.  They served us a really good lunch.  We couldn't get in our room until 2:00 but just walked around the ship and looked at things.  Then it began to rain a little.  Then a lot. 

We finally go into our room and found we had a queen size bed.  But we decided to take the ship tour and look around some more.  We got a newsletter to find out what was happening and went to watch them play bingo.  We had to change for dinner in the Crystal Dining room.   so we did that and went to eat.  We still hadn't left port.  I will say the food was really good and plentiful.  You got 5 courses and they were all good.    When we were almost done with supper we finally left port.  and as soon as we did you could feel the rocking and rolling!   After supper we went to the View(their theater area ) to wait for the show.  They were playing bingo again.  The longer we sat there the sicker I got.  Finally about 8 we went back to the room thinking if I laid down it would be better.  We met Victor (our steward) in the hall and had him make the bed into twin beds for us.  I was so sick I  just wanted to die.  Connie said she felt better when she laid down and closed her eyes but it just made the room spin for me.  So I sat from 8 to 2 with my head in the waste basket.  Finally either the seas calmed down or I just couldn't hold my head up any longer so I laid down and slept until about 6.  We had to meet for our tour at 8 so got around and went to breakfast.  Wasn't sure if I could eat but just had some toast and milk nothing to upset my stomach.  We went to meet with our group.                                                                              

They took us by bus to the Jeep place.  This was our jeep.  No we didn't drive.  We rode with a couple from Arizona.  Dennis and Kelly.  We told Dennis he could drive Miss Daisy and Miss Marigold.  Even though it was raining off and on we wtill got to do all the things they had planned.  We first went to the beach.  You can see how angry and wild it looks.  It was raining pretty good here                                    

Next we went in to the forest.  Our guide JoJo was very informative.  Her degree was in anthropology and archeology.  Why she was doing the guide thing I don't knowbut she was really fun and easy to listen to.  Here is one story she told us.  It sounds true to me but will let you decide.   It seams years ago in England they had no way to get rid of horse manure.  So someone decided to ship it to the colonies.  So they boxed it in wooden crates and loaded it into the  bottom of the ship.  But for some reason ( if you are a farmer you might be able to guess where this is going)  the ships kept catching fire and  sinking.  Finally some one decided the manure was spontanious combustion and causing the fires.  So they put a label on the crates that said Ship High In Transit. or Shit for short.   What do you think?  I bought it. 

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JoJo

Our next stop was this cave which they call the blue hole of the island.  You went down these steps.  Mind you is is still raining. But it was very interesting and she talked quite alot about the Eco system.



Stairs



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Inside the cave



This program is acting up so I am not sure what pictures are going to show up on the site.   We went from the cave to the beach for a lunch.  I thought we were suppose to have conch salad but we had lunch meat sandwiches instead.  .  There  was a whole family of raccoons that kept begging for food and people would toss them a crust of bread.  (maybe that is why we didn't have salad.  Maybe the raccoons don't like salad) I waded out and had Connie take a picture and right after she took it a big wave came in and got me wet clear up to my thighs.  Eventually dried off and we headed back to their base.  It was a fun day.  We did a little souvenir shopping before boarding the ship.    Went back and got cleaned up and went to the View to see what was going on.  They were just starting to play Family Feud and we got drafted to play.  Out team won.  It really was fun.   We won water wallets.  ????  We we went back to our room to change for supper this is what we found on the bed.  It really startled me.  And I think it was kind of creepy.  I guess Victor made it for us. 

Supper was again really good.  We sat with a older lady named Barb.  If you want to know anything about her just ask me.  I can tell you her life story from age 5 on.  She did not require much response from anyone. Connie and both took Dramamine just to be on the safe side but  the seas we pretty calm leaving the Bahamas.  We went to watch the entertainment but Connie fell asleep watching the comedian and he made fun of another lady that fell asleep  and I hadn't slept the night before so we went back to the room about 9 and went to bed.  I went right to sleep but a 2:30 we hit rough waters again.  Not as bad as the night before but you could definitely feel it.  Connie never woke up.  I just dozed until the alarm went off.

Flordia Vacation

We left Fairfield about 1PM on the 27th of October to go to Des Moines to catch our flight.  The flight was at 6:15  AM on Friday the 28th so we spent the night at Carol's so we could get there on time.  We had no trouble finding her house. Carol was actually on vacation in Palm Springs with a friend but Shannon agreed to meet us and we were going out to eat..  Chris and Owen came to and we went to Macaroni Grill.  The food was good .  Owen was very entertaining and kept us in stitches the whole time.  He is very smart for his age and cute as a button.  He hadn't had a nap that day but was very good anyway.  This is a picture of us waiting at the Des Monies airport.  We called a cab and he got us there in good time.  No problems checking in. Had a cup of coffee and an egg mcmuffin for breakfast and before you knew it we were on our way.  Connie, unknownst to me, took two, yes I said two Dramamine before the flight.  We had smooth flights both going and coming home. We had to change planes in Memphis.  Our plane landed at gate A 2 and the next one took off from Gate B 43.  It was as far away as you could possibly get.  We really had to hustle to get there.  We were the last ones to board and had only been in our seats 2 minutes when they closed the door and got ready for take off. (Close call)   We got to Fort Lauderdale about 11:45 their time and went to pick up the rental car.  Toni ( the attendant at Alamo) talked Connie into an upgrade to a full size car.  I tried to tell her the economy would be fine.  Anyway we got to drive a new Hyundai Sonata.  Hated that car! The driver's head touched the top of the car and the passenger sat on the ground.  Never did figure out how to fix that!

I made Connie drive from the airport to the motel (this was before I knew she had had 2 Dramamine). Cindy and Shane had lent us their Garmon.  We named her Becky.  She was a great help.   We got to the hotel with out much fanfare and went to the Welcome Center as instructed in our paperwork.  Now we find out why the trip was suppose to be so cheap.  We had to go listen to a Time Share talk in West Palm Beach the next day.  We went to our room and it was pretty nice as you can see.  Neither of us had slept very well the night before thinking we would over sleep and miss the plane.  So we ate lunch at the hotel and decided to rest a while.  Lunch was nothing to write home about but filling.  We went back to the room and the Dramamine kicked in.  Connie was pretty much out of it.  Then it started to rain so we just rested, watched a little tv (some of us with our eyes closed) and ate supper at the hotel too.   It rained all night long.  Hard!  They got four inches that night.    But we slept pretty good and were ready to begin the fun adventure.  End of Day 1.    



Erik and Capt Hook.  Both pirates

  Day Two :  I drove to West Palm Beach to the resort named something shores.  Anyway the sun was shining and we were ready to get this over with and start our fun.  Our talk dude's name was Eric.  We got a free breakfast and visited for a while.  Then he took us to the end of the island (Singer Island) which was 3 blocks wide and 8 blocks long.  It used to be the home of the Singers (sewing machine) but was now an exclusive resort area.   It was about the only time the sun shone while we were in Ft Lauderdale.    The Marina was really nice and we saw all kinds of tropical fish.  Even jelly fish!   Then the real fun began.  We went back to the resort and toured the facility( which is very nice).   



Jelly fish



                                                                             

Then came the sales pitch. Because we were first time buyers, because I was a nurse, because they really wanted to make a sale they kept lowering the price. We tried to be nice and tell them we weren't interested but they were very persistent.  They kept at us and kept at us we were both getting kind of upset.  It was actually making me sick to my stomach.  Finally Connie said no and we wanted to go so they got our paperwork and we went back to the motel.    Thought we would never escape!  We had to turn in some papers at the Welcome Center to get our cruise which we did and they asked us if we wanted to do a short 60 minute presentation the next morning and get VIP passes to get on the ship without standing in line.  I remember the lines when Cindy and I went on our cruise so I thought it would be a good idea.  The lady assured us it was not a time share presentation.    We decide to do some shopping and got directions to the Galleria mall.  Looked very simple on paper but somehow we got going the wrong way.  So we turned around and programed Becky and finally found the place.  Didn't buy anything (very expensive) but grabbed a bite for lunch and when we came out it had poured down rain while we were in there and the parking garage was flooded.   finally skirted around the worst and got back to the car and headed back to the hotel.   It rained on us on the way back.  Big surprise!  Had supper at the hotel and to bed.  Ready for some fun tomorrow on the ship.                                                                                                                       

Fall Family Campout 2011



Banana anyone?



What fun our fall camp out was.  We had a circus theme and everyone got into the act (pun intended).  Friday nite was cold and windy and cloudy, but Saturday (although it started cold) turned out great.   The fun started when Jeanine and Lloyd (who had gone home in the morning to work on the house) came back about one in full costume and everyone else was still in our regular clothes.   We were kind of waiting on some that were running a little late.   I wanted really bad to tell them we had changed our minds but I couldn't be that cruel.  We all got dressed up and then the fun really started. 



Yummo Cotton Candy




Big Cat Man

 



Charm that snake!

 

Just clowning around




 

Siamese Twins



Wolf Boy



World's Largest Hillbilly Midget



The Magnificent Donald and his Tiger



Wanta be juggler



This big cat got away!

  



A couple of the big cats



Jessie the trick rider and the fortune teller




 





We had several games, duck pond, bean bag toss pop the balloon , golf ball toss game ( I don't know what it is called), and face painting by Angie. Everyone won prizes (candy). Then we had treats, funnel cakes (yummo), lemonade, popcorn, cotton candy and peanuts.  We had a lot of fun.                                                                                       

For supper everything had to be on a stick like at the fair.  We had some really inventive food and all of it was quite yummy.  Everyone wants to do this again.  We will see we have lots more ideas.  We will see what   the spring camp out brings.  We seem to have more fun at each one than the last.                        

We had some music around the camp fire. and by that time the camp fire felt good!!!



It was a good fire but not a Dennis fire. 











Fall Festival 2011

Fall festival was really different this year.  I went Wednesday nite.  Connie came Thursday morning and Mary's didn't get to come until Friday noon. Jeanine came Thursday afternoon but didn't stay until Friday. so some of the things we had planned didn't happen but we still had a good time.  The weather couldn't have been any better.  Sunny warm days and cool clear nights. Doris Jean came Friday afternoon and we played some games.They came back Saturday night to listen to music but minus Dan  We did a lot of cooking in the Dutch ovens and everything we made was really good.We had to play the farmer's market on Saturday (more about that in another post). and then Dan got a bad migraine headache so was out of commission Saturday afternoon and night.   Sunday we decided to go to and 1895 barn in Milton that was giving tours.   It had been moved from north of Fairfield to Milton by the Amish piece by piece.  They had a collection of pedals cars and  old tractors and were doing demonstrations of cider making and barley winnowing.  The people were very nice and informative.   Katlin and Donnie enjoyed the tractors as you can see.  

I forgot my camera so all pictures are taken by phone.  And I didn't take many. But it was a nice way to pass the morning and no one except Donnie was in a hurry to go home. Mark and Penny rode down Sunday afternoon to visit. If the park people had been nicer it would have been nearly perfect. 

Fall Farmer's Market

We were invited to play the Farmer's Market for the second time this year on Saturday.  We were camping at Keosauqua but drove up.  Dan forgot to put the tip case out so we played for Mary and Donnie and the guy who had the booth right across from us.  He was really grooving.   There were lots of people around and the bag of veggies we got didn't amount to very much.  No watermelon this time. :(

Before and After

It is finally done.  I finished scraping and painting the garage last night.  I didn't get any pictures of it before I actually started painting, but you can tell the difference. Thanks Shane, Katlin and Dan for the help.        

Hayride 2011

We had our annual hayride on Sunday afternoon  after the wedding.  Mary's family are never here for the fun stuff and she wanted the great grands to experience the fun.  We had so many we had to get a second hay rack. (Thanks Mark)  It was a perfect day for a hay ride.  Not windy or rainy or too hot or too cold. Just right Goldilocks.   We rode for about 45 minutes .  One of the longest rides in recent history.

No one ever takes a picture of the driver so decided he needed some recognition too.  Thanks Don!

Kyann loved it and got pretty brave moving around some when the wagon was moving.  At least we didn't have to eat dust.  That was for the wagon behind us.   Larry, Rudy and someone else (can't remember who) went ahead and started the fire for us.   As usual lots of good food and fun.  Donnie did his famous cup trick for those who had never seen it

KC and the Pick up Band played some  It was a nice night to sit around the fire, but not too close.