Christmas Time in Florida

Dianne and her fantastic buffet! Dianne and Frank had a nice pre-Christmas get together at their place. Of course the Florida weather cooperated with sunshine and warmth. We sat out till well after dark.

A day out with friends taking in the hugh Webster Flea and Farmers Market. After doing lots of looking and indecision over which wonderful foods to buy we made our purchases. And a day wouldn't be complete without lots of food. There is a very good restaurant on premises, The Sweetpea, that has homemade food. All quite good at a very reasonable price. Thanks Elinore and Dave for such a nice day.
Following lunch we went over to see their new RV Resort they have bought into.

Elinore had a whole spread of goodies waiting for us when we got to their place. It was so festive, Elinore is a wonderful decorator!

Christmas Day at our home, Dave, Elinore, Jim, John and Betsy. We so enjoyed having our Boomer friends over. It was a fun day! It just amazes me that we can go to the other side of the United States and have friends there to share holidays. What a wonderful lifestyle.

BOF Disney Day

Every month the Birds of a Feather Disney group has a get together. This month 40 members gathered at the Boardwalk Resort for a scavenger hunt and lunch at the Big River Grille and Brewing Works.

What a fun time we had going to the five resorts on the Boardwalk. The Christmas displays where beautiful and looking for hidden Mickeys, counting nutcrackers, searching for Tinker Bells etc, etc. made this such a fun way to admire the displays.

Frank and Dianne Gruelle along with Dave and Elinore Barry made our hunt fun, fun, fun. And all three of us won the Scavenger Hunt!!

Elinore, Diane, and Dianne

Ice Creations

The Gaylord Palms Resort in FL. has this Ice Creation event each Christmas season. Quite spectacular!!! It runs for 1 1/2 months. They do hand out parkas for the 9 degree temperature.

These very large sculptures are so impressive, it's just amazing.

Ice Creations

Jim resting again!

All ready to enter the into 9 degrees! Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

We gave Santa our wish real quick, what a cold lap!!

Here we all are suiting up for the cold adventure. Brent, Diane, Dave, Elinore, Jim, Frank, and Dianne

MagicKingdom

This is Gary and Elaine Sallans-Escapees who have been coming down from Nebraska for the last five winters to work for Disney World.
They so kindly offered to take us into Magic Kingdom on one of their free passes. We met them this week on a bike trail. You meet the nicest people when your out riding a bike!

This picture is over at the Hollywood Studios Park. We heard the Osborn lights were a must see, so we planned on finishing the night there. It really is wonderful. Every ten minutes a song is played with the lights going on and off to the music. Oh and of course snow falling. Thank you so much Gary and Elaine for a fun packed day!

Mini Rang Florida

We had seen Donna and Dave's post on the BBB. We set up a Happy Hour and Dinner out. They brought along friends Barb and Bill. Dianne , Frank and Cynthia Lee joined us also. Couple of hours at out place to talk, talk talk then off to Manny's for 2 fer 1 fajita's.

Lake Kissimee St. Park FL

This state park was not too far from where we are staying and we were looking for an interesting day out. We packed our bikes and lunch then headed out after checking this park out on the web. There is a replica of a Cow Camp with a bonafide Florida Cracker explaining about cattle drives, how and why the cow camps are set up the way they are. When you enter the camp you step back into time, He is a Florida cracker with southern drawl and tall tales.

After taking a walk and climbing the observation tower we enjoyed a nice bike ride. Great Day!

Mt. Dora Florida

Hard to believe there is a place called Mt. anything in flat Florida, but it is slightly hilly. Mt. Dora has festivities going on on Dec. Tonight we went with Elinore and Dave Barry to the street fair. There was singing, dancing and other street entertainment. This was great for the guys, as it keep them busy while Elinore and I went into every store. And yum all the stores were handing out goodies.

Turkey Creek Sanctuary FL

How about this unique specimen.

















Fall Colors in Florida. Why not.

Merritt Island FL

Here I am taking a walk through the Coconut Sanctuary. Was really enjoying this until I saw the DON'T FEED THE ALLIGATORS sign. What nothing between me and possible gators!

Jim on the Florida Beach











This is the boardwalk at the Turkey Creek Sanctuary. This was a 1.6 mile nature walk in Melbourne FL

Visiting old friends in FL

This is Bruce and Wanda originally from WA state. We are old boating friends, hailing from the Dagmar Yacht Club. Lots of fun memories. They too like us, retired , went full time RVing but they got to St. Augustine FL and fell in love with it, so decided to settle here.

This is Jim relaxing on our boat ride out to lunch. We went 8 miles up the river to a very tasty waterfront restaurant Corky Bells at Gator Landing.

They are boating again. To go along with their waterfront house they have a 21 ft. poontoon boat. This is Bruce with the big boy toy.

Bruce and Wanda in front of their wonderful waterfront home. They live on a canal that flows first into a creek then into St. John's river, which is a hugh body of water. We spent the weekend catching up on old times and of course eating. Wanda was a gracious host who made us, biskets and gravy for breakfast, christmas cookies to snack on and homemade eggrolls for dinner. Thank you Wanda and Bruce for a wonderful weekend.