2012 Nov. S Florida to visit the kids

 Lovin' that the kids have moved to S Florida!  Somewhere relatively close to go in winter that still feels like summer.  So whenever I get the chance to go, I'm there.

Here's how they decorate for Xmas in S. Florida.

love Deerfield beach

interesting restaurant that we forgot about when we moved out there.

heading down A1A

our Mexican food truck that we liked to go to.  Although it was about 35 minutes away from the kids' house.

Love how big the folliage gets in S Florida

Flamingo Gardens---a reciprocal garden with our Mo Botanical Gardens membership.

Lots of neat birds and criters here, too.

and botanicals

Thanksgiving 2012! 

The table is set.

a ride to South Beach

love the quirky buildings in S Beach

good restaurants all around their area, too.

more xmas decorations

and a cow

wonder if anyone has bought that swim suit to the left?!

more decorations

Love all the palm trees!!!

more weird decor

never got a cruise out of here yet.  But have done plenty out of Ft. Lauderdale

a xmas tree

 
natural toys for dogs---coconuts

 

 

 

 

on to Naples through Alligator Alley

stopping along the way

walking arund until we saw the signs "beware of panthers"

back to the road

they use to have a problem with alligators on the highway, so they put up a fence all along the way

Love the grackles and their cackling sound

where it actually looks like the Everglades

more beauty from the highway

xmas decorations in Naples

the Naples pier

a typical Naples house

and another

a little marina in Naples

sunset along the Gulf

Back to the East side and a fan boat ride in the Everglades

Swamp hen

a fan boat

and we're off

Back at the kids' house---ken installing the rivets for Hurricane door cover so the kids can get a break on their insurance cost

back to Flamingo Gardens

inside the little house at the gardens

the house

Angie being eaten by an alligator

just a few of the birds here

driving along A1A near Ft. Lauderdale

always shoring up the road from being washed out by the ocean

back to the kids' house

the side of their house.  Not sure why

 

2012 Nov. HAL 11 night Noordam Southern Caribbean Cruise: Barbados; Dominica; Martinique; St. Lucia; St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Half Moon Cay

11 night Southern Caribbean Cruise

After our last 2 November Caribbean cruises in less then ideal weather conditions, you would think we'ld learn not to cruise the Caribbean in hurricane season!  But we persisted and gave it another try.  This time we did our longest cruise yet---11 nights on the Noordam and had almost perfect weather the whole time!   We actually booked this cruise while we were on the Eurodam last year.

I chose this cruise , (Holland America's Noordam) mainly because it went to St. Lucia.  I've always wanted to see St. Lucia.  The cruise also included stops in St. Maarten, Barbados, Dominica, Martinique, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay.  It was very port intensive, which I loved---6 port days in a row, another port later.  Ken's more of a sea day fan, but he held up pretty well.

2012 Noordam ship

2012-11-5,6, and 7  Up to and including our first 3 nights:  Sea days

2012-11-8  St. Maarten 

2012-11-9  St. Lucia

2012-11-10  Barbados

2012-11-11 Martinique

2012-11-12  Dominica

2012-11-13 St. Thomas


After 6 port days in a row, the next day was a welcomed sea day!  Even though I'm not a big fan of sea days, the day of rest was nice.  Althought my plans for sleeping in didn't go so well.  Somewhere in the Caribbean waters I encountered what I assume was sea lice---invisible to the eye, larvae or jellyfish or other stinging ocean critters that attacked me---and I ended up with an extremely itchy rash.  I had this happen before on a couple of our trips to Hawaii (out of about 20 trips to Hawaii), so I wasn't surprised.  Apparently they don't bother everyone---like Ken---but they sure like me.  Took about 5 days for the extreme itching to subside.  At least it happened near the end of our cruise.

2012-11-15 Halfmoon Cay

his was Ken's 4th cruise, my 10th.   Other than my first cruise (when my Dad almost drowned), I haven't had a bad one yet (not counting weather).  I really enjoyed seeing the new places and revisiting the ones we've been to.  We enjoyed it so much we even did the onboard booking for the ship board credit for the next one.  The $200 ship board credit for booking onboard last year and the $100 OBC for having CCL stock came in really handy this year.  After gratuities of $12/day@ , the Canelleto dinner, and a couple other items we bought onboard, we only owed $56 when we debarked.

Now to start dreaming about where to go next!





2012 Sept to Coral Springs to visit the kids

 Off to see the kids again!

 

Aww, our home away from home

our beach away from home---Deerfield beach

another reciprocal garden to our MOBOT----Bonnet House

cute little place with a neat old house and estate gardens on it

OK, not so little house

love the marine decor

love the shells on the border

close up

a view of the back of the house

back to Deerfield beach

pretty calm day

gotta get in

back to the kids' house and pool

Murphy living the best dog's life

 

2011 and 2012 In and around Georgia

I never consider heading to Georgia for a vacation!  That is until my daughter and son-in-law moved there in 2010.  That's when I discovered Georgia is a great place to vacation.  And it's even drivable from St. Louis (9 hours) or a quick cheap flight away.  Unfortunately (or fortunately---we'll see!), in the summer of 2012 they moved again---this time to Ft. Lauderdale.  So this blog is about the few trips I took to Georgia while they lived there.

On Dec. 15th of 2010, I rode with Angie from St. Louis to Atlanta to help with the move.  First impressions weren't that impressive. 

 We spent the first night in a hotel.  The next morning we met the movers at their new home.  It was a nice townhome, but why would anyone want a place with 3 stories!?  They actually lived about 20 miles north of Atlanta in the city of Alpharetta. 

After spending much of the next few days unpacking, it was almost time for me to fly home.  We left for the airport early and were able to spend a couple hours at the spectacular aquarium in downtown Atlanta.  I love aquariums and found this to be one of the best.  Angie was a great guide!  When she lived in St. Louis, she actually worked on the Atlanta Aquarium as the architect from PGAV Architects in St. Louis in charge of their new penguin enclosure, as well as the outside walkway from the parking garage.  I'm happy to say the penguins seem to enjoy their space!

 Another of the displays

 A huge whale shark in the huge tank! 

 Some south American fishies.

 They were even decorated for the Christmas season.