WONDERFUL Weekend!

Well, I've already been scolded three times for not keeping my blog up-to-date. Gee, I didn't know I had such an avid public! Anyway - the main thing my "fans" want to know is: how did my next 5K go? It went GREAT! I brought my time down from 38 minutes 21 seconds to 36 minutes 11 seconds, a VERY nice improvement. The bad news: apparently there are at least three other old ladies out there doing the St. Patty's Day run - because I came in fourth in my age group. But I don't care - the thing that I DO care about is that I improved my own run time. So the NEXT thing for me is the Tulip Time Run in May! But what made this run even extra special is that my son-in-law Arnie ran it with me. He was SO nice - he stayed with me all the way except for maybe the last half-hour when he finally gave in and pulled away from me to finally run at a more natural pace for him. But he was very complimentary to me and (best of all) he didn't try to force me to run faster or try harder or anything-he just simply ran with me. I had a GREAT time. The run was actually in this scenic old cemetery, with the route on these roads just winding in and around through the gravestones. It was kind of cool, but my daughter and Dave struggled a bit with it being "disrespectful" of the "occupants". Brenda and Dave were our cheering section and were right there when both of us crossed the finish line, which was SO nice!

But as fun as the run was, it was only a small portion of the weekend. Brenda and Arnie got in late Friday night, and then on Saturday they headed out to Amelia Island and joined us at our campsite around noon. Dave and Arnie had reservations for a "master" tour at the Budweiser brewery in Jacksonville, so they took off in one car (I think they both enjoyed the tour overall, but agreed that their twenty-two year old guide wasn't nearly knowledgeable enough to be leading the tour-but they liked the free beer at the end!). In the meanwhile, Brenda and I took off and drove down to Jacksonville Beach to pick up the race packs for Arnie and me, and then we drove into Jacksonville to check out the site of the race (we got kind of lost but we're both brave little souls and we got found again). Then Brenda suggested we stop at this great little coffee shop downtown called "Three Layers"-VERY cool place. The four of us met up later in the day and had pizza at this neat little restaurant in Fernandina (although frankly the pizza was a little disappointing) and then we went back to the state park for a night-time tour of the fort (i.e. Fort Clinch). That was also pretty interesting but Dave and I remember the one from four years ago as being quite a bit more "robust". But a great day overall and I got to spend a lot of time catching up with my daughter-heaven!

Then on Sunday we met EARLY for the run, and afterwards we stopped back at the kids' hotel and grabbed a "freebie" breakfast. Brenda and Arnie had decided to spend the day down in St. Augustine so I agreed to go with them, while Dave decided to go back to the park and do some fishing and stuff. Undoubtedly the right decision for him, because Brenda and Arnie walked my FEET right off the ends of my legs! OMG! But, OH, we had such a great day. St. Augustine, of course, is absolutely wonderful to visit, and we had a delicious lunch at a quaint little deli and a wonderful dinner at this terrific Cuban restaurant. We walked up and down the streets and Brenda actually bought TWO dresses - a miracle, because she NEVER wears dresses. She actually wore one out of the shop and looked adorable! We stopped in at the seafood festival/fair for a while - Brenda was thrilled with the little personalized bib she bought for Emma - and proud of herself because she tried (and liked) grouper! I don't think I got back to the park until about 10:30 and BOY was I beat (I DID start the day with the 5K run, after all!). But it was just wonderful to spend the day with the two of them.

On Monday, they picked up their three little grandbabies (Arnie's daughter's children). Andy is 7, Mercedes is 4, and little Gracie just turned 3. Sweet, cute little kids-pictures attached! They brought the kids out to the park Monday afternoon and we took them out on the pier and then we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs and made s'mores (of course!). They were very well-behaved and great fun to have around. And they LOVED Brandi and weren't the least bit afraid of her, which was so nice. I was afraid that they would be scared of her and that I'd have to tie her line way out in the field! Another great day with my daughter and her family.

On Tuesday, we didn't get to see them because we had to pick up my BEAUTIFUL patched-up little Camry - it looks great! We had to turn in the rental car, pack up the kayaks and bikes and get ready to move Wednesday morning (i.e. today). It all got a little hectic, because the car wasn't done quite on time, so we spent a lot of the day waiting and calling and checking up on it. Plus, the park rangers TOOK our kayaks from where we had chained them down by the water so Dave had to go "rescue" them. Too long and complicated to tell the whole story, but their excuse was that people "leave things behind all the time" - WHAT? $500 kayaks? I don't THINK so! Anyway, it all worked out in the end and we got a nice early start today and arrived here in Georgia at the Seminole State Park by around 2:00. Beautiful park! We're here for one week, then begin to move up the length of the state.

So Florida is now behind us. As usual, we had a great time at Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island - one of our favorite parks, actually. Dave did some fishing, we did some biking, the island is gorgeous, I did three AVA walks - ALL GOOD! And we had an incredible time during our almost-four-months stay in Florida! So now we begin our slow trek back to home. It's weird, though - normally we would be heading back to cold, brown, nasty weather but from what I've been hearing it sounds like it's been in the 80's back home - I know they've had an amazingly warm winter overall, with recordbreaking high temperatures day after day after day. And that certainly makes going home a little easier, right? At the moment, we're expecting to be back home by the middle of April - and from what I hear, it sounds like I will probably be going back to help out at Kerkstra again this summer. That would be great-I feel SO lucky to have this opportunity of coming back to Michigan, working part time during the summer, learning new stuff, feeling appreciated and valuable and then leaving in the fall. How cool is that? (OK, I may be "sucking up" a bit since I know quite a few Kerkstra folks read my blog - but it really IS the truth!). HOWEVER, we are NOT done traveling quite yet, so more blogs to follow.....

Fort Clinch State Park

We are now at our last state park in Florida - unreal how quickly our time here has gone! Last Wednesday we moved from Wekiwa Springs up to Fort Clinch State Park. The park is in the town of Fernandina, which is on Amelia Island. Amelia Island is on the northeast side of Jacksonville - maybe 15 miles or so. It is in the VERY upper corner of Florida - in fact, when you stand on the beach at the park you are looking right at Georgia. This park is one of our very favorites. It has everything you could ask for in a park-excellent biking, hiking, kayaking, a great fishing pier extending into the ocean, two campgrounds (one in the woods, one on the beach), and a FORT that you can tour. Plus, there's a cute bar right outside of the park, called Sandy Bottoms, with a very nice deck right on the ocean beach. Plus the town of Fernandina is only about 5 miles away, and is an excellent bike ride. I'm posting a picture of me standing next to the wooden pirate outside of The Palace Saloon, which prides itself on being the oldest continually-operating bar in the country. And - VERY important for me! - there are a TON of AVA walks, both in the immediate area and also quite a few in Jacksonville. When we were here two years ago, I did a number of the AVA walks, and (to my delgiht!) they've added a few more. IN FACT, I've already done two of the walks this week and hope to get in another one tomorrow.

When we pulled into the park, we had a two-week reservation at the river campground (which is the one in the woods). It's very pretty back there, and the back of the campground ends at a nice waterfront facing the channel that runs along the back side of the island. It's a nice place to kayak because you're not out in the open ocean-and you can paddle up the shoreline a short distance and go into Egan Creek, which has some marinas and fishing docks. The problem with this campground however, is that it was absolutely impossible for us to pick up a TV signal. And after poor Dave had to struggle all alone while I was visiting my friends, it seemed kind of unfair for us to go another two weeks without TV (especially with March Madness starting!). When we checked in to the park, they mentioned that the beach campground had been closed for rennovation and would be opening in a "few days". So I went up to the office on Friday and checked on it and actually found out the beach campground was opening that very day, and there were TWO sites left available for a 12 day stay. So we GRABBED it and moved within the hour. There is a BRAND new restroom and shower-WOW! And there's a GREAT TV signal! There is a boardwalk that goes from the campground down to the ocean beach and, a short walk south along the beach there is a gorgeou VERY long fishing pier (I'm attaching a couple pictures taken while we were walking on the pier yesterday). So, as you can tell, we are very happy here and are looking forward to the next week-and-a-half.

Quick car update-my poor beat-up Camry is now in the garage, getting a much neeeded face-lift. In the meanwhile, we have this weird little red box for a rental car- a Kia Soul, which is fine for now but NOT a car I would like long term. As of today, the car has been in for six days, so I'm hoping we get a call from the garage in the next couple of days, telling me that my baby is ready to come home.

So, as I mentioned, I did two AVA walks this week. The first one was ok-it was a two-mile walk along the Egan Creek Greenway (which was pretty but was basically a straight line along the bank of the creek), then a walk through a residential area on the beach, then a two-mile walk back along AIA (basically walking on a sidewalk past a bunch of beach houses on a VERY busy street). The second one, however, was much more interesting. It was in the Fernandina "Old Town" area. The route snaked through an old residential area (in fact, there was a sign that said it was the very last town platted by the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere), and through a VERY old and interesting cemetery dating back to the late 1700's, then past the huge papermill that seems to be the absolute largest industry in the town, and finally through a portion of the pretty downtown area. Dave and I plan to go to the Jacksonville Beach tomorrow so I can do one of the AVA walks in that area while he rides his bike. I'll probably try to do one more AVA walk on Friday, but that'll probably be all I have time for....because:

Brenda and Arnie are coming down in THREE MORE DAYS. Actually, they'll be driving all day Friday, so we probably won't see them until Saturday, but I just can't wait! And then Sunday, of course, is my next 5K! I've been training like crazy and am feeling optimistic about seeing an improvement in my run time for this 5K compared to the one I did back in Melbourne. I've been running pretty much every alternate day and am just amazed at how much easier it gets as time goes by (note that I did not say "easy" I just said "easier!"). When I think about my first few runs (walk 90 seconds, run 60 second, etc) I'm pretty proud of myself! So it'll be GREAT fun to have Brenda and Arnie here to spend a few days with us and share the 5K experience with. HOW COOL! So-my next blog will include an update on how that went-stay tuned!

(PS-one final comment-there was this incredibly unique person staying in the campground when we arrived. His name was "Johnny B" and he had a medium size black dog named "Blackie". And he lives in this yellow box! Yep, I said a box! He is apparently homeless and he rides this yellow three-wheeled bicycle, and he pulls this yellow box behind his bicycle. And apparently he lives inside this box. I desperately wanted to get a picture of it to put in my blog, but the only times we went past his site, he was there so of course we wouldn't snap a picture with him standing there. I guess he has a TV and DVD player inside this box (along with some kind of a bed!) and he came over and asked if we had any movies he could borrow. I loaned him 3 movies and sure enough he brought them right back the next day-he said he watched Young Frankenstein three times! Dave and I went through our DVD's and gave him a couple that had a bunch of old westerns on them and told him he could keep them. He left today-he told Dave he had no idea where he was going next, but we keep talking about him. Unbelievable to think people actually LIVE like this, isn't it? We are SO lucky and fortunate to have everything that we do, aren't we?)

The Pineapples Visit!

In my last post (....posted about 30 seconds ago!) I mentioned that my friends Cindi and Glennda came down for a visit. It was so wonderful to see them! They flew into the Fort Myers airport and had reservations at a condo on Sanibel Island, at a really nice place called the Siesta Sanibel. They came in late Thursday night and just stayed at a hotel near the airport that night, and then Friday drove out to Sanibel to take possession of the condo. So I drove over from Apopka Friday morning. My departure was slightly delayed because I rented a car rather than drive the Camry (per a STRONG recommendation from the insurance adjuster) and therefore didn't get on the road until about 9:30. But I made good time and got to Sanibel about 1:30. I stayed with them until Monday and they flew home today (Tuesday). Although it was a fairly short visit, it felt a lot longer because we did so many things in those few days. Thankfully the weather cooperated and the girls got lots of sunshine and warm weather. (PS-don't ask why we call ourselves "Pineapples"-it's too complicated and goes back many MANY years.)

So let's see-what all did we do (besides talk and talk and eat and talk)? Well, on Friday we all got settled in and then went for a nice walk on the beach and dropped in at a cute little tiki bar at the Sundial Resort, which was just a few doors over from us. The bartender there recommended a couple restaurants so we took his advice and went to the Lazy Flamingo, a nice little casual place with a mostly seafood menu. Very nice! Everyone was tired, so it was an early bedtime for us "senor citizens"!

On Saturday, we got up early (which means about 6:00 for Cindi and 8:00 for Glennda and me). Glennda and I actually mustered up the amition to go for a run (she did GREAT!) and Cindi rode her bike alongside us (she had to ride REALLY slow, but she did it). After we got back from this little excursion, we jumped on our bikes and took off on a nice ride - Sanibel has bike trails EVERYWHERE (with about a million people using the trails at the same time!). I had brought my bike along with me, which was really nice, and Cindi and Glennda had rented bikes and had them delivered to the condo on Friday afternoon. We rode up to the J. Ding "Darling" National Wildlife Preserve, primarily so I could pick up my national Senior Pass (the ONLY advantage of being 62!!!). This pass is GREAT and will give me a 50% discount at all National and Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds - a huge benefit! While we were biking we stopped at a fun place for lunch, called George and Wendy's. What an interesting menu. We had a fried-green-tomato "bruschetta" for an appetizer (picture attached) and then great lunch selections. After our bike ride we went to the pool at the condos and hung out for a couple hours. That night we just had dinner at home and just enjoyed each other's company for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday we got up early again (see above!) and headed out for breakfast at a neat place called the "Over Easy Cafe". They are renowned for their breakfasts, and I can see why. Very nice selection of breakfast choices. The weather prediction for Sunday called for storms in the morning, so we decided a little road trip might be in order. We drove off the island and headed over to the causeway to Fort Myers Beach. We drove the length of the island, then over onto Lovers Key, and on to Bonita Beach. We stopped at Coconut Point (a HUGE shopping area) and did a little shopping, but by 1:00 we noticed the weather was getting much better so we decided to cut short our shopping time and get back over to Sanibel for a little more pool time! After a couple hours, we decided to get the car back out for a while and took a drive up to the end of Sanibel and over onto Captiva Island. Captiva is beautiful, but we decided we were much happier on Sanibel-more to do! We went back home, showered, and then headed out for our "last supper" together. We chose a GREAT resaurant called Timbers for dinner. What a nice place! Glennda and I both had the sea bass, which was wonderful.

And then it was Monday already! I went for a run first thing in the morning (I've got that 5K coming up on March 18, you know!) while Cindi and Glennda went for a bke ride out to the lighthouse at the end of the island. Since it was still pretty early when we got done, and it was a little chilly still, we decided to just do some shopping on the island. There are some really cute shops so it was fun to browse. Cindi found a great purse and I found some terrific cargo shorts made by Columbia-I was thrilled because I'd been looking for these specific shorts for a couple years - PLUS they were on sale! Glennda and I indulged ourselves by having some gellato (yummy...) and then we headed back to the condo for a last hour at the pool. And then it was time for me to pack up. The girls helped me load up and, after big hugs all around, I hit the road for my 4 hour return trip. I got back home about 7:30, to a very happy Dave and even happier Brandi! (....just kidding-Dave missed me at least as much as Brandi did).

I texted the girls this afternoon and they were just boarding their plane, so I assume they're home and in bed by now, ready to go back to work tomorrow. I feel bad for them that they have to return to "real life" right away, but I know they had a great "spring break" and it was so wonderful to spend time together. And, as I told my daughter, I had a great vacation from my vacation, and now I'm ready to return to my vacation. Life IS so good! (PS-I'm attaching a few pictures of the condo here at the end, just for the heck of it. It was very comfortable and, being on the third floor, we had a little bit of a view of the ocean and a great breeze pretty much all the time. The best thing about the unit was the nice big screened-in porch facing toward the ocean - I think we spent the vast majority of our "at home" time sitting out here... I told Cindi and Glennda that ANYTIME they feel like traveling someplace and renting a condo, I would be more than happy to join them!)

AVA Walks 9 and 10!

Lots of updates this time! The best thing is the fact that my "pineapple" girlfriends (...don't ask!) came down for a visit this week. We had an absolutely wonderful time, but I'll come back to that in a minute. In fact, I'm going to write a whole separate post on their visit. But before that, a few more updates... First of all, our car: the insurance adjuster came last week and gave us an estimate of about $3,600 for the reapirs, which is good because it means they aren't going to total the car (such a relief!). Other good news: the driver of the car who rear-ended us has accepted responsibility for the accident, so we will be reimbursed for our $500 deductible - great! The not-so-good news: the adjuster told us that the radiator was "compromised" because the something-or-other that sits in front of the radiator (...got me!) was pushed back and is mashed up against the radiator. He also said the car is probably out of alignment. All in all, he strongly recommended that we get it fixed while we're still down here in Florida, rather than waiting until we get home. So we've made an appointment to take it into one of their "approved" body shops up on Amelia Island the day after we arrive (we move there tomorrow, Wednesday, and will take it in on Thursday morning). They'll have a rental car ready for us to drive while the repairs are being done. The job is estimated to take eight days, and the car will be available to them for thirteen days, so cross your fingers for us! When we leave Amelia Island, we'll be moving over to just south of Gainesville, which isn't TERRIBLY far, so in a worst case scenario, they could probably even keep it a few days longer (which of course we will NOT tell them!). So hopefully the whole car incident will end up working out ok overall....

Another quick update: I did another AVA walk on Thursday of last week. This was my ninth AVA walk of this trip, but more importantly it was my 50th walk since I started doing these! YAY for me!!! 50!!!! I'm pretty proud of that. This filled in my third log book, so I sent it in and will be getting another certificate - I LOVE certificates! This walk was in Celebration, Florida. Very interesting place - it is a brand new "town" planned and designed by the Disney Company in the mid-1990's. According to Wikipedia, it had a population of about 7,400 in 2010. The whole town is picture-perfect, with beautiful houses in many different architectural styles. Everything is beautifully landscaped, with lots of little lakes and ponds, parks everyplace, miles of gorgeous biking/walking trails and a beautiful little downtown with lots of shops and restaurants. Everything looks like it is absolutely perfect - sort of like that town in Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show. A little weird overall, but a GREAT place for an AVA walk! I'm sticking in a few pictures just for grins.

Right now we are in Wekiwa Springs State Park in Apopka, Florida - about 15 minutes north of downtown Orlando. The park is very, very nice, built around a gorgeous natural spring. You can swim in the spring year-round, since it has a constant temperature in the mid-70's. The park has a wonderful trail system - in fact, there is actually an AVA walk here in the park, so I did my 10th AVA walk of the trip today and didn't even have to leave the park! And I got to put my first stamp in my brand new logbook (which will cover walks #51 through #75). The water from the springs goes down a very pretty little river that eventually runs into the St John's River. After meandering through some beautiful scenery, the river crosses over from state property to public property. At this point there is a really cool bar that we both love to visit - it is right on the bank of the river, with andirondack chairs lined up along the river front to people can sit on the edge of the water and watch the JILLIONS of kayaks and canoes go by. There's a neat little "tiki" bar and it's just lots of fun to people-watch in addition to watching the activity on the river. The bar is called the "Wekiva Resort" and we can reach it by either paddling up river, or by jumping on our bikes and peddling about 15 minutes. Dave went there pretty much every day while I was gone visiting my friends over in Fort Myers. Since he had NO TV at all for those four days, I think this bar saved his life-he would have gone CRAZY without it, I'm afraid. The site that we are camped in at this park has trees completely surrounding it and we haven't been able to pick up a satellite signal at all - plus, for some reason, our "rabbit ears" aren't picking up local channels either - so Dave had to entertain himself with just the radio. (Must EVERY one of our posts have SOME kind of problem related to TV????) Anyway...he made it through, but just barely! I got back yesterday from my trip and today we did mostly "park things" - Dave fished and I did my AVA walk. And tomorrow we leave already! We only had eight days in this park, which is really a short stay for us. Tomorrow we pack everything up and move about a 100 miles north to Amelia Island, on the northern side of Jacksonville. That's where we'll be for the next two weeks and I'm so excited because Brenda and Arnie will be visiting us while we're at that park. Plus - I'll be doing my next 5K during that stay (along with my son-in-law Arnie-FUN!). But for now I'm going to wrap up this post and immediately do a separate one about Cindi and Glennda's visit, so don't go anywhere!