Florida Trip, part 5

One final post from our Florida trip, and these are just some random pictures that I took with the i-pad while we were at Tony and Jeane's. 

This is the back of the house where Tony and Jeane spent the winter. It belongs to Dan and Janet now, since Janet's mother passed away last year. I spent a lot of time looking out that big window, looking for an alligator. Not too long before we were there, Jeane saw one right by that palm tree! 

The first day we were there, I went out the back door and didn't close the door quite quickly enough, so I let a little lizard into the house. Fortunately Jeane is not as big a chicken as I am.  She got out her lizard-catching equipment and soon had him captured.

This is as close as I wanted to get!  Yeah, I know, he's really little. 

Dad and Tony going for a bike ride. These are the bikes that the Diekemas take with them when they travel, because they fold up.  I  thought that Dad looked quite humorous on that little bike---oh, and he was also wearing  Jeane's helmet. That REALLY looked funny, until she showed him how to adjust the straps so that it didn't just sit on top of his head. 

We saw a lot of these little ducks in their pond---I think they're called Muscovy Ducks, and they are kind of pretty.

And this guy was a very frequent visitor.

I REALLY wanted to get a good look at an alligator before we left. When we came home from church on the last Sunday, we saw one lying on the edge of the pond right by the entrance to their development. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me. So we walked back over there with the ipad. He was actually lying on that cement culvert on the edge of the pond, but before I could get a picture he slithered into the water. Just to the right of that culvert you can see his eyes and nose sticking up out of the water a little bit---that was the best I could do. 

After ten very enjoyable days in Florida it was time to head back to Wisconsin. We took a different route back, with an overnight stop just north of Birmingham, Alabama.  There were some pretty big storms that came through that area that afternoon, but we were fortunate enough to avoid them.  We did experience one result of the storm, though---Cracker Barrel was extremely busy when we went there for dinner, because they were one of the few restaurants that had power. All in all it was a great trip---I think we'd like to do it again!

Florida Trip, part 4--Sunsets, etc.

One evening Bill and Pat took us to a pier in Venice to see the sunset. There is a restaurant right by the pier, called Sharkey's. Waiting time when we were there was unbelievably long, like 90 minutes or something. We did NOT eat there, but just walked out onto the pier.

A couple of tourists on the pier. 

There were a lot of people fishing on the pier. One woman was cleaning her fish on that shelf, and she asked Pat to keep that bird away from her fish while she went to get something.

When she came back she told Pat to give the bird a piece of the fish (that would have been thrown away, I guess). I was glad it was Pat and not me.

The birds sure do hang around there---they're no dummies!

Sunset!

Those same two tourists again--I know, he looks like he's either drunk or half asleep. But I assure you, he was neither! Just likes to close his eyes when he has his picture taken. :)

One more sunset shot. This was actually a different night--same body of water and same sun, though. Just a different beach and a different night. On this particular night we nearly froze while sitting at a hymn sing on Venice Beach with Tony and Jeane.  Usually they end the hymn sing right at sunset, but this time they quit early because it was so cold. We went out for dinner after that, and were happy for the heaters out on the restaurant patio.

Stay tuned for one more post!

Florida Trip, Part 3--Stump Pass State Park

Another of my favorite things was our hike at Stump Pass State Park.  This is very close to where the Brassers were staying, so we also got to see their condo on this outing.  Very nice!  It wasn't a real warm day, as you can see from the sweatshirts, etc., but the sun was shining and it was very pleasant. Only one man joined the five women on this hike.

On the trail, which was mostly sand and mostly flat. Nice!

We spent some time watching this bird devour a fish up on that branch.

Pat could be a tour guide. She knows a LOT about Florida birds and other wildlife. Here I think she's pointing out a dolphin. 

The trail ended at this beach where there were lots of shells.

More shell seeking.

It doesn't really show up very well on this picture, but there are a lot of shells hanging on the branches behind us. 

Maybe a heron? I know Pat told me, but I don't remember.

My best souvenir of the day! I could hardly believe it when I looked down and saw a whole sand dollar!

Part 3 completed without losing any pictures!  I'm starting to get my confidence back. More to come.

Florida Trip, part 2--Ringling Museum, Sarasota

Hoping for better luck with the pictures this time!

We really only had one rainy day while we were there, so on that day we went to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.  It was a very interesting place! We started out by touring the home that had been built by one of the Ringling brothers, John. It is right on the water, and I got as close to the water as I could to take this picture (without falling in). According to what I read, people would dock their yachts right there when they came to parties at the mansion.

The Cad Zan Mansion, which means "House of John"

A couple of the ornate circus wagons that were used when the circus moved from town to town. 

In keeping with the Circus theme, Lynda had a foot-long corn dog for lunch. 

In one of the buildings there was an awesome miniature circus display.  It was a HUGE display, and the amount of detail was just amazing. 

This picture was taken from an upstairs viewing area. It gives an idea of how big the display was, but this probably only shows less than half of it. 

These two pictures were taken at the art museum that is also on the grounds. It was very nice, too, but I really enjoyed the circus displays more than the art.

Kind of an unusual tree---I think it's a banyan, but I may be wrong about that.

Pat and Jeane enjoying the greenery.

I kind of wondered why this Ringling Museum is in Sarasota, but apparently the circus didn't travel around during the winter---they spent the winter in Sarasota. 

After our day at the Museum, we went to an Amish restaurant for a delicious dinner. The restaurant was very much like the Essenhaus Restaurant in Indiana.  We also saw a lot of Amish people, including some very cute little children.  Who knew that there were Amish people in Sarasota?  Not me!

End of Part 2. I've decided to do this in smaller bits so that if I lose my pictures I don't lose so many.  So stay tuned!

Florida Trip, part 1

Well, this is a long overdue post!!  Let's see....we went to Florida in March, and now it is May.  That is inexcusable, so I won't even try to make excuses.

We had a great trip and a wonderful time with the Waanders siblings (and younger relatives) in Florida.  Our drive down went well.  We did it in two days, with an overnight stop in Dalton, Georgia.  We arrived at Diekemas in Sarasota in time for dinner on the second day.  We spent the first few days at Diekemas, then moved over to Bill and Pat's in Venice for a few days, and then back to Diekemas for the last couple days.  In addition to the Diekemas and the Waanders, the Brassers were also in Florida for the whole month of March.  They were in a condo in Englewood.  These three cities are all within about an hour or less of each other, so there was a fair amount of "gathering together" for meals and other activities. There also were some visits from the younger generation:  Jane was there when we got there, but left a couple days later.  Lynda came the day after we did, and she went home the same day we did.  Dan and Scott came the second week-end that we were there and so did Karen.

I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures to show some of the things we saw and did.

This was taken during the short time that both Jane and Lynda were there. We met for breakfast on Saturday morning and then all came over to Tony and Jeane's place, except for Bill and Dad who went to a baseball game. Jane left for home that afternoon.

On Sunday Betsy drove up from Fort Myers and we all had pizza at Bill and Pat's. The ladies were sitting out in the lanai. That would be Lynda, Jeane, JoAnne, Betsy and Pat. (Sorry---kind of dark, so you can hardly see Lynda.)

And the men were inside watching basketball.  It was March, after all. 

Well, I just lost all the pictures I was trying to put on here, and I'm having trouble getting them back.  So I am going to post just this part for now so that I don't lose this, too.  Hopefully there will be more to follow. 

Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!

After our California trip we were home a total of 2 days, and then we headed to Iowa to help Jeremiah celebrate his 3rd birthday. Wow, this retirement stuff is rough!

We arrived Saturday afternoon during Jeremiah's nap, so we had to be satisfied with an enthusiastic greeting from Molly. (sorry, no picture)  We had to wait a bit to get our hugs from Jeremiah, but well worth the wait. We had dinner at a favorite spot in Ankeny---Pizza Ranch.  Yummy!  And we were glad that we had gone early when we saw the line out the door when we were leaving! 

When we got home Jeremiah opened the presents from us as, well as the ones we had brought back from California for him.  He was VERY excited!!

Building blocks from Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl

Opening his card so carefully

A set of "Cars" themed Duplo blocks

And a set of small construction vehicles

 

Can you tell---Jeremiah LOVES construction vehicles!!

And after the presents were opened, it was time for birthday cake! 

What a cool Mickey Mouse cake!

Time for the Happy Birthday song!

Monday, February 18, was the actual birthday.  Jeremiah was very excited to see the balloons and birthday banner that Rachel had put up after he went to bed the night before.

The Birthday Boy!

Another card to open.....

....and read.

 

And more presents---a garbage truck that really works!

 

Grandpa made Jeremiah a special green chocolate chip pancake! 

What could be better than a book about vehicles?

 

Maybe a vehicle-themed Memory Game? (Jeremiah won!)

We went along for Jeremiah's 3-year photo shoot at Target that morning. He was a real star!!! He did absolutely everything that the photographer asked him to do, and she got some great shots of him!  I'm not sure what her secret is---I have trouble getting him to stand still and look at the camera long enough to get a decent shot. 

After lunch and some play time at McDonalds, it was time for us to head back to Wisconsin.  But not before we posed for a picture with the Birthday Boy!

An Experiment

I am being very brave here---I'm going to see if I can upload a couple of videos that I took while we were in CA.  Usually the videos I get are done by mistake, because my camera has somehow gotten into the video mode by mistake.  Those result in videos of the floor, ceiling, people's feet, and lots of movement that would result in motion sickness. These two were actually intentional videos.  There may still be a bit of the motion sickness factor, though, and I apologize for that. We'll see how this goes.

The first video is of the kids playing in the snow at Oak Glen.

And then here's one of the kids enjoying their Valentine lollipops right after breakfast. (With some silly noises provided by Grandpa)

 

So....I just published my post, and did a test to see if I could get the videos to work.  Surprise, surprise!! It worked!!! I continue to amaze myself. :)

Now, really, the next post will be of Jeremiah's birthday.  I decided to try this one first, to stay in chronological order.