Author: livingthedreamwithsallyandvic

We found parking in a lot and walked around downtown. Duval St., Mallory Square, Greene St. Vic bought me 3 shirts (also got me one yesterday), a green NM style hat, and a cameo!!! Then we had lunch at Greene Thai, the best Panang curry yum it was super. Also got shrimp pad Thai and that was very delicious too. The curry was my favorite though. Lots of people watching and walking around just taking it all in.

Yesterday we stopped at Crane Point Hammock, a nature preserve with a gift shop. Look at the size of this turtle.

These are all phone photos (sigh).

Campsite fee $35/night Sigsbee NAS

Comparable civilian campsite with full hookup $315/night

Hyatt, nice enough but not lavish certainly $600/night

We went to Zachary Taylor state park and enjoyed a couple of hours sitting on the beach in the shade watching many varieties of water craft. The water was Caribbean blue/green, beautiful. Put my water shoes on and walked in the water. Had to walk over a stretch of crushed coral to get there. The water was very clear.

Beautiful boats and people fishing

First stop, Stay at Port St Lucie Elks Lodge for one night. (March 4)

Vic found a waterfront restaurant with outdoor seating in a marina and Zoe was welcome. Amazing meal – best crab cake (appetizer) I have ever had. So fresh, perfectly prepared and scrumptious. I had clams linguini, he had Mahi Mahi and we shared key lime pie. Did I say amazing?!!! Yum. Zoe was a perfect guest, ate her dry food and had a couple of strands of my linguini. She loved it.

The whole thing was wonderful, the view, the food, and the ambiance.

Second stop, Miami. We stayed in a church parking lot overnight. The fenced in property next door had peacocks!

Sigsbee Naval Air Base

We got to Key West on Monday around 1 pm. This is a Navy base with a commissary and an exchange. First thing we did was go to the exchange and get water shoes.

Set up has been easy with the hydraulics fixed. Whew. We are 20 feet from the water. There is no sand beach. People are kayaking, some jet skis. Super nice campground, mostly retired people, roomy lots with a bathhouse for showers.

For dinner we got Cheeseburgers from the Hideaway Grill. Sat and ate them next to the water while Vic played Jimmy Buffet Cheeseburger in Paradise LOL. People say the sunsets are spectacular here. All of todays photos are from my iPhone. We will all have to wait for Vic to process the camera shots to see if I got a decent one of the peacocks.

While we waited for our hydraulics to get worked on, we spent a morning at Lake Morton, since we were already in Lakeland. Vic was saying I’ll take Zoe and you take pictures. What a great offer! While he’s saying that I spotted an eagle coming in and captured him swooping down and grabbing a duck off the lake! The eagle was really really far out but Vic was able to “bring it in” with his editing skills. Also saw wood ducks, white swans black swans and white pelicans There is one black necked white swan who lost its mate a couple of years ago that has now mated with a white swan.

After the hydraulics work got done we moved to an Elks Lodge in North Ft Myer. We were a short drive from Geri’s house in LeHigh Acres. We had 2 very fun days visiting with Geri and Charlotte (visiting Geri). Eating, talking, laughing, playing cards. We even got to meet Geri’s brother Joe and sister in law Nancy. I made dinner both nights. First chicken enchiladas then chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. Yum. Charlotte made her world class brownies so that was a major treat. We learned 2 new card games, Five Crowns and Skyjo.

We became good friends while working at a law firm together and remained friends after retiring. We took several trips together and had terrific times on all of them. I don’t get to see them very often so this visit was a big deal for me. Love you ladies!

We began with a stop at BigFoot Leveling Systems in Lakeland. Bigfoot is our hydraulics/leveling system. We’ve been having trouble with one of the “legs “. Also we wanted to install an upgrade on the control panel. They had ordered the control panel in advance. They worked all day and still it wasn’t done (defective panel, among other issues) so we stayed in their garage overnight. Our internet wouldn’t work inside the building so we used their wifi. We were very comfortable.

This morning they finished up while we went to Lake Morton and shot photos of swans, ducks, white pelicans, wood ducks and other birds. As my Chums friend Dale says, we made lemonade out of lemons.

Vic had Zoe on the leash while I had the camera and we walked around Lake Morton. The first thing I saw was an Eagle dipping down and grabbing a fish! Sure hope that comes out!!!

We had coffee and muffins for breakfast at Black and Brew in Lakeland.

We will visit my dear friends Geri and Charlotte in LeHigh Acres tomorrow at Geri’s FL house. Can’t wait to see them!

Last photo and this isn’t much quality wise since it is on my phone but these swans are so cool. The black necked swan lost its mate a couple of years ago and now it’s mates with the white one. I got much better ones with my camera… next post.

We planned a 3 day trip to Kissimmee to look for eagles but when we got ready to hitch up the truck to the camper we found out the left front hydraulics would not work. We’ve had trouble with it before but now it seems worse. So while we are stuck here at the resort we decided to go around in the golf cart and see what we could see locally. I almost got an owl. Here’s what we did get.

We have an appointment on Wednesday in Lakeland and expect the problem to get solved. I sure hope so because we want to go to Ft Meyers and visit our friends Geri and Charlotte the week after.

With a little help from our friends (thank you Jimmie and Ellie!) we left Clerbrook last week and came over to the west coast of Florida. First we spent Sunday at friends Donna and Kim’s where they put on a spread and we watched the two championship football games. We stayed at an Elks Lodge one night, then came over to Palmetto to a harvest host. The host is Paul so I call it Paul’s Back Yard. Its 5 acres, his house is in one corner so the space is wide open.

We met my sister Holly at Celery Fields, a well thought out birding area with a very cool gazebo structure including seating. Parakeets and painted buntings are attracted to bird feeders. We struck out on the painted buntings but here’s the parakeet. They are huge.

After our birding adventures, we met Andy (Hollys husband) at Tide Tables in Sarasota. It is a casual outdoor seating seafood place, we loved it. We had scrumptious fish tacos that came with coleslaw and fries and enjoyed the water view.

Then we went to Mayakka River State Park. We got lucky! We saw a spoonbill, a Lesser Yellow Legs, a couple of Stilts, some Limpkins, and of course some Alligators.

We had to make a pit stop on our way home today at BigFoot of Florida to get our camper hydraulics checked. Turns out the hydraulic control panel needs to be replaced/upgraded which also involves a new electronic system. They have to order parts and we will have to go back there to have the work done.

We met a couple, Cheryl and Tim, also staying in Paul’s backyard. They are full time RV’ers, living in a van! Approx 25 feet. I looked inside. They had the essentials but omg it was a small space. They had 400 amp hrs of solar, enough to power the refrigerator (a little bigger than the college dorm size). They were friendly and nice enough but holy cow it was tiny! Once upon a time they had a thriving portrait photography business and a massive house. We think they went broke and that’s how they ended up in the van. They headed off to Ft DeSoto this morning hoping to see the birds we saw yesterday.

I was homesick for my two daughters and their families. I’m here in Florida and they are in NH and VA (visiting in NY). Today Vic, Zoe and I went to visit my sister 2 hours away in FL. Her son and daughter in law are here for the holidays. We adore them both so it was a wonderful visit. Plus my sister knows how to make sushi! We had that and sushi bowls, totally amazing. Fresh Tuna was the star of those creations. I watched her in the kitchen, son and daughter in law were sous chefs and her husband washed everything up!

After we devoured the feast Shane played a recording of Christmas music he wrote being sung by the choir in his church. He is so talented!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We drove through in the late afternoon one day last weekend. We didn’t see a lot but I was excited to see the black neck stilts. I think their pink legs are so cute!

Here we have Mr and Mrs Kingfisher. Usually the male of the species is the colorful one but with kingfishers the female gets the color.

Now we have Mr and Mrs Hooded Merganser.

We’v had the absolute best time this week shooting pictures of birds every day at Black Point Drive, Merritt Island. Here are a few more of our favorite shots, no romance with these characters though.