Happy Halloween

 A dance school performed hourly in the street.

 This was a pretty elaborate costume.  He could have been in a parade.

 It's a little hard to see, but the fountain had dry ice in it to make it fog.  Cool.

This little girl was just so cute!

John and I walked to town.  They closed the main street for about 4 or 5 blocks through the  business district from 3:00 until 9:00 for Halloween for the children under 12.  The businesses were mostly closed, but the employees were sitting at cafeteria tables in front of their shops, giving candy to the little ones.  There were lots of Halloween decorations, dancers, music, jumping / air houses for the kids, and a costume contest.  There were thousands of children and, of course, thousands of adults (their parents).  Sanford really went all out.  The longer we are here, the more we like it here.  It's so nice to be only a couple of blocks away from the action.  We walk up to town every day.  We liked the Halloween thing much better than the Farmer's Market.  Seeing all of the little children in their costumes made us miss our grandchildren so much!!  We are hoping that they Skype with us after they go trick or treating tonight.  Well, Happy Halloween!!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

We found a Church to attend today. They have both a chapel and a church. The 8:00 English Mass was at the chapel and the 8:30 Spanish Mass was in the church. We drove to the Church, thinking the chapel was on the same piece of property, but it was several miles away. We walked in right at 8:00. After spending the early afternoon on the boat, we scouted out a Sports Bar to watch the Bengal's game. Who Dey!!! Who Dey!!!!We won again. That makes Cincinnati 5 and 2. The bar we chose to watch the game was interesting. The first bartender was very attentive and efficient. When his shift was over, a new bartender took over, and I do mean new. She was nice, but this was her first day and they left her there by herself, except for the cook. Three girls came in and left without paying for their drinks. Then a guy came in, sat next to me, and told her that the other girl told him he doesn't have to pay for his drinks. I believe she went to the kitchen to get the cook out there to help her set him straight. We felt sorry for this poor bartender. It takes all kinds.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

All week we have been looking forward to the Farmer's Market in town. It was drizzling this morning, but we walked to town and spotted the booths that were set up for the Farmer's Market. Once we arrived and started walking around, we were disappointed because only one booth was selling fruits and vegetables. The others were: cheese, bread, cupcakes, jewelry, health insurance, orchids, popcorn, and shrubbery. The fruits and vegetable booth was too expensive. All we bought was a piece of Jalapeno cheese. It was fun to walk though, even in the drizzle.

Later, after dinner, we walked up to the parking lot across from the marina for a Cruise In. They had about 150 to 200 cars on display. There were some really cool cars. They weren't arranged according to car style like our Kiwanis car show, but it was fun to walk around and talk to the car owners. Then we walked the docks before returning to the boat to watch football.

Friday, October 28, 2011

We made a little noise and he / she started swimming away.

He looks like a toy in this picture.

Halloween is just around the corner. Do you have your costume yet? Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the parties, the costumes, the kids going door-to-door, and the pumpkins. I hope that there are some kids in the marina that will go Trick or Treating here.

It drizzled all day today, so I went Christmas shopping. Then I came back and sewed. A perfect day! John went out for a walk and when he came back, he said to hurry up and come outside. There was a baby alligator in the water right next to the ramp on our dock. He was so cute. It made us think about a time when our children were small and we went on vacation to St. Augustine. We had visited an alligator farm and our daughter Gina wanted to bring one home. Needless to say, we did not bring one home and have no desire to have one too close to us. However, it was fun to see our first alligator in the St. Johns River.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

It was hot and humid today. John and I walked into town and found sugar free ice cream and fresh Bavarian pretzels. We have to pinch ourselves because it just does't get better than this. It still feels like we are not retired, just on a really long vacation.

We also shopped at a hardware store for supplies to do more projects on the boat. It seems that no matter what, there are always projects to do on the boat. You'd think that eventually we would be caught up, but it doesn't seem to work like that. It's a work in progress.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The longer we are here in Sanford, the better we like being here. There are lots of places to walk. Lots of people out walking as well. There are lots of places to shop too. This is especially good with Christmas coming in two months. Today I sewed most of the day making Christmas presents. I can't tell you what they are because it will spoil the surprise for the people for whom I am sewing. But, it was fun!!! John and I went exploring again. We scouted out two other marinas and decided we are perfectly happy where we are. The weather is great. It was in the low 80s today, no rain or wind, but overcast.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Well, they pulled "Runaround Sue" this morning and shortly after that, Norm and Sue left Sanford. We will miss them while they are at home.

John and I went exploring and found a mall and a couple of shopping centers. I did a little Christmas shopping. Well, I bought supplies to make some Christmas presents.

Tonight we had grilled shrimp for dinner. I marinated them and put them on skewers and John grilled them. They tasted really good! I don't know what took me so long to try this. I think it is something we will make on a regular basis. I hope John liked it as well as I did.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but John and I are going on a weekend cruise with all of our children and their spouses. We are really looking forward to that. We will be going to Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay. We will be very close to where we anchored out in our boat.