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.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Both of these pictures were taken in the historic part of Sanford, Florida

St. Johns River while we were making our way to Monroe Harbor Marina

We spent the day doing chores. Norm and Sue are getting ready to go home. They are having their boat pulled tomorrow morning to have the bottom painted and some other minor work done. Then they are leaving here. What will we do without them? It will feel extremely strange being here alone. We hope they have a safe trip home and will be ready to see them when they get back.

We walked into town again today. We really like this quaint, well-kept business district. We have many places to explore while we are docked here.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

It felt very strange to not watch the Bengals play football today. Instead, John and Norm drove Norm's car back to Palm Coast Marina to get our van. Palm Coast has a bike rack in front of the ship store with a lot of rusted and abandoned looking bikes. Debbie the manager put stickers on the ones she didn't think anyone was using. Then she put flyers around the marina saying that anyone who had a bike with a sticker on it, had until Oct. 15th to tell the marina that they still wanted their bike(s). After the 15th, the marina was going to dispose of the remaining stickered bikes. Well, there were two folding bikes that were chained together with stickers on them. John asked Debbie if no one claimed those two bikes, could we have them? She said we could have them and today John cut the chain and brought them back with him in the van. They need air in the tires, new seats, and WD40. They are five speeds which I have never learned how to ride, but I am anxious to learn.

This afternoon we walked into the quaint old part of Sanford. What a neat looking town. We had lunch and shopped in a couple of stores. There is so much more to investigate. We are looking forward to getting to know our way around.

We've met several people here at the marina. All of them seem very nice. One couple had their boat at Lighthouse Point Marina (our home marina) and lived in Aston Oaks. Isn't that something? Now they live in the Villages. Six degrees of separation......What a small world.

Saturday,October 22, 2011

We left our wonderful anchorage this morning at 8:30 A.M. It was cool, sunny, and calm again like yesterday. We only saw crab pots for the first half hour or so and then the water was smooth and narrow with lots of snaky curves. For the most part, there were no buildings and just a few fishermen. Once we got close to the marina, the boat traffic picked up and there were more buildings and a park. We got here at Monroe Harbor Marina at 2:30 P.M. So far, the people we have met since arriving have been friendly and nice. We will be here for several months.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Art for sale at Outback Carb Shack. I really liked this one, but it was sold already.
This green marker is almost completely obscured by a huge nest.

This is the kind of gator I'm not afraid to meet.

Another glorious day on the water! It started out cool, sunny, and calm and ended up warm, sunny, and calm. We cruised about 45 miles today. We anchored out in an oxbow south of Lake George. It is peaceful and calm here, although there are supposed to be lots of alligators in this river. So far, we haven't seen any, but we were told that if we go outside at night and shine a flashlight around, we would see lots of alligator eyes looking back at us. I think I'll try that tonight. We have only one or maybe two days left of traveling until we reach our winter "home". We will be staying at Monroe Harbor for several months.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

We had breakfast at Outback Crab Shack before leaving this morning. Miss Margaret the owner is a delightful woman. We enjoyed the food and the conversation with her. It was cool and windy this morning. It was, however, sunny. We had a nice cruise in spite of all of the crab pots. They were harder to see today because of the wind. The water was white capping and that made the markers hard to see, especially the dark colored ones. We were fortunate enough to avoid them. We docked at Boat House Marina in Palatka, FL. The people here are very friendly and helpful.

Bob and Sally Maloney, whom we met while in Bimini in the Bahamas earlier this year, came and drove us to a restaurant called Corky Bell's. It's specialty is seafood and it was really good. They came back to the boat and visited for awhile. It was nice to see them and nice of them to drive over to see us. We will be leaving in the morning. We have about 80 more miles to go until we get to Monroe Harbor where we will spend a few months . We hope to go about 40 of those miles tomorrow. We shall see.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The two seafood platters the four of us ordered for dinner

Sign in the Outback Crab Shack

Another sign at The Outback Crab Shack. Note: No shoes, no shirt, no problem.

It was so windy and the current so strong this morning when we were trying to leave Jacksonville Metropolitan Marina. We stopped for fuel on the Ortega River before getting very far. Then it was smooth sailing (cruising). We had a little rain and after the rain it became cooler and still quite windy. We saw more crab pots than we had seen in a long time. It was like a mine field.

We moved on to the Outback Crab Shack on Six Mile Creek. Jim and Craig recommended this place yesterday when we were visiting. What a wonderful recommendation. We are the only two boats on the dock. The bar / restaurant is something else. We ate dinner there. They have two person platters, so each couple ordered a different platter and shared. We ordered one grilled seafood platter and one fried seafood platter. The food was outstanding. We are planning to go back for breakfast in the morning.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We are currently docked between these two bridges in Jacksonville

Last night's sunset.

We were able to get in touch with our friend Jim McGowan here in Jacksonville. He and his wife Anita did the Great Loop about ten years ago and settled in the Jacksonville area. We were so very sad to learn that Anita passed away this past summer from cancer. Jim, who broke his leg on Friday, found a friend to drive him to the marina this afternoon for a really nice visit. He is still the same smiling Jim we all remembered from Catalina Harbor. We plan on seeing him at least two more times while we are on the St. Johns River. We were glad that his friend Craig was kind enough to being him here and he also stayed and chatted with us. So, we've made another friend along our way.

We plan on leaving Jacksonville in the morning and heading for Six Mile.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Container ship being pushed into place by the tractors.

My dream house

Sunrise this morning

Lion Bridge in St. Augustine

We left St. Augustine this morning at 8:00 A.M. and headed for Jacksonville. What a lovely day to cruise. The temperature was perfect and there was a slight breeze. We saw a lot more boat traffic today. We saw this rather large container ship and a large ship that unloaded many, many new cars. One after the other, after the other, after the other, etc. We saw so many beautiful homes along the ICW. We arrived at the Jacksonville Metropolitan Marina at 2:15 P.M. This is a free marina to use up to 72 hours. If you want electric, you swipe your credit card in a kiosk at the end of the dock after putting in your slip number. It costs $8.56 for 24 hours worth of electric. Pretty good deal, huh?

We have some friends from Cincinnati who did the Great Loop several years ago and settled in Jacksonville. We are hoping to get to visit with them while we are here.

WHO DEY! WHO DEY!

Pirate Ship Excursion Boat

We found a German Sports Bar right across the street from the marina. They had the NFL Package and put us in a separate room with our own TV. The food was good and the football even better. Go Bengals!!!!!!! How lucky was that? We don't have a car here, so that was a very lucky thing. Partly through the game another couple was seated in the far corner with whatever game they were interested in on a different TV. Their team must have been losing because they left during the 3rd quarter. It was awesome.

This morning before we were dressed, our boat was majorly rocked. We both went out on deck in our robes to see what was going on. An extremely rude crab fisherman zoomed by really close, checked his crab pot, zoomed to the next one, etc. Why they allow the crab pots to be placed in a mooring field is beyond me. The harbor master said there isn't anything they can do about it. There's something wrong with that. Oh, well, we are leaving at 8:00 A.M. in the morning.

On Our Way. Hip Hip Hooray!

Debbie from Palm Coast Marina. We will miss you all.
"Runaround Sue" on the mooring ball at St. Augustine.

A beautiful St. Augustine sunset!

This morning at 8:30 A.M., we untied our lines and headed out of Palm Coast Marina. We had several of our new friends waving good-bye on the dock as we pulled away. It's nice to be moving again, but it was nice to spend time in Palm Coast as well. We had a beautiful, slightly cool day to cruise. We saw many, many dolphins along the way today and lots of pleasure boats. John pointed out that 90% of the pleasure boats were traveling south, unlike us. What's wrong with that picture? We are in St. Augustine at the Municipal Marina on a mooring ball. As soon as we arrived, we dinghied into shore to pay our fees and then took a cab to West Marine. Norm had ordered a part that was delivered to the West Marine. Then we had lunch and walked around town for a little while before returning to the boat. There aren't very many boats here on the balls, which made it very easy to maneuver around and catch the line on the ball. We are planning on staying here tomorrow as well and then, probably leave here on Monday morning. We hope to be able to find a sports bar where we can watch the Bengals tomorrow.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Today would have been my Dad's 78th birthday. I miss him so much. He was an awesome Father, extremely patient with all six of us kids. Dad, I love you.

We went for a drive today to Sanford. Norm, Sue, John, and I had lunch at Willow Tree again. It was wonderful. This restaurant has German food and at night a German band. We enjoyed ourselves. We started Happy Hour a little early tonight. We had a larger crowd than normal. That's the way I like it. You get to hear people's stories and learn from them. It's going to be a little sad to leave here in the morning, but we are planning to leave. We expect to go to St. Augustine tomorrow. We have reservations for the mooring balls at the St. Augustine Marina. It's going to feel strange to be cruising again after so long.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

We had a delightful day. The weather was wonderful again and we grilled out hot dogs for lunch with Norm and Sue. We discussed our plans to leave and decided to drop off a car at our destination harbor tomorrow. Then on Saturday, we plan on leaving this very hospitable harbor. It will be sad to leave all of the new friends we have made here in Palm Coast. We are, however, looking forward to our next cruising adventure.

We had a larger than normal group for Happy Hour tonight. It was hard to leave for dinner. We were having such a good time. Being retired is awesome!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

We spent the morning doing our chores. John did some caulking around the radar arch and I did laundry and ironing. Then we had the air conditioner repairman back to work on the air conditioner. It worked okay, but kept freezing up. It turns out that there was a freon leak in the line where he had worked on it previously. So, he did not charge us anything. He said it was part of the deal from a couple of weeks ago. That was nice. The rest of the day was spent doing easy things. John played his guitar and I read. We will be ready whenever the Mayers say they are ready to go.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Today was beautiful. This morning was grocery shopping. Trying to get ready to leave Palm Coast. Norm is due back tomorrow night late. I'm not certain, by I would think that by the weekend we should be ready to go, providing the weather cooperates. It looks like I won't be available to go to Chris' house for the stamping get together. Oh well. We still have our reservation at Monroe Harbor Marina beginning Nov. 1st. We shouldn't have any trouble making it there by then.

Monday, October 10, 2011

The winds have slowed down and the rain has stopped for the moment. It was a wild ride last night though. We were up until well after 2:00 A.M. listening to the wind, the rain, and the boat hitting the fenders against the dock. One of the boats here was only attached to the dock by two lines this morning because a couple of the cleats on the dock were ripped off of the dock. The water is still very high and it is difficult to get off of the boat. It didn't stop us from having Happy Hour in the ship store with the other people from the marina though. Chris, who works for Stampin' Up has asked me to come to a stamping class at her house if we are still here next week. That sounds like a good idea to me. Something different to do.

WHO DEY! WHO DEY!

Wow! Two weeks in a row of really close Bengal's games that they won in the last couple of minutes. Sue, John, and I watched the game at McCharacters again this week. What a fun time! There were quite a few Jacksonville fans at the bar, but we were the only Bengal's fans present. We won!!!!!! Somehow that made it even more fun.

Sue told us that it's been raining hard since Thursday night. The water is so high that John has to keep going out and adjusting the lines and fenders. It's difficult to get off of the boat, but not impossible. The weatherman says the winds are 30 to 40 miles per hour with occasional gusts of 60 miles per hour. This is worse than the weather we had when Hurricane Irene was off the coast. It's supposed to continue raining for another couple of days. It's nights like this that I'm really glad to be tied to a dock and not anchored out. With weather like this, even if Norm was back from Indiana, we would still be here tied to the dock and not traveling.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

We started back to Palm Coast this morning at 8:00 A.M., thinking that there would be very little traffic. WRONG! It poured down rain all the way home and the traffic near Orlando was unbelievable. Why would so many people want to go to Disney World in the driving rain? We got back right around 11:30 A.M. It was windy and rainy the whole rest of the day. We read and lazed around.

Friday, October 7, 2011

We went on a field trip today to the Red Barn Flea Market. The funny thing about this field trip is that John put "Red Barn" in the GPS and it took us to Red Barn Liquors. Ha ha! Maybe that's trying to tell us something. Drink more! We came home with some pretty nice treasures. We should have started our Christmas shopping, but it's still too warm to think about that. But, it's coming sooner than I'd like to think.

We went back to Mom and Dad's and played more bridge. I never came in first, but at least the last match, I didn't come in last. The cards were just weird. They were never evenly distributed. That's no excuse, of course. I just played poorly, but we had a good time. I hate when John beats me at cards, but that's the way it goes. We are going back to the boat tomorrow morning. It's been a real pleasure to spend time with Mom and Dad.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Happy 60th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! We are having a great time with you in Venice, Florida. We drove to Venice this morning. Since arriving here, we have been playing bridge and eating. Mom is an awesome cook! I was the grand loser in bridge today, so I am definitely hoping that the cards are kind to me tomorrow. Hope you all are doing well. Until tomorrow......

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Close up of embroidery on headrest covers.

Embroidered headrest covers.


Sunshade to help A/C work more efficiently.

If I could bottle weather and save it for whenever I wanted pretty weather, today is the day I would bottle. The temperature and lack of humidity were awesome! We ate dinner outside since it was comfortable out and the "love bugs" are finished for this year.

Today I made sunshades that hang outside over the salon windows. The sunshade fabric came from Lowe's ($26), and they were easy to make. Please see the picture.

One of the live aboards here was injured today. She was walking her large dog and had her wrist through the leash. The dog took off running and she fell face first, but she couldn't let go of the leash. She went to the hospital and was treated and released. I know she will be sore for awhile. Things happen so fast.

We are planning on driving to Venice, FL tomorrow to visit Mom and Dad Sagel. We are looking forward to seeing them and spending a day or two with them.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Well, Al came this morning with our final bill for the fuel tank replacement. Let's just say we will be eating Raimen noodles for a very long time. While it cost a lot to have the fuel tank replaced, John and I both feel confident that Al from Al's Mobile Marine Service is very competent and very likable. He did a great job for a fair price. I gave John a long overdue haircut this morning too. There was so much hair on the floor when we were finished, I couldn't believe it. He didn't look like he had that much hair on his head to start with. Then we went window shopping at Flagler Beach. There were some little shops and a museum about the history of Flagler Beach. If you had family that lived there years ago, the museum would be a great place to do some genealogy research. The weather is perfect, not too hot and not too cold.

Monday, October 3, 2011

We are in a holding pattern. We do our chores on the boat each morning and go to Happy Hour each afternoon. Monday is the all Marina Happy Hour from 3:30 til 5:00 when the office closes. The food everyone brings is wonderful, but then we do not feel like eating dinner. I did a little mending as well today. Other than that, nothing . We are not very exciting at the moment. Sorry.

GO BENGALS!!!!!

Sue, John, and I went to McCharacter's to watch the Bengals / Bills game. We really had a good time. The Bengals won with 4 seconds left. "Who Dey!!" We like this sports bar because they have so many televisions that you can always find your game or they'll put it on a screen near you. And the food is different from your normal bar fare. We had a mixed platter of appetizers: mushrooms, sliders, mozzarella sticks, and chicken wings. We also had a seafood flatbread, drunken potato chips, and fried Oreos. Oh my goodness. Fried Oreos are to die for! This was our food for the day. The diet went out the window, but it was delicious. So much for losing weight this week.

I know that I said we would most likely be leaving here on Tuesday morning. That is no longer true. Norm went home for his aunt's funeral and the day of the funeral, they took his mother to the hospital. He is going to stay until she gets home which we have no idea when that will be. The marina here is fine with that. They told us that we are now family and they wish we would stay forever. It's nice to be wanted, but we need to go when we can. Our prayers are with Norm's mother. Some day I will learn not to speculate about what the future holds for us.

We are waiting to get the final bill for the work Al did on the boat. We are holding our breath that it's in line with what we think it should be. Time will tell.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

It's October and it's like someone found the switch to turn off the heat. What a difference a day makes. It was beautiful today. Sue and I had on long pants and sweaters at Happy Hour tonight. We cut Happy Hour short and the three of us went to Mis Amores Mexican Restaurant for dinner. All three of us had been hungry for Mexican food and it was tasty. I felt so much better today than yesterday and got one of my sewing projects finished. Ever since we visited the quilt shops, I have been itching to sew and today was the day! Other than that, it was football, football, football all day long.