Playing Catch up

I've added three posts tonight, one of which is current, two of which are not.  I've gotten out of the blogging habit and it's hard to jump back on the bandwagon now that our life on wheels is in a golf cart instead of a RV.  But jump back to December 6 and see a couple of our day trips.

As for our regular life here in TV, we're still a work in progress.  Denny is trying out for one of the 200 softball teams here, I'm taking yoga instruction and participate in two different watercolor painting clubs and we're still playing a little golf.  I'm still adding some furnishings to the house by way of estate sales, garage sales and private sales by Villagers.  It's a good way to learn my way around the various Villages here.

Now I have some Superbowl commercials to watch.  I'll fast forward through the actual game and watch the commercials only.  Football--pfftt.

A Day Brightener

Our youngest son, Darby aka The Darb, flew down from Columbus, Ohio last week to visit.  He was looking forward to a week of sunshine, shorts and exploration.  What he got was record breaking cold temperatures, rain and wind.  The only good news was that our weather here was consistently 40 degrees warmer than back in Ohio where one morning the temperature was -11 degrees.  So the kid wasn't complaining too much.

Friday, the last day of Darb's stay, had a weather forecast of sunny and 80 degrees so I planned a stop for lunch at a restaurant on the banks of Lake Weir, followed by a visit to Blue Spring State Park to see the manatees and then Denny and I would take him to the airport to return to Ohio.  Oh the best laid plans....the day dawned foggy, dreary and cool.  Crap!

Determined to make the best of it, off we went for a very tasty lunch at Gator Joe's.  On a nice day, we would have sat outside on the deck over the water and enjoyed the view.  This time around, we simply enjoyed the company and the food.

 About an hour's drive along county roads took us to the Blue Spring State Park where a large group of manatees had arrived during the frigid Florida weather.  The spring that feeds into the St. John River here dumps about 100 million (read that again) gallons of water into the river and the water temperature from the spring is a constant 72 degrees.  You see, manatees will die when they are exposed to water temperatures in the 60s so they search out areas where there are warm springs.  On this day, the staff had counted 264 manatees in the river.

I have to admit, in the madness that precedes a person packing up and preparing for a flight out of town, I forgot to toss my camera into the car so the following photos were taken with the camera in my phone.  Which is never an acceptable substitute but it was all I had.  Sigh.

I have no idea what a group of manatees is called, but a magnificence of manatees would be good.  If you click on the photo below you might notice one manatee grasping the tree limb with his flipper and pulling the leaf-filled branches to his mouth.  Manatees are herbivores, eating the grasses and algae available in the waters and leaves that they can reach. 

 Manatees surface every few minutes for air and can remain underwater for 20 minutes or so.  The largest of this group were noisy blowing out water and sucking in air while the babies were virtually noise-free.

 A lovely statue of a manatee done in mosiac tile.

 Slow, massive and peaceful, manatees grow up to thirteen feet long and can weigh as much as 1300 pounds. 

 The river is also home to several species of fish.  We watched tilapia flashing their silvery sides and these Florida gars kept the manatees company.

 The worst enemy the manatee has is man and his power boats.  On the manatee on the left you can see the scars from the boat propellers.  This one is surfacing for air while the other manatee rolls while luxuriating in the warmth of the water.

 The obligatory tourist shot; me, Darb and Denny.

 Mama and baby; as we approached the deck where this pair was resting I overheard a lady say she saw the mother nursing the baby.  Darn!  Notice once again the propeller scars on the mother's back.  A simple cage over the propeller would help prevent a lot of the injuries but boat owners apparently aren't fond of this fix.

 The manatees seem to derive a lot of pleasure in rolling over and over in slow motion.  They are just so much fun to watch in their placid movements and obvious pleasure in the warmth of the water.

In the winter you can't enter the waters of the St. John's River near the Blue Spring but in the summer the river is open to swimming, canoeing and kayaking.  There is a campground with water and electric hook ups, nature trails and the Louis Thursby house can be toured several days of the week.  The Thursby family was one of the first to settle in the area and to plant orange groves.

Despite the cool temperatures and overcast skies and the fact that Darb had to return to Ohio, we had a really nice time at Blue Spring State Park.  

How They Do a Christmas Parade in The Villages

There is no easy way to describe life in The Villages. That was made clear to me when we attended our very first Christmas parade here.  We arrived an hour early to find we were almost late for finding a good spot but find one we did, albeit at the very end of the route.  I was concerned that the senior citizens who were in the parade might poop out before they reached the end of the very long loop around the polo field...ha!  These are VILLAGERS!

Parade watchers came in their undecorated golf carts but with their pets decorated.

Next to Denny and me, a large group of friends set up a tail gating party.

And when the parade began, there were belly dancers and twirlers and drum corps and stilt walkers and clowns and antique cars and horses and motorcycles and Segways and golf carts galore.  Because that's how we roll in TV (The Villages.)

I've only posted a very few of the many photos I took that day, but suffice to say that Villagers know how to have fun.

A VCC Day Trip to Ice! at the Gaylord Palms Hotel

The Villages Convertible Club is all about getting out on back roads, driving with the top down to explore new and fun places.  There are always a variety of day trips and overnight trips to choose from as folks in TV (The Villages) don't like to sit around in their rocking chairs.  The trip this week was to the Ice! show at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Kissimmee, Florida, where a storyline display of ice sculptures are created each year by a staff of ice sculptors from Harbin, China.  This year's story is Frosty the Snowman.

Now you may be wondering how an ice sculpture show can be held in the middle of Florida where the outside temperatures are in the 80s this week?  Simple.  The hotel trucks in huge air conditioning units which cools the display area to a very chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit.  Brr!  When you purchase tickets you are told to wear long pants, shoes with covered toes, to bring gloves and a hat and to dress in layers.  After you enter the show area you are loaned a long parka and warned that your iPhone may not work inside with the cold, but that your digital cameras should.  And with that, we were off!

 All of the sculptures and decorations at the Ice! show are created from clear and dyed blocks of ice that started off as 10x20x42 inch blocks of ice, each weighing about 350 pounds.  It arrives at the hotel over a period of three weeks arriving in several truckloads.

Entering the display area through an igloo-style ice tunnel

The beginning of the story of Frosty the Snowman and how he came to life one day....

 Frosty melts away...

But he'll be back again someday....

 Some of Frosty's friends.  Exquisite carving skills.

AND there are ice slides for those of us who are still kids at heart!

 The middle section of the display is the area explaining how the ice is created, trucked in and then carved.

 One of the Chinese ice sculptors, making a set of leaves to place under the red rose currently resting atop the blue ice vase.

 And the final display is that of an exquisitely carved Nativity scene and the angel guarding the scene.

Once you leave the Ice! show you are free to wander the grounds and interior of the Gaylord Palm hotel (and of course the gift area immediately outside the exit of the Ice! show.)  Denny and I took advantage of that to look around and search for the tiny reindeer hidden in various areas as part of a giveaway scavenger hunt. There are eight restaurants/cafes/places to get a bite to eat inside and a lot to explore.  The interior is all under glass.

A stop on the way back home to pick fresh oranges and grapefruit right off the trees and Denny and I arrived home happily exhausted from all the walking and exploring.

The Convertible Club Does the Mt. Dora Christmas Walk

There's nothing like going to look at Christmas lights while driving around with your top down.  (insert very big grin)

In December, one of our scheduled Convertible Club trips was to the annual Mt. Dora Christmas Walk.  The city blocks off several blocks of downtown Mt. Dora, the shops stay open late and the town has bedecked itself with lights and has a party with live bands in the streets, musical Christmas trees and lots and lots of people wandering around.  Denny and I had a great meal at a Cuban restaurant and then headed out to explore the various antique shops, boutiques and great places to have ice cream.

Carolers.

Lights.

Jazz band.

There is a history attached to this stuff polar bear but I'm having a senior moment and can't remember it.

Musical tree with sunset over the lake included.

A rescued cockatoo that was out for some air.  A CC member who was not familiar with how hard a cockatoo can bite was pushing his luck here.

We'll have to do this again.