A Snowbird in Paradise

When you become retired, so do a lot of your friends.  Over the 12 years of being retired we have seen so many high school classmates retire to Florida that we have had several mini luncheon reunions.  The same thing has happened with fellow teachers.  Now many of my scrapbooking Granny friends are in Florida and meeting for lunch or dinner is an almost weekly affair.  The same thing with his fellow Ford employees. 

This week we met with one of my friends from The Digital Scrapbook Place, Granny forum.  We have met with FulltimeRVer and her husband before, and even camped with them.  This time they brought their full-time friends, Lu and Larry.  We have heard about each other through Fulltime, but it was our first time to meet. 

It was a great lunch with typical Florida Seafood at Lightseys in Okeechobee.  Then the mandatory photos!

 Now, with my own car again at last, I can go to the beach whenever the weather begs for a beach day.
 Most evenings we sit on the Lanai or down by the lake and admire the setting sun.  Ok...doesn't sound too exciting unless you realize we have just talked to our kids and grandkids who are knee deep in snow, or freezing their tootsies off in winter weather.

 I like to "Tablescape" especially in Florida with a nice new table and time to fuss over such things.  This one began with black chine, 4-piece settings for eight.  Although I bought the set from an estate sale in Port St. Lucie for $10, I recognized the china as being from Big Lots at about $3.00 a piece.  So 32 pieces for $10 was a bargain.  When I unpacked the dishes I discovered that one large plate was missing.  Still a bargain, but we went to the local Big Lots and they had ONE black plate left.  So now my place settings for 10 is complete.  I also bought 8 square white plates at Big Lots.  You can do so much with those. 

Also, from that same estate sale, I bought a black centerpiece bowl and candlesticks.



The heart placemats, cups, and flowers came from another trip to Big Lots.

I also "scaped" the breakfast bar.
Besides having fun doing this, it keeps me, and others, from plopping stuff down on the bar or table making the house look more "lived in" than I would like.

This arrangement will stay until the day after Valentines Day.  Then I will put everything away and start planning my St. Patrick's Day tables.

I don't usually photograph food, but we put together two big Botanas for the Superbowl.  They start with a layer of corn chips, topped with ground beef cooked with taco seasoning and re-fried beans.
The next layers are rather personal but we put in lots of cheese (Mexican mix), fresh sliced or chopped tomato, onion, green pepper, avacado, more cheese and back in the broiler for a minute or less.  Top with salsa and lots of sour cream.  With a beer it was perfect for watching an exciting Superbowl.

All of a sudden we decided to take a little drive in the convertible down along Indian River Drive.  I had the little point and shoot camera and wanted to take a couple of photos of the flock of white pelicans that hang around the Judas fish house.  In my Audubon Ap they only show brown pelicans.  Friends who are knowledgeable have said that there are no white pelicans.  Well, here they are!




I WILL go back later this week with the "big girl camera" and get some details on these pretty pelicans.

Then we crossed the bridge and turned left, West, into Little Hollywood.  We drove along the river, a bit curious about what we heard after the 2002 hurricanes, that with the bridge out people had to go all the way to I-95, MILES away, to cross the river. 

What a lovely drive.  We went on and on westward toward Micco and beyond.  There were amazing ranches, and rancheros, small and large, a couple of flocks of wild turkeys, and jungle-like growth everywhere along these back roads. 

We crossed over I-95 and kept going.  We found an interesting Scrub Preserve and stopped for a couple of snapshots.



Circling toward the South we found ourselves in familiar territory around the town of Felsmer.  From there we headed home from a road trip far longer than we had intended...warm evening in Florida...on a top-down day.

In Native American Lore, this full moon tonight is known as the "Wolf Moon".  The local NBC weekend weatherman asked for his Facebook "friends" to send him photos of tonight's moon.  I grabbed my camera and went down to Indian River Drive to see what photos I could take.

 This one was chosen to show on the weathercast.
 Can you see the Great Blue Heron in the photo above?
 I like people in my photos whenever I can snap without their being aware.
The bright lights in the dusk caught my eye.

Some of my favorite places to photograph are right around home.

 This was a photo I snapped of some white pelicans along the Indian River out on one of the many piers.  Every pier along the river in this part of the shore for miles was washed out in the 2004 hurricanes.  Most have been rebuilt better than before.

 Last night we sat down by the lake.  The property borders a lake with a mile long wild-life preserve island in the middle.  The North end is a bay that attracts some wonderful birds.  This guy was fishing last night and was still there when we finally went inside for dinner.
 This is at the end of the island.  I would bet those weeds hide a lot of life.
 Sunset is the real reason we sit by the lake.  On a still night we get a double view of the sunset in the reflection of the lake.
 There is no real way to describe the colors...and every night is different.

 For 156 miles along the East coast of Florida there is a barrier of sand that was built in ancient times.  The barrier separates the mainland from the ocean creating the Indian River, a brackish area that is the most diverse estuary in the country.

It also created some of the nicest beaches you can find.

This is Golden Sands County Beach.

This is Treasure Isle beach looking South

...and looking North.

Clouds were gathering but we decided to soldier on and take our chances.

This is the beach at Vero Beach, more populated, especially the long boardwalk.

Looking South

In spite of the threatening weather, we avoided having to put the top up.

We have a nail salon nearby so I took advantage of having a car, now, and treated myself.  It is one of the first things I do when we hit Florida.  It doesn't make much sense in Michigan because i always seem to be wearing socks, there.

My new car

Being stuck without a car for 6 weeks this fall was painful and boring.  Since a son-in-law has a car lot here in Florida, we just had to ask what was available and not too expensive.  Bless his heart!  He came up with THIS!  I never expected a convertible, let alone one as new as this.  It is a 2004 Sebring.

Sunday we headed out in the gorgeous weather, top down on the car, just driving around.

Look what is docked at Squid Lips.

I asked a boater on the Squid Lips dock (really good restaurant on Indian River Drive) about this oddity at the pier and was told you could tour the ship and have a photo taken on it.  I thought having this photo was enough.
The drive took us West to the Stick March area near Felsmere and we watched this family headed out on an airboat for a tour of the marsh.  On one of my photos you can see the telephone number and we are thinking of making a reservation to do this with some of our winter company this year.

 This week I saw a post about an estate sale with things that interested both of us.  It was South along the water at Port St. Lucie, about an hour away.  A few things were already gone, but both of us picked up some items we wanted at reasonable prices.
 Instead of the expressway home, we took Indian River Drive along the shore.  The scenery was so calming and some of the homes were beautiful.  This was the first we had been this far South along the water.

This section of the Indian River Drive ended in Fort Pierce so we decided to have lunch at one of our favorite places, Cobbs Landing at the marina.  The main part of the restaurant is in one of the settlers' homes.  The Tiki restaurant is added on and ALMOST open air dining.  Next to that is a lovely patio by the marina.  We ate in the Tiki. 
 Fort Pierce has added these amusing swimmer sculptures along their beach.  I think they are quite cute.
 On the way home we checked on the Flagler line steam engine being restored.  They are coming right along.  Maybe we will be able to watch it run one of these days.  Those are Christmas lights along the boiler.  No comment.
Back home, after a wee nap, it was time for the first Concert-In-The-Park of the season.  Many times we have had to miss this concert because of cold weather.  Not tonight!  The temps are hovering in the 80s during the day and high 60s at night.  Perfect for the concert and a lot of other people must have thought so, too.  I think this is the biggest crowd we have seen.