We Are Now Legal

So Ruth and I went to U.S. Customs in Fort Pierce today .

We need to have a cruising permit for the U.S. if we plan on boating here. If we don't have a valid permit they could confiscate our boat. I was very nervous about this but we fixed the problem today. We got our permit and are good until Dec.30,  2014. Now we are planning a trip to Ft. Lauderdale on Jan.20 to help celebrates our friends Wayne and Sue's 40th. It will be fun. Weather permitting we will be taking friends out on the 1st for a ride. I'm more relaxed now about using the boat.

Tonight we watched Saving Mr. Banks.

What a great show. It took both of us thru all of our emotions. I highly recommend seeing it.

Last Lunch With The Kids

The kids flew back from the Bahamas this morning and landed in West Palm. They had to make their way to Orlando to get their flight home tomorrow morning so offered to take us to lunch on their way thru Stuart. How could we pass on that. A free lunch and getting to see some of our favourite people.

We met at the Olive Garden around 1:30. 

The young man at the front desk took a family picture for us.

Sharon is always posing.

Ruth's favorite meal. Vegies , bread and soup. All mixed together.

 Sweet boys. Elliot doesn't like to be hugged but will allow it if he can have Isaac in-between.

It was so nice to have Chris , Sharon and the boys spend that week on the boat with us.

The Tour From Hell

In a way I shouldn't call it The Tour From Hell but what was supposed to be a 3 hour tour (which I thought was already too long ) ended up being a 5 hour walking tour thru a swamp. It was supposed to be an educational swamp tout out of Indian Town. FUN. I was actually looking forward to it.

 We were supposed to meet at this cool hotel in Indian town which had a great all you can eat deep fried southern chicken buffet for $9.00. That is how Ruth got me to agree to this in the first place. The restaurant had a gas leak when we got there so we ended up having a burger at Crackers. The joint next door. I did wander around the hotel later checking out their 90 year old murals on the second floor. Cool place.

This floor was incredible. I wish I had taken more pictures.

Beautiful sitting room.

Ruth relaxed in the rocking chair on their outdoor deck reading a magazine.

Finally we got underway around 1:00. This is Chuck our guide.

We got on board and I asked where the rest of the tour was. He said "You're It".

It was a very long ride to the swamp.

I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my head about right now.

Ruth picked up up a big stick to remove the spider webs off the path before we walked thru them . It didn't take too long for me to start walking 10 feet behind her. Momma didn't raise no dummy.

 This Cyprus tree is over 1000 years old. 

Our guide thought this looked like a Rhinoceros.There is a huge honey hive in this stump.

.

So after 4.5 hours of walking thru the swamp we finally got back on the bus.

I was about to start making excuses for why we should be leaving. My knee hurts. It didn't really but I thought that would sound like a good excuse. I was so tired by this time I didn't even try to pull my stomach in for this picture.

Now this is funny. The swamp is in a high security area because it is part of the Florida Power and Light property. They own 12,000. acres here and 500 of it is the swamp. We had to provide our names the day before for national security and have photo ID to get in. Now the electric gate seemed to be broken so me and chuck got out and forced our way in and out. 

The master B & E artist.

All closed up now and no one knows we were even here. 

Lucky Dog

So Ruth ran into the Ice cream Palace to buy us a treat yesterday. The gal behind the counter misunderstood and gave her 3 cones. I usually save the bottom of my cone for Daisy but today I got to eat a whole cone. This was one happy dog. 

This Is Our Christmas 2013

When we realized we were going to be right here for Christmas we thought it would be a good idea to organize a pot luck dinner for all us dock orphans. We cooked up a ham, turkey, stuffing, great gravy, roasted potatoes, apple sauce for me and cranberry chipolte sauce. 

 Ruth bought some flowers to make the place look festive. I arranged them in 3 little vases she got somewhere.   Likely the local Hospice thrift store, her favourite new haunt.

I'm expearimenting with the new camera the kids bought me. It takes better pictures than my old one.

I also arranged the yogurt pretzels and cocoanut cookies after I carved the turkey and ham.

It was supposed happen on the dock but was so windy and cold that we talked R1 the dock master into letting us use his building. I took him a beer mug full of cocoanut rum for a treat around 3:00 and after about 20 minutes he suggested we use his building for the dinner. 

We brought everything down here around 4:00 and about 20 people started to wander in around 4:20. It was nice. Everyone was gone by 6:30 and so we came back to the boat for cleanup and a few christmas TV shows. I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures. The camera was even in my pocket.

Christmas morning we woke to this. A pelican feeding right by the boat. First it would lift off and fly in a small circle.

Next it would do a head plant straight down into the water.We watched for about an hour. Very entertaining.

Even Daisy the Christmas dog enjoyed the show.

We drove down to Bathtub Beach and took a long afternoon walk. The ocean is boiling this aft.

I thought this was the nicest looking beach house I have seen so far. Under stated but quite elegant.

Glad we are not out there today.

I liked this picture except for me looking huge compared to Ruth. You know how they say that a camera puts on 10 pounds. Even my shadow looks 10 pounds heavier than it really is.

It's disturbing to see all the plastic washed up on shore. You see this every few steps.

 These birds are everywhere.

So Ruth and I saw this castle type house today and heard that they have an incredible light show at Christmas. We decided to drive back after dark to see what it looked like.

It was worth the ride back .We have seen smaller hotels than this.

The house alone is a small block long. I wonder who lives here? Unbelievable.

This Is What I Want For A Window

We had the most beautiful sunrise this morning. 

Ruth and I went thru one of the hotels down ocean Blvd.to the water.

We try to do this beach walk every morning.

Now this is the type of day I want to be traveling across the ocean on.

             Ruth grabbed a couple of beach chairs and we had a nice rest while taking in the view.

Even Daisy seemed to enjoy just hanging out.

The kids gave me a new camera for Christmas. This is the first picture I took with it.

Such a goofy looking dog. How can you not love a face like that.

It's 11:00 A.M. now and a cold front is moving in. The temp is dropping and it is getting windy. 

The ocean is starting to boil up again. That was another very small window.