The Week After Christmas

It's been a quiet week.

We've just hung out on the boat this week thinking about where we want to live when we return to Canada. 

Should we build or buy and renovate our next house. That's the question.

Daisy's panting a lot. She needs a hair cut. It's over 80 degrees every day.

So last night we drove about 2 miles from our marina to look at the lights on this beautiful mansion .

 We saw them last Christmas and they were more spectacular this year.

The guy who owns this place invented something that is used in operating rooms around the world.

Unbelievable house.

This morning I got up and washed the boat. 

R2 had his crew washing the boat next to mine at the same time.

I happened to look about 50 feet in front of the boats and saw a sneaker floating away.

As I was laughing about this I called over to the guys to ask who lost their shoe. No one.

Then I looked on the dock beside my boat. Rats. 

I  had obviously knocked one shoe in when I pulled on the hose.

Anyways , I feel like I have been needing to find some entertainment here around the marina.

Yesterday I saw a Violation notice laying on the ground in the Marriott parking lot.

It is a fine for parking in a reserved spot and an envelope folded in 3 for you to put tour money into 

and submit to the address on the envelope.

Now our friends Bill and Sandy have gone away on their boat for a few days

 and he left his new truck in the parking lot.

I think Bill can get a little wound up on certain things so I stuck the notification on his windshield.

I hope I'm here when they return.I'd like to follow him off the dock and get a picture of his reaction.

Hahahahahaha.

Christmas Eve. 2015

So our Christmas this year is a little lonely.

We've decided that this is the last Christmas we spend away from our kids.

We have been in Florida for the last 3 and we miss them.

Christmas eve morning we took our usual walk along the ocean.

The resort is deserted.

I saw this little plant all alone on the beach.

It made me think about our christmas. A sign.

We need to be with our kids on christmas and not alone on a beach somewhere.

So there are about 100 boats in our marina and there are about 30 live aboards.

Stanton and Nancy plus ourselves were the only people who were here over Christmas.

It only seemed proper to have them over for Christmas Eve Dinner.

They are a sweet 81 year old couple.A real testimony to living life the way you want.

They are still managing living on their boat. 

Even though she has fallen into the ocean 4 times in the last 5 years. 

Last year it was off of our boat. Thank goodness someone heard her screams.

 We weren't even on board at the time.

After dinner we got them off and back to their boat .

Then we had a nice skype with our kids for about 90 minutes.

Ruth almost wore out the battery on my iPad talking to them.

Carrie and Brad went to the island with their kids for Christmas.

It's nice that all our kids are all together for the season.

I put up some Christmas lights on the boat this afternoon. 

It feels quite festive.

Before The Storm

It seems like every time we are about to get a big rain storm the crows gather on the hotel.

Ruth and I went for a walk down to the ocean last night just before dusk 

and when returning by the hotel we saw the gathering.

We walked around the hotel rather than thru the parking lot .

Kinda Freaky

It Was A Nice Short Visit

So Thursday was the big fishing experience and Friday was going to be a pool day.

Sharon helped Elliot work on a blog he writes every day.

He hates having to do this but at the end of the day he likes it.

Ruth played Kings in the Corner with Isaac.

By lunch time Chris was antsy and wanted to explore more of Florida.

Sharon washed their sheets and helped Ruth remake the guest bed.

Then they all helped wash the inside windows on the boat.

By 2:00 they were on their way to the Key's.

It was a very nice but short visit. 

I was a little disappointed to see them go.

This is big. Up until this year these boys would never give Ruth or myself hugs when coming or going.

We both like this a lot. Even with that face.

That was Friday.

Saturday afternoon Sharon sent me a text saying the Keys were cold and they didn't like it there.

They wanted to come back to the boat. That made us happy.

This was our Saturday night.
Sitting around in the salon of our boat talking.
Nice.

Sunday morning there was a request for my famous Blueberry Pancakes.

It's nice to sit down together for a meal.

I liked getting my picture with them as well. 

Proves that I don't wear the same shirt everyday.

During breakfast we discovered that Isaac had a hot spot behind his ear.

I told Sharon about a spray I have for Daisy whenever she gets a hot spot.

Sharon Said "Go get it."

Chris did the honours and it worked after the first squirt.

It's a great conconction

.

After Sunday breakfast they told us that they were going to Orlando for the next two nights before heading back to Canada on Dec.22. It was nice while it lasted.

Once again packed and on their way.

We walked them to the car and then went for a nice long walk along the ocean.

Found some lounge chairs and sat looking out towards the Bahamas for about 45 minutes.

I'm glad they came and sorry they left so soon.

We Wanted To Give Them A Memory - Good or Bad , They got one.

It would be interesting to hear from the kids if it was good or bad in their opinion. 

Never mind. I know the answer.

We were up at 7:00 A.M. to walk the dog and get a smoothie for breakfast.

Then we're all off for fishing on the Lady Stuart.

I had gone and paid for the tickets as soon as I woke up.

Isaac's the first one down.

I watched as he gave the fish his smoothie.

Not a pleasant site. He's glad I missed that picture.

Elliot was next. He  stayed on the verge all morning.

It was better he just lay down and fight the urge.

Ruth sat with the boys for most of the 5 hours.

She's such a kind grand mother.

Not me , I want to catch the big one.

Plus , I didn't want to sit there holding  bucket for 5 hours.

We all thought Chris would have a problem but he was fine. 

We did offer him some food from the knapsack but he graciously declined.

Said something about being good so far and didn't want to push his luck.

Chris caught about 25 fish in total. More than anyone else.

Sharon caught the biggest one.

She was also fighting some stomach problems but after a few hours felt better.

She came out and said she was going to catch the big one.

First cast she did this. Beginners luck.

So after 4.5 hours we are back in our harbour. I've never seen Chris so happy.

I had a great time.

I just get sick eating them , Not catching them.

They lined my family up on the back of the boat and gave us each a fish to hold.
I pulled this picture off of their web site tonight.
 A publicity shot made to look like we had a great time.
We didn't catch any of these fish.

Making Memories

First night on the boat one of Sharon's Angels had a little mishap.

He tried flushing a paper towel down the toilet.
That's a No No on a boat.

I thought we should address the problem right away to see what had happened.
When I flushed the toilet we could see the paper towel stuck a few inches down the hole.
It was wadded up too much to pass into the system.

Our Hero of the day says " Why can't I just stick my hand down there and grab it. "
That's what she did. Luckily she has skinny wrists.She was grossed out but successful.

The best part was when I said there was more down there to grab.
She dove in but there was nothing there. Hahahaha.

Sharon Is In The Building

Actually , Sharon is in the boat. With her family.

They were in Mexico for two weeks and now are settling in to the boat with us for the next week.

It should be fun. Here we are on board having our first dinner together .

After dinner Ruth grabbed my phone and took a picture of us both blogging.

My Table Is Done

I finally got around to refinishing the base for the table I've been building for the last two years.

I've wet sanded between each coat . It looks great.

Now we're trying to figure out where to put it on the boat. 

It's a little bigger than I like.

With the furniture opened up and the table put on this angle it looks good and is quite usable.

We walked the bridge yesterday  morning instead of the beach.

Daisy prefers the beach. So do I.

Sunday night our neighbour pulled in after dark after being our 20 miles fishing all day.

About one hour later he is over knocking on the door with a big bag of fresh tuna for us.

So Ruth did a blackened tuna dinner last night and it was spectacular.

Because it was so fresh I was hopping that it would agree with me. I'm such an optimist.

Nope. I'm still allergic.

This morning we were back on the beach. 

I like this walk but by 8:30 it is almost unbearable from the heat.

We've got Big Daisy For The Day

Bruce and Heather are spending the day in Fort Lauderdale as their boat is going on a Sea Trial 

with the people who have a deposit on it. 

Captain Bob is at the helm today. 

It's such a nice boat. I'll be surprised if they don't buy it.

Once they left the docks we headed out for a walk on the beach.

Their Lab is also called Daisy. We're dog sitting her for the day.

Big Daisy and Little Daisy.

We sat on the beach chairs for about 30 minutes watching the ocean.

Ruth went and got some water and ice for the dogs.

She's a smart dog. 

So we had a nice end to the day. Friday is Docktails .
The South dock people came over here to join us North dock boaters. Everyone brings an appetizer .

The sunset was gorgeous tonight

So Big Daisy had a good day. She grew up on this boat as a puppy.
I think she felt like she was back home.
We've enjoyed having here on board.