Friday Dec 31st

We got up at 9:30 am and the weather was perfect. Must have been 77 degrees or so. We decided to go to the beach...

We got showered and into our beach apparel, packed a couple of bottles of water on ice into the cooler. It was already 11:30 so we went straight to the beach. When we got there we knew we were in trouble because our regular parking lot was full, with cars waiting for spots. We went through all of the first 4  parking lots and they were all completely packed. The only one left was about a mile south down the beach so we headed for that one. That end of the beach has large boulders all over it and it is where we usually go snorkeling. We found a spot down there, parked and unloaded our gear.

South end of beach..note the large rocks

looking the other way from our spot

the pier is about 1 and a half miles north of where we were

This is off the observation deck..I see Bonnie down there

Zoom lens in use

surfer dude

Bonnie getting wet

Me too

We hung out there for about 2 hours until hunger pains kicked in. We then packed up our gear and went to the car and drove back up to the pier area of the beach. I found a parking space and we walked to the pier cafe and had a Hamburger. I took this video on the way to the restaurant.

After lunch we were walking on the north side of the pier and I saw these girls playing volleyball. One of them had a G-string on. I started laughing and Bonnie said video tape it for the blog, so I did. Here it is...

It was around 4:30  in the afternoon so we headed for home. Bonnie fell asleep on the sofa and I watched The Other Guy with Will Ferrill and Marky Mark. Around 7 we decided to head back down to the beach to see what kind of new years activities were happening. We went into a little bar right across the street from the Ocean and grabbed a drink.

We then took off for home to watch the rocking new years eve show with Dick Clark. Hey we are retired!
Happy New year to you guys and be safe if going out! Love you guys!

Thurs Dec 30th 2010

A normal morning at the condo in paradise..

This is a fairly normal start to our day...We decided to head up to West Palm Beach and scour some of their Goodwill's for treasures. Once we got up there we stopped by the beach up there and there was a little Oceanside cafe, and breakfast was only 4.75 so we got a table and ate 2 eggs, home style potatoes, Texas toast and a slice of cantaloupe. It was very filling and the ambiance was exceptional with the ocean 25 yards away.

view from our table

After eating we wandered around and took a few pictures.

boardwalk...cafe under the green and white stripped roof

lifeguard stand on the beach

people getting a tan

Me! Looking good!

couple of kids paddle surfing

 It was a very nice day in the upper 70's and as I was told by my brother Dan it was 62 in Des Moines. I didn't believe him so he sent me this video...

Now I think this next video is what his front yard is going to look like tomorrow..

I hope not but I fear nature will take the path it is accustomed to follow.

After we left the beach we went to about 5 different Goodwill's and found a few treasures, but the one I was most excited about was this commercial looking orange juice squeezer. Here is a picture of it. I am not sure but I think Bonnie loves it and wants to keep it.

our new toy, gonna make some juice

We finally got done shopping as I was in the parking lot and took this picture of Bonnie paying for the last purchase of the day.

Bonnie paying the piper

Well we got the new Tom Cruise movie (Knight and Day)and  are now going to watch it and peacefully drift off to sleep....I think..Maybe its a romance....

Wen Dec 29th

Woke up bright and early and ran down to find some boxes so we could ship our ebay sold stuff. this is us getting back from finding boxes behind stores. I also took this video which shows we didn't really have a plan for the day at this point.

coffee and the car

Really nice day out, but we had mechanise to get shipped. We got straight to it, got everything wrapped, boxed and ready to ship. We then ran down to the post office and got it down the road. We also had to run over to the city hall, which was only a block from the post office, to get our 2011 resident parking sticker. The sticker goes in our back window and allows us to park in any one of 5 city owned beach parking lots at no charge. We returned home and it was already 3 in the afternoon. We were getting hungry and we had a coupon for a little bar and grill down in Ft Lauderdale called Yak-zees, so we got cleaned up and took off around 4:30. We stopped at Bealls outlet to check out the Christmas clearance first, Then saw a hair cutting place next door so I grabbed a quick haircut. Once that was complete we started back south toward the bar when we saw the Ice and Snow arena, which has always intrigued us so I pulled in. I wanted Bonnie to see some snow.

Well it turned out to be all ice and no snow, just a couple of ice skating rinks...That sucks. Oh well ...off to eat. It was about 6 and we were hungry. We got there and I grabbed this video of the outside of the bar.

We went in grabbed a couple of beers, got our food ordered when I saw a guy at the bar smoking. I asked the waitress if we could smoke in there. She threw an ashtray on our table and said we could in there. She quoted some Florida law about free standing blah blah blah.....I didn't really care about the rest, I was just excited we could actually smoke inside somewhere other than our car...WOW.

waiting for our food

Well we ate our fill and I was a bit overcome with either fullness or beer because I was very drowsy. We went home and I immediately fell asleep. I woke up after about an hour's slumber then Bonnie laid down on the couch and took her hour nap. So I am  gonna finish this blog and take an 8 hour nap.

Tuus Dec 28th

I woke up at 11am, What? I know! 11am...I think I was in a coma. I had to re cooperate from my trip to moms. I came out of the bedroom and Bonnie and Denae were out on the patio drinking coffee. I grabbed a cup and wandered out to the 65 degree morning....AHHH, now I remember why we love it down here! And this is a cold snap, tomorrow is going to be mid 70s, then back to the 80's. I got showered and Bonnie and I had to run down to the goodwill to find a larger suitcase for Denae. She had acquired more than she came with and could not get her stuff into her smaller suitcase. We found one, returned home and waited while Denae packed the rest of her stuff.

Denea, getting ready to leave paradise

 It was around 1pm and we had to get to the airport by 3 so we took off to grab some lunch. We drove down to Ft Lauderdale to a tiki cafe called Bamboo Bay we had one of our coupons for. We went in and got a table in the back.

Waiting for lunch

view from the table

We had ordered our lunch and were waiting for it to be brought out when some people walked in and sat down at the table right next to us. I looked over and (WOW) it was Dennis Rodman. Seriously! I said "Dennis" He turned and looked at me but did not respond. I then said "you are Dennis Rodman, aren't you?"
He nodded. I grabbed my camera, Much to the horror of Denae, who did not want us to mob him. I asked "do you mind if I get a picture?" which he responded with a Universal gesture which needed no words that he did not want his picture taken. I put my camera down in dismay, and then got chewed out by Denae about proper etiquette around celebrities.  We got our food and while eating they started playing music on the jukebox, which was directly behind our table.As a matter of fact I could play it from my chair. Theirr table was 3 ft from ours. I was unable to eat as Dennis kept looking at me the whole while I was eating, making me feel weird. All of a sudden he grabbed Bonnie by the shoulder and said "Come on, you want to party" while dancing in his chair. I said "get your hand off my wife, bitch"....No I didn't really say that. LOL She made some small talk and returned to eating. They made some comment about getting a buzz off the Heineken's they were drinking, (Aaron, that's your beer) We finished eating and paid our bill. As we started out Bonnie turned around, walked up to Dennis and grabbed his shoulder. You should have seen him jump, It made me laugh out loud. She said "It was nice eating lunch with you" to which he said "my pleasure dear".

The jukebox behind us, and Rodman's table to the right

It was a cool experience. Although I was still hungry. We drove to the airport,dropped off Denea, and returned home to heat up the doggy bag I got from the cafe. After that we just hung out at the condo watching TV and dozing on and off. That was it from paradise  on Tues Dec 28th

Dec 27th 2010

I just got back from Sioux City, Iowa, spending Christmas with my family. I love spending time with my family. My mother and father, My daughter Sarah and son in law Michael and grandkids Alyssa and Andrew, my uncle Harris, My brother Dave,my big sister Debbie, my niece Shonna and her husband Joe, My niece Ashley and My nephews Brandon, Andy and Canyon were the ones that came for the holiday. I wish we all could be together, as I miss seeing the ones that were absent. I believe there is nothing better than being with family! Here are a few of the pictures I took at the house...

My two princesses

Mom and Phillis in the basement (smoking room)

I love my brother Dave (even though he can't play cards)

Canyon in the smoke room.... Dan and Robyn's son

My Dad and Debbie

Kendon getting presents

Ashley, Triton and Uncle Harris

My big sister!

My baby...Sarah and the kids

Dave getting some big boy pants

My little angels

Table number 1

Mom cooking some of her fantastic food!!!!

Shonna Marie!

Mother...what are you doing?

Daves daughter...Ashley

Andrew, Isn't he cute!



(dave) are we going to the boat or what?





I took some videos, and I loved this one..

I am tired and need some sleep. You all know what I am talking about! LOL.

Sunday Dec 19th

We fell asleep watching TV around 9pm last night with me forgetting to do the blog. We woke up this morning
ate some toast and I quickly got to updating my blog. We then were going to run to the grocery store to get some butter and what not. This is walking to the car....whooo whoooo

We got there, got our stuff, put it in the trunk and decided to go explore a bit before retuning home. The weather was nice, right at 70. We drove up to raccoon park and decided to walk the trail. The trail is a boardwalk deck all through the park.

Bonnie on the boardwalk.

We started walking when I heard a noise looked over the rail and saw a raccoon walking down the creek bed foraging for food.

This park is right on the intercoastal, and is a very picturesque park. These pictures can confirm that I think.

Lots of these mango trees..native to saltwater tropical areas

Intercoastal from the boardwalk

Intercoastal from the ground

Sailboat heading down the intercoastal

Couple of birds looking for lunch

This guy thinks he sees something

We walked for a couple of hours, then went back to the car and headed back down the road. We stopped at another park called Gumbo Limbo Park. It is a conservation park and a sea turtle rescue center. By the time we arrived there it was 15 min to closing so I did not get any pictures. When we go back I will get some pictures, we have been there last year and it is a really neat experience. We then headed towards home and saw this big tree by the side of the road and took these 2 pictures.

That's a big twisting tree

Little waterfall behind the tree

We then continued toward home when it suddenly dawned on us we were starved. We decided on one of our favorite places which is only 2 blocks from our condo....Crabby Jacks

Crabby Jacks

The patio of Crabby Jacks

We sat at our regular spot on the patio, placed our order, I ordered the fish and chips (they are excellent) and Bonnie ordered the Key West shrimp. All of a sudden there arose such a clatter...wait... it was a fire truck we heard. A fire truck across the street. I quickly pulled out the camera and made this video..

I shut the camera off and got back to waiting for my food when they pulled the truck into our parking lot and drove right by our booth. Here is the close up video..

We ate and it was gooood. It was about 6 so we decided to go to the condo and get ready for the season finally of Survivor! Its almost time so I got to go......