Tues Feb 22nd

Woke up early...around 6:30am early and couldn't get back to sleep. 1st day of work jitters I suppose.
It's strange how, after being gone for 3 and a half months, you feel like you just got back from being off for the weekend. It was kind of an uneventful day, except for the unexpected arrival of my 2 kids and their children around 8PM. That was a nice suprise. I forgot to take any pictures, but will take some tomorrow. I got home from a long open to close day and fell asleep right away. Now I am rested and ready to take on the day. I will catch you all later....gotta go to work....yuck!

Monday Feb 21st

I hope they don't cancell my flight again. Well maybe I do. LOL

We got up and hung out at the condo till 11 when we decided to go get lunch before I had to head for the airport. My flight leaves at 2:05. We went over to Muddy Waters, because we had won a beach tote when we were down at the festival on the beach Friday.

After an excellet lunch, we headed to the airport, gave and got lots of hugs and kisses, and went on in.
The flights went off ok...except I was at airports or in the air all day long. I didnt get to Des Moines untill midnight so I was very tired, and had to Iron my shirts and  then off to bed. I have to work all day long tomorrow so I will see how it goes.

Sunday Feb 20th

Well we were up early, as I was supposed to fly to Iowa today. We got up and ate, finished packing and left fot the airport. Bonnie dropped me off at 2 and headed back home. I drug my luggage into the airport and tried to do the self check in, which I always do to avoid the long lines. It would not let me check in. I looked at the line of what looked like hundreds, and saw an employee trying to keep the line in order. I asked him what was going on and he told me they had cancelled all flights to Detroit (which is where I was going through) and Minneapolis.
I got in line and an hour later I was in front of a live person. I was told I couldn't get rescheduled till Tuesday. She then told me she had one more place to look...wait...there was one flight Monday....I had to fly to Atlanta, then to Minneapolis, then to Des Moines. She asked if I wanted it, and I had to let her know immediatly because there was only one seat. OK OK I told her. She printed out the new Itinerary and I went outside to call Bonnie.

She came back over and picked me up. I wasn't really upset, because I halfways didn't want to leave anyways..and it gave me one more night in paradise. It was 80 outside and we decided to run down to eat at a place in Ft Lauderdale called Lulu's Baitshack.

We ordered our food and a drink and enjoyed the views from the patio. They had a live band playing inside the bar.

After eating we walked around the shops.

We then walked across the street to the beach and just walked down the beach.

As we were walking back to our car we saw these two guys playing and we liked it so I took a quick video.

We then headed home so we could watch some tv and get some shuteye.

Sat Feb 19th

Garage sale day! We got up at 6:30 and were on the road by 7AM. We had our list ready and punched the 1st address into the GPS and we were on our way. By 2 in the afternoon we were back at the condo. We must of went to 25 to 30 sales. We picked up a few really nice items, an old waltham pocket watch, a pair of Prada sandals (there is a pair on ebay right now for 285) Bonnie found these, and an xbox. We also got a lot of misc stuff too. These are going to have to wait to be listed as I am headed to Iowa for work. After we got home and unloaded the car, Bonnie made us some lunch. Around 4 we headed out to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a bath mat. Bonnie has company coming next week and she wants the place to look nice. We found a mat that would work in our bath and while walking up to the register we saw some Tommy Bahama beach umbrellas. These are very popular on the beach and I wondered where everybody was getting them. Our umbrella, which we got at a sale, is small and light. This is a problem because of the ocean breezes. After paying for the mat and the umbrella we decided to go down to Fort Lauderdale because we had a coupon for Biddy Earlys that was about to expire. It is a Irish pub and restaurant. The interesting thing is there was an actual Irish waitress. We ordered a couple of beers while checking out the menu.

We decided on the Mahi Mahi diner so we placed our order and then stepped outside to the smoking area.

We went back in and sat down and the cook brought our food out to us, it was kinda slow in there.

After diner we took off for home and Bonnie caught sight of a goodwill sign and I was forced to stop.

After the goodwill I realized we were very close to the restaurant my sister Deb used to work at when she lived down here. So I grabbed a couple of pictures to bring back memories for Deb.

After that we headed home so I could pack for my trip tomorrow. (I have always been a procrastinator) Well my next post will be broadcast from the great white north.

Friday Feb 18th

Today was laundry day, so we hung out at the pool till laundry was done. There were a lot of people by the pool, it seem like we have it to ourselves usually, so that was interesting. After we came up we had some lunch and debated on what to do. Bonnie mentioned that there was a big hoopla going on down at the beach. They were doing founders days this weekend so we decided to do that. We got ready and headed down at 6. They had a couple of bands and some other stuff going on, we figured that should be fun. We had to park a mile from the event (that sucked).

Walking through the boothes

It was still light when we got there and the crowd was sparse. We were a little worried that maybe the bands were no good. We walked around checking out the many boothes of misc tourist junk for sale until hunger pains kicked in. We decided to get a bite to eat while we waited for the music to begin.

We grabbed a couple of philly cheesesteak sandwiches and a beer and grabbed a table and sat down. It was starting to pick up, I think the band is gonna be good. I am kinda incoherent in this video, I had a mouthful.

I think I was trying to say "we are sitting behind where the event is taking place. I wanted to show the ocean right behind us. We got done eating and heard the first band playing. They were on a small stage and were ok...We watched them until Gary and the Landsharks started. Here is the first band playing, of course, Cocaine...

After about a half hour of listening to these guys we heard, and saw a lot of people up the street gathering. So we busted a move and got up there.

Once we go the area we enjoyed the music. They said they were a beach tribute band. They were actually quite good.

Gary and the Landsharks

They played for an hour then took a break. We ran to grab a funnel cake and a beer and walked in the sand.

Break time for the band

Getting late and we needed to get up early, it was garage sale day. So off we went. Gotta find some treasures.

Thur 2-17

Well I had to ship 5 items we sold on e-bay so I ran to the post office to get them on their way...It took about an hour because the PO was so busy. I then ran to the beach to see what was going on down there. Bonnie was at home, she said she had to clean.

I walked down the beach a little ways and took a couple of pictures..

Through a kaleidoscope?

79 degrees and sunny (as usual) LOL

After that I ran home to see how the cleaning was going. She was done, but wanted to go shopping. I did not. So she went shopping and I stayed home and played cards on my computer until she returned right before 6. We then made a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with garlic toast and a fruit bowl. After diner we watched the Idol, then I started to pack. Yikes...I had mental images dancing around in my head....

Image dancing in my noggin!

Well....it is for only 30 days...

Wed Feb 16th

I got a call a couple days ago from my former place of employment. They are in trouble and wanted to know if I would come back temperarily and fix the problems. Now I did not want to leave paradise, but for the right price it could be done. They are paying me well and getting me a hotel and rental car. Those were the stipulations I had made. They called me today, and I am flying up there this Sunday. I am not sure how I feel about this revelation. I love that company, as they afforded me this lifestyle we love so much, and I feel I owe them to help out. Enough of that. We just hung out at the condo all day in our jamas. Untill we got the call from Select Comfort around 3 in the afternoon. After that we decided to get dressed up and go have a drink. So we showered and jumped into the car and headed for the Mai Tai.

It is a polynesian restaurant and bar down in Ft Lauderdale. We felt like having a few fruity drinks. We got the about 6. Happy hour till 8. Half price drinks and free sushi buffet...Yuck

Sushi bar....No fricken way!

There are our drinks..

They had some live music going on in the bar and I video taped him for your audio pleasure.

There my keys are!

After a few drinks it was time to head back home. Idol was on at 8. Where did I put my keys?
But first a stop to look at the ocean. And the boats.

Fishing fleet at night

Don't fall in the water!! It's dark out here.

And then it was home, right at 8, just in time for Idol.  That was our day.

Tues Feb 15th

We got up late. Its nice getting up late. I love it. I came out of the bedroom and Bonnie was up drinking coffee so I grabbed a cup and sat down. We talked a while, and I suggested a manatee search for the day. She agreed, but said we must eat before any adventure could begin. I agreed.

Smells great

As breakfast was being prepared I took a look at the clock.

Look at the time...

It was almost afternoon, We had to get a move on if we wanted to find any Manatee. We showered and dressed and ran out of the condo into the car and we were off. We headed north on A1A looking for a good spot to pull over. We saw this golf course right on the ocean and it made me think of my little brother David, so we stopped and took a picture for him.

This was one cool golf course..I gotta go, here come security

We kept on going north just looking at the houses, or should I say mansions on the ocean. The flowers are really starting to bloom again and it was a very pretty drive.

The colors are magnificent

We got all the way to West Palm Beach, so we stopped to take a look and grab a picture. After I took these pictures, we drove another mile and I saw that is where the people were at..parking lot across the street.

North...where is everybody

South...I still don't see anybody

It was getting late in the afternoon so we drove another 10 miles north to Rivera beach inlet to grab an early dinner. We had been there once before and the food was good, and the ambiance is excellent.

I love coffee!!!

After dinner we walked around the inlet just relaxing. Once we got back to the car, we were shocked to find it covered in bird crap. I guess parking under a tree close to the water is a bad idea. We made a beeline for the nearest gas station, where I basically washed the car with a window washer. It was getting dark by then and we were 45 miles north of home so we headed for Hywy 1 and headed south. We stopped at a couple of second hand shops and got home at 8. Just in time for The Biggest Loser.

Monday Feb 14th (Valentines Day)

We got up and had no plans whatsoever. We were hanging out in the condo and Bonnie asked me if I wanted to go to the beach, as we hadn't been down there for a while. I was all for it, I mean what could be more romantic than a day at the beach, and it's free. I am a cheapskate, I'm not gonna deny it. We both got our swimwear on and we were packing the cooler with water when Bonnie asked if I wanted her to pack some sandwiches, which I quickly responded, Yes. So off we went with lunch packed to the beach. We got down there and it was quite busy. Must be a lot of romantics in south Florida. It was projected to be 75 degrees and sunny. I grabbed my camera to get a picture of the beach and it wouldn't turn on. I looked thought the viewer and it said "please replace the batteries". No problem as I had my other set of rechargeable batteries in the case. After the switch I turned on the camera and "please replace the batteries" again. Darn It! Bothe sets of batteries were dead. And to top it off, I didn't bring my phone with me, so No pics for the blog today. I will have to use my power of the English language to paint the pictures for you. LOL.
The Sky was Blue, dotted with small white billowy tufts of cotton. The water was turquoise with small waves washing ashore against the white sandy beach. Steve and Bonnie were sitting in their chairs, standing out against the crowd. Steve with his ripped physique, the result of many hours in the gym. Bonnie with her hourglass figure, the obvious reason for all the stares from the crowd. But they were not going to let the jealousy of the crowd ruin their valentines day picnic. They opened their cooler and grabbed a bottle of water and ate the low cal ham sandwiches (we had to watch our fat intake) and sipped on the Ice cold water. Their bronzed bodies soaking up some vitamin d. After a couple of hours they walked the 2 blocks back to the bat mobile.....oops car (almost blew my secret identity). We then headed home to change, as we had plans on going out for diner. We stopped at the store to pick some things for the house up and I turned wrong and pulled something in my back (the cost of crime fighting I guess) and was unable to shake it. We ended up staying home. Bonnie prepared a fantastic Valentine's dinner of chessesticks, taco's, chicken nuggets and milk. She knows the way to a guys heart. We then snuggled up and watched her favorite show, The Bachelor, I know the way to her heart too. Then it was off to sleep.....I need to charge the batteries...

Sunday Feb 13th

We slept in, not planning on doing much today. Around 11AM we left to run to the store to get ink for our printer. We picked up this HP 130 at a garage sale for 5 bucks. It is a mini printer just to print 4 x 6 pictures.

The ink cartridge cost 40 bucks. What? Yup...40 bucks. I think I will check e-bay...anyways we were wandering with no particular place to go when we saw the sacred "garage sale" sign! We followed the signs, not knowing if they were rejects from yesterday or if there was actually a garage sale. I am pleased to tell you it was a garage sale and it was operational.

Garage Sale!

The lady running the sale is a retired lawyer, and she spends most of her time traveling the world. Kinda reminded me of a female Golby. After we left that sale we passed a house that had a shark sticking out of the side of their house... I had to take a picture of it.

See the Great White?

It was 1:30 by then, and we were getting hungry. We decided to use one of our south Florida dines coupons, so we headed toward Ft lauderdale Beach.

We were Down by the beach when we passed another garage sale sign. This one was at a little resort across the street from the beach.

Another garage sale!

We found a handmade quilt for 5 bucks so we picked it up. My mother sold a handmade quilt on e-bay for 80 bucks, so we shall see. I didn't have any cash so Bonnie stayed at the sale looking around while I took of searching for an ATM. I found one about a mile down A1A at a 7-11. I got back on A1A headed north and the traffic was at a stop. It took me 30 minutes to get back to the sale and I figured Bonnie was probably wondering what happened to me. She wasn't..The sale was in multiple rooms as well as out in the courtyard, so she was in seventh heaven. She showed me a few things she liked, we paid and headed the final 4 blocks to Lulu's Bait Shack, where we planned on eating. We got parked at The Beach Place parking garage, which was $3 for the first hour. I wondered what the parking was going to cost? We took the elevator to the 2nd floor, because the sign in the elevator said that was where Lulu's was at. When the elevator doors opened we saw the mall was an open air mall. With several restaurants on the end that faces the ocean. On the north side was Lulu's and at the south end was The Big Kahunas. We had coupons for both. We went to Lulu's to get a table and we were told it would be 30 minutes. It was packed. The whole mall was packed. It is right across the street from one of the busiest beaches in south Florida. I forgot to mention there were about 4 bars in there as well and they were all packed. We were starved so we walked down to The Big Kahunas and much to our dismay, were told it would be a 20 minute wait. If we would take an indoor table we could have been seated right away, but we wanted the open air, beach view access, so we waited.

Waiting..for a girl like you

After about 10 minutes we were seated. We ordered some drinks and I ordered the Hawaiian pizza and Bonnie ordered the Dolphin sandwich and a salad.

Who is this handsome devil? A movie star?

The food was good, but it was a bit chilly sitting out in the shade with the ocean breeze. It only got up to 71 here today. I heard it was warmer in Des Moines. Ok almost... I took a couple of pics of the view up there. It was on the 3rd floor...

Failed attempt at a self photo

View from the dinner table

On our way back to the car we saw a bunch of people watching something in center court so we wandered in to take a closer look. It was this artist making paintings with spray paint cans....and he was awesome.
I took this video, I hope it shows his talent..

It was 5:40 in the eve by the time we got to the car and I was curious how much this was gonna cost us to get our car back. It was 8 bucks. Well the view was nice. We headed for home because the Grammies were on tonight and my wife loves the Grammies. And every other award show ever put on TV. That was the extent of our day down here in paradise. Hope yours was great as well!

Sat Feb 12th

Couple of slow days lately. Friday we never left the condo, we just hung out watching TV all day. Today was  Saturday, and that means garage sales day. We got up kinda late for garage sale day, around 8AM.
But we got out and hit a bunch of sales.

one of the sales we went to

One of the sales we went into was in a gated community in Boca Raton where Orlando Bloom has a house, and they had 2 Picasso's for sale in there...really, not 1 but 2 of them. Anyways we didn't find a whole lot but had a lot of fun. We got home at 3 and spent the next few hours doing laundry. We couldn't sit out by the pool because we had a cold weather snap come through. It only got up to 65 here. I am not supposing you all are shedding any tears for us, bu  when you are used to 80's, 65 feels cold. We then ran up to the red box and rented guardian owls and the American and sat home watching movies. Now is time to get some shut eye. I am tired...

Thur Feb 10th

We got up at 8 and sat on the patio drinking coffee till 9. Bonnie then made us some fresh squeezed OJ and egg sandwiches. We got dressed and headed out the door, my brother Dave had called last night wanting us to go look at a truck for sale. We made a quick stop down by the beach as it was projected to be 82 out today but with a 70% chance of rain, we wanted to see it before it clouded up.

Bonnie looking at the beach

I then called the guy with the truck and he gave me directions, which I punched into our GPS and we were on our way. We got to the location, which was BW Auto repair, and the truck was sitting out in back. I found Izzy, the owner of the shop, and he said he wanted to show me the title. He went and got the title and showed me it was a one owner truck and it did have 35,000 original miles on it. He gave me the keys and we went out back to test drive the truck. We then took some pictures for Dave's review.

After that we went to some thrift stores looking for treasures but only found a pair of shoes and a shirt.

About 4 in the afternoon we decided to grab a sandwich and head for home so we went to Dunkin Donuts and got 2 tuna melts on croissants. We then went home, watched TV and waited for Idol. That was the extent of our day.

Wen Feb 9th

We got up around 8AM to a weird silence. We were alone. I think we were getting used to having company here. We decided to just hang around the condo today to just relax and unwind. Bonnie made us breakfast and it was good.

That looks good to me

Bonnie's eating her's while I am photographing mine

After breakfast it was around 11 we turned on the TV and I laid on the sofa and fell asleep. I woke up around 12:30 and got on the computer while Bonnie was visiting on her phone with Friends. We just bummed around till 4 when I realised I had the leapster unit I sold on ebay and she paid 2 days ago...I had to get it to the post office. I ran up got it shipped and was home by 4:30. We watched Oprah and some other show..killing time waiting for Idol. Bonnie made spaghetti for diner around 6:30. we waited some more and finally Idol was on...Happy days...lol. Kind of a boring day, but you got to have some to balance it all out.
tomorrow is a new day, although another Idol is on. we see ya then.

Tues Feb 8th

We got up around 8:00AM with trepidation in the air. I think everyone was sad for the visit to come to an end. I took my shower, and when I came out Terry and Joann were beginning their packing.

nice shorts Terry!

After they had concluded their packing job was sufficient and they had everything packed we went out to the patio to relax a while.

I need more coffee!

While sitting out there chatting, we  decided to go get lunch down by the ocean for a farewell feast. Their plane did not leave until 3 in the afternoon, and it was only 10:30am. We loaded up the car ad went down to the pool to have a last look before they flew north.

Pool party

We then got into the car and headed south towards Ft Lauderdale. We were going to The Deck, a restaurant across the street from the beach, as we had a coupon for that place. Bonnie and I had eaten there before, and the views are spectacular. We got there at 11:15 and had no trouble finding a table facing the ocean.

what a view

I ordered a cheeseburger in paradise, Bonnie and Joann both ordered BLTs and Terry ordered a hot dog and fries. After consuming our food, I conducted an exit interview and here it is...

We stayed sitting there, admiring the view and chatting until 1:15, when we realized it was time to go. I saw captain hook standing beside the staircase down, so I got a picture of the captain and his crew of pirates.

Back to the pirate ship mateys

We drove the 15 minutes to the airport, found a parking space and unloaded the luggage.

Unloading the luggage

We walked them inside the airport and I supervised getting them their boarding passed via the auto check in machine. We then stepped outside so we could get one last group photo...

Time for departure..bon voyage

Then we returned inside for hugs and what not. We watched them walk through security and went back to the car. Bonnie and I were sad to see them go. We were also sad that they had to go back to that terrible weather....YUCK! 9 below? Again I say YUCK!
We had a great time and now it was time to go back home and figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We ended up just hanging out at the condo. I laid on the sofa when we got home and fell asleep for an hour. We watched biggest loser and the news, and Bonnie fell asleep on the sofa, and I was
playing on the computer. It is now late and I gotta get to bed. Who knows what tomorrow may bring.

Mon Jan 7th

We all just kinda hung out at the condo for the morning, relaxing and enjoying the weather. We had plans to take Terry and Joann to the Jungle Queen in the afternoon. The Jungle Queen is a larger ferry boat ride up the intercoastel tour that ends up on their own private island. My sister Debbie took me and Bonnie on this 18 years ago. At 11:30 we decided to take off for lunch, we were going to the Bahia Cabana, an older restaurant on the waterfront, and right next door to the Jungle Queen. Walking over there we saw one of the fishing charters had just gotten in and they were photographing the catch.

 Bonnie walked over and asked what kind of fish was that green fish, and the captian said "a dead one". After we stopped laughing he said it is a Mahi mahi.

We walked into the Bahia Cabana and had to take a picture of Terry and Joann with the Blues Brothers. We make everybody that visits do this.

 

 We found a table and I attempted to set the timer on the camera to take a self photo...not so good.
As we sat there waiting to order....here comes the Jungle Queen, returning from it's morning cruise.

 We ordered tuna melts and various beveradges and they were excellent. the girls ran around the bar looking for Iowa license plates. They found them but they were the old blue plates from the 80's

 It was time to get on the Jungle Queen so we walked over and got on board. as it departed I grabbed this picture of the Bahia Cabana from the water.

 This picture is of the Pirate's Republic. I just like the way it looks and I love the name. I want to go there.

 This is a picture of the Princess Sarah. It is a private yacht.

 After an hour cruise we got to the island and sat and relaxed waiting for the alligator wrestling to begin.

 I got this video of the aligators, I couldn't get the wrestler because it was crowded around the pit and Bonnie and I had seen it before.

 We got back on the boat for th return trip and there were these people right next to us that asked us to take a picture of them together. In return they took a picture of us.

 Look at how the "other half" live. I think its more like the other .000005 percent of us.

 this house was used in an episode of Miami Vice. I loved miami vice back in the day.

 We got home and decided to use the last evening to sit and relax around the condo and pool.

 Terry and Joann.......Hanging out on the patio. Bonnie made us a supper of Salad and salbury steak and Key Lime Pie. Yum Yum!

 After diner we went for a walk down to the pool area. This is Bonnie showing our guests the fountian area.

 We then grabbed a table by the pool and the girls wante to feel the water. The air temp was 79, and they told me the water felt as warm. I felt the water and I didn't think it was.  They decided to go swimming, we med decided not to.

After the swim, it was around 11 at night so we all went to bed. We have to take them to the airport tomorrow. Wow that time flew by.