Bassman's Blog: 03/01/2014

Heading Home

Feb 15-17, 2014

We were originally planning to stop at St Augustine's for a night on the way home, but then Lynn's sister Darlene called to say they were at a timeshare in Hilton Head and asked us to stop by. I had always wanted to check out Hilton Head so this was a no brainer.

We reluctantly left Florida Saturday morning and made the 5 hour drive to Hilton Head. It's great meeting up with friends and family away from home. Darlene and Don had a real nice 2 Bedroom unit and after catching up on news we went for a nice walk along the beach.

We went out for a great dinner. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant. Food was excellent.

We couldn't miss an opportunity to play some aggressive games of Sequence. Don and I proved our superiority once again pounding the poor ladies into submission and exhaustion!!!!

We headed out early Sunday morning for home. The GPS said we would arrive home by 11:00 pm (no stops of course).

Roads were clear most of the way.

We were originally planning on getting home on Monday, but we pressed on and arrived home at 2:30 in the morning, exhausted but glad to be home.......that is until morning when we woke up to this view.

Oh well, another month and we'll be heading back. A great first trip together!!!!

Valentine's Day

Friday, February 14, 2014

I wasn't too sure how excited to get for Lynn and my first Valentine's Day.

My brother Bud and our good Tromper buddy Gary Parker were arriving that day and we had arranged to have dinner together. All I had heard all week was how Lynn was having Valentines with "THREE" guys and how excited she was about it!!!!

I put my best foot forward and welcomed the two ~~goofs~~ buddies when they arrived. It didn't help any that they had a special Valentines card for Lynn. ............I felt like a fifth wheel :(

We had a great meal and time at the Ale House.

Once I heard about how great Mardi and Jill were doing and how much the guys missed their Sweeties, all was well again and I had recovered enough for a friendly group picture!!

A great night for sure.

Florida - 1st Trip continued - Karen & Dennis

Feb 11-13, 2014

Karen and Dennis arrived and we had a lot of laughs and some great times together.

We all enjoyed listening to Tommy Treadway at Tradewinds by the Lazy River on Tuesday night. Lynn and I returned on Thursday to hear him again and he was kind enough to bring me one of his CDs. Great stuff!

We spent a fair amount of time in the Lazy River. Not always this close :)

Had a great meal at Miller's Ale House.

Karen is always a lot of fun. Dennis is an interesting and great guy. He used to be an engineer in the Rocky Mountains. This trip gave me a chance to get to know him a little better.

After Karen and Dennis moved on, we spent an enjoyable afternoon at the Gaylord Hotel, essentially a humongous hotel under glass. Here's a few alligators and turtles sunning themselves inside the hotel.

We went for a very enjoyable walk around the lake at Celebration. We discovered a few paths I hadn't been on before even spotting a deer along the way. Someone had taken the time to write a number of inspirational messages on the concrete path along the way.

The path ended at the water theme at Celebration.

Why would all these wild turkeys be hanging around our back door?????

Hmmmmm......

That's not my hand!!!!! B

Florida -1st Trip cont'd

Feb 7-10, 2014

I introduced Lynn to Disney Boardwalk where we enjoyed some nice pasteries at the Boardwalk Bakery and worked it off by walking around the lake. We also visited The Swan Hotel....

.......and watched a few buskers (not as good as ones I've seen in the past).

We ended the night by walking to the bridge by Epcot and watching the Fireworks.

The following day we visited Animal Kingdom Lodge where Terry and Mandy stayed before and enjoyed some of the African wildlife that walked by.

The next day we did one of my famous "Free Disney Days" visiting the Wedding Pavilion, Grand Floridian Hotel, Wilderness Lodge, Camp Wilderness, The Contemporary hotel and finally taking the monorail back to the \Polynesian Village.

Another great day in Florida!

Friday we drove to Daytona to meet Karen (Merritt's daughter) and her husband Dennis who are visiting from Kamloops. We enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel and then went to seethe Dog Races. I was the big "winner" on the night only losing $30!!

We had a great visit and we will see them again next Monday when they come to stay with us for a few days.

On the weekend we drove over to Clearwater to visit Doug and Carol, our Neighbours back home (no pic, can you believe it!)

While we were there, the neighbour from across the street saw my BASSMAN plates and came over to talk fishing. Turns out he's from Brantford and after a few questions, Lynn realizes they were in Public School together!!! For some reason they didn't recognize each other after 50 years!!

George and Lynn

After a short visit, we left Doug and Carol's and drove over to introduce Lynn to Chris' brother Cal, Marcelle and their daughter Sherri who was down for two weeks.

We had a wonderful visit, followed by a great meal at Millers Ale House in Tampa. We all look forward to getting together again when we return in March.

I've Been a Bad Blogger!!

I have again fallen dreadfully behind on my blogs!!

The Blog is important to me, not just to keep my friends up to date (that's a bad term right now.....horribly behind), but more importantly as a record for myself. When I look back at past blogs it not only reminds me of how blessed I am, but serves as a reminder of events that I've forgotten about. That will become more important as time marches on.

So here I am returning to Orange Lake with Lynn in March, trying to catch up my blog from the last time I was here in February!!!

So I pick up where I left off.......

Week of Feb. 2, 2014

It didn't take Lynn long to introduce herself to the Sandhill Cranes.