Hi to everyone, we are on our back up north, slowly but surely. We are still going to be travelling, lopoking at Newfoundland in June so will update as we travel. It is always great when I check on stats and see that people are still following. We would love to hear from you if you are following and what you think of it, you can sign in as anonymous if you wish, but would like to know who you are as well. We have hits from all over the place, so not sure if these are chance hits or people who are actually following us. It has been almost two years now since Sandra retired and we started on our adventure and we hope to keep it up for a while longer while we still can.
Thanks to you all and stay tuned!!!
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Savannah
Savannah
We
went to Savannah again this year as are heading north and keeping with warm
weather. We did a Red trolley tour again
which we always like to do in cities that offer it. It shows all the highlights of the main
downtown areas. We had a bit of trouble
though, as when we were pulling into the
parking lot for the trolley stop, Ken notice that the brakes were soft, put
some brake fluid in and it all poured out.
We went into the Visitor center and the fellow on the desk, Joel was
very helpful, found a brake dealer for us that we drove down to and they proceeded
to check and fix the brakes, long story short, we hung around all day as they
had to get parts, make parts etc. and ended up leaving the truck there. One of their employees’s lived near our RV Park
and drove us home and picked us up in am.
We
did do a walk in that area as the dealer advised they had a sandwich shop in
the area and had a chance to go to Forsyth Park and walk around which we would
not have done normally as we were touring.
This beautiful park, conceived by Savannahian
William B. Hodgson, and named for Governor John Forsyth when it was laid out in
1851, consists of 20 acres bordering the historic district. The main walkway is
highlighted by the famous white fountain, erected in 1859 and restored in 1988
by the city and community residents. The fountain was orderered from a catalogue in New York and assembled down here,
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| Spanish moss on trees |
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| Entrance to park |
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| Fountain |
The next day, we got up early in morning and
had the driver takes us to restaurant for breakfast named Clarys which was in
movie Midnight in Garden of good and Evil, which I did not know until we took
the tour. Breakfast was very good;
French toast was amazing and reasonable.
We had time to kill so walked up to trolley stop and saw the different
squares as we walked. When we took the
tour, it was kind of neat to get the information on what we had already walked
through.
As we had been there before, we just got off
down by the river front for a nice leisurely walk.
On the tour they mention the various movies
and locations. We have seen Forest Gump
but one they kept mentioning I had not heard of. Midnight in the garden of good
and evil. Since it was from a book, I
guess here is one I need to read.
Pictures I took this time is mostly of the
architecture in the area, which is still pretty amazing. They still require that all buildings in the
area, if they are been renovated, need to have exteriors restored as to the
original architecture. The insides, can
be totally renovated and modernized.
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| This is church steeple that the feather fell down from onto to Forest |
Asheville NC Biltmore Estates
Biltmore Estates –
Asheville, NC
We are watching weather and heading north slowly but surely, still warm, but nowhere near 86 degree weather the day before in Savannah.
We were told by several
people that this was a must see. Since
we had lots of time heading north and keeping nice weather, we stopped in
Asheville for a couple of days, toured the grounds and visited around the town.
The Estate is 8,000 acres
owned by the Vanderbilt’s and was built in 1892. We did a tour of the actual house that was
amazing, it is four stories and they have renovated quite a bit of it. We were not allowed to take any pictures
inside but it was really amazing, the fact that they had indoor plumbing and a
large swimming pool, is amazing. See
website for more of the history.
Currently, they have
“Biltmore Blooms” happening, which tells you when the best time for viewing flower
and we hit it just great as the spring flowers are all in bloom, as there
gardens are gorgeous. They have their
tulips blooming in every colour imaginable and the azaleas are starting to
bloom. It have so many pictures, don’t
know what to post, so will do the ones I like best (that is always the problem
when travelling, I have been taking so many pictures in the last two years, it
must be filling up the computer). We took two days to do this as a lot of
walking and climbing in house as well as on estate.
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Gargoyles |
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| Exterior |
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| Wall of "Walled garden" |
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| View from south wing |
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| Azaleas |
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| Azalea with butterly |
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| Rose garden |
The second day we went back
and did a tour of another part of the estate which was Antler Hill and
Winery. This section had the barn and
several buildings with the history of Vanderbilt’s as well. We stopped for
lunch at Cedric’s which was recommended by one of the fellows when we were in
Florida. We did a wine tasting at the
winery and it was different that most others, they did not have a limit; there
was a list of 20 wines and we could have tasted them all. (a bit much even for
us). I did a separate tasting they had
of sparkling wines which there was a charge for, but the flutes were nearly
full and price was reasonable. Ken got
to have a Cedric’s pale ale (Cedric was the Vanderbilt’s St. Bernard).
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| Entrance |
Venice
Venice
Left Shady Acres and headed to Venice, FL to visit our friends Mike
and Sue who were getting ready to leave to up north. When we pulled in, we saw
this really cute little RV that had been there the year before. I made a comment on Facebook about the size
as the site we were in down south had the site beside us that was pretty tight
and I thought this would have been the perfect size, take a look.
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| Shaman Mic |
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| Drummers |
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| Crown (not very clear sorry) |
Our RV site is right beside the Venice Rookery so we finally went
over there this year. They have an
island that the birds are nesting in that is protected and they come back every
year. They had anhingas, egrets and
great blue herons. There are also a
couple of alligators in the pond around them so I guess the birds learn how to
fly really quickly so they don’t become lunch!!
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| Baby anhinga |
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| Great blue heron |
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| Nesting |
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| Island of various nesting birds |
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| Heron in the open |
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| Alli |
Final month in Florida Shady Acres
Tour of Naples
Went for a boat tour out of Naples, thought
it was going to be a dolphin cruise but arrived and were told it was a site
seeing tour. The day was beautiful, the
price and company was good so we did a tour on the inside area of Naples bay
and got a chance to look at some amazing homes.
Our guide was telling us that the majority of these are only used
occasionally as these people all had several different homes. One side of the cut had the multimillion
dollar homes as they could get to the beach easily, the other side had to drive
a long way around and were only worth around half a million – as they say
location, location, location!!!
A few shots of gorgeous homes and a boat or
two…
Easter Sunday
Had a different Easter than usual this
year. We went out to Matlache on Pine
Island and found that nothing was open; we figured the small touristy shops
would be open. We were going to do that
and then go to a bar on the island.
Last year we went with other friends to
Burt’s bar and this year, we ended up at the Ragged Ass Saloon further up the
Island. Quite a few bikers hanging out
but others as well – several of the people from the park with bikes would head
out here for a get together, music later in the day.
We had lunch and a pint or two (& wine)
then headed back to downtown Fort Myers.
They have been working on rejuvenating the area for a while and it was completed in December 2013. It was very quiet down there as well. Good part about that is no problem finding parking for large truck which is what we all travel in.
They have been working on rejuvenating the area for a while and it was completed in December 2013. It was very quiet down there as well. Good part about that is no problem finding parking for large truck which is what we all travel in.
Headed home and had quite dinner at our
house with Jon & Eileen.
This is end of March and just about everyone has left the park or is leaving. We are staying a couple of extra days so don't get in the mad rush on the highway or out of the park. As we are only going to Venice, a couple of hours up the road, it is no big rush for us.
So have been saying goodbye to friends down here until next time.
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Winter down south continued
People often wonder what we do while we are here. There are
many organized activities if you choose to participate, but sometimes things
just seem like a good idea at the time.
The day before the Super bowl, several people were hanging
around talking (and having toddy or two) and started a bear can regatta on our
lake – the boats were built with beer cans and duct tape and set free. Unfortunately when the wind caught the sails,
they were promptly swept away. This
resulted in people from both side of our “lake” having to send them back to the
starting point, to Captain Johnny.
We had several people watching as well as a few of the lake
citizens.
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| Captains |
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| A helping hand |
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| Neck to neck |
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| Intereference by in water citizen |
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| The winner ?????? |
While this was going on, some people had been playing
washers and a tournament was organized for the next day, so we had a pre Super
bowl tournament and pot luck dinner, basically very impromptu by people on our
street.
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| They started |
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| Spectators relaxing |
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| Ken & Eileen ready to start |
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| Ken shooting |
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| The winners |
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| Not winners |
Discussion was also
on about possibly having a Mardi Gras parade the next week and it became so,
along with music and drinks by the pool, put on by the park. Amazing what people can do!!!!
One of the things we had always wanted to do was an airboat
ride in the everglades so we went along with friends of ours, Jon and Eileen,
for the day to Everglades City. If was
really interesting and quite a bit of fun.
It started out rather slowly so I was unsure what was happening, but
once they passed through the slow zone (manatee area), our driver just let it
all our and we were speeding through the mangroves and in and out of the maze
of trees.
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| Airboat |
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| On the move |
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| Hitchhiker |
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| Between the mangroves |
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| Mangroves |
We did not see alligators in
this area, as they were further inland but we saw a colony of raccoons in a
bush.
I counted over a dozen of them as they came right out to
boat when the driver slowed down. They
were very cute and quite a bit smaller than ours back home when fully
grown.
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| Look closely and count |
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| This one is just hanging around |
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| Another bunch |
This particular company could
take you through where the grasses were as well, which is what I thought the
Everglades ride would be through, but this is now a protected area and very few
can go into in now.
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| Through the grasses |
From there we headed south and stopped for lunch and then to
Great Cypress Park to see the alligators, the welcome center has a boardwalk
that you can stroll along and see different birds and quite a few alligators
nesting. The anhinga is a swamp bird common to Florida and we saw a nest of them when we were visiting friends up in Venice - they are huge birds.
Standing on the boardwalk, you can see dozens of alligators lying around, some moving, some just relaxing in the sun. They move around in the area when they need food or something changes in their habitat.
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| Just lying around |
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| Note the fish feeding off 'gators back - they don't go near his mouth though! |
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| Fish jumping - these guys will jump right out of the water and on land and back - from the catfish family |
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| Thinking about dinner |
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| Really thinking |
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| Great, there's dinner.. |
This is a very large area and a National Park
that would take you most of the day to go through and on back roads. This could be a trip for another day.
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