Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road???

In Key West the answer to that question is "whyever, whenever, and however they want".  :)

When the Cuban people first came to Key West, they participated in cock fighting.  Soon that was made illegal.  The Cubans were not happy.  They released all their chickens and just let them go.  After a generation of chickens, they were categorized as wild chickens and placed on the protected list.  So now there are chickens running loose all over the island and they are protected.

These two crossed the street one evening as we were leaving dinner.  There had been a hen with some young ones that I wanted to get a picture of, but they were too quick for me!

Stay safe!

A "P.S." about Key West

I just realized that I didn't not post a couple of the pictures that I had meant to show you!

This is what our Bungalow at NYAH (Not Your Average Hotel) looked like.

And this is the building that was right next to us.  That's Golfer in the orange shirt.  He had been up to the roof balcony to take pictures.

And some more pictures of the lovely plants and trees.  I loved the plumeria!

 

Stay safe!

Golf!

Traveling on.....

We stopped at the World Golf Hall of Fame.  Very impressive place, lovely grounds, beautiful area, lots of exhibits and displays.

Golfer standing at the entrance area. 

Golfer standing on the replica of Swilican Bridge.    

We're having dinner this evening with friends, Sheila and Paul.  Tomorrow Golfer will get to play golf with them.

We're all settled in at the Jacksonville Navy Base Lodging.  Very nice, and they provide a breakfast!

Stay safe!

 

 

We Feel Younger Already!

First, here's a picture from the Lodging at Patrick AFB.  It was very nice and a lovely area.

We ate in the base dining hall for breakfast and then got on the road again.  The first stop was the Fountain of Youth.  History lessons, Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, young looking Native Americans, magic spring water.  Turns out it is now developed into a lovely historical park with many displays and things to do.  We were just interested in seeing the Fountain.  As it was explained, as people filled up Florida the water table got lower.  So the first spring water fountain dried up.  But a well was dug on the exact spot and now provides water from the same spring.  Here's old Ponce photo-bombing the picture.  It was a lovely area.

There were peacocks all over the park.  I love peacocks.  My Aunt Hazel had pet peacocks on her farm in Vermilion, Ohio, when I was a little girl.  Great security force!  Made lots of noise when any strangers came near.

At the Fountain park, some were up in trees, some sunning themselves,  and others just walking around.  This guy in particular was great.  He was just sitting there on the walk.  He saw us coming and opened his beautiful feathers.  When we tried to get his picture he kept turning around.  Didn't want his picture taken!  So I got a really good picture of his butt.  Then a man came from the other direction and tried to take his picture.  The peacock didn't know which way to turn to be away from both of us.  I got a good one!

I like the Albino ones, too.  This one came right up to me and waited for me to take the picture

Stay safe!

Lots of Walking!

Our adventure continues......

We took the Conch Train Tour yesterday.  It's not really a train, BTW.  We were driven all over the city and we learned so many interesting things about the history of Key West and the people. 

We got off at one of the stops and went to Hemingway House - lovely, old house and grounds.  I especially loved the Hemingway cats!  Here are some of them.....

In case you are not familiar, the Hemingway cats are descendants of Ernest's polydactyl (extra toed)cats.  They are well cared for and have free roam on the property.

We saw the Zero Mile marker, more historic buildings, had some frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, and walked Duval street some more. 

I've done okay with all the walking, although I admit I am not fast.  :)   I would be doing better if it wasn't so hot and humid.  The heat really got to me yesterday.  Remember that just a few weeks ago we were in snow and ice at home.  We have no definite plans for today and may just hang out here and enjoy the pools and do some reading.  There is a restaurant we would like to try this evening for supper that is just a few blocks away.

I am enjoying all the greenery and flowers here.  So many are the same as we saw when we went to Hawaii ---  the Banyan trees, the flowering Plumeria trees, and so many kinds of palms.

These are orchids that are sort of transplanted onto palm trees outside our door.  Very pretty! 
They grow right from the palm bark.

Don't know what this is, but it's pretty!  I took this picture at the Starbucks before we headed down to Key West.

Stay safe!

Our Adventure!

First off, we aren't always having a really strong signal and Wi-Fi.  So sometimes my posts are not getting out when I write them.  Also, sometimes they are just rattling in my head.   :)

Yesterday we had an air boat ride in the Everglades.  Lots of fun!  That was at an Alligator Farm.  There were many things to look at there.  Then we checked out the visitor center at the National Everglades Park.  After we returned to the base Golfer went to the gym and I did up our laundry.

It was a nice day.  But after sunscreen, bug spray, heat, humidity, and swamp water mist on us, we needed showers!

From the air boat

I don't know what these trees are, but they are lovely!

Can you find the Iguana?  He's in the bottom half, sort of on the right side of the picture.  We saw a couple sitting in trees.

 

 

It was really foggy this morning and I was afraid we wouldn't get to see much on the ride down to the Keys, but it cleared up and it was lovely.   We lucked out and found a parking spot and hope to just stay in that spot until it's time to leave!  There really is not much parking here.  I reorganized our suitcases last evening so we would only have to bring one in with us for our stay here.

 

So far I have done okay with the walking.  We made it down to Duval Street this afternoon.  After we got back to our room we had some pool time and Golfer took a nap.  :). We were still full from our large and delicious lunch at Sarabeth's Kitchen, so we just had wine, cheese and crackers at happy hour in the lobby for dinner.  Then came back here and had a piece of fruit.  Now we're just enjoying sitting outside for a while.

 

This is our view.

I hope everyone is well and happy.  Stay safe!

More Rain. Warm. Humid. But Good Times!

We had some excellent barbecue last night for dinner.  Best chicken ever for me.  Golfer had ribs.

It poured rain pretty hard this morning for a while.  Then when it stopped it was warm and humid.  I've always said I liked the wide open spaces out West.  We went through some wide open spaces here in Florida today.  Miles and miles of fields.  There are more cows and horses than I expected to see.  We also saw some beautiful fields of corn!  And orange groves!

We're staying on Homestead ARB for a couple nights.  Going to go see the Everglades tomorrow.  Golfer is checking out times and mileage and such right now. 

We'll be heading out to hunt for dinner in a bit.  There isn't much around the ARB, but the lady at the desk gave us some directions to an area where we might find some restaurants.    We're on an adventure!

Stay safe!

Good Times

Pollen season is heading to full force in the South.  We've seen many, many beautiful blooming trees and flowers.  Gorgeous!

We had a nice visit, although short, with Bikini and family.  They are doing well and are all busy.  We got to go to two of Boxer's baseball games.  Friday night was sort of miserable with a cold rain.  It let up and was just an occasional drizzle on us, but it was still cold.  Saturday's game was sunny, and warmer and much more fun!  And then Bloomer gave me some tips from her drawing class and we had fun drawing "Doge".

Golfer and I are on the road again now and are heading further South.  I have to say we do not have absolute confidence in the GPS system in Kirk.  But so far, we have not gotten hopelessly lost!  :)   We did take an interesting detour this afternoon on the way to our hotel though.

I hope everyone is well and happy.  Stay safe!

Dinner

Just returned from dinner at Logan's.  Very good food.  And a reason to smile. . . .   Golfer was carded when he ordered his beer!

 

 

Stay safe!

Heading South

We had a really nice Spring day this week and the temperature was in the 80's.  Then the next day it was in the 40's.   The pink bud trees have started to bloom.  The daffodils are opening up out in the median of Rt. 17.  Very pretty!

As we traveled South we saw Bradford pear trees blooming.  Also saw a lot more daffodils, some forsythia, and some tulip trees blooming.  And then it started to rain.  We all checked into the Chief's suite at Shaw AFB.  It is very nice. 

Almost the entire base has changed since we were here years ago.  Golfer did find the building where he used to work.  Nurse J was born here.  We drove downtown and found the street where we used to live, but the house is no longer there.  And to be polite, let me just say that we did not linger as we were driving through the area.  :)

I hope everyone is well and happy.  Stay safe!

Just Saying Hi!

It's been one of those "slow" days here.  Been dark and raining all day.

I did a few household chores, Golfer helped me do some grooming on the furry kids, and we watched a few of our recorded shows.  Just a quiet day.

So here's some kitty pictures!

 This is Cecil and Angus sharing space on the ottoman while we watched TV the other evening. They stayed like that for quite a while.

This is Finnigan's new spot in the entertainment tower.

Cinder was already in bed for the evening.  :)

Stay safe!

Beautiful!

The sun is out.  The temperature is 67 right now.  The snow in our yard has melted, but the ground is still pretty squishy.

I could not help myself.  I HAD to get out and work on the curb appeal!  I stuck to working on the front of the house since as I said, we're squishy here.  But I got a large bag of leaves, weeds, pruned off branches, and "stuff" cleaned up from the front mulched areas. Raked the mulch and freshened it.  Wiped off the porch rails, put out a fresh flag for Spring, and cleaned the sidewalk and porch.  Also cleaned up all along the curb.  Ahhhhh.  Feels good.

In other happy news... Golfer got to play golf today!  He hasn't played in a while and he said his game wasn't so great, but it was wonderful to get out.

So we've both had some fresh air and exercise and will probably sleep well tonight. :)

Stay safe!

Spring ????

Ahhhh, Virginia.

If you just looked at the thermometer you would think it was Spring around here today.  No such luck.

I took this picture just a little while ago.  You can see we still have snow from the last couple snowfalls.  And although it is 67 degrees outside now, a front is coming our way that will drop our temperatures again.  Sometime tonight the rain will start then turn to sleet, then snow and ice.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nasty.  Sigh.

Golfer and I just got home from the "Y".  Things are still sloppy out on the roads.

Kirk is going for some minor service tomorrow to get ready for our road trip.  Then Golfer and I have some errands to do.

All is well.  Stay safe!

Melting

Hey, everyone!  It's warmed up a little bit and the melting has begun.  Of course, that means everything is wet, muddy, and messy.  The huge piles from shoveling and where plows went are still huge.  The cars need to be cleaned.  I want to go to the car wash but know that that would be a waste of money with all the gunk that sprays and splashes up on the cars when we're out on the roads.

Yesterday I caught up on some errands.  I had been making a list and got through the whole thing!  Mail was dropped off, ATM was visited, books were donated to the library, paperbacks were turned in for credit at Paperback, Ink, food for the furry kids was gotten, and several other things were done. DAV will be doing a pick-up on Monday and I moved that pile out to the garage.

And soon I will be getting our suitcases out of the closet and dusting them off.  It will be time to start making "piles" for our road trip.  The closer it gets, the more I am looking forward to it.

The bird feeder needs to be filled again and I have to see if there's a way to get to it without sinking in mud.  :)  We've had several kinds of birds lately, plus the squirrels.  I know a lot of folks complain about the squirrels getting in their bird feeders, but it entertains the furry kids.  And the squirrels need to eat, too.  Speaking of wild life.... the other evening Golfer and I were watching TV and our security light came on out at the patio.  I looked out just in time to see the back end of a raccoon as he passed by the window!  He was a big healthy looking fellow.

That's about it from here,  Stay safe!

Happy Birthday, Boxer!

Love you!  xoxo