Florida....So Long, Winter

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9 de janeiro de 2016
Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Winnipeg
8 de janeiro de 2016, Canadá ⋅ ☀️ -16 °C
January 8, 2016

It was time to hit the road and escape another Winnipeg winter, although admittedly it has been unusually mild so far. Our departure was delayed a day due to wintery road conditions throughout the midwest. It was a frosty -21 as Linda & I headed south in the Toyota Highlander.

Our trip involved 2 overnight hotel stays, at Eau Claire, WI and Mount Vernon, IL. In Illinois we saw 4 vehicles in the ditch from the previous day's storm so we were relieved that we did not have to drive on icy roads. On Day 3 we arrived safely at our first destination.....Nashville, TN. Our home for the next few days would be a 2 bedroom unit at the Wyndham Nashville.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Nashville, TN
22 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ 🌧 0 °C
January 11 - 15

We only had 5 days in Nashville, so we kept busy and easily logged our 10,000+ steps. The Opryland Resort with its 2882 rooms, tropical indoor gardens, waterfalls, and other extravagant features, was still decked out for Christmas. It was a 15 minute walk from our resort as was the 200 store Opry Mills Mall. You will be shocked to hear that we never spent one dollar, or $1.46 Canadian!

We used a l/2 price Groupon for a tour and wine tasting at Belle Meade Plantation, a world-renowned thoroughbred stud farm. Sea Biscuit and Secretariat can trace their bloodlines back to Belle Meade. Our next stop was at the unusual Parthenon which was built for the 1897 Centennial Exposition. The Parthenon and the 42 foot Athena statue are both full-scale replicas.

Still dressed for warmth as the temperature has only been around 4 C.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Nashville
22 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ 🌧 0 °C
The main doors of the Bridgestone Arena were unlocked so we walked in. Our self-guided tour was cut short when we encountered an official-looking person. She directed us to an entryway to the arena so that we could see it and then kindly asked us to leave afterwards.

The music scene in Nashville is amazing, even though I am not a huge country fan. We sat at one bar for over an hour, enjoying the two female and one male singers. A younger woman sitting beside Linda asked the inevitable question: "Are you two twins?". After some conversation we learned she was a photographer and we were asked if she could take our photo. She wanted to share it with her own sister.

We also enjoyed the Grande Ole Opry. Rhonda Vincent, Michael Ray, Ashley Monroe and Chris Young were the big crowd pleasers, although we weren't familiar with any of them. Afterwards we went to the Wildhorse Saloon, a popular 3 storey, 66000 sq ft, live music dance hall. Linda was on the dance floor with about 75 other line dancers!

Always a fun time in Nashville!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Kissimmee
23 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
January 17 - 23

From Nashville we drove as far as Lake City, which is an hour south of the GA/FL border. I had not been looking forward to Atlanta but I white-knuckled it right through the city with very few delays. When we finally arrived in Orlando we were greeted with sunny skies and 22 C. Total distance was 3300 km and final tally for gas was $120 USD. Love the Toyota Hybrid and US gas prices, which are more in line with reality.

Week One was spent at the Wyndham Cypress Palms in Kissimmee. We had a one bedroom/one bathroom condo that worked out well. After the long drive we chose to relax for most of the week. We went for lunch at the Golden Corral to meet with 17 members of my Timeshare Users Group (TUG), a forum for timeshare owners. The "lunch" lasted 6 hours! There were lots of interesting people and travel stories. Other activities were Disney Springs (a dining, shopping and entertainment district); the Morse Museum in Winter Park (the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass, jewellery & art which was amazing); and of course some limited shopping at our favourite US store, Ross (the dollar exchange rate is a strong deterrent).

We were watching Jimmy Kimmel's interview with actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels was telling the story of life in Michigan where he grew up. We laughed heartily when he spoke of snowbirds....."In Michigan we call them pussies"!!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
The Cocoa Beach Resort
29 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
On a sunny but cool day we went on a long day trip, once again arriving home after dark. We had planned to leave early but of course that didn't happen! A GPS and navigator malfunction didn't help the situation either! Our first stop was the Kennedy Space Centre. We got as far as the parking lot - $10 for parking, $49 for senior admission. Not going to happen! Our next destination was the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse where we had a picnic but again didn't want to pay the required $6 to climb to the top of the lighthouse. We then drove north along the coast as far as Ormond Beach. Our little day trip ended up being a 300 km road trip.

The rest of the week we went on long beach walks, did some shopping, and relaxed with a glass of wine or two. Today we walked 7 km and then enjoyed a late lunch on our balcony. Notice the glass of wine in Linda's hand....a picture is worth a thousand words!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Cocoa Beach
30 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ 🌙 9 °C
January 23 - 30

Our drive from Orlando to Cocoa Beach was supposed to be a quick l l/2 hours, but I made a spontaneous decision to avoid I-4 because traffic was inching along. Big mistake because the GPS and navigator took me on a route that was way off track so we didn't arrive until several hours later, partially due to stops for gas and food.

Our home this week is The Resort on Cocoa Beach which is located on the Space Coast. We had two nice surprises on arrival: our assigned unit was one of the ocean-front penthouse condos (2 bedroom/2 bathroom) on the 8th floor; and we had an amazing view of a full moon rising! The resort is very nice and had many daily activities. The only one we attended was the weekly BBQ - hotdog, cheeseburger, beans, coleslaw, and coke - all for a remarkably low $4! We passed on the hotdogs! There was entertainment and I won one of the door prizes, a large coffee mug.

Florida has been experiencing abnormal weather patterns due to it being an El Nino winter. Day time temperatures have averaged around 18 C and at night it's been as low as a chilly 2 C. We've also had record rainfall this month. C'est la vie!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Fort Myers
30 de janeiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Since we weren't able to check in to our next resort until tomorrow, we decided to drive cross country to Fort Myers so that we could visit Kathy & Blaine at their RV park. We enjoyed the 4 hour drive past cattle ranches, orange groves, and state parks. The RV park was very muddy from the record-setting rainfall the area has received in the past couple of weeks. We had a really good visit and a fresh seafood dinner at Coconut Jack's Waterfront Grill in Bonita Springs.

After spending the night at the Best Western in Fort Myers we drove to Sanibel Island, one of our favourite places in Florida. Sadly, fish killed by red tide littered the beach. We strolled the beach for an hour and then cruised around the very crowded island, stopping for a picnic along the causeway.

Our next destination was Orlando, a 3 hour drive through central Florida. We stopped at one of the roadside stands to buy some freshly picked oranges from a friendly Mexican farmer. We wanted to avoid the busy interstate, so our alternate route meant there were several small towns along the way delaying our arrival in Orlando until after nightfall.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Kissimmee
2 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
January 31 - February 7

Our new home for the week is Vacation Village at Parkway.....a 23 building mega resort with 2,516 condos. It was far too huge to be a comfy home-away-from-home. We were assigned a 1 bedroom mustard coloured unit on the top floor of building 14, the farthest building from the main road. The condo was not the nicest and our neighbours were the noisiest we've experienced. One afternoon there was a domestic dispute amongst the extended family that occupied the 3 condos surrounding ours. We eventually contacted security and were happy to hear them leave 2 days later at 5 in the morning!

The weather was variable as we finally had 4 days where the temperature hit 28 C but then it plummeted to 15, with overnight temperatures of 7. One day it rained from morning until night. This didn't stop us from going somewhere each day.

On one of the hottest days we walked to the community of Celebration. This village was designed by the Walt Disney Company and is reminiscent of The Stepford Wives. It was very clean, very white (buildings and population), and a pretty but long walk in 28 degree weather.....7 km round trip.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Winter Park
3 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
We spent a nice afternoon at the Leu Gardens in Winter Park, north of Orlando. Because I was determined to avoid driving on the nerve-wracking I-4, the slow route took us nearly 2 hours to get there. The camelia garden was one of the largest in the US and was supposed to be in bloom but in fact was past it's prime unfortunately. So we didn't see many flowers but we walked the grounds and followed a trail of big bugs wood sculptures. We also took a 30 minute tour of the founder's 19th century home.

On our way home we stopped at the Florida Mall, Central Florida's largest mall. We only went to 2 stores, Macy's and JC Penney. The next day there were 2 young men shot and killed in the parking lot outside of JC Penney where we had parked our car. Shopping has become a high-risk activity. There is almost a murder a day in Orlando. Lots of car accidents as well.....saw 3 crashes on our way to the Gardens.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Orlando
5 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
We discovered that the Tupperware International Headquarters were in Orlando and they offered a small museum on the history of Tupperware. It was a bit of an oddity but it was free. We also managed to spend an afternoon at the pool before the weather changed for the worse. Shopping at almost every Ross (Cross) Dress for Less occupied several hours. Sometimes it appeared that we were the only non-hispanics in the store. Got some good deals despite the horrible US/CAN exchange rate of $1.40.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Saint Augustine
7 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
Moving day has become quite streamlined and we're managing to get our act together to meet the 10 am check-out deadline. We were only an hour or so from our next destination so we decided to go to Saint Augustine for the day, an easy 2 hour drive. Saint Augustine is the oldest city in the US, founded by the Spaniards in 1565. We had lunch at La Herencia Cuban Cafe and the cuban sandwiches we ordered were delicious. We wandered about town to see the historic buildings and shops. It was a sunny but cool and windy day so fortunately for us the crowds were minimal.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Cocoa Beach
9 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
February 7 -14th

We're back at the same resort in Cocoa Beach. It was our favourite place so we didn't mind. We weren't fortunate enough to get a penthouse unit this time but we are on the 5th floor with a view of the community.

We drove about 45 minutes south to the Viera Wetlands in Melbourne. It's a 200 acre constructed wetland system where the reclaimed water is used for irrigation. We were able to drive or walk along a berm so that you could get a close up view of the wildlife. We saw an alligator swimming in the water but it never did come to shore. There were lots of different birds that we were unable to identify and photographers with huge 2 foot lenses. One bird was the envy of the others when he swooped down and caught a small snake!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Cocoa Beach
10 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
It was time to say a tearful goodbye to my "twin". We did one last walk along the beach to the pier. All of our walking must have improved our fitness because we did this 7 K walk 2 weeks ago and it was much less exhausting this time around. On our way to the airport we stopped at one of the orange grove shops to pick up some juicy temple oranges, the first of the season. We paid $16.95 for about 20 pounds of oranges! Linda's carry-on suddenly became a few pounds heavier. The Orlando airport was less than an hour away and everything went smoothly. Linda would be arriving home just in time to experience the Polar Vortex (-40 with the windchill!).Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Weston
14 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
February 14 - 20th

My next destination was the Vacation Village at Bonaventure in the upscale community of Weston, just west of Fort Lauderdale. The 3 hour drive south on I-95 went smoothly until I was about an hour from Fort Lauderdale and the traffic increased ten-fold. Out of nowhere came a plastic garbage bin that was being blown across the interstate. At 70 mph there was no way I could avoid it so it got smashed to pieces and hopefully didn't do any damage to my vehicle.

On check-in at the resort I was told that I had a recently renovated unit. The only thing new in the whole condo was the big screen TV! I felt like I was living in the '80s. The next morning there was an horrendous storm with 3 tornadoes touching down, one just 17 km away. It knocked out the internet for the next 3 days. I felt lost without my computer. I complained to management and at least got my $25 internet fee refunded.

Every morning I was awakened at 7 by the front end loaders and dump trucks that were digging up the resort's golf course to make way for some multimillion dollar homes.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Weston
20 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
I parked the car for the whole week and explored the community on foot. I walked for 3-4 hours each afternoon, distances of 4-9 km. Weston is nicely landscaped and I saw a variety of waterfowl, a turtle, and a racoon running across the street and along the sidewalk. I thought racoons were nocturnal? There were posters in our building warning of alligators spotted in the neighbourhood but I was happy that I never saw any.

I thought it was odd that dog owners picked up their dog's poop but then just left the bags in the grass along the sidewalk. So Floridian dog owners are responsible and considerate....but not really.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
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Hollywood Beach
20 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
February 20 - 27

It was a short 45 minute drive to my next destination, Hollywood Beach, which ended up being more like 3 hours after stops for food, wine and gas. Moving in was a bit unusual because the resort only allowed luggage carts from your vehicle in the underground garage to the front lobby. From there I had to tip an attendant who would take my stuff to my suite. This was my first studio and I really enjoyed the bright, modern space even though I had to set up the murphy bed each night. Although the building is ocean front, I had a back unit with a terrible view of the public beach parkade :(Leia mais
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Garrett Samm You can almost see the sunset.
10/03/2016Responder
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Hollywood Beach
21 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Steps from my front door is the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk.....not "boardwalk" as there are no boards, just paving stones. It's a great place to walk and people watch. It does get quieter as you walk north but the new Margaritaville Resort attracts a crowd. The wave rider costs $30 for 30 minutes of fun. I wandered through the hotel and loved the huge flip-flop and margarita chandelier. On most evenings they have 2 hour concerts with a variety of music styles. The one night that I attended the band was playing Jimmy Buffet type songs, which seemed appropriate. The full moon was a nice added touch!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Hollywood Beach
22 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Kathy & Blaine were RVing in nearby Sunrise and had a rental car. So they joined me for a great afternoon at the beach. We sure don't look like most of the retirees that we've been seeing and meeting in Florida!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Hollywood Beach
24 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
My fun came to a screeching halt on Wednesday afternoon. I finally got my bike out as the broadwalk was the perfect place to ride. I discovered that my front tire was low so I stopped at a bike rental shop nearby. They had a huge commercial air compressor so I added 2 seconds of air. The tire was rock hard so I released some of the air. I cycled another 2 blocks and....bang!!!....blew the tire. Women screamed as I'm sure they thought it was a gunshot. I flew over my handle bars and landed about 8 feet away. People helped me up and were very concerned. No broken bones, so I hobbled back to the resort. My knee was quite swollen so ice, elevation and Aleve was how I spent the rest of my day. Ouch!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Weston
27 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
February 27 - March 5

Today was both moving day and the arrival of my retired-nurse friend, Gailene. Fortunately, the Fort Lauderdale Airport was only 20 minutes away. I introduced Gailene to Florida by going for a walk along the Hollywood Broadwalk, followed by lunch at one of my favourite restaurants, Sweet Tomatoes. Our home for the week was back to Weston where I had reserved a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo at Vacation Village. It was very spacious and served us well.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Everglades National Park
28 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
This was the beginning of several day trips. The Everglades, a World Heritage site and largest subtropical wilderness in the US at 1.5 million acres, was a short drive from our resort so we made two day trips as there was so much to see and do. The first day we took a leisurely route, stopping at one of the many orchid nurseries in the Redlands area and at a farmers market. The second day I took the dreaded I-75 to avoid road construction on the leisurely route but only got lost and still had to drive the 20 km of roadwork :(

The beautiful orchids were in such stark contrast to the grey, rather ugly alligators that lurked in the murky waters. Even the babies aren't cute! We walked the short Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo interpretive trails. The weather was perfect....sunny and not too hot. Since I'm not an early morning person as you know, we left late and stayed until sunset. Works for me!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
Everglades National Park
29 de fevereiro de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
"Ignorance is bliss!" says Gailene. I followed in the footsteps of the other tourists and got this photo of Gailene and the big guy. Look at those teeth! We later learned that although the gators look docile, we were to stay at least 15 feet away. I also learned that there are 1.3 million alligators in Florida and in the past decade there has not been a documented attack inside the park. Whew!!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Fort Lauderdale
1 de março de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Today we marvelled at the lifestyle of the rich and famous as we cruised the Fort Lauderdale Intracoastal Waterway on the hop on/hop off Water Taxi. The history of the waterway is complicated.....remove the Seminole Indians; drain the Everglades; dredge and build canals and seawalls; with the end result of over 265 km of waterways. Finding the right parkade and ticket booth was a challenge but once we got going we had a great afternoon. We started at Stop 1 and got off at Stop 4 to window-shop on Las Olas Boulevard and to have lunch on the patio at the Cheesecake Factory. Then we cruised the waterway to Stop 12 and back again to where we started. Lots of beautiful homes and yachts but only one with a Canadian flag that was from Halifax. I shouted, "Yay Halifax!", and got a friendly wave in return. $26 for 6 hours of cruising.....I think we got our money's worth!Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
... in Clewiston
2 de março de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
An hour's drive East along Alligator Alley and North to the village of Clewiston was the Big Cypress Indian Reservation. Yes, they do call themselves "Indians" here. I inadvertently frightened an alligator that was sunning himself along the narrow road and witnessed how fast these creatures can run on those short legs! We were here to see Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki, which surprisingly was the most amazing museum . It is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute so the quality of the exhibits was excellent and so realistic. Behind the museum is a 2 km raised boardwalk through a natural cypress dome, a type of swamp where the trees at the centre grow higher than the trees at the edge forming a dome-like shape of treetops. I used my Metis card to get free admission, and appreciated the $7 savings.

We had a very late picnic lunch in a chickee, a structure still used today, that is made of a log frame and palm thatching.Leia mais
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Florida....So Long, Winter Viajante
...in South Beach
3 de março de 2016, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
The huge feral cat population is a real problem with warnings of health risks. It appears to be a very controversial issue.

We ended our day with a walk along the beach and Ocean Drive to see South Beach come alive at night.Leia mais
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