h20skibum

We only made the drive to Key West once, and that drive was from the Ft. Myers area. It was even a long drive from there, and even longer when you consider we were driving back to Pennsylvania after that trip. All our other visits to Key West have been on cruise port stops. One other unusual place to see is where they keep Robert the Doll. It is a little hike from the cruise port, but we did that on one trip when we had a lot of time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

Wow, that looks good!

Safe travels home, Sue and Rick. The weather will be a little nicer when you get back. A few 80° days in store this week. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law will board when you get off. Will be interesting to hear their tales of their first trip to the Caribbean.

I am following along with your report. Good to see you have your photo issues figured out. It is always nice to have photos to go along with the narrative. I have done a few live reports, and I know the effort that is involved, so thank you for that. Now, if I can offer a constructive comment. I always find the photos are much easier to view if there is a space between them. Not hard to do, just insert photo, hit return twice, then insert the next ones. Enjoy your cruise.

I was up early this morning, and I came across My Cousin Vinny on Hulu. It had been a few years since I watched it, and it is still good.

What a beautiful, sunny day for us today. Enjoyed breakfast and lunch out with our grandkids, plus a little time exploring new life at the lake. Then, there is always time for ice cream. Meanwhile, our budding artist worked on her life size family chalk art. There may have been some tracing involved. Looking forward to granddaughter’s first traveling concert tomorrow.

Greg, good to read that you are walking that long with no pain. Keep it up, it only gets better, or so I am told. I have found that taking off some excess pounds has worked wonders for the way I feel. Now if I can just keep those extras off while my grandson is here for the summer.

I do one every morning. Just do a screenshot from the newspaper on my iPad, and pencil it in. They get progressively harder, later in the week.

one of the newspapers I read this morning covered a fundraiser for a local food pantry, plus a food backpack program for one of the other school districts. They had a large turnout. We also usually buy cases of snacks at Sam’s Club, and give them to our daughter to take to her classroom. She gives them out to any of her students who don’t have snacks during the day. She was telling us that 40% of her class are on the list to take food home for the weekends.

It is 5:40 am. I have been up for two hours, read three newspapers, done the morning Sudoku puzzle and am on my 3rd cup of coffee. No school today, so we are taking our grandkids out to breakfast and spending the day with them

We got the card, only for the purpose of getting the OBC, and will cash it for our January cruise. As a bonus, they are currently giving 5x for purchases made before 5/15. Don’t know if that applies to all card holders, but that was in an email we recently received on our card.

I started writing a couple posts yesterday, about some really strange things we encountered. After writing and reading, I would think ‘yes, that post will go poof, or could earn me a do not pass go’. So you all will just have to guess what still has me shaking my head. So probably best for in person conversations. Instead, I will share this story. Last night, Susan and I spent our Wednesday evening like we do every Wednesday evening. Packing bags of food for school age children to take home with them to make sure they have food to eat over the weekend. Our church sponsors this program, and we pack between 140 to 150 bags each week during the school year. Although we live in one of the wealthiest school districts in our county, most people would not think of the number of children who have food insecurities. We have been well aware, but probably because our daughter is a teacher in the district, and we have heard many stories since she began teaching. One of the teachers, who helps pack, had called during the week and asked if she could give out bags to four children who were not on the list to receive bags. They had approached her and told her they had not had a supper meal all week. Thankfully, the kids can get breakfast and lunch at school, but the numbers struggling with lack of food just seem to increase. I guess the purpose of my post is to make others aware of the problem if you are not already. It doesn’t matter where you live, the problem is there. Maybe look in to programs in your area and support them. I guarantee it will be appreciated. Ok, end of my thought for the day. And this is a better topic than the one that had me SMH.

Off to the “Big City” (Pittsburgh) today, and Apple Car Play was giving me fits. At least we got to CF ok, and we split a Cuban sandwich for lunch. Had hopes of saving room for cheesecake, but too full.

Since my wife is highly allergic to raisins, we tend to avoid them, unless we want an exciting evening in the emergency room. And yes, that means she can’t drink wine. So on that front, her loss is my gain. 😁

It is 32° this morning, and we have frost. Hope everyone had their plants covered last night. I think last night was our last freeze warning for a while.

You are right about it being cold up here. By the way, when I drove by your place yesterday on the way to Sam’s Club, Waze told me there were two police near your intersection, looking for speeders. I am sure they would be more than happy to share your casino haul.

Real apple pie should not have raisins.

The drunk duck looks blue in their menu, so maybe one of the ingredients was off. It has orange vodka, rum, blue Curaçao, melon liqueur, and pineapple. It is tasty.

Still working at collecting ducks today. This was the classic “drunk duck”. She was already floating on her side. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Congratulations on your 53rd anniversary. Wishing you many more. 🎉

Great picture of you and your family. I hope it is a quiet time, while your family is there, so you can enjoy.

Dani, so glad you were able to reunite with your grandkids, during these crazy times. I hope you have a joyous Passover.

I agree. I think it is better than any other sports playoff. Too bad our Pens are not in the mix

Oh, that would have gone nicely with the party theme.

The Harry Potter theme party was a hit. Since we had a few items left over from my California grandson’s party last fall, they could be used for this one. Before last summer, I knew nothing of Harry Potter. Never read the books or saw any movies. That changed as we prepared for our Universal Studios trip. So, unless you are familiar with them, some of these decorations may not mean anything. My daughter went all out with this party. There were floating envelopes. And floating candles that were remotely controlled by a wand. And the cake table was set up with several wands, and an iPad streaming a train scene. Entertainment at the party was this kids magician. He did an excellent show, and kids and adults were thoroughly entertained. He had one bit, where he had three adults, then three kids shake a die in a cup. They would then look at the number that came up. He wanted to see how good they were at lies. They had to answer NO, as he would ask if it was 1, 2, etc., and he would then tell them what the number was. He was 6 for 6 in reading each adult and each kid, and guessed their number. Lots of other tricks, but the kids faces were like my granddaughter’s when he did this with her. IMG_0989.mp4