Can't believe we haven't written a Blog since November! The holidays went so fast traveling to Denver and Enumclaw. It was wonderful to see all the family over Christmas time. Raea had fun decorating mugs with stickers Aunt Beverly sent her for Christmas.
 |
| She looks tired in this photo......she probably was. |
We arrived at Riverest Park in central Florida on New Years Day and we've been here ever since. That is partially why you haven't received a blog in awhile. Nothing to write home about.
Florida should be called the Acorn State judging by the number of oak trees, here. Live oaks and their acorns are EVERYWHERE - under foot, under tires, a layer on each roof - and they sound as large as baseballs when they bounce off the Moho’s roof from a 100’ tall tree. Acorns could qualify as the Florida state pest. We've taken pity on the squirrels, too. What a mundane diet they must endure. Breakfast, lunch and dinner - just acorns. We've taken to sharing our pistachios with them and hope the salt doesn’t give the little critters heart disease. Wouldn’t be a pretty sight having one of those rodents falling dead onto our patio from a coronary during happy hour.
The afternoons have been balmy lately, so we lounge under the big oaks reading, sipping something cold, and feeding the squirrels pistachios. The trees, despite their annoying off-spring, are magnificent, twisting and turning skyward from a 3’-4’ diameter rock solid trunk. Spanish moss draping several feet from each branch.
Although central Florida weather is fairly predictable, it does vary from one day to the next. The clear days tend to be cool (55-65 degrees) and breezy. The cloudy ones warmer (70-80) and calm.
Last week, we were blessed with one of those days, so we took the day off, drove to the Florida’s east coast to visit the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
The place is huge, covers over 200 sq. mi. Because of security, the only way to tour it is by tour bus, so we hopped aboard (moo, baa). Curiously, KSC sits in the middle of one of the largest wildlife refuges in the country. As we bused from one spot to another, we spied wild hogs, bald eagles, armadillos. Ironic, some nature tours may not spy that much wildlife. Apparently, it’s prime alligator country, as well. We were told they tried to count them once, but the census taker never returned:) We drove by the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB), where the shuttle is mated to its main fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, but didn’t get to look inside. They’re preparing for a shuttle launch so it was closed to visitors. Rats! We were told the VAB is 500’ tall, the largest “single story” building in the world and the 4th largest by volume. I believe it.
 |
The large "platform crawler" carries the shuttle down this track from the VAB out to the launch pad. It moves at approximately 2 miles per hour and takes many people 8 hours to transport the rocket. NASA performs this process one month before the schedule launch to make sure everything is "a go".  |
 |
| We climbed the observation tower where people watch the launches. Although the space shuttle program takes center stage, the most impressive up-close visit for us was at the Saturn V display. The Saturn V was the system that sent astronauts to the moon during the 70’s - and returned them.   |
Did we mention Florida is flat? Highest point in the sate is a whopping 345’! There’s a small town not far from our location called Mount Dora, maybe 100’ above sea level. There is no semblance of a mountain anywhere in the state. We think Holland and Minnesota may be a little envious of Florida. Florida may have more water and canals than Holland and probably twice as many lakes as Minnesota. Viewed from the air, Florida reminds us of a sponge, each sink hole, pond, and lake connected by a canal. From Tavares, where we are now, 150 miles inland, a boater can motor all the way to the Atlantic at Jacksonville via the lakes and canal system - with almost no current. That’s flat!
One of the reasons we stayed in central Florida, in addition to the weather, was so Bonnie could attend the 2011 Market America World Conference in Miami Feb 3 to Feb 6.
 |
The Sofitel Hotel had a beautiful pool area overlooking a lake. The Sofital Hotel chain is BIG in Europe, consequently most of the guests were foreign (French, Italian, Swiss and German).....except for Cindy and Bonnie. We met some interesting people with strong accents. The weather was in the 80's so the pool was welcomed whenever we could take time off work.  You can see the lake by the pool, and at night, when we finally made it back from the American Airlines Area in downtown Miami, we would watch the sunset with a cold drink and talk about what we'd learned. This was the best conference Bonnie has been to in 7 years because of the purchase of Bill Gate's Shop.com and learning what it means to her business. Wow! During our time here Bonnie dragged out her oil paints. She is alittle rusty but enjoyed doing these two paintings.   We're headed west this Monday and will try to avoid the snow where we can. We're anxious to get on the road again, so stay tuned for more blogs and updates. Love, Jim and Bonnie |
No comments:
Post a Comment