Random Ramblings Through the Years: October 2015

This is a year I'll always remember as being one of my favorites! My dream of moving actually happened!!!! Not only that, but we got to take several trips---Kauai, Maui, then about 6 weeks with S. Florida as our base and a 2 week cruise in there, 2 or 3 trips to Knoxville, Edisto, Orlando, Oregon, and a move to our own "vacation" apartment in S. Florida!! We certainly didn't have many worries this year! Just lots of great new experiences.

But we did start the year in St. Louis. Cold, icy St. Louis. The older I get, the more I hate the colf!

1-15-15 Alton Bridge

One of my favorite places to go near our home in St. Louis this time of year.

1-15-15 riverlands migratory bird sanctuary---lots and lots of swans, white pelicans, geese, and eagles

2015--Feb. 6-12 Kauai trip # 13! Then Maui---Feb. 12-26, trip #3

Finally---Feb. rolled around again and it was time to take our annual trip to Hawaii. This time we're going to 2 islands: first 6 nights on Kauai; then 14 nights on Maui.

2-10-15 only time we ever saw anyone jumping from the cliff by Poipu

2-11-15 our visitors at our condo

2-12-15 Kauai Beach Villas from the air on our flight to Maui

2-14-15 Valentine's day parade

2-17-15 nudibranch at Kapalua

2-18-15 Maluaka beach

2-18-15 Maluaka snorkel area

2-23-15 The Dumps --only time seeing a Reticulated Butterflyfish

2-23-15 The Dumps---black triggerfish appear so much more colorful here at The Dumps!

2-25-15 Ioa Valley

soup making at our resort

Back at home---snow again!

3-1-15 snow in March

I'll have to admit, St. Louis is a great place to see beautiful sunsets.

3-21-15 sunset by the migratory bird sanctuary

2015 (April 17- May 1) Southern Caribbean Cruise: St. Thomas; St. Barths; St. Lucia; Barbados; Grenada; Bonaire; and Curacoa

We enjoyed our 2014 Maasdam cruise so much, that when we received an email with an OBC offer if we booked a future cruise --- we checked the Maasdam itineraries and decided to go back to the Southern Caribbean in 2015---but for 14 nights this time (our longest cruise yet) and with some new (to us) ports of call (Grenada,Bonaire, and Curacao).

4-21-15 St Barts---on our walk to the beach


4-21-15 the actual beach!

4-21-15 snorkeling St. Barts

4-22-15 St. Lucia

4-26-15 Bonaire---LOVE snorkeling here!

We were suppose to have a stop at Half Moon Cay, but the surf was too rough, so we ended up having another sea day. Although I was disappointed, I was really happy with the way the rest of the cruise went and the beautiful weather we had at all the other ports. Can't wait until we board another ship for ports unknown!

a few more days in S. Florida with Angie and JOsh

4-14-15 Wynwood Walls

concert in Miami with Angie

5-2-15 Derby party

Much to my surprise!!!!---when we got back to the kids' house from the cruise, Ken showed me a picture of an apartment 2 miles from the kids' house and asked if I wanted to go look at it. He said maybe we could do a trial apartment. I guess whining does pay off---as long as you do it long enough---and all your kids leave the area---and protesters burn your neighboring town down--- and... .

While we were on our cruise, Tim was offered a lateral job in the federal courts in Knoxville. With everything going on in Ferguson and him having a terrible boss, they were ready to get out of the area. Knoxville seemed a good fit with still be close enough to drive back to St. Louis if needed, and close to the Smokey's for lots of outdoor life. So when we got back from Florida, Tim and Faith asked if I wanted to go with them to Knoxville to hunt for a rental house (figured they'd rent until they figured out exactly where they wanted to live).

5-16-15 happy birthday to me---cheers!

the Knoxville Federal Courthouse where Tim works

5-17-15 checking out Gatlinburg

5-17-15 the rental company calling to say their application to the 5th house they looked was accepted. After the first 4, they were beginning to wonder if they were going to find something they liked this trip.

5-19-15 Clingman's dome in the Smokey's

5-19-15 the gorgeous Smokey's

5-20-15 Louisville slugger museum on our way back home to ST. Louis

5-27-15 Moving day for Tim. Their house sold in 2 days which was somewhat surprising at this time with the market way down.

5-27-15 Eastern Tennessee mountains. I always love this part of the drive!

and this one

and ... .

6-6-15 on our way from Tim's new place in Knoxville to our new place in Coral Springs.

6-6-15 Angie actually took possession of the apartment for us on the 2nd. We weren't able to make it until the 6th. But that gave her 4 days to set it up for us since we weren't bringing any furniture. She picked up stuff from Estate sales, thrift stores, and Craigslist and it looked gorgeous!

it was a 1 bedroom 2 story apt. The 1st story was the garage. Our apartment was over our garage. Nice set up.

our little dining room that was maybe used twice.

from our front door (garage to the left) up to our living area.

from the hall to our bedroom to the living area.

our small but adequate kitchen seeing as we seldom cooked meals here.

Kids even loaned us one of their tvs.

from the living room towards the bedroom and stairs to the front door.

our cute little lanai

our complex pool which I LOVED!

6-20-15 our 40th anniversary!

6-25-15 Cardinal game at the Marlins indoor air conditioned stadium

6-22-15 riding my bike around the neighborhood

6-29 Red Reef park --only place along the S. Florida beach where we tried to snorkel

6-29-15 Red Reef.

7-4-15 Coral Springs fireworks

7-4-15

7-29-15 Sanibel to meet up with Brenda and Gerry

8-1-15 Bahia Honda weekend vaca

8-1-15 Bahia Honda in the Keys

8-1-15 Bahia honda

8-1-15 Bahia Honda

8-3-15 heading back from the Keys

8-3-15 afternoon Florida thunderstorm

8-3-15 rain in our future.

8-7-15 Deerfield beach---the beach we would most often go to since it was only about 13 miles from our apartment.

8-7-15 sunset at Holywood Beach

8-12-15 one of our many wonderful times to Deerfield beach!

8-18-15 one of the many times we went to the food trucks

Time to head back to St. Louis for a couple weeks---

It's a LONG drive from South Florida to St. Louis, but we had a Cardinal game to get to! Bailey had a party room again and invited us to come. Always great to see him and Sue! We made it a real drive to/from vacation. First stop----Daytona Beach, just for the night.

8-20-15 view from our room in Daytona

2nd stop---Edisto

8-22-15 Ijams park, Knoxville

8-22-15 Ijams Knoxville---3rd stop to stay with the kids a couple days

8-24-15 cont. on our way to St. Louis

8-30-15 St. Louis Zoo


9-5-15 downtown St. Louis

9-5-15 Sue and William from Portland, Or.

9-6-15 last year of Knoxville's huge fireworks display and another couple night with the kids

9-8-15 another couple nights in Edisto

9-9-15 Botany Bay

9-9-15 Ken's first time to Botany Bay

Back "home" in S. Florida

9-13-15 by Loxahatchee

9-13-15 another lightening photo

9-19-15 Deerfield beach with Sarah and her hubby---photo taken right after a shark swam by!

9-23-15 one of the many sunsets at our local go-to place for sunsets---Loxahatchee

loved biking here!

10-2-15 Deerfield again

10-8-15 Angie moving stuff into her booth in an antique mall.

10-11-15 one of the beautiful views while biking the neighborhoods

10-14-15 Ft. Lauderdale beach

10-14-15 Jungle Queen dinner cruise

one of the many times we went to Loxahatchee

10-17-15 3 mountains park

10-19-15 Butterfly garden which I bought a membership to

10-19-15 butterfly garden has aviaries

10-22-15 Tradewinds park---another park we liked to go to for sunset

10-22-19 and portraits and nature photos

10-25-15 Blowing Rock about an hour up the coast. The camera club I joined did a sunrise shoot there. It was a fun camera club and my first one.

10-25-15 Blowing Rock

Mini vacation to Orlando to go to Wine and Food Festival at Disney World. We also met up with a couple other friends from St. Louis there.

10-26-15 dinner with Sue at an all you can eat lobster place.

I've been to Disney many times, but never to the Wine and Food Festival. Our Disneyholic friends from St. Louis brought their granddaughter and their daughter from DC joined them. They know everything there is to know about the ins and outs of Disney, so I was excited to join them for a day in Epcot. Ken isn't interested in Disney, or crowds in general, so he stayed back at the condo.

10-27-15 Epcot

10-27-15

10-27-15 they do know how to spend some money! It was a really fun time. the other days we spent swimming in the rain and riding the boat ferry from Disney Springs.

10-30-15 Angie and Josh's Halloween party

10-30-15 Jeff and Julia who ended up following them to Atlanta in a few years and remaining good friends.

10-31-15 Halloween in S. Florida

11-2-15 Flamingo Gardens (another reciprocal garden of MOBOT)

11-2-15 Flamingo gardens

11-4-15 butterfly garden

11-4-15 gardens at the butterfly garden

11-5-15 estate sale in Loxahatchee---there were great estate sales in S. Florida!

11-7-15 Fairchild Gardens in Miami (another reciprocal garden)

11-7-15 Faithchild garden

11-7-15 Fairchild garden

11-7-15 Train museum in Miami-another camera club outing

11-7-15 train museum

11-21-15 working on the kids house

11-28-15 enjoyable dinner out at El Camino

2015 Nov. 8-15 Western Caribbean Cruise on the Eurodam: Key West; Grand Cayman; Jamaica; HMC

When we "temporarily" moved to South Florida (as my husband likes to put it), I figured this might be a good time to try and get some good deals on last minute cruises. Don't know how good of a deal we really ended up getting, but I managed to keep from accepting the up sell offer to a suite.

11-8-15 miami as we head out to sea

11-9-15 Key West. Snorkeled at a beach in walking distance from the ship. But managed to get attacked by a jelly fish. Itched for a couple weeks!

11-9-15 Key West

11-9-15 leaving Key West we were joined by these guys

11-11-15 Grand Cayman--another of my favorite places!

11-11-15 nurse shark at Grand Cayman

11-12-15 Jamaica

11-12-15 Jamaica plantation house

11-12-15 view from Jamaica plantation house

11-14-15 half moon cay

11-10-15 rescued Cubans

Dec. 16, 2015---on to Oregon!
Over a year ago, the "kids" and I discussed going away for Christmas. That was before all the moving and shaking taken place this past year. So I wondered if it was going to happen. I'm glad to say it did! So on the 16th, we left Fort Lauderdale with Angie and Josh and flew off to Portland. It was a beautiful day.