A Blustery Day

It was a beautiful day, but it was a little on the chilly side, and the wind was quite blustery! It was a great day to be out and about and geocaching in Florida with no fear of heat stroke!

Laurie was our chauffeur again. This time we wanted to explore northern Hutchinson Island. There are several parks along the beach there. Most of them have wooden walkways, stairs and platforms to get from the parking lot to the beach - and most of them have caches to search for. We found the caches to be in various states of maintenance. Some had been muggled, were missing, or had totally wet log books, and some were creative and fun.

At Pasley Park Dick took the above video - the surf was rough and loud - the wind was really roaring.
Altogether, we found six caches, with several Did Not Finds. It wasn't our best day - but for me it was totally enjoyable!

At Walton Rocks, we found a total of four caches. It's the only park on the Island that allows dogs - 3 dogs per person!! At the very end of the long park drive, there were several old rickety picnic tables - and on one of them there were 10 pennies lined up - for who know what reason!Quite the oddity! There was a penny on one of the other tables, and that was it.

We had lunch at Mangrove Matties - loaded with atmosphere and local color. There were great views of the Indian River and the many boats that went by while we sat by the window. One of them was a freighter which looked a lot like a Great Lakes freighter except it was shorter.

After lunch we went to Jetty Park in Ft. Pierce to walk it off! There was a very stiff breeze off the water - we're lucky we didn't get blown off the jetty! The first thing we noticed was that many of the riprap rocks had memorial plaques on them - memorializing people who had enjoyed fishing from the jetty during their lifetimes. It seemed odd, but somehow fitting. One was for a man called the Snook Master, and there was a bench dedicated to Big Al the Fisherman.Here we are trying to look warm and not windblown!
Another truly memorable day in Florida!!

Ocean, Turtles, Dunes, and Caches

January 10, 2008 - whatta day! In the morning, while Dick was scrubbing floors, I played WOW and completed a couple of really fun quests. One of the rewards was a new high quality fishing pole - I know that sounds silly, but in the game it's a Very Good Thing!

I wanted to go for a ride to see the ocean. Laurie came over and chauffeured us around all afternoon - and we had the Perfect Afternoon! We drove south to Jupiter, and along the beachfront there you can park and use boardwalks to get to the beach. It was another gorgeous day - the whitecaps were beautiful, the waves were crashing - some waves make a kind of a cracking sound!

We stopped in at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center - we just walked in as confident as you please, and were stopped at the door by folks saying "We're closed today - we're having a special event tonight." Laurie spoke to a really nice gal at the door, and lo and behold, the gal said "OK, you can come in and just take a quick look at the turtles!" So, feeling really privileged, we went to the turtle tanks and saw the loggerhead turtles, ranging in size from a dinner plate size to a coffee table size.



Dick's favorite was Jonah, who had been caught up in a fishing net - inside a fish! The fish coughed him up. He had been swallowed, hence the name Jonah! When he was brought to the center, he weighed .1 lbs. Now he's the size of a big lobster.

We were approached by a man who wanted to know if we were with the event people, and we explained that we were just visitors from Michigan who had finagled special treatment to get inside. Then for the next 10 minutes he wanted to talk about Gordie Howe, who used to live in Traverse City. This guy was a serious hockey fan - his name is Howe also, and when his son played hockey, he wore the number 9 - it was a fun conversation.

There was a cache next door at the Juno Dunes Natural Area, and another one across the street behind a shopping plaza. The last one was one of those that's back by the dumpsters, and you wish it was somewhere else! But we found both of them.

We toured Jupiter Island to see all of the big homes - it's an amazing place. The road is very narrow with no shoulders. Many of the homes have a second driveway with a "Service" sign by it - so no service people would actually come to the front door. The speed limit is 30 mph for most of the drive, and you share the road with golf carts.

We stopped at the Hobe Sound Beach, which is in the center of the island. It's a wonderful Martin County park - nice facilities, picnic pavilion, short walk to the beach, and great people-watching. It's a controversial park because the Jupiter Island residents don't like having the hoi poloi so close to their property. Dick and Laurie found a cache there, too.

Farther down the road at Blowing Rock, they found an interesting earth cache. The rocks were not blowing this day though.

Dick's logs:

Found it 1/10/2008 You found Sugar 'n Spice 'n Everything Nice (Traditional Cache)
We came down today to look at the ocean and to see the turtles. The recovery center was closed but the supervisor recognized Mrs Sharkie and let us in for a quick look. Afterwards we took a short walk to find the cache. Traded a TB for a coin and left a Geopatch and a star toy. Thanks for the fun.

Found it 1/10/2008 You found Faux's parking only! (Traditional Cache)
Came down with Mrs Sharkie Crew to enjoy the scenery and to look at the turtles. If it were not for Geocaching I know we would never have found this place. TNLNSLTFTC

Found it 1/10/2008 You found Ocean to Lake Trail #1: Hobe Sound Beach (Traditional Cache)
Out with part of the sharkie crew looking at the ocean. We think that this is one of the nicest beaches we've visited. Lots of folks enjoying the sun and sand today but we were here either to early or too late to witness any criminal activity. There were people fishing outside the park boundaries however. I guess they could spoil a homeowner's view. Found cache, signed log. Thanks for bringing us here.

Found it 1/10/2008 You found Blowing Rocks, The Anastasia Formation EarthCache (Earthcache)
We have been following the turf war over public beach access on the island and came down to see what the squabble is all about. We have visited and donated to many Conservancy areas in the past but I don't remember any others that had a fee. That was reflected by the fact that there were only 4 others enjoying the beach today.

Gee, I had a good time. And to cap off the perfect day, we all went out to dinner at Shell's, and I had great fish and chips. Dylan sat by me and did his homework - he's so cute!

Hutchinson Island

We went to the beach this morning to enjoy the ocean. It was a beautiful day. The ocean was rather calm for an ocean, and we had fun people-watching. There was a bonus, too. Dick found two caches on the Island.
I want you to notice in this picture how you can see the rain falling into the sea from the darker clouds, but above the clouds you can see the bright blue sky and the tons of sunshine. Wow. Florida is a very interesting place!
We had yummy burgers with L,C, and D in the evening. It was a Good Day.

Dick's logs:

Found it 1/9/2008 You found Elliotts Back Forty. (Traditional Cache)
This was a great day to spend some time at the beach. The red tide that was causing us some respiratory distress a couple of weeks ago seems to have dissipated. All in all it was a very pleasant day. Lots of sunners and fishers, no swimmers. Found the cache quickly. We have tried this type of container but have given up on them. Even with a liberal coating of Vaseline on the threads, they still leak. Despite the owner's instructions, the container was replaced square side up. The log is damp but still usable, the baggie is torn and it leaks. Poured out the water and put the log in a new ziplock. Left a glass lady bug. Thanks for the fun.

Found it 1/9/2008 You found Seaside Park (Traditional Cache)
A fire ant feast! Signed the log whilst stompin' and slappin'. We did enjoy the beach though. We will have to come back for the other cache nearby. Today was landscape maintenance day at that end.

PCE

Palm City Elementary is the best school in the world, according to Dylan! Today was his first day back to school, and we went along because Dylan was the TV announcer this morning. Every morning they have a child announce the date, weather, special events, lunch room menu, etc. Dylan's been doing it for the last few weeks. He's pretty good at it too. (I may be prejudiced.) Today's announcement was pre-recorded before vacation.Dylan also had art (inspired by Henri Matisse) displayed in the office. His is the one in the upper left corner. (Brag, brag)

Drew Christopher

Today is the birthday of Drew Christopher Charland, son of Shelly and Chris.

7 lbs. 13 oz., born Jan. 7, 2008

This baby has been eagerly anticipated by the whole family and the whole Central Grade School!

Congratulations to Shelly, Chris, grandparents, and especially to Drew. Can't wait for the pictures!

Here in Florida it's Dylan's last day of Winter Vacation. The thing he most wanted to do was to play miniature golf (he has always called it immature golf!). So Laurie, Dick and Dylan went off to do the golf thing, with a stop at Dairy Queen afterwards. I stayed at Laurie's and read my book (Secret Life of Bees) and watched Guiding Light for the first time since Dec. 18th. Nothing has changed much on the show!

Laurie and Dylan helped me do about six quests on W.O.W. It was very much fun, and Dylan is very, very helpful - thanks Mister D.

We watched the National Championship Game until it became obvious that LSU was going to win. Those Buckeyes were supposed to uphold the honor of the Big Ten, but they failed us miserably!

Okeechobee

Lake Okeechobee

The Big Lake

Lake O

There are many names for Lake Okeechobee. We drove out there today to do some serious caching in that area. Laurie has been there before, and she knew where some good ones were. I think we found about 10 altogether. It was a nice day - cool temperatures and only a few sprinkles. There were spectacular clouds - Florida has great cloud displays.

There's one place by the lake where bikers like to congregate, especially on Sunday - Port Mayaca Lock. It was really shocking to see so many bikers in that one area. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but one of the fish camps out that way looks like a dealership - there are so many bikes parked there. I think they all just like to look at each others' bikes or something.

At Port Mayaca: Reflections, and a huge alligator!
At one point in our drive around the area, we found the Basswood Estates. It was hilarious because the B had been removed from the signs on each side of the road, and another B had been painted onto the concrete to take its place. Try to steal that! Dylan figured out why kids would steal that B :)

Here are Dick's logs:

Found it 1/6/2008 You found 'Buster' Ferrell (Traditional Cache)
We joined the sharkie crew for an afternoon at "The Lake". Although, like everyone else in America, we had heard much about Okeechobee, we had never before visited. We greatly enjoyed the experience. Your caches gave us a wonderful feel for the history of the area. We ran out of time before we could do them all. That just means we will have to schedule a return trip during our Florida stay. Thanks for adding to our fun afternoon.

Found it 1/6/2008 You found 'Buster' Ferrell (The Next Generation) (Traditional Cache)
We didn't stop in, the owner was much too busy this Sunday afternoon. Just signed the log and drove on. TFTC

Found it 1/6/2008 You found Okeechobee School #1 (Traditional Cache)
When we planned a caching expedition with the sharkie crew, this was our main target cache. Mrs Sharkie had scored this cache some time ago and wanted to show her retired school teacher parents the two caches at schools out here. We enjoyed scoping out the names of the graduates and agree that the Board of Ed blew it when they cut off the owner's class from being listed on the sidewalk. After our exploration we signed the log and drove on. TFTC

Found it 1/6/2008 You found Underwater Damage (Virtual Cache)

We joined the sharkie crew for an afternoon at "The Lake". Although, like everyone else in America, we had heard much about Okeechobee, we had never before visited. We greatly enjoyed the experience. The youngest sharkie enjoyed "firing" the ordnance. We spent quite a bit of time enjoying downtown Okeechobee. Thanks for showing it to us.
Email with answers sent.

Found it 1/6/2008 You found Williams Family Cattle Drive 1937 (Traditional Cache)
Found it and signed the log. Not my favorite type of hide. [The clue was "You will not be shocked, even though it may seem like it" - we're all thinking that this sets a bad precedent.]

Found it 1/6/2008 You found 'Mater Ditches (Traditional Cache)
Found it, grabbed it, signed the log, and ran. The lawn maintenance guy was watching. When he was distracted, found it, grabbed it, signed the log, and ran.

Found it 1/6/2008 You found The Speckled Perch (Traditional Cache)
A quandary, how does one hide a regular sized container in an urban area, highlighting a specific location? We liked the history and the location, just didn't love the hide. Probably just a squeamish snow bird. Signed the log and left our card. Thanks for more of the history of this unique part of Florida.

Found it 1/6/2008 You found Okeechobee Cowboys (Traditional Cache)
Didn't understand the clue but found it anyway. Signed the new log (Thanks Butterdish)and left a lady bug. TFTC

Found it 1/6/2008 You found Tantie Schoolhouse (Traditional Cache)
The second schoolhouse cache that were the main goals of our caching afternoon. We enjoyed the visit. We found the plaque from the boat launch amusing and the school interesting. The cache was a disaster, the contents were a sodden mess and the area is crying for CITO. We threw out the old soggy and unreadable paper and left a new log in a small zip lock. Also left a glass lady bug and a pencil. Took a bag of trash from the area of the fence row. Thanks for another history lesson.

At this last cache there was a huge hill of fire ants - one of several we saw today. It's fascinating to watch them when the hill is disturbed.

Summerfield

This is the entrance to the Summerfield community - there were beautiful Christmas lights all around the entrance area.
Please note that the entrance gate is closed, but he exit gate on the other side stands wide open. Anybody could easily drive over there and enter without a code.
Here's our place - 6900 Warwick Lane - with Subie in the garage.
The backyard has its own grapefruit tree - we haven't tried it yet.
We have a long list of complaints about our place (and I don't think we're particularly picky, either!) Let's see - off the top of my head...ants, spiders, dirty and dusty bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, ants in microwave, food particles in microwave, no internet upon arrival, broken sink in 2nd bathroom, broken floor mop, defective dishwasher, and if I thought longer I could come up with more.

This is the first time that this elderly lady has rented out this place - I think there should have been more oversight by the real estate agent before it was approved for rental. We're basically happy because we're only 10 minutes away from Laurie and we spend a lot of time over there, but let's just say that it could be better.

Wildlife, Steiger Style

Lunch at Duffy's yay!

We trekked away to Busch's Wildlife Sanctuary on the Loxahatchee River. They specialize in rescuing injured wild animals and birds plus wildlife-type pets that people can no longer handle. Nancy, Dylan, Jana, Laurie

Touring the enclosures, we saw bald eagles, golden eagles, wood storks, bobcats, and panthers. They had the panthers in small enclosures because there are 2 new baby cougars in the large space, and they don't want to chance a disaster by putting the large and small cats together right away. We walked past a cypress swamp and had a good view of the cypress knees.

At 3 o'clock in the amphitheater there was a really good presentation of 5 different animals. We learned about the history of each animal, a little bit about typical characteristics of those animals, and we had a chance to touch or pet all of them except for the red-tailed hawk. The animals we saw today were the alligator, the rat snake, possum, skunk and hawk.
Here's Dylan with the ratsnake.

Florida bobcats are smaller and thinner than our River Road bobcats. The foxes, on the other hand, were fluffy with lush and shiny coats. Dylan's favorite animal is the albino raccoon which he calls Marshmallow. The raccoon is really a lot more beige than he is white - he looks like a toasted Marshmallow. Overall, I think we all liked the wildcats the best: cougars, panthers, and bobcats.

Meanwhile, back home in Summerfield, we found a different kind of wildlife right in our neighborhood!Summerfield Sandhill Cranes!

The Victors

Dick wanted to go to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. My position was, what chance do we have playing against last year's National Champion and this year's Heisman trophy-winning running quarterback? So we didn't go. Well.....

WE WON !! The score was 41-35 - unbelievable! It was totally unexpected, and so, very, very enjoyable. The team was rested and healthy, and remarkably able to keep up with Florida. Yee-haw! And as Dick said, we didn't have the long drive home.

U-M Edges Florida in Bowl Game, Sends Carr Out a Winner
January 1, 2008 Site: Orlando, Fla. (Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium)
Event: Capital One Bowl
Score: Michigan 41, #9 Florida 35
Records: U-M (9-4), Florida (9-4)
Attendance: 69,748
Next U-M Event: Season completed
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The University of Michigan football team sent its seniors out and head coach Lloyd Carr into retirement with an emotional victory over ninth-ranked Florida in the 2008 Capital One Bowl, played New Year's Day at Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. The Wolverines (9-4) concluded the game with 524 yards of total offense, including 373 through the air to seven different receivers. The game marked Carr's 162nd and final game as Michigan head coach. He finishes his 13-year head coaching career with a 122-40 overall record and six bowl victories (6-7).

A peaceful moment with Dylan during a most exciting day!

New Year's Eve

Kyle had spent the night with Dylan, so when we decided to go see "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" today. we invited Kyle to come with. (After all, they've been "best friends since kindergarten!")

The movie was most enjoyable - it had a bit of ET flavor, some WWII history, a dash of Scottish lifestyle and military lifestyle, and childhood fantasy. My favorite part was when Angus was riding on Crusoe's back in Loch Ness. The scary part is when the cannons are shooting at him - they must have thought he was a submarine. It was a really nice, family friendly movie - it may become a classic.

We met Chip and Dick at Carrabba's for New Year's Eve dinner - it was very mellow and satisfying. We did have to wait a while to be seated despite the call-ahead seating thing, but then again there were 7 of us and it was New Year's Eve, so it was totally understandable. I had a great time.

Jonathan Stick-in-the-mud

This was the big group geocaching day. The 10 caches that were found were all in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which Laurie calls Jonathan Stick-in-the-mud just for fun. The Gillespies, the Hyatts, the Pratts and Dick all went out in a great group to walk the trails and also do a little bushwhacking. Dick reported that Dylan enjoyed playing with a stick - hitting trees and such- but the geocaching, not so much. The caching expedition lasted from about noon until about 4:30. It ended because the Steelers game was on and had to be watched. :)World's largest ammo can in the woods! This one was a kids' cache.

Jana and I stayed home and relaxed - reading, talking, watching TV and just chilling.

The Spree

Dick gave us a shopping spree for Christmas, and today was Spree Day. The Palm Beach Gardens Mall was our target.

We went to lunch at P.F. Chang's - it was quite busy, but we were seated right away. Our waitress was a little spacey, but she was fun and the food was delicious. Have you ever heard of a lettuce wrap?

Lane Bryant was next, and Jana and I had a ton of fun. They were having great sales. We especially liked the buy two, get two free sale :)

Over at the mall we had coffee at the food court and did some excellent people watching. We spent the rest of our time and money at Sephora, which explains why the 3 of us are glowing now more than usual !!

We went to the Cobb Theater at "Downtown" to see Sweeney Todd (rhymes with Oh My God!) I wanted to see it because it had a long run on Broadway, and it's famous, and it starred Johnny Depp. But gee whiz, it's really hard for me to classify it as entertainment. Jana could actually identify some parts that are considered humorous. Laurie and I just looked away from the multiple throat slashings. Jana pointed out that the slashings were theatrical and not realistic, but....holy cow!

Red Tide Beach Day

Dick and I went to Stuart Beach on Hutchinson Island with Laurie, Dylan and Jana. The weather was gorgeous, but there was something in the water called the Red Tide. It's a growth of algae that's a real irritant, both in the water and onshore. We all were coughing, eyes watering, and noses running. It's just an irritant to people, but it can be deadly to sea creatures. We heard that as many as 46 manatees may have died this week because of it.

Jana and Dylan enjoyed the water anyway!

Laurie and I stayed on the sand, and Dick was the official photographer with his new Nikon which we all love!
Around the corner and down the road is the Oceanographic Center with nice displays and a cute gift shop. There is a huge tank there filled with stingrays. At 3 p.m. there's a nature talk about stingrays, and an opportunity for anyone who wants to participate to feed fish to the stingrays! Laurie and Jana were the only two of us who tried it.
Just down the road from the Oceanographic Center is the House of Refuge at Gilbert's Bar. It's the only house of refuge still standing. These place were a lot like the life-saving stations along the Great Lakes. After storms, the keepers would search the nearby beaches for survivors of boat wrecks and provide them with refuge. It was an interesting place in a beautiful setting.
A professional photographer was on the beach while we were there trying to take pictures of a small group of people. They had to scrap the photo session - everybody was wheezing and coughing because of the Red Tide, and it was enough to ruin all of the shots!

Bye Bye Tom

Laurie drove Tom down to the airport in West Palm Beach for his flight to NYC. He's meeting Brandi there, and they have a lot of fun things planned. They have tickets to see Spamalot on Broadway, and for the Dresden Dolls on New Year's Eve. They also want to take in the Museum of Modern Art, and who knows what all. It should be a great time.

We babysat Dylan at our "villa" while Laurie was gone. Jana and Dylan tried out the hot tub, and it got good reviews.

We tried a bit of geocaching in the afternoon - tried to find "The Monster of the Deep", but we were skunked. It's a six stage multi-cache, and we're stymied on the third stage. Don't you hate that?
We consoled ourselves with ice cream at Kilwin's in Stuart. They have Mackinac Island Fudge and Traverse City Cherry flavors!