X Box

OK, so I'm trying very hard to learn how to play some of Dylan's new games on his new X-Box. I actually played Halo for a while and was able to follow Dylan's character moderately well, but I don't have the weapons controls down pat yet. (And don't tell anybody, but sometimes I slide off in the wrong direction.) I'm learning!

The guinea pigs and I are watching in fascination - I'll never be that good! (And neither will the guineas.)

Indian Riverside Park

What a great park! There's a huge pier for walking and fishing, a children's museum for little kids, an oscillating fountain, and a beautiful home built on a midden which is currently undergoing renovations, but will be such fun to visit when it'e finished. It was just a lovely day, and we all had a great time.

I had an especially good time. See if you can guess why :)





Actually, we all had a good day, including the part where Dylan got soaked in the fountain! He zigged when he should have zagged, but he didn't really seem to mind.



Dylan liked riding around on my walker, and I liked pushing him! Dick calls it a roller, and here it looks more like a stroller. We did it just for the heck of it.

Causeway and Cottage

It seems there is a cache in the center of the Jensen Beach Causeway over the Indian River. It seems that this morning, Dick took a walk up over the bridge and found it! Quite a change from his usual morning walk! He saw many interesting things from up there. The most interesting to me were pelicans - lots and lots of pelicans!





He also had a terrific view from up there.



Damage left over from the last hurricane interested him also.



There were a total of seven caches found today by this intrepid cacher.

This evening Jana invited everybody over to the cottage for dinner. She made yummy pork chops and stuffing and it was great to have her do all of the cooking! We had fun playing WoW and just being together.

Seminole Inn

Laurie took us on an "expotition" out to Lake Okeechobee. We love going out there.

We stopped on the way at the historic Seminole Inn in Indiantown for lunch. The Inn is a lovely place, and even more lovely all decorated for Christmas. There's a great mural on the second floor telling the story of the Seminoles and their removal to Oklahoma. Those were sad times.

I was especially impressed with the mantel and firescreen decorations - somebody there has a flair for decorating! There was also a fantastically beautiful, large manger scene - one of the nicest that I've seen.






Then we drove off to Port Mayaca to look at the lake. I was hoping to see some alligators - they were there in abundance the last time we went there. This time, the lake is higher and the alligators were not to be seen - but they were probably still there.



We drove around to another park on the lake, Lake Okeechobee Lookout. The weather was cool and windy - it was a fun day to stroll on the great jetty, part of which is covered, and which has nice benches and great birds to observe down below in the wetlands.





We invited the whole crew over for dinner at our cottage - spaghetti and meatballs - and a great time was had by all.

Christmas 2009 in Pictures

Christmas Eve on Saint Creek Drive

Tom gave Jana an early Christmas gift - hair cut and color at the Sada Salon in Stuart. Her appointment was at 10 a.m. When she was finished, Tom and Laurie met her for lunch at the Osceola Cafe. The report was that the reuben sandwiches were great! After their lunch, Jana did some Christmas shopping for Dylan and the guinea pigs.

Dick and I did a small amount of geocaching, which was fun because we had a chance to drive through some new and different neighborhoods.

Laurie made chili for us and it was yummy. Tom, Laurie, Dylan. Jana and I played World of Warcraft - there's a new instance in Icecrown, and we were trying to get acquainted with it and learn our way around it. We did not succeed! We need to have some more powerful players with us - we were too weenie! Christmas Eve was mellow and stressful at the same time - mellow because of the season and stressful because of the silly World of Warcraft game!

This house is on Long Bay Drive, around the corner from Laurie and Chip.


These are some of the arches along Saint Creek Drive.


We left early so we could get to sleep in preparation for early rising on Christmas Day! Actually, Dick and I went to bed early but Jana was wrapping presents until 3 a.m. !

Avatar - IMAX 3-D

Laurie drove us all down to West Palm Beach to the Muvico Parisian to see Avatar in 3-D at the IMAX theater. It was quite an experience.



I really enjoyed the movie very much - I thought that it was better than Star Wars. The fantastical plot was totally understandable and the science was easy to follow. The Na'vis were likable and interesting - very flexible and mobile for nine feet tall! The characters were well developed and the message of the film was positive. It was a not too subtle message about how corporations can lose their humanity in the quest for the almighty dollar. Dylan liked it, but not as much as I did. Dick actually liked the movie - the last time that happened was 101 Dalmatians! Jana found it to be immmersive and engaging, and she liked it because the good guys won.



Afterwards did a little shopping at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall, and then we wanted to have dinner at P.F. Chang's, but there would have been a 45 minute wait, so we went next door to Brio's, an excellent Italian restaurant.

Pasley Park

Jana, Dick and I went back to the beach to read up on beach geology. Pasley Park had the best signage and the most info. It would be perfect for an earth cache.

The beach was relatively busy for a cool, windy day.

People were fishing, wave-running, boating, sailing, sand pailing, and even getting in the water!

After a nice drive along Hutchinson Island, we had lunch at Conchy Joe's - J & D had crab legs, which to me looks like instant garbage - oh well - I had a burger!

Dylan is Twelve

Dylan's real birthday is December 17th, so he's been twelve for a few days now. On that day his requrest was pumpkin pancakes for dinner, so Laurie whipped some up. He opened his gifts from us, and after his homework was done, he got to do whatever he wanted. It was a very quiet birthday.

The party was this evening. Last year on his birthday they all went to play laser tag, and it was so successful that they did it again this year. His guests were Kyle, Peyton, Thomas, and another boy who will be named later! Auntie Jana and Grandpa went with the whole party, and Jana was the official photographer. She realized later that she only took family pictures, and so we don't have any pictures of the party-goers. Personally, I'm totally satisfied with the ones she took, in which my whole family looks like a bunch of commandos!



Jana's caption for this one is "Laurie managed to be deadly and stylish at the same time!"





The family that plays together.....

Morning Walk

Dick walks around the neighborhood every morning, and he has taken some interesting pictures!

First, fake flamingos are not the only fake fauna found decorating Florida lawns!!



Beautiful flowers in December! What could be better? Merry Christmas :)


This anhinga is drying its wings while sitting on a couple of decorative birds in a pond. Birds real and not real flock together?

Ocean Day

This was a great day to finally go see the ocean - what a force of nature! It was windy and wavy, and people were surfing in spite of the warnings of rip tide.







At Jensen Beach we stopped for lunch at the Sea Turtle Cafe - despite what it looks like, we were not the only customers.





We did some caching along the beaches. Here I'm signing the log for the "Here Fishy, Fishy" cache at Joe's River Park:

December 7 by basswoodbend (2461 found)
Today's goal was to pick up some Christmas wrappings and to check the ocean to make sure it was still out there. 82 degrees and cloudy is a far cry from the 25 degree wind chill and 2 foot snow depth our neighbors tell us we are missing at home. We are feeling that if we get any more mellow, we might rot. Then on top of perfection, caching brings us to this neat new park. Many thanks for bringing us here!