Quiet Week

Mark had to travel again this week.  This time he went to Chicago.  He left very early Tuesday morning.  We had to get him to the airport by 5:30.  As some of you might know, Chicago was not much fun this week.  Lots of slushy snow and cold.  But he gets to come back here tonight and hopefully stay around for a few weeks.

Mark's mom, Barb, is coming for a visit today.  I am looking forward to having company.  It's been kind of quiet around here.  With Mark and Barb here, things will be anything but quiet!

I did play tennis three times this week and met lots of nice people.  It's a round robin format which means you mix up every 30 minutes and play with different people.  Yesterday, I played with Jim, an Irishman from Boston.  He's 86, has spinal stenosis, and can barely move.  He told me I was in charge and then stood in the corner while I ran around the court getting all the balls!  Once in a while the other team would hit to him and he could hit it back but that's about it.  Anyway, it was good exercise for me and he was very nice.  But it might be time for him to retire from tennis.

Also, I connected with my friends Carl and Peggy's sister/sister-in-law, Lynne.  She "lives" just down the street here at Pelican Bay, for the season of course.  She has a friend staying with her, Maureen.  Both women are very nice and included me in some of their activities this week.

I also signed up with a trainer at the Community Club.  Her name is Dina.  She's great and is taking Andrea's place for 3 months while Andrea is on maternity leave in Minnesota.  Did you follow that?  She's taking Andrea's place for me I mean.  And I went to an aerobics class on the beach.  It's a lot more fun doing aerobics outside with a view of the Gulf.  So I guess I got my activity points in this week.

That's about it.  A recap of my week.  Hope you all had a great week too in spite of the relentless cold and snow.

We are settled in in Pelican Bay

I have heard about all of your horrible weather.  It is much nicer than that here although it has been cool this last two weeks.  Mark says we are ahead as long as we're 50 degrees warmer than St. Paul.  And we certainly have accomplished that.

We love our condo.  It is big and spacious with lots of outdoor spaces.  We haven't been out on the lanai much though because of the cool weather.  The weather is perfect for tennis, golf and walking though.  So we've been doing a lot of those things.

Chris and Joel were here the first weekend we arrived.  We had a great time with them.  Since then, we've just been settling in.  Mark is gone this week to Las Vegas for his IBM meeting.  

Living here is like living in a nature preserve.  There are birds, flowers, and alligators to see on all of our walks.  The black and white bird in the photo is called an anhinga.  The other is a great blue heron.  There is a large area of mangrove between the development and the beach, so there is habitat for all the Florida creatures.  It's really beautiful.

Stay warm, everyone!

Great Blue Heron

Anhinga

2014

In case you haven't heard, Beaches has won and Kathy and Mark will be spending the winter in a rented condo in Naples, Florida.  We both are very excited about practicing our winter retirement this year.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately), Mark still has a job and will have to work while we are there.  But hopefully, his hours will be more like a normal person.  Like maybe 9-5, you know, banker's hours.  I will keep you posted on how that works out.  We're leaving snowy cold Minnesota around Jan. 11.  To be continued........

Seabirds

The birds that I see every day on my walk.

He's got a fish!

Karen's Visit

Karen's favorite place on the beach

Another beautiful sunset

Karen's Visit

Karen was here for a week.  We had a great time and the weather was much improved.  We went to a Twins game, our third of this trip.  Ask me anything about the new players.   It does seem like M&M are back.  I'm looking forward to Target Field.  I think we'll have a better season this year.

Karen and I golfed twice.  Once at a so-so Par 3 course where I got my first birdie of the season.  Then on Saturday, Mark joined us for a regular 18 hole round.  It was a beautiful day and we all had fun.

Karen and I also explored Lover's Key on bike.  It's a state park right across the estuary from where we are staying.  It was beautiful.  We then finished that day by having a margarita and bloody mary at the Fish House on Fort Myers Beach.

We had several other wonderful meals while Karen was here.  Our two new favorite restaurants are C Level and A Table Apart, both on Bonita Beach Road.

Our last adventure was seeing Karen's friends, Gordon and Michelle.  They came up to our condo on Friday to see what beach living is like.  We went up to their campground in Fort Myers on Sunday to see their RV.  They have combined all their possessions and are living permanently in a beautiful new RV.  It's a lifestyle I've always wanted to explore but Mark is totally against anything having to do with an RV.  So I guess I'll have to settle for the beach.  Unless we change the name of the blog to Beaches or Mountains or RV?  But we're really settling in to the Beaches thing so I don't think I should push my luck at this point.

Karen's visit was a huge success since we kept busy while Mark worked on close of the quarter business.  He's able to take next week off so we will have more fun here before heading home.  I can't believe a month has almost gone by.  It went so fast!

Karen's Visit

Somehow I can't combine the pictures with the text so here are the photos in two different postings and the text follows in the next posting.  Look at all three posts titled Karen's Visit.  It's all supposed to be combined but I couldn't figure that out!

Gin & tonics on the lanai

Sisters!

Umbrella Drinks