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

The Beaches are winning!

I think the beaches are winning.  Mark suggested that we stay another week because he's been working very hard and hasn't had much time to play.  So we extended our stay another 5 days and will leave here on April 5, returning home on April 7.  The quarter will end on March 31 and he'll have some time off.  The weather is getting better.  Today is a beautiful sunny, warm Florida day.  We all love it.  We're sitting outside to read the paper and are going to golf this afternoon and having dinner tonight at our favorite new local restaurant.

WE ARE EVACUATING!!!!

Karen arrived today.  No problems except that she had to shovel four inches of snow last night and then it was 25 below when she left this morning.  And then, while she flew in the plane, some guy decided to have an emergency health situation and had to have the medivac guys come on to the plane and evacuate him too and make sure he was ok.  So she had to wait to get off the plane while this guy got emergency care.  So she was in quite a state by the time I picked her up at the airport and couldn't stop talking about how horrible everything in Minnesota was and how wonderful it was to see green grass and feel warm temps.

So we went to Doc's for grouper sandwiches because that's where we take everyone who arrives and then took a walk on the beach and Karen went to the pool and I went to have a pedicure and Mark yelled at IBM people who were stupid, idiots, and morons.

We then made a nice dinner and sat on the porch for the first time this month and enjoyed our dinner and wine and gin and tonics.  We finished dinner and then Karen made a wonderful dessert and we were about to eat it when a horrible sound pierced the air.  It was some kind of fire alarm.  We took for granted that it was a false alarm and we tried to eat our dessert.  But we were all so pissed because, after 19 days in March, this was our first night on the lanai in the warm weather with a sunset.  So we wanted to finish, but everyone came out of their apartments to see what was happening.  So we went back in to the condo and went to the back lanai and there were FIVE FIRE TRUCKS AND AN AMBULANCE AND 100 FIREMEN!!!!!!  NO KIDDING!  Then Karen looked up at the roof and there was black smoke billowing out of the roof of the condo next door just feet away from us. OMG!!!!

So I yelled at the other people next door and told them to evacuate immediately and we started to gather our precious items and evacuate as well.  But we did grab a bottle of wine and some glasses just in case the emergency lasted too long.  When we saw that the Bonita Springs Fire Dept had their finest deployed and had the situation under control, we went and watched the last few moments of Karen's first sunset and had our wine and took many beautiful pictures.

What a start to Karen's vacation in Florida!!!!!

My Week

Just thought I'd fill you in on the latest news.  Mark traveled to Chi this week on Tues and Wed.  He left early Tues a.m. and came back late Wed. night.  It was a good trip for him, sales are progressing so he was happy.  It should be his only trip of the month so that's not bad at all.  He's working longer hours though now that the quarter's ending.  Karen's coming next week so I'll have company and Mark can work as much as he needs to without me bothering him too much.

Since Mark was gone, I decided I needed to get out and do some things.  So I went to tennis at Pelican Bay on Tues and Thurs.  It's a really nice group and I was glad I went.  Since the weather was cool, it worked out to play at 11 instead of  9:30.  And that's when they had room for me.  Met people from Chicago and Ontario.  Those seem to be the places most people are from.  Lots of Ontario and IL licenses in our parking lot.  Not many MN.  That's different from the other times I've been here.  Maybe the MN people decided to stay north since the weather's been so warm lately.  NOT! 

We found a really nice wine bistro place close by, C Level.  Get it?  C (Sea).  I had to explain this to Mark.  How can he be so smart and not get the simplest things.  It must be because his brain is filled with all the smart stuff he knows.  Good food and good wine and friendly people who know how to pour the wine into the glass.  Some of you know what I'm talking about.  It's one of Mark's few pet peeves.

Still cool weather this week but it's supposed to warm up over the weekend and stay nice next week for Karen's visit.  Hope that's true.  I see MN is still cool but you guys need to work on getting that snow melted because we'll be home beginning of April and I don't want to see any snow in my yard.  Do what you can!

The poll has reopened

I reopened the poll for voting on Beaches or Mountains, so vote if you want to influence the decision on whether Kathy and Mark should choose beaches or mountains.  It looks like the Beaches are winning so far.

Our Pontoon Ride

On Friday,  Lyle and Penny's last day in Florida, we decided to rent a pontoon to do a little sightseeing from the water.  It again was a cool day but somewhat warmer than earlier in the week.  Lyle was captain, by unanimous vote.  We floated down Estero Bay to a restaurant and had lunch and then back again.  It was very pretty.  We saw lots of dolphins.  Here's some photos and a video of the dolphins.  Look closely or you might miss them.

Captain Lyle and Penny

Mark working (he's on the phone)

Cool Week So Far

It's been very cool here since we arrived last Friday.  Mostly in the low 60's for highs.  It's very unusual for this time of year.  Penny and Lyle arrived on Monday and we've had a good time.  We went to two Twins games.  Tuesday was nice and warm, maybe about 70.  But today's game was very cool and we weren't dressed for it.  It was sunny so we thought shorts and and a long sleeve shirt would be ok.  NOT!  Penny and I were frozen.  Luckily, for me, Mark brought a sweatshirt so I was a little warmer.  Oh well, next week is promised to be in the 80's.  I hope so.  We haven't had one night out on the deck yet for our gin & tonics.

Back to Naples

Mark and I have decided to try out the beaches again.  It's a good time to do this since it's March and a snowy, cold Minnesota this year.  And Mark has a different job that allows him more flexibility and less business travel.  So we rented a condo on the beach in Bonita Springs for the month.  There has been much demand for me to continue the blog.  So I'll do my best to keep you up to speed on our quandary, Beaches or Mountains?

We arrived yesterday after a 2000 mile ride.  It was a circuitous route through Chicago for an IBM meeting and a visit with Chris and Bob, then down to Peoria with a visit with Barb, Mark's mom just back from the Peace Corps and Jeanne, Kirk, and Leah.  We finally left for Florida on Wed and arrived yesterday, March 1.  650 miles on Wed, and 550 miles on Thursday.  Then an easy drive to Naples yesterday.

Our condo is very nice and all the computer stuff is set up and works so Mark's ready to work.  He worked off and on during our entire trip so the mobile stuff is very effective for this kind of adventure.  It's cool here this weekend but supposed to warm up on Monday.  Cool is 50's and 60's, much different from Minnesota.