Sun. Feb. 24 – A quiet day

Another day that is cooler and overcast.  Bob is still trying to get my internet connection working.  Very baffling. 

Tanya talks about outside

You already heard I don’t like going out the back door where the pool is very much but I am getting better at going out there.   I can almost walk around the pool now and Fay and Bob gave me my own chair to sit on by the table, just like I have at home, so I feel more at home now.

I also found a new outside when they open the front door. I really like this area and run out the door as soon as they open it.   I think it is because it has grass, even though it is much different grass from Minnesota.  Fay and Bob get all excited when I go out and try to shoo me back in.  I think they are afraid I will go out in the street or get lost. 

Lunch with the cousins

Bob and I met my cousin Steve and Lori  and Steve’s wife Vivian Summers at a country club north of Orlando.  Steve is my older cousing by about 9 years and Lori my younger cousing by 4 years.   They have lived here for many years.  I last saw them at their dad’s funeral last summer and before that saw them about 5 years ago when we were here for a conference.

It was fun to reminisce and hear about their life in Florida.   If Bob can’t get my wireless fixed soon he and I will go over to visit Steve, cousin with 9 computers and roots that go way back to computers and technology.

Cypress Gardens – a trip back in time

We visited Cypress Gardens today, about a 45 minute drive from where we are staying.  Pictures will come when Bob gets my laptop running and I can pull the photos off my camers.

Bob an I both remember being there when we were kids and again together in 1975.  Lately the park has had a rough go of it.  It opened in 1936 and did well until competition from Disney and 9/11 put it out of business in 2003.   It was supposed to be turned into condos but a gassroot movement of residents helped save it.  Three hurricanes almost stopped it again in 2004 but it finally reopened in 2005 with the gardens and now an adventure park. 

For us it felt like a trip back in time to about 1950.   Today we visited only the gardens and it was not crowed and filled mostly with people our age or older. The area is set up like a small town street.  Very charming. We took the saucer up for a birdseye view of the park,  saw the ski show,  ice skating show and a 40′s song and dance show, each about 30 minutes long.  Very well done and lots of fun.   The topiary gardens are still other worldly. 

Even though the park is nice, it is sad because we remember how it used to be.  We must keep in mind that this is just the start of the season so things might be scaled back.

• The zoo is now much smaller and showing it’s age, we think it is pretty much like it was in 1936.  They say they have the original Tarzan alligator who is now 75 years old.   We watched this big guy, 1000 lbs, for quite awhile and didn’t see him move or blink an eye so we wondered if he was stuffed.    
• They still have the beautiful southern belle girls in their full skirted dresses but we only saw 3 where years ago they were all over.
• The old ski show used to have a pyramid of 12 and now it is 6 and the ladies on water are now 3 instead of 6.   I checked old photos on ebay so I know this is true.
• I think the topiary gardens were bigger before but maybe that was because I had never seen anything like them before.
• The butterfly garden, an indoor garden, only had a couple butterflies.  They were waiting for them to be shipped in from Naples!

A neat marketing thing they have is you can come back again in 6 days for free so we will do that next week and see the botanitical gardens and visit the adventure park and maybe try out the water stuff if it is warm enough.

It was a very relaxing day.

Forwarding mail

I had quite a surprise when I went to forward mail down here.   The place we are renting usually just rents by the week and so there is no mailbox.  We tried to forward it to a US Post Office but they had no boxes available.  They recommended a place called Pac Mail that is only a few miles away so we got a PO box there.  

Wireless problems

All of a sudden this morning my laptop with Vista stopped communicating with the wireless router.   Bob has worked on it all afternoon and still does not work.

We were going to go to Disney Boardwalk for dinner tonight but it is cloudy and cool so will go on Friday. 

Water aerobics new experiences

Yesterday I did water aerobics in a huge therapy pool that was close to the temperature of a hot tub.   It felt good at first but then got pretty warm, even though we weren’t moving that much.   The other people said it was really warm.  Good thing is my muscles were warm and after not exercising for months didn’t hurt.

Today, Wed, I did water aerobics on the deep end of the pool with a floation belt on.   Lots of new stuff to get used to.   I wasn’t very coordinated.  I can’t believe several of the people did the class just treading water!

Bob loves the 25 meter pool.  It is really a beautiful club with many friendly people.

The good and the bad

We have a great location close to Disney and other attractions but the traffic is horrible sometimes.   Some roads are great and others at a stand still.   We already knew before we came that we would’t go to tourist stuff on Fri., Sat., and Sun but this was Monday and we were stuck 2 miles from our destination for an hour.   The nice thing is it is very quite where we are staying.

Essential stuff – wireless hookup, aquatic center and a grill

Bob spend Saturday getting all the wireless stuff hooked up for our 3 laptops.  Yep, 3.   One for Fay, one for Bob and one for IBM plus a new wireless printer.   He wanted to use his own secure wireless device so that took a little longer with calls to the service provider.   All is working well.

 Bob needs to swim.   He gets quite stressed out and crabby if he doesn’t.   That’s the wife version.   Bob says Fay needs to do her water aerobics and Fay agrees.   After my broken leg I am stiff and know I am even more out of shape.  We checked out all the YMCA and nothing was close by and then we found this place http://celebrationfitness.com/    It is part of a hospital and WOW!   They have monthly and weekly memberships.  A huge pool for Bob to swim laps and Fay to use for some water aerobics and also a warmer therapy pool for other water aerobics.  Another plus is a beautiful day spa for facials and massages.  

We are in grill out weather so went out an bought a cheap $10 grill and self starting charcoal.   Haven’t tried it yet but lookin forward to burgers on the little grill.   Will send a photo when that happens.

My how truck stops have changed!

I am amazed at the new truck stops.   Gone are the dirty restrooms and stale candy and bad coffee.  They are replaced by places the size of small department stores with very complete food choices.  If they don’t have it you don’t need it.  Some even sold liquor.   What a pleasure to stop and stretch your legs and get something to eat  and drink as as well as gas up the car.