Day 3

Houses in Ft. Lauderdale

Well we woke up late to a beautiful Florida sky.


After driving around a little looking at huge mansions on the way to Miami Beach, we stopped at Haulover Beach for the afternoon. What a wonderful beach at the north end of Miami Beach. Sorry, we don’t have any pictures as you are not allowed to take pictures for obvious reasons.

A drink before dinner on South Beach 

You will have to Google it to see the beach. The sun was hot and it was a great beach.

Then it was on to South Beach where we got lucky and found a parking spot on the street. We walked the closed off street until we found a restaurant that looked good. We were able to get a table right on the edge so we could watch the people and it was great people-watching time.

After drinks and dinner we walked the rest of the South Beach area and when we were tired we went back to the car for the hour drive back to Ft. Lauderdale.

We had a fun day and evening.

Tomorrow the boat.

For some reasons the pictures will not load so I will try later.

Day 2

A back street in Palm Beach

Well we woke up at 8:15 – must have needed our sleep. It was partly cloudy so instead of going to the beach, we decided to travel north to Palm Beach and see all of the huge mansions along the way. It is true that the rich are different and the really rich are really, really different and who lives in all of these massive estates. Words cannot describe the wealth that we saw on the way and in Palm Beach. Bentleys were common place and Mercedes were everywhere!!

We stopped and walked along Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, said to be one of the ritziest shopping areas ever and it and the people looked it.

The Breakers Hotel

After Palm Beach it was on to America’s largest indoor flea market in Pompano Beach. It formally was a huge shopping center and now all of the walls are gone inside and it is one massive set of 500 stalls selling everything. They say 4 million people visit annually.

By then it was back to the hotel to change for the night. We drove into downtown Ft. Lauderdale to the famous street Los Olas Boulevard. This street is about 8 blocks long filled with great shops and really good restaurants. Once again, we ate outside and had a great meal.





Dinner on Los Olas

Tomorrow we head down the coast to Miami Beach, swimming, sun and then South Beach for New Year’s Eve – it should be fun.

Night

New Year's - 2011

The Mustang is loaded

Day 1

The day started in the dark and it was very cold on the outskirts of Merna when we left at 5:30 am. After flying to Atlanta we made it to Ft. Lauderdale just a little past noon. We had to wait a little bit for our rental convertible, but soon we were loaded and on way to the hotel and into our room by 2:30pm.

The Marriott is right in the center of Ft. Lauderdale beach and there are a lot of people here and the weather was 68 degrees when we arrived – wonderful.



The view from our room

Our room is very large with a mini-kitchen and a large balcony on the 15th floor overlooking the beach and the ocean – what a sight!
We had lunch outside at a little stand in front of the hotel and rested for a little while before heading out for the evening.

We ate at a sidewalk restaurant overlooking the beach and the night was beautiful.

Then a walk down the street to see the rest of the restaurants and shops and then back to the hotel for an early evening – it has been a long day and as we look out our balcony, it is 64 degrees!!


Our room is on the 15th floor-center


Tomorrow is the beach.









Christmas - 2010

The ponds by the back door

The television room

 Christmas is such a wonderful time at our house.

We start Thanksgiving weekend and in about 34 hours we have put up all the lights and then it is time to decorate the house. Barb fills the house with the sprit of Christmas and we enjoy if for the entire month of December.

Driving in




The television room

  Since there are so many who have never seen the house at Christmas time, we thought that we would post some pictures so that you could see what a beautiful sight it is.

We hope all of our far flung family and friends had as joyful Christmas as we have had.


The front and west side



From the west

Love and hugs to all and to all a good night.

Barb and Ed






The stockings before Santa

 

The lane in















Santa is almost here!!











































From Barb – Europe 2010 – In her own words

Well, we’re home……always soooo good to be home, and I’ve been able to at least talk to the kid s, so all is well!!!!

Whatta a great trip…I must admit I wasn’t very excited about this trip - what I mean is every other trip we’ve been on had a destination, a place or places we were going that I couldn’t wait for, a place I couldn’t believe I was actually gonna be, but, not so much with this trip…I mean Toulon, been there, of course it was Toulon Illinois but, still….

I’m soooo lucky and that I know but just trying to explain, it was gonna be nice to get away and Ed really needed a break after Gold and Blast…….

Well let me tell ya in some ways this was the bestest trip ever!!!! London was a blast and we got to do things we had missed before and our ship was awesome the crew maybe the best ever, everyone seemed truly happy to be there NOT just doing their jobs. And the casino, the staff was just wonderful and really took great care of us. It also didn’t hurt that I hit for $2,700 the first night.

Can’t tell which stop was the best, ‘cause they all were fabulous, not so touristy but rather like going back in time like way back 600 BC the oldest places in the world, and everyone was so kind and knowledgeable.

Our tablemates were so fun and warm - Astrid and Maurice and also Ian and Vivien and they are already old friends we hope to see again soon, and seeing Heather and Robert from last year was fabulous, only wish we had had more time with them.

It was just an all around beautiful trip, very relaxing, fun, and filled with beautiful people!!!

The only bad part is that we’re not rich and couldn’t take you all along with us, although Ed does a great job on this blog…hope you all enjoyed it with us.

Hope all’s well and happy with you all can’t wait to hug you all!!!

Hugs and Love Barb

Europe – 2010 – Afternoon of Day 15 and Day 16

The pictures are:
1. The bridge
2. Formal night dress
3. Our tablemates

After lunch we came back to the cabin, changed clothes and went on a bridge tour. The bridge on a ship like this is amazing. We were able to spend over ½ hour with a very small group and some of the ships officers on the bridge. While we were on the bridge we found out that there are 2836 people on the ship from 60 different countries. Only 239 of those customers are from the United States, so we are in a minority and it is just fun. Counting the crew, there are 4058 on this ship – amazing it never seems crowed.

Then it was on to the slot tournament final where neither of us won, but of course we had a lot of fun. Later Barb played on the slots and broke even and Ed didn’t play blackjack as there were not any players in the afternoon.

A rest before dinner and then it was dressing for formal night. Barb was in white and it sure showed off her tan!

The show was good and then we had a good session in the casino. Tonight we set the clocks back one hour so it will be good to get and extra hours sleep.

We woke up to cloudy skies so we went to a cooking contest between two of the top chefs. It was fun, but we wanted sun and when they finished, there was sun!!

So, we headed for the cabin and changed and then spent until 3:00 pm out of the deck and it was a perfect last day. The entertainment on the pool deck was fun and the food was great.

Before dinner, we picked up our last set of pictures from last nights formal night and then went dancing.

The last dinner is always sad but joyful when you have such good tablemates. Sad because it is the last night and joyful for all the memories we will have – the will last a life time.

Our tablemates have been really, really enjoyable to be with. Ian and Vivien Streeter from Worcestershire and Astrid and Maurice O’Dea from London. Both couples are delightful and taught us a lot about England and places that they have been. We would love to see them again on another cruise.

The staff of this ship is probably the best of any ship we have ever been on. In addition, the staff of the casino was tremendous. The fact that we are part of the Blue Chip Club has made a huge difference and we are looking forward to many more cruises on Celebrity. We have booked our March vacation on the Celebrity Summit for a week in the Caribbean and also booked today the Celebrity Solstice for next September 5 for a 12 night Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona, Spain.

We got up at 5:30am to be off the ship at 6:30am with the first group. A two hour bus ride and we were at the airport.

Barb will write about the trip tomorrow and post it.

We are now waiting for our plane to fly home. Thanks a lot to everyone who took care of everything and home and at work to make this trip possible. It was one of the best.

Good moring from London - see everyone soon.

Ed & Barb

Europe – 2010 – Day 14 and the morning of Day 15

The pictures are:
1. Inside the Church
2. The city market
3. The city from a watch tower
4. The beach
5. Lunch
6. Going out

We woke up in our last stop, Cadiz, Spain which is located in southern Spain on a sliver of land jutting out into a bay. Almost entirely surrounded by water, Cadiz is believed to be the oldest city in Europe. Walls still stand, protecting and providing Cadiz with a skyline like no other.

The old quarter is composed of picturesque building, parks and gardens intertwined with narrow cobblestone streets and squares.

We found out that walking from one side of the city to the other is like walking in a maze as there are no streets that go straight for very long.

We did not feel that it was worth it to hire a guide as the city was very small and the major things to see were clearly defined.

We first stopped at the tourism office and picked up a walking map of the city. We soon found out that this city is the easiest to find your way around to the major sights as any city we have ever been to. All of the walking tours are clearly defined by lines painted on the sidewalk and you simply followed the colored line for you tour and stop at each significant place and read about it by the map description or a signboard that was erected at the site.

We started out by going to the local market which is typical or a city in Europe. It is amazing to walk in the market and see fresh fish just sitting on the counter and you can touch it, pick it up and just buy what you exactly want.

One of the highlights was stopping at a small church and when we went in, they were holding mass so we stayed for a little while. The church had been totally restored and it was beautiful – not the largest we were in during the day, but certainly the prettiest.

By noon we had walked to the other side of the city and we spend the next several hours at a local beach. Very, very clear water and a fun place to stop.

Then it was back on the street walking towards the other side of the city and our ship, stopping along the way to eat at a local sidewalk café and shop, or course.

Our evening was the same fun pattern of past nights, dancing before dinner with new friends, a great dinner and then a show and finally the casino.

This blog is late because we were up very late in the casino and then Ed got up early to reserve deck chairs because this is a day at sea.

We sat out on the deck until noon and then ate lunch and are now back in the cabin getting ready for the afternoon and evening fun.

This is being written at noon and so we won’t write one tonight but will right one tomorrow, our last day (for this trip) at sea.

The next entry will be tomorrow, late Friday and it will combine this afternoon and Friday as we are at sea and it is just fun.