Tuesday, July 30, 2019

June and July recap

Time goes faster when you're sitting still. When we're traveling and moving we make each day count, we can see the passage of time with each passing view. When we're home, the days, weeks, months, just fly by. We've been home for 2 whole months. I think that's a record since we first became RVers in 2004.
We've done a lot, and accomplished a lot. I just didn't see any reason to write in the blog. Now we're getting ready to head out on our late summer teaching tour and I need to write something in here before we go.
I do still keep up my photo albums, so I can tell by looking there what we've done!
June Photo Album
We enjoyed our wonderful back yard and hot tub, as well as walks around the neighborhood. I couldn't pass the Royal Poinciana trees without taking a picture, and the iguanas are remarkable - not in a good way, but remarkable nonetheless.
We attended our Toastmasters group where we have been members since the mid 90s. Many of the same people are still there and we consider it more of a social benefit than anything else. We did both give a couple of speeches though, and always learn something.
We did our What Does This Button Do shows

Then came July. Once again, I rely on my photo album to know what we did. And, Jim wrote about our Wedding anniversary spent on the beach!

July 2019 Photo Album

That's just some of the photos, click the link to see them all.
We were SO thrilled to get out kayak diving. It is our very favorite thing to do but it takes a lot of energy, and perfect weather. I was afraid that we'd spend the whole summer without getting out, but no - mini lobster season forced us to gather the energy and the weather cooperated beautifully. We also went out for a boat dive because Alvin and Lisa were in town and going diving. Alvin and Lisa are people we met on the Aggressor dive boat last summer in Grand Cayman. We have since made arrangements to meet up with them and go diving on another Aggressor ... in the Maldives!! next March/April.
Other big events for the month were cleaning out our storage unit ... we actually turned in the keys!
Then we kept on going and as we were going thru all those boxes, we also went thru closets and drawers at home. Something comes in, something else has to go out! Whaddayaknow, we're actually moving in!
One of the things in the storage unit were old VHS tapes. We took a few to Costco and used their digitizing services to convert the tapes to DVD's, THEN!! ... with just a click of a button, those videos appeared in our Google Photos.

  1. Wedding - includes party before, fireworks after, party months later, and John Glenn shuttle launch
  2. Chris teaches WordPerfect in 1989
  3. Turkey travels in 1999
And, we did our What Does This Button Do youtube shows
  1. Episode 170 - Google Photos
  2. Episode 171 - Backup photos to OneDrive for a second backup
  3. Episode 172 - Hodgepodge of tips
Ok, gotta go now. 
Really - we're packing the RV and heading out day after tomorrow.


Sunday, July 07, 2019

4th of July Celebration Still Making Memories

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Happy Interdependence Day!
Happy Anniversary Chris and Jim!
#thosefireworksareforus

The 4th of July is a wonderful day for a wedding anniversary. It's kind of hard to forget the date. Here in the USA, it has special historical significance and pyrotechnic celebrations are held all over. We say those fireworks are for us!

We again live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where you can generally depend on temperatures in the high eighties (F) this time of year. Air Conditioning is required for comfortable living here and ours stopped blowing cold air on the 1st. I called service and they promised a tech on the 3rd. One night wasn't too bad. The second night was really warm. Then the tech didn't show all day. The prospect of a third hot night was not pleasant.

What do we do when Life gives us lemons? Make lemonade!

In a flash of inspiration, I booked a room for 2 nights at the same place on the beach where we stayed for our wedding on the same dates 21 years ago. They have air conditioning.

It's not called the Yankee Clipper any more. It's B Resort. We think that's weird but that B it's name.

Everything was fantastic, though. The reservations agent found us a good deal. Check in was smooth. The room was very comfortable. The WiFi was fast. We received drink tickets and the front desk gave us complimentary breakfast buffets after hearing our story and history.

Long back-story: Chris was the "Clipper Queen" back in her high school years. This was her beach hangout with friends. Years later, our relationship was sparked with our first kisses on a water taxi under a full moon in Fort Lauderdale.
Chris and I were married on a Water Taxi on the New River in Fort Lauderdale in 1998. It was a small informal affair with all local family and friends. It was hot then, too. A bunch of us got rooms at the Yankee Clipper hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach for a couple of nights as alcohol consumption was on the agenda.
The city puts on a beach party culminating in fireworks off the beach every 4th. The Clipper is a great place to see the show both then and now.
Traffic is ridiculous. It's great to just park and enjoy the stay.


The Wreck Bar makes a very good Mojito. The bar is notorious for the windows into the pool on the floor above. Patrons are regularly treated to an impromptu display of semi-nudity or other unusual aquatic activity. Nothing like that happened this time. I'm assured the statute of limitations has run out on our earlier visit.

We walked up A1A to Las Olas Blvd for lunch at the Quarterdeck and strolled back along the famous Fort Lauderdale Beach. The entire expanse of sand was full of partiers. There were stages for music and activities all the way back to the hotel.

We changed into swimsuits and hit the ocean for a swim. Perfect temps both water and air.
We tried the beach pool but it was actually too warm and the music pretty loud so we retreated back to the room.

Later, we headed down to the bar for a drink and snack before the fireworks scheduled to start at 9. I had a beach blanket to sit on and we enjoyed a great fireworks show.


Back at the room, I hung our breakfast order on the outside of the door and we crashed for the night.

We have a regular Zoom meeting with our networking group on Friday mornings. Room service breakfast arrived promptly at 8 and we were finishing up by our 8:30 video call.

The AC service place called right after our meeting saying the tech was on his way to our house. We had to scurry a little and get checked out and back home to meet the tech.
Our timing was perfect. He was at our gate just as we were turning the last corner before home.
The repairs were fairly quick and painle$$. We're back in business. Cool.











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