HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!

February 14 – About a week ago Ken surprised me and said, “I’d like for us to go to the Jacaranda Hotel for their Valentine Buffet this year”. We had gone with a group from TT Peace River a couple of years ago. Quite nice.

But that was not to be!! NASCAR was having the first big race of the season, The Daytona 500, on February 14 at 1 PM. It has been such a long, long time since with final race of the 2009 season. So, Ken cancelled on me to watch the big race!!

But then Sally called and invited us to Torrey Oaks for their Valentine’s dinner/karaoke/dance which did not begin until 5:30 PM, plenty of time for the race to be over!! However, there were some issues with potholes in the track at Daytona so the race was delayed for almost two hours. But, Stan recorded the race and we went to dinner anyway!! The guys watched the race later.

Here we are at dinner at Torrey Oaks. Notice the drink I am pouring. It’s Ru’s Sangria!! Ru is the Assistant Manager at TT Chesapeake Bay. She introduced me to her Sangria this past summer. I thought it would be a good Valentine’s drink to share with our friends at the dinner. It was a BIG HIT!!! Thanks, Ru, for your recipe!!!


At the table next to ours were some of the ladies (and the husbands) who are in the Line Dance Class I have been leading on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Here’s our friend Joe, who was called to the stage by DJ, Mark. Joe did not sing Karaoke (thank God), but Mark played a song for him, commemorating a successful fishing trip Joe had recently. The song was very funny about Jake, gigantic fish that was ultimately caught by Plain Joe after a tremendous battle of wills!! Congratulations, Joe, on catching the big one!!

Evidence that we all had a great evening!! The Sangria is all gone!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, EVERYBODY!!

THE JAVA CAFÉ “LADIES GROUP” 2nd OUTING

February 12 – At our first gathering, January 15, our group decided we’d meet again at The Java Café in February on the 12th. According to our original idea, the new invitees in January would each invite a new “member”. Hence, our group has grown from the original three over a glass of wine to six and now today there are nine of us.

Here we are ready to enjoy another luncheon at The Java Café. Around the table, Left to Right (new members’ names are bold): Sally, Audrey, Sarah, Marilyn, Cis, Diane, Bev, The Other Sally, and Faye.

We plan to meet again in March. Even though I am no longer at Torrey Oaks, I hope to be there.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Sally brought each of us a valentine goody bag with a cookie and package of those little hearts with love notes on them!! Thanks Sally!!

GOOD NEWS FROM THE EYE DOCTOR FOLLOWED BY A GRAND SLAM!

February 9 – Today I had an appointment with my eye doctor at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. The news was good. My eye continues to be stable and the pressure in both eyes is good. I do not have to follow up with Dr. Forster again this season unless I have a problem.

We got out of the doctor’s office about 12:30 and decided to try to find a Denny’s for a FREE Grand Slam breakfast! We had not driven far when Ken noticed an advertisement for Denny's at Hallandale Beach - right off of I-95. We only had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated! The Free Grand Slam was just what we needed. That's so nice of Denny's!!!

A MONTH AT TORREY OAKS, BOWLING GREEN, FL

January 4 – February 4 - Torrey Oaks is a beautiful privately owned RV Resort located about seven miles north of the Thousand Trails Peace River Preserve where we spend part of the season in Florida. Torrey Oaks offered Thousand Trails members a good price to rent a month in season there. We decided to take advantage of the offer and rented the month of January.

The collage shows some of the amenities at the Resort.

The Swimming Pool, although it was too cold to get in it the whole time we were there. I did do water aerobics with Sally a couple of times. BURRRRRRRR!! The Shuffleboard Courts are very nice but we never played.. The Courtyard Patio where we enjoyed some nice Pickleball gatherings. The Pickleball Courts where we played with old friends and new friends. The Gazebo which just happens to be located next to the site of our friends Joe and Cis. The Chip and Putt Course which just happened to be located right behind our site!!



Here’s The Highway Runner in our site. We had a nice brick patio, a concrete table set, and the Chip and Putt Course right behind our site!!

ALWAYS FUN AT TORREY OAKS

There were a lot of activities going on at Torrey Oaks. Every Friday there was Happy Hour where we’d gather and bring nibbles to share, followed by Karaoke and some dancing. Here is our group at one of the Happy Hours.

Pete the manager, Diane and Jack visiting from TT Peace River, Stan, Ken, Rich and Donna also from TT Peace River, and Sally.

Faye, Georgia and Bill our neighbors, Joe, Burin and Marilyn our other neighbors, and Cis.
Sally decides to pose for the picture!
One of the attendees playing the Spoons.

Here we are dancing to “The YMCA”. What a group we are. You can see Donna and Sally forming the “Y”, I’m doing the “M”, and Diane is on the “C”, and a couple of others are somewhere in-between!! How did that happen?? We’re all supposed to be showing the same letter!!! We’re ALL a little too happy!!

And every Saturday there was the Pot Luck Dinner. The Resort provides the main entrée and attendees bring a side dish or dessert to share. Again this event was followed by Karaoke and some dancing. Here’s our group at one of the Pot-Lucks.

Joe, Ken, Cis, Faye, Sally, Marilyn, Stan and Burin

Our neighhbors, Marilyn and Burin, dance their way home!!

Stan acting like Stan. Don’t ask me what he’s doing!! I thought he was strumming the guitar on his shirt, but I see it is a boot, so I’m confused!!

In addition to the weekly Happy Hours and Dinners, there were planned activities every night of the week. On Sunday night we had Card Bingo and on Monday night there was regular Bingo. On Tuesday there was organized Euchre. On Wednesday night we went to Bunco. At our first night and again at our last night at Bunco, Ken won second high score and most Buncos!! We got our $$ back. On Thursday nights they had card games in the Rec Room. And, then we're back to the weekend!! Always something going on.

NOW MAYBE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVE NOT MADE ANY ENTRIES IN OUR BLOG LATELY!!! SORRY ABOUT THAT!!

PICKLEBALL AT TORREY OAKS

Every morning there was Pickleball on the courts at Torrey Oaks. We really enjoyed it when we participated but often it was too cold and windy!! BURRRRRRRR!! Here is some of the fun!!

Me, Cis, Joe and Ken


The two Sallys



Buddy and Jean. Notice the two balls from the two courts arranged end to end. Look at the spectators in the background watching the balls.

The Other Sally, Cis, Joe and Ken


Diane, Karen and a couple of new players.


Pickleball Social with players from Torrey Oaks and TT Peace River.

LINE DANCING WITH FAYE

February 3 - On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, after Pickleball, I taught line dancing. We had about six regular dancers. It was a lot of fun -- at least for me. We learned about four dances each lesson. Now they are preparing for the Annual Torrey Oaks Follies scheduled for February 23rd. The dancers decided to do “Little Red Book” for the program. Now most of the time is spent perfecting that dance.

Unfortunately, Ken and I will be moving to TT Orlando on February 18th, so I will no longer be involved in the line dancing at Torrey Oaks. Good Luck and Good Dancing, ladies!!

MORNING EXERCISES WITH SALLY

Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, before Pickleball, Sally led an exercise program of stretching, yoga, walking, toning, etc. There were about 12 – 15 people every morning. I really enjoyed her classes, especially the Yoga.

Unfortunately, about February 3, Sally was going for a Pickleball shot and twisted her knee. She has been crippled since then. She saw the doctor who told her she has fluid behind her knee. He put her in a removable brace, gave her some medication and rehab exercises. She’ll be up and around in no time. (She is still able to lead the exercise classes.)

A TRIP TO HARD ROCK CASINO

February 1 - The Resort arranged a trip to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. The bus carried about 65 of us over to the Casino, leaving at 9 AM and departing the Casino at 3:30 PM. For $20/pp they gave us $10 and $15 gambling coupons for the slots and a $5 coupon to use for lunch.
A good time was had by all, but some were more lucky than others. We quickly discovered that we lose all of our complimentary $$ if we played until it was gone. So we would play until we had a hit that paid say $2.80. We would cash that out. Then if we hit for $2.50 we would cash that out, etc. until all of the original coupon was gone. We managed to win a total of about $20.
But our friend, Stan, was really lucky. He sat down for a moment and quickly played the $10 coupon and immediately won $15 so he cashed that out. Later, he sat down next to me and inserted the $15 coupon. Somehow he selected enough lines to lose $7.50, half of the coupon value. He decided to repeat the bet and just blow the rest of the coupon. But what happened was the Slot machine went crazy. He hit a 10 game X 2 bonus!! The reels kept rolling around and around, dinging and dinging! Stan ended up winning $124!!! He treated us to lunch (after coupons) for bringing him luck!!! Congratulations and Thanks Stan!!!

FAJITAS AND MARGARITAS!!

January 28 - One afternoon when the weather finally warmed up enough to enjoy being outside, we invited Joe and Cis and Stan and Sally over for Fajitas and Margaritas. Here we have been enjoying the Margaritas before dinner.

And the Fajitas were good, too!!!

BOWLING AGAIN AT BOWL-OF-FUN LANES

January 25 - Every Monday afternoon “bowlers” from TT Peace River and Torrey Oaks meet at Bowl-Of-Fun Lanes for a good time of bowling. A few weeks ago Donna established the practice of having us pose with our arms crossed above our heads to show our excitement when we bowled a strike. Today I tried to get the scoreboard showing the Strike in the background with the Striker posing!! Did pretty good, don’t you think!!


Bruin is one of the best bowlers!! I wish I had gotten his scoreboard showing all of his STRIKES instead of just the heart and graphics!! (Ken in the background ready to bowl.)

Frank was excited about getting his Strike, but not about having his picture taken!! (Ken in the background ready to bowl.)

Ken took so long taking me picture my “strike arms” collapsed.

Rich with his big Strike of the day!!

Arlene worked all day trying to get this strike!!

Stan – Great picture with the scoreboard!!!

THE JAVA CAFE "LADIES GROUP"

January 15 - One afternoon Sally, Cis and I were sitting around having a glass of wine. Before long we were making plans. Sally suggested that each of us invite one other person to join us at The Jave Café for lunch. Cis and I immediately applauded the idea the decided whom we wanted to invite.

Sally invited her new friend Bev who is spending this season next door to Sally. Bev is so energetic and attends all of Sally’s exercise classes. Cis invited Marilyn whom she met last year. Marilyn is renting the site across the road from Cis which is the site next to ours. I invited my new friend Sally (we call her The Other Sally). I met her on the Pickleball Court and at the morning exercise classes, etc. She is such fun and so easy to get to know.
Here we are ready to enjoy a delicious luncheon at The Java Café. Around the table, Left to Right. Bev, The Other Sally, Sally, ME, Marilyn and Cis.

We all had a really great time and plan to do it again in February.

STRAWBERRY HILLS FARMS

About a mile from Torrey Oaks is a U-pick farm of hydropnically grown strawberries and vegetables. Ken and I set out one day to pick strawberries. It was really neat because all the plants were on stakes, and not only that, but the were in suspended pots and you could stand in one place and turn the plants to get to the berries on the every side.

Berries were beautiful and plentiful! The owner was very helpful. He gave us buckets for picking and small scissors for snipping the berries rather than pulling them from the vine. And he showed us which berries to pick and which ones needed to ripen more (like we didn’t know).

The owner’s father was there and helped us pick. In fact, he picked so many strawberries that Ken got upset because the old gentleman kept piling berries into our bucket. Ken complained because he didn’t get to pick any himself, AND he didn’t want THAT many berries in the first place -- $11.88 in berries!! That’s $11.88 of yummy strawberry shortcakes!!! UMMMMMMM!!

THOMAS ON HORSEBACK

January 3 - My grandson Thomas in Raleigh began horseback riding lessons during the summer. He enjoyed it so much he is continuing with the lessons. Here he is with his horse!!

We are proud of you, Thomas!! Keep up the good work.

PICKLEBALL CLINIC AT TT PEACE RIVER

January 2 – Our friend Rich conducted a clinic on Pickleball skills at TT Peace River.

There was a large group of about 16 participants.

We all had a lot of fun!! Wonder what’s going on between Dave and me and Nate?? Wish I could remember!!!
And we learned a lot. Now we’ve got it organized!!
Rich, I may not be able to execute, but now when I play I’m conscious of how I hold my paddle when at the net so I’m ready to volley!! And when I’m receiving serve, I hold my paddle with “wrinkled wrist”!! But, I’ll never get used to using a Backhand volley when it’s on the Forehand side!!!!!

NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION

Our friends, Joe and Cis arrived at Torrey Oaks on December 30. They had invited us to join them at the Torrey Oaks New Year’s Eve party. Stan and Sally have also moved over to Torrey Oaks, so all of us gathered at their rig for a pre-party party!!

Ken pops the cork!!

Sally pours the Champaign!!

Cheers to everyone. From left to right: Ken's head, Stan, Joe, Sally, Cis and Cis' Mom

And Cheers again!!

Sally and Faye enjoy the Champaign!!

Then we went over to the party. The club provided Hot Wings and members brought other goodies to share. The party was a lot of fun with our friends and also meeting some new friends. The only problem – four hours of bad Karaoke is a little much to take!! One good thing – none of our gang sang!! HA HA

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!