Mar 29th - May 8th, 2012 Florida

Settled into our spot at Far Horizons and we both commented "that it felt like coming home". Glad to be at the beach and not living out of a suitcase. We had dinner with Ivan and Dianne at Sesto's the night before Bernie went to Daytona for his week of golf with the boys. He drove to Daytona on Friday the 30th and had a great week golfing, deep sea fishing and seeing a 1500 antique car show at the Daytona raceway. He and Donnie drove back on Sat the 7th after dropping Paul and Boyd at the airport in Orlando. Paul was meeting Judy's flight and they are spending a week tooting around Florida. Karen drove from Anna Marie Island to pick up Donnie. I spent the week at the beach relaxing, reading, girls time with Jeannie and Marianne, shopping, swimming, and moving from #10 to #24 to #25. Not a lot of work, just sounds like it. We had a great month on North Redington Beach - weather was perfect, warm and not much rain. The regular crew was around the area - Beth, Pete, Marlene, Joe, Jeannie, Maryanne, Mark, Dianne, Ivan, Ginny, and Eugene. We had visit from Paul and Judy for a few days and one highlight was a visit to Petey-Joe's outdoor restaurant. Spend a lot of time on beach, a walk every morning, people over for supper, visit to Bonita Spring to visit Steve and Denyse, overnight with Donnie and Karen and supper with Barry and Wendy on Anna Marie Island, cruise on Inland waterway with VanVulpen-Esterbrook crew, dinners out at Friendly's Tavern, PJ's, Hooter's, Seabreeze musical tribute night at Mafetty Centre for the Carpenters, MainSail Art show at St. Petersburg waterfront, visit to Rainbow's End quilt shop,antique car shows, and some shopping. We headed north on April 28th, Saturday with a stop at Ashville for a night to visit the Biltmore Estate which was well worth the stop. Travelled on to Lexington, Kentucky where we spent 2 days touring horse farms, Bourbon distillery and the beautiful landscape. Then the bucket list event - the Derby. Wonderful three days in Lousiville enjoying a walking city tour, parade, riverboat race, local fair, The Oaks (female jockey Rosie won the big race) and The Derby (I'll Have Another big winner - Greg's bet and Canadian connections with owner and jockey). The MacLeods and we left within an hour of each other on our way home, drove for 2 days and ended up being 3 miles apart near Bangor at the end of second day. Another great southern holiday.