January 26, 2012

What an exciting place to boat. There is not another place that we have been that has a larger boating community/population. Ft Lauderdale has it all, huge boats, massive marinas, and it is in the middle of a city. We had to travel up New River to get to LMC, and it is at some points narrow, and has lots of twists and turns, and multiple draw bridges. That said, our boat doesn't have trouble making it up and down this river. But, if you are looking for any skilled captains....they are here. We saw multiple 150+ ft boats being towed down this river. What they do is have a tow boat pulling at the bow, and another on the back to control the stern. We came by this boat which wasn't the largest boat we saw getting towed, but the captain in the aft tow boat looked as if he was asleep. I am comfortable handling our boat, but if I had to do that....I would need to be wearing diapers and have a pacemaker.
We got to LMC just about 11am, and did a fair amount of cleaning, there really isn't that much to do, but it is nice to be at the dock and get our thoughts organized. We have to bring the kids to Naples tonight, and just the thought of not having them on the boat is hard, I already miss them terribly and they are still here.
The haul out is scheduled for 11am tomorrow, so we will have a busy day ahead...I wish Deason could be there to help us out.

January 25, 2012

We had a great day, Dahlia spent a good part of the day buckling and unbuckling herself into her car seat. This is strange because she generally doesn't like the car seat, anything over a 20min car ride and she is writhing and complaining. So to have her willingly in the seat all day was a mystery.
We did see at least a dozen manatees on our trip today too, for an endangered species they seem to be doing fairly well.
We made it to Lake Boca around 5ish anchored and had a delicious pancake dinner. We are only a stones throw away from Ft. Lauderdale, but we still have 8 bridges to go through. We should make it to Lauderdale Marine Center by 11am tomorrow.

January 24, 2011

We are rounding out our time here in Lake Worth. We will start heading South today. We probably won't get that far, but if we can get a few bridges out of the way it will make a world of difference. There are 22 bridges we have to go through just to get to Ft. Lauderdale, and that doesn't include the 4 that we will have to go through to get to Lauderdale Marine Center where we will have the sea trial. I don't mind the bridges so much, but it does make a short distance of travel, take a while.
We have had a great week hanging out with Marsha and Barry, and the weather has been beautiful for both boat chores and hanging out by the pool. Yesterday, Marsha and I took the kids over to "The Breakers Resort" on Palm Beach...whoa....is all I have to say! It is like an adults Disney World, everything seems too nice to be real. We were invited guests of a friend of Marsha and Barry's, so we got to spend the day at the pool. It was surreal. If we used a towel, it was immediately replaced with a dry one by one of the pool attendants, and at least every 10-15 mins someone was asking us if we needed anything. I have never had such treatment before, I don't think I have ever said "thank you" so much in one day, there were just so many people who were catering to us and so many people to thank for their services.
While we were in Disney World my camera took a spill off of the stroller and my new lens suffered a little. It was still working, but there is a piece on the side where you switch the lens from manual focus to auto focus that popped right off. I have not used my camera since, but luckily there is a camera shop in Ft Lauderdale that does in house repairs, and I am hoping they can fix it. Every other camera shop sends repairs out. It looks like the piece will just snaps right back on, but I am not risking trying to do it myself. There are too many working parts in the lens that I don't want to screw up. I do still have my other lenses, and I put one of  my old lens on to take some pictures at "The Breakers",  but of course, I forgot an SD card....so no pictures of living the high life!

January 18, 2011

  

Not surprising, we had a blast at Disney. Mostly because we got to see the Lowe Family. They are all such great company, Deason had a blast riding on all the rides with them. He got to go on Space Mt, Splash Mt, and a bunch of other rides that I can't remember all the names of. I went on Splash Mt with them, they have these pregnancy warnings for some of the rides, but since I had been on the ride before, I knew that it was no worse than half of the dinghy rides we take. 

Dahlia had a great time too. I was actually surprised at how much she enjoyed herself. She loved, It's a small world, jungle cruise, and the light parade. She did not like the fireworks at the end of the night, which I wasn't complaining about....I was cooked and ready to head home anyway. 

January 16, 2012

The kids had such a good time playing and hanging out with their cousins. I do wish that they could see more of each other, but it is amazing that they always seem to pick up right where they left off, as if they just saw each other the day before. They all get along so well too. Deason is requesting a trip to one of the Disney water parks for his birthday, so that will at least guarantee another time for them to all hang out. The rest we will have to play it by year.

January 15, 2012

We had a great time visiting Oma and Pepe, of course Oma cooked my favorite french spaghetti, and over fed us for all of our meals. French spaghetti is one of those family foods that no one else has heard of except our family. It is a sauce made from salt pork, onions and tomatoes over spaghetti. It is greasy and salty, and tastes so much better than it sounds.
Again, it was so restful, and relaxing to be around family, and it was nice to escape the cold front that had swept in for the weekend. We left the boat and it was only in the low 50's we actually turned the heat on in the morning before we left the boat. As much as I love being on the boat, it is never fun riding in the dinghy when it is freezing. I shouldn't really complain, back home on the cape has seen temperatures in the teens. Yuck!

January 12, 2012

We had a great time last night for Grammy's Birthday, we had a great dinner, and some yummy cake. It was nice being on land again, even though it was a short trip.
We had to pack up and head back to Palm Beach early to return the rental car and say goodbye to Debra and Donna. We are scheduled for another road trip on Saturday. We are going to visit my Oma and Pepe, then we are going to Disney to visit with my brother and his family, and then we will get to see the Lowe Family (our Bahamian friends) again. Busy, busy, busy!