Daytona Beach

After leaving Bushnell, we went to Daytona Beach to spend five days with friends from New York. We stayed at the KOA in Port Orange where our friends Chris and Mindy, and Ken and Amy spend the winters.  It was your typical KOA with tight sites but the company was awesome.

After getting set up, we were treated to dinner by Wendy, the manager of the park.  We went to North Turn, a restaurant on the beach.  Great food, great company and great view followed by a stop at Dairy Queen.

The following morning we decided to go to Waffle House for breakfast since we had never been there, followed by a trip to the huge flea market.

This picture is a reminder to us to never grow up and keep acting crazy and having fun.

Ray and I spent the next few days heading out on our own to explore the area as we had not been there since 1992 and boy has it changed.

The rest of our stay was spent just catching up with everyone and enjoying each other's company.  We were sad to hear that Chris and Mindy will be staying in Daytona permanently but we know that we will catch up with them next year and will spend the summer in Canandaigua with Ken and Amy.

The rest of our trip home to New York was spent doing one nighters on the road.  We were ecstatic to hear while we were in Florida that we are expecting our first grandchild so we were very anxious to hit the road and get back home.

Winding Down the Winter Season

The rest of our winter at Paradise Oaks was spent working and checking out other areas of Central Florida.  Ones day trip took us to Tarpon Springs, the sponge capital of the world.

It was not exactly what I expected.  It was just a small touristy area with one main street full of small shops loaded with sponges.  The crowd was rather intimidating for Mickey since he has gotten rather scared of everything in his old age.  I don't think it would be worth the drive to visit again.

On the other hand, we took a drive to Mt. Dora and we loved that area.  Again, several small shops and restaurants and nice parks as well.

We spent several day checking out other areas of central Florida.  While Paradise Oaks was a nice park (although the crowd was a little too old for us) and the job wasn't bad, we decided it was just not the area we wanted to be in.  Bushnell is not home to much and the drive to get any where we wanted to go was just too far. We have decided next winter to try Lake Magic which is four miles from Disney.  We look forward to being in an area that we really enjoy and making new friends.  To top it off, our friends Glenn and Deloris from New York will also be staying there so I'm sure we will be spending time with them

Christmas in Epcot

We are very blessed to have such great friends who invited us to attend the Candlelight Procession at Epcot with them.  Glenn and Delores are work campers with us in New York.  Delores spent 20 years working as a nurse in Disney so she generously shared her guest passes with us. We had such a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again while we are in Florida.

The show was beautiful, with Trace Adkins narrating the story of the Birth of Jesus, accompanied by an orchestra, living Christmas Tree and high school chorus.  It really puts you in the Christmas Spirit.




Before the show we took in the Living Seas with Nemo attraction as well as the world showcase and admired the beautiful flowers in the park. We were a little disappointed that there were not more Christmas decorations, but I guess like everywhere else, they have cut back.

 

After the show we rode the boat through the Mexico pavilion and then finished the night with photo ops, the Laser show and Fireworks.


 
I don’t think Ray & I will ever be too old for Disney and I leave you with this thought…..

Downtown Disney

One of our days off from work we decided to take a drive to Downtown Disney, as we had not been there in 20 years.  We also thought it would be nice to see it all decorated as well as to visit of few of the resorts to take in their decorations as well. 
 
Our first stop was at Raglands, a great Irish Pub where we had a cold beer and were entertained by a great Irish band and cloggers.

 
 

From there we walked to the Marketplace to take in some shops.  I especially enjoyed all the Lego structures, bringing back memories of making them with our kids.

And another one of my favorites, Winnie The Pooh.

We boarded a bus from the Marketplace, with our destination being The Contemporary Resort where we spent our honeymoon 37 years ago. With the exception of a new tower of rooms, not much had changed but we snapped some pictures of the Christmas Displays.



All aboard the monorail to check out the Grand Floridian Resort.

 
That was as much ground as we covered that day because we wanted to get back home to Mickey, but we will surely go back again before the end of the season.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

Since we have been here in Florida we have had the opportunity to make many new friends and to reconnect with old ones.  Wayne and Sue Dent arrived here in November to spend ten days at our park.   We met Wayne and Sue while spending our past two winters in Texas. While we hadn’t been here long ourselves, we managed to find several places to take them around the area and had a great time. 
We drove to Clermont to visit and tour Lake Ridge Winery.  We enjoyed  the tour and tasting and bought a few bottles too.

Our neighbors had told us if ever in Clermont, be sure to go to Donut King.  Well anyone who knows me, knows how much I love donuts so of course we followed the wine with a donut.  Best donut shop we have ever been to!

We also took a drive to the villages for some lunch and shopping and went to Harbor Lights Restaurant the night before Wayne and Sue left.  It was a small restaurant in Lake Panasofkee.  It didn’t look like much from the outside but it was very nice inside.  They only have buffet, no menu but the food was good as well as the atmosphere.


We have become friends with Sue & Charlie Scabbo who are guests here at the park. They are from Leroy, NY and Sue is a work camper at the first park we stayed in when we started full-timing.  This is their 8th winter in central Florida and are very familiar with the area.  We enjoy going to the villages with them and taking in dinner and entertainment on the weekends.

We are so fortunate to have such great friends, both old and new and look forward to many more great times with them while we are here.