Tuesday, November 30, 2010

We've been Busy - Florida Update

Hello and Greetings from our "home" in Zephyrhills, Florida.

We're on our lot in Emerald Pointe RV Resort and arrived here in early October after spending the month of September traveling south from Long Island.

After leaving Virginia Beach we stopped at our old homestead in Hertford, NC for a visit with friends and some golf then moved over to meet up with friends in Raleigh, NC. Bob Brickhouse and his grandson Brian met us in China on our tour there in 2007 and we have stayed in touch. We had a nice dinner together and caught up on each others activities.

We moved on to Augusta, Georgia and a quick visit with my niece and her family. From there it was onto Jacksonville and the annual PM for the coach and some minor repair work, coupled with a visit to my nephew and his family. Then off to Cocoa and a week with long time friends, Jack and Gail + Bob & Betty and some more golf.

We arrived in Zephyrhills on 10/2 and have been busy ever since.

We are taking this opportunity to investigate numerous areas in Florida for eventual home purchase, sometime in the next 12-18 months. While we love Arizona and the desert the travel back to see kids and grandkids would become more expensive and more time consuming. Florida to LI is basically a one-seat ride. The housing market in Florida is very attractive and we just need to find the right locale.

We want to be south of Tampa on the west coast and south of Vero on the east. We've spent several days in Ft. Myers visiting friends and looking at communities as well as in Naples. Although we looked at central Florida, we really want to be on a coast or relatively close to water. We've checked out Sarasota and Bradenton too and so far have a strong possibility in Bradenton. Gated community, on a golf course with activities and about 20 minutes to the Gulf. Prices are reasonable, taxes and fees too. We plan to check out the east coast in late January.

The big excitement so far has been the arrival of our family for a week in Disney during Thanksgiving. Our daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren flew down on the Saturday before T-Day and we had 3 day tickets. One day in Magic Kingdom, one in Epcot and one in Animal Kingdom exhausted everyone. We arranged for a days rest in between each park visit and managed a trip to Clearwater Beach too.

A magic family vacation !

Not sure if he'll still be smiling in 10 yrs !

Being 'Tailgated" by my grandsons

Mickey's new "apprentice"

Taking stock ?

Somebody is gonna get wet !

Watching the parade....Happy ?

Magic Kingdom at night

Off to explore Epcot !

Mary Poppins and Friends !

A quiet moment of reflection

Face painting !

Do you think they're having fun ?

Pluto & friends

As close as I ever want to get to a Snowman !

Maybe a little Magic ?

3 Happy children !

The look of joy on our grandchildren's faces was a sight I will never forget. Seeing all their favorite characters and getting their pictures taken too was magical. Some of the rides were just spectacular. I've got hundreds of photo's and I'll post a few here to give you a sense of all the fun we had as a family. The trip went way too fast but they did leave us a remembrance: we both have the colds they bought with them from LI ! UGH.

Goofy, Donald & 3 happy kids !

Dreams do come true when your 7 & 9...

....and even a little older !

We won't get to see them for Christmas but plan a to fly up in January for a quick visit. Once we return we'll pack up the coach, travel to the east coast and check on some communities then back to Tucson by mid February.

Enjoy your holidays, enjoy the photo's and we'll talk again soon.

Gene & Laurie