With the holidays upon us I would like to share a personal experience with my family and friends (and now you) about drinking and driving.
As you may know, some of us have been known to have close encounters with the authorities from time to time on the way home from a "social session" out with friends. Well, last weekend when Paul was in Florida, I was out for an evening meal with friends and I had several white wines followed by some rather nice rum and eggnog and a Baileys or two.
Feeling jolly I still had the sense to know that I may be slightly over the limit. That's when I did something that I've never done before- I took a cab home. Sure enough on the way home there was a police road-block, but since it was a cab they waved it past.
I arrived home safely without incident. This was a real surprise as I had never driven a cab before, I don't know where I got it and now that it's in our garage I don't know what to do with the freaking thing... any suggestions?
Merry Christmas, have a safe, happy time with your family and friends. I hope you got a good chuckle!
Paul and I are to be on Coyaba January 1, 2013 and our adventure of travelling to the Exumas, Bahamas begins again. Thanks for all your support this past year and enjoy following along on our blog.
Coyaba
"COYABA"
Arawak Indian meaning: paradise a place of peace and rest.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
PALM TREES TO SNOW!
This came by parcel special delivery for us this past Monday! What a great gift and gets us into the spirit of Christmas |
We are home for the holidays with family and friends. We
wish everyone else Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas with your friends and
family for the month of December. We will fly down to our catamaran end of
December or early January to finish our provisioning. We hope to leave Stuart,
Florida sometime after January 6. This will be our second year down in the
Exumas and we look forward to exploring new islands and meeting new and old
friends.
We arrived in Ottawa on Saturday and on the Monday morning
we woke to snow on the ground. I had to find mitts, boots and dig out my winter
coat..... and the snow scraper. There was shopping to be done and winter tires
to go on our car!!
looking out our front door |
“Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we
may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought
and given—when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had
as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.”—Joan Winmill
Brown
Friday, November 23, 2012
FROGS ARE CUTE??
WE leave tomorrow, won't be
back in Florida until January 2013. … but I have a few ideas for posts so
stay “posted”? While we were in Naples visiting friends on their
catamaran, we discovered a frog that made his home within the
outboard motor of the dinghy. This little creature was not moving. He
stayed with the motor and changed colour throughout the day depending
where he was. We moved the motor from the dinghy to the dock and
lifted it up a few times. I took some great photos and thought I
would share them with you. I think, with very little research, that
it is a Pinewoods TreeFrog (I know there is no tree around,
but fits the description). Did You Know there are 33 types of frogs
and toads in Florida?? I can let you do your own research!
SMILE FOR THE CAMERA |
See how he thinks he is camoflaged?? |
I got this funny picture for you all to enjoy!! I did not actually see this frog!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
LOOKING FOR FUN IN THE SAND!!
Remember as a child (okay as an adult
too!) you loved to build with sand using your plastic bucket and your
little plastic shovel. Now, remember how that plastic shovel always
broke?? As a world champion creating a sand sculpture, your shovel
never breaks and as a champion you would have “state of the art”
tools to use. We travelled to Fort Myers last weekend to visit friends and the
American Sand Sculpting Championship happening right on the beach.
This was spectacular!! We are used to Snow Sculpting and wonderful
Ice Sculptures that happen in Ottawa in the cold of February during
our Winterlude Festivities on the Rideau Canal. These sand sculptures
happen in phases. The designers have 20 hours to create their sand
sculpture and then they are judged. A Canadian sand “artist” was
there and she happened to be a 4 time World Champion. We felt lucky
to see her at work.
Please see all the pictures but they do
not do justice to the oohing and aawing everyone was doing as they
wandered around looking at the creations happening.
Today's theme was WINTER WONDERLAND |
Of Course there are many sponsors involved for an event this large! This is just a sampling. |
Notice how tall this is and all the detail! |
This is our Canadian from Ontario, work still in progress, she was working on the other side, all sculptures are 360 degrees |
Dragons, Winter Wonderland Creatures? Lots of detail |
I got this one off google! I thought I would share, isn't it awesome! |
The world’s tallest sandcastle measured 49.55 feet high and was completed on July 4, 2007 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and sponsored by Best Western of the Carolinas.
Monday, November 19, 2012
MANATEE RESCUE
“Manatees
are gentle and slow-moving animals living in the water. Most of their
time is spent eating, resting, and travelling. Manatee are mostly
herbivorous, however small fish and invertebrates can sometimes be
ingested along with a manatee's normal vegetation diet.”
We travelled to Naples this past
weekend to visit friends from Cardinal, Ontario that live on their
catamaran “Daruma”. Their marina, Port of the Islands, is a nice
facility with alligators, manatees and tons of fish around.
(Alligators are not where people are!) This marina is in the
Everglades. We arrived Friday afternoon and saw the Manatee Research
and Rescue Boat go out to collect an injured young manatee. We were
told they would be about two hours before they get back. I promptly
went to get my camera and watched the waterway for their return. Most
manatee are injured from a boat going by and their motor blades
hitting a portion of their body. Even slow moving boats are at risk
of doing this because manatee are slow moving mammals.
Injuries on his back |
Many a manpower and woman-power |
A truck takes the manatee to a facility that will mend him and take it back to where they found him |
We also travelled to Fort Myers to see
the World Championship of Sand Sculpting, it was awesome, but that is
another post for another day.
We are back to work today, Sam's Club,
provisioning and finalizing everything before home bound soon.
"Manatee can get as big at 13ft and 1,300 lbs, they live in 2-3 meters of water and can live up to 60 years...." wow
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
MOORING BALLS
The Stuart Air Show was on this past weekend for Veteran's Day. We saw many planes from our boat. We loved it. A lot of power in the planes that we saw and HEARD!
Mooring field behind me |
Dinghy dock |
Another view of the dinghy dock here |
We are provisioning right now; I am not
taking pictures of all the food, see last year's posts. However, this
year I did take a photo of the bow BEFORE we load up the boat with
provisions and in January we will take a photo of the AFTER when we
are loaded up with fuel and water too. We actually go down about 2
inches.
The weather is fantastic here and I
understand why most people living in Florida are transplanted here
from somewhere else; including the hairdresser I just had today!! I
have yet to meet a true Floridian.
Hmmmmmmm!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
I NEVER FORGET
Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day in the
U.S.) is a day for reflection and of being grateful for those that
choose to serve their nations. I am from a military family; my
father, sister, uncle and both grandfathers all have served in the
Canadian military. We now have our own son a Canadian Army Reservist.
As a mother, I am glad he chose to go to university last year and not
Afganistan. His three good friends went to Afganistan and have just
now returned last month after their tour of duty. As a mother, every
time I saw or read news in Afganistan I thought of their own mothers
and fathers reading or seeing the same news. News of bombs, threats
or attacks are all instant for this generation. Think back to the
early wars and how a letter would bring joy or would bring sorrow to
the families. Our son's friends could communicate frequently home to
their family or even their friends via the internet. We knew if they
were safe shortly after bad news “on the front”. Wars are
different than the early ones but the feelings of the families
and friends are all too real and the same. I will remember the ones
today that served from wars long ago and I also remember the young
ones that have just arrived home last month. I reflect on what
freedoms we have today because of those that serve their country
whether it is serving in a “war zone” or serving here on the
“home front” to help protect our nations and freedoms.
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind. --John Diefenbaker
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind. --John Diefenbaker
Thursday, November 8, 2012
STUART FLORIDA ARRIVAL
We arrived in high winds and tide
running at the Sunset Bay Marina, just what boaters don't like!! We
had two helpers on the dock to help with lines. We are now “home”
here until January, plugged in and enjoying the marina and amenities.
Our journey here was uneventful, hence no postings for awhile.
However I did take a picture of the Goodyear Blimp as it seemed to
follow us for a short while. This was outside of Vero Beach. We took
a mooring ball at the Vero Beach City Marina on Tuesday night. The
clouds were so interesting I took a picture, but as you all know
pictures do not seem to capture what I saw. ALL PICTURES ON ANY
POSTING can be clicked on to enlarge.
We walked to the Publix Grocery store
this afternoon and just as we were walking on the dock a large school
of small fish jumped all over the place near shore. This young crane
noticed it too and we watched him walk ever so slowly towards that
school of fish. He was determined a snack was in order.
Here on the dock we have a boat behind
and in front of us and unfortunately a large yacht on the other side
of us. “Grumpy” is blocking our view of the waterway. We usually
watch the boats coming and going under the bridge. This huge yacht is
the kind that has crew members on board. I joked to myself and asked where is "Sleepy and Sneezy"... ?? A beautiful boat.
We leave tomorrow morning for St.
Augustine with a rental car to pick up our own car, spend the night
in Daytona on the way back. We spoke to people in Ontario today and
hear it is cool there! We are enjoying the warm temps here but they
are below average, we will take it.
BECAUSE I know you want to
know....
Miami installed the first bank
automated teller machine especially for rollerbladers!
Monday, November 5, 2012
ANCHORED AT COCOA BEACH
This is our third day travelling. We
spent night one in Daytona, two in New Smyrna and tonight we are
anchored at Cocoa Beach. Today was another beautiful day especially
when a pod of dolphins decided to follow alongside us... this
happened before near Cocoa and guess where this happened... Near
Cocoa again! The dolphins here in this area must love following
boats. They love peering up at us. I actually was able to take a few
shots. We see dolphins all the time now but the novelty never wears
off.
Notice there is a dolphin under the water in front. |
Pelicans at New Smyrna were entertaining from our boat |
Hunting for some fish! |
Under every bridge there are these wooden fenders, and always there are pelicans, they should actually paint the wood white, Hmmmm |
Saturday, November 3, 2012
OUR ADVENTURE TO STUART, FL
Those are not rain clouds. Just started out hazy, turned out to be a very hot day. |
We have provisioned for the week,
parked the car under a security camera, got a pump out, “test
drove” the boat yesterday and left this morning at 9am. We have
made it all the way to Daytona Beach and decided not to anchor which
is really a blessing as the bottom here is muddy. I would have had to
hose down the anchor tomorrow after getting it up. We are staying at
the Halifax Harbor Marina and today have the air conditioner on!! It
is very warm and humid today but a great day for travelling. It was
actually quiet on the ICW. I thought with it being Saturday many
locals would be out and about but that was not the case.
Our dinghy hanging from our davit. Fits perfectly. |
We do have to watch the water as there
are crab pots and the odd dock floating along. A sailboat in front of
us may have hit a manatee, he radioed us that he had hit something.
Who knows. We followed this sailboat for a few miles as we needed 2
bridge openings and so does he.
A floating dock, with ladder and everything. |
Last night I took a picture of the sun
setting where we dock at the St. Augustine Marine Center. It was nice
as there is a super tall tree. It reminds me of a rain forest and the
life in the one tree is amazing.
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