March 31, 2016  Day 130  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

Since our last post a few weeks ago, we took a wonderful two week road trip to visit family. After driving four days to get to Denver, we spent another four days visiting with son, Bill and Amy, Will (4 ½) and Abby (2) and had a fabulous time with them. We went to church on Palm Sunday, and also went to the “Wings over the Rockies” Air and Space Museum.  We had lots of play time with Will and Abby, including coloring Easter eggs! We also visited Bill’s cousin and his aunt while we were there.

On the return trip we made a couple of detours. The first was to Effingham, Illinois to spend one evening. Joyce’s sister, Carole, organized 25 family members to meet at a local restaurant for dinner! It was so great to see everyone, although we needed longer!

The second detour was to North Carolina to visit Joyce’s sister, Kathy and her husband Paul. They retired last summer and moved to a lovely lake home. We were spoiled for two days with food, wine, games, and a tour of the beautiful area!  Kathy even packed us a lunch for our return trip. We departed there on Friday, March 25^th and returned to Ft. Myers the next day. We made a wise decision to take back roads all the way home, missing Atlanta traffic and the road construction on I-75 in FL.

On Easter Sunday, we met Looper friends Barb and Skip for a lovely Easter brunch at the Landings and then went back to their condo for games.

On Monday, we caught up with more Looper friends, Colin & Dawn, M/V Movin’ On when they arrived in Cape Coral.  We first met them in Cape May, NJ last July and traveled together for three weeks.  They are from Australia and recently completed their loop. On Monday we toured the Edison & Ford Winter Estates with them here in Ft. Myers.  Then we went to lunch in downtown Ft. Myers at Ford’s Garage, a popular spot!  After a couple of stops for provisioning, we took them back to their boat and sadly had to say goodbye.  They will cruise to the Keys and the Bahamas, and take a road trip to the west coast before flying home!

We are preparing to return to the Chesapeake Bay. We will probably leave sometime next week and slowly make our way north to arrive sometime in May. Carried Away is still on the market though!  We will keep you posted on our

Fun at Wings over the Rockies

Air & Space Museum!

cruising as we retrace our route on the ICW again.

Joyce with sisters Sharon and Carole

Joyce and her sister, Kathy

Colin & Dawn sporting their

new Gold Looper burgee

March 9, 2016  Day 108  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

It has been about six weeks since we have updated the blog. We spent much of that time in Virginia, taking care of our four grandchildren while our daughter and son-in-law flew to China for two weeks to finalize the adoption of their new 13 month old son.  We are happy to report that their trip went very well and that they arrived home safely with Ryan on February 24. Ryan has adapted beautifully into their family. It is almost as if he were always there!  He sleeps, eats, and plays well. He is happy and loves people. He is an active toddler who is walking quite well. He is quite adorable!  We enjoyed being with Ashley, Nate, David, and Rocky for the two weeks. Somehow we managed to get them to and from school on time, prepared meals and school lunches, get them to their activities, played games with them, etc. They are great kids and although they missed their parents, they did very well. On Saturday February 27, we all celebrated Bill’s birthday!

Bill made a few trips to Williamsburg during our stay there – took things we had taken off the boat to our storage unit; saw the optometrist.  We left Virginia on Monday, February 29 and began our drive back to Florida. We spent one night in Orlando and had dinner with Bill’s brother Chuck and Becky at a great Irish Pub in Disney Springs. We enjoyed seeing them again, even for a short time.

We arrived back at our boat on Thursday, March 3. Since then we have gone out to dinner with friends and attended an annual catered dinner sponsored by our marina for everyone here. In the meantime we are trying to keep Carried Away ready to be shown at any time! And oh, yes, Bill spent two days fixing Joyce’s computer after a terrible virus destroyed many files.

Next week will provide a new adventure, as we plan to depart (by car) on Monday for a two week road trip to Colorado to visit our son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren!  Our grandchildren are ages four and a half and two and we can’t wait to see them!