Boats. Beers. Babes. Bucks. Bazinga!

Last night as we lay howling with the dogs, we were trying to decide what to do with our one full day together, on this short weekend trek to Florida.

We tossed around ideas of going to the beach, the shooting range, the dog beach or park, walking around downtown or just hanging out around the hoots' nest. Then the spark of a marvelous idea came to JP and BAM! 20 minutes later we had reservations on the Victory Casino Cruise ($10 per person to board boat)!! What a great idea, indeed!

We had the morning to get ready at our own pace, have a great breakfast filled with sausage, eggs, coffee and toast and be on our way by 9:30 a.m. The drive to get to port is about an hour and a half, the boat leaves at 11:00, so we had plenty of time to get there...as well as plenty of time for "sillies"!!

The place to board the boat is called Cape Canaveral and is also the place where all of the major cruise lines leave out of Florida, it was pretty cool seeing those humungous boats!!

Once we parked, we pretty much walked in, checked in, then off to the boat & potties we went!

The boat is 6 floors of fun: 1 floor with a restaurant, 3 floors of gaming, 1 floor is gaming with a night club and the very top is a rooftop bar with live music, called The Dolphin Bar. We walked in hit the potty, then went to the very top deck to set sail. It was pretty warm...imagine sitting in the sun of sunny Florida, with tight skinny jeans on and make-up! haha Before I knew it I was sweating and sitting in the shade and we hadn't even taken off yet!

Once we set off into the sea for the day, we all headed inside for some game time and much needed A/C! JP started with Roulette and was getting lucky on every number, Jamie started with Black Jack and Brittney and I headed to the penny slots! We played this game, that game, moved around for a little while and then met back up with the boys for lunch.

We had a great lunch on the bottom floor, right at sea level...you can pretty much feel every movement down there (good thing none of us are the seasick type!) We watched a hot dog eating contest while waiting for lunch, not the greatest of ideas but that's what was on the tube. Lunch was pretty good, Jamie & I split quesadillas and a french dip type sammie, then headed back out to game it up!

After lunch Brittney & I decided to head back to the 1 cent slots and moved around machines until the Betty Boop game, Brittney wanted to play all day, finally opened up. We popped over there and played for quite a while...Betty Boop was good to Miss B, but we moved on to an even better set of machines! We sat down at these two machines that were just regular old timey slot machines, they were 2 cents a play and within 10 pulls I went from $20 to $108! I'm NOT a gambler so I played a couple more pulls then cashed out at $84.36! I was a happy camper due to getting back the money that I played, some of what Brittney played and walking out in the black! Needless to say, I didn't play anymore for the day!

We headed upstairs to the "night club" where there were games, air conditioning and less smoke. Since I wasn't playing, I was people watching and saw there was one solo lady dancing on the dance floor, she seemed to be having a grand ole time and I told Brittney, "I'm going to have to get in on that! Watch my purse...." The lady, Yvette, and I danced and had the whole place clapping along, as well as a whole bunch of hootin' & hollerin'! It was great fun, we even exchanged information...what a great gal!

The day was coming down to a dwindle on the gaming for us gals, so we just kept going up floors until we hit The Dolphin Bar. We enjoyed a nice drink together making sure everyone on deck was okay & having fun, especially this guy....

I walked over with a glass of ice water and woke him up, asked him if he was okay...he slurred, "I'm good, just getting some sun." haha Okay dude, have fun with that! Can't say I didn't try.

We sat up there for about 45 minutes before the boys joined us for the trip back to shore and what a trip back to shore it was!!

I can honestly say that I think we were the ships' best entertainment of the year, shit probably the entire existence of the cruise line! You get me, a day of beers, my family & live music together and well, everyone is in for a treat! Brittney & I started dancing around our table for a few songs, with even a gal giving me a dollar bill! (Holla)

[caption id="attachment_5565" align="aligncenter" width="363"] ...[/caption]

 Then, as if I didn't feel American enough on this 4th of July/Birthday/Anniversary/Family time trip, they started playing the Electric Slide......ohhhh yeah baby! I got up there, started dancing and no one wanted to do it with me...Brittney didn't even know how to do it! I said, "I'll teach you, I'll teach everyone! C'mon everybody!" So we start dancing and I grab a couple of people, some people get up on their own and before you knew it, we had a deck full of dancers doing the Electric Slide! Yesssssssss!!!!

[caption id="attachment_5572" align="aligncenter" width="371"] now back...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5573" align="aligncenter" width="324"] now turn...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5571" align="aligncenter" width="311"] Thank you for dancing![/caption]

Everyone had a great time on the ship, us and the people watching us! (You're welcome people for giving you a story worth telling about your trip! haha)

I think we were all pooped on the way home, but we made it in the pouring rain back to the house and 4 very excited dogs. Just glad it didn't rain on the ship and cancel our roof-top dance party!

Hope your weekend is as much fun as this and if not....make it that fun!

PEACE

 

Flyin' High, Flyin' Low...Flyin' to Orlando!

On my second plane of the day. The time is roughly 5 p.m. on this Thursday evening. We woke up at 4:15 a.m., took care of "The Bugs" morning rituals, fed myself with a ham and cheese toasted sammie and diet coke...yep, the breakfast of champions! By 5 a.m. we were out of the house. My flight didn't leave until 7:25 a.m., but I wanted to be a good flyer and earn my wings and get to the airport 2 hours early like "they" say. We were at the San Francisco airport in about 25 minutes and I was checked-in and through security in about 9 1/2 minutes!! I found a plug and opened my computer to do some "work"...uploading pictures...I was only able to load half of an album due to the slow connection, but it's half of an album that I didn't have loaded, so it's all good! The plane boarded and left pretty much right on time for Charlotte, NC...where my layover was.

[caption id="attachment_5063" align="aligncenter" width="350"] See ya Charlotte[/caption]

The flight was about 4 hours and 45 minutes long but it went by pretty fast due to my awesome luck of being seated next to two amazing women from Hawaii. We talked for the majority of the flight, in between napping, reading, stretching and potty breaks. While I am flying to Orlando to help 'the moms' move...they are enroute to Rome! They flew through the night last night, flying from San Fran to Charlotte and they're going to keep on truckin' to Rome, then once in Rome they will take a small cruise ship to Greece! How awesome is that!?

During the flight we talked about all kinds of stuff from our van-life to their lives in Hawaii. One of the women, Vicki, can watch her kids and hubby surf from her kitchen window as she makes brekkie for the fam and at times, when it's mating season, has to close her windows due to the whales making so much noise splashing their tales and bodies and moaning! They spoke of how amazing the sunsets are and how they never get old to watch, as well as how magical the views are...even after living there for 30 years! We talked about our kids & our husbands, our mothers & our siblings...and of course, the Nana Bug!

It was great to be seated next to such wonderful energy, I sure needed it after the few days leading up to this trip. For some reason, I was majorly stressing about the flight, which flying has never bothered me or scared me before. I'm sure it was driving J' totally batty listening to me for three days about how nervous I was! haha So thank you ladies, my prayers were truly answered by sitting next to you and I hope you (Margaret) had an amazing 80th birthday reminiscing in the magical city of Rome! (I'm upset I didn't get a picture of them, darn.)

They gave me a pretty good push to truly start writing my book. I've really got to get my thoughts in order to start that thing, just seems like something else always gets done before that...hmmmm. So another thank you, to you, ladies!

So...yes, back on the plane. We took off about 15 minutes ago out of Charlotte and should be arriving in Orlando in about an hour or so. I'm pretty excited...actually I'm super freakin' stoked! I not only get to see my mom (after almost two years) and hug and kiss her... this mama gets to see her Baby Owl too!

My, not so little, girl and I are going to have a sleepover and just be giggly girls together and of course I get to put the official mother's stamp of approval on her man, her house & her pup! She's a really great "kid", so I'm sure her life and everyone around her are just perfect. It should make for a really nice trip all the way around and if I get to see my best Aussie mate, that will make it even better!

[caption id="attachment_5065" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Rainy Florida[/caption]

For the next 7 days, I'll be giggling with my little owl, moving the moms, unpacking boxes and shopping for furniture for her new home and I'm sure a lot more that I haven't planned for, purty fun stuff...actually, it does sound fun to me! haha I'm always happy for the time I get to spend with anyone I love even if we just lay on the floor, stare at the popcorn ceiling that hasn't been scraped off yet and using a shower curtain for a blankie! Just kidding mom...you can have the shower curtain! I'm there for the quality time and adventure.

We're coming in for a landing.

[caption id="attachment_5066" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Crazy Cloud!![/caption]

So, here we go.......

PEACE

 

Navigating North

Now that it's getting closer to 'going home time', we thought we would start heading North, maybe do some drive-by's of past memories and then just keep going. We drove up through Tampa & Orlando.

[caption id="attachment_1837" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What up O-town?[/caption]

Always good to see O-town! We decided to stop for lunch at a place I used to work at, for shits & giggles of course. We ate our signature salads and kept on down the road.

[caption id="attachment_1848" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Happy to be sitting & not working[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1838" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Stretching from all of her hard work of sleeping[/caption]

While we were still around Sarasota we called a few campgrounds up North. When we lived in this area we used to camp for nothing in the regular season so we thought we'd give a few places a call. After calling some places, we were left scratching our heads because we happened to be in town the same week as all of the big car races as well as the Daytona 500! 

Go figure. 

[caption id="attachment_1846" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Captivated[/caption]

So prices were a lot higher than we were expecting. Just one more lesson of things to watch for: Big Events = more money, everywhere!! We did finally get a good price over the phone and that's what made the final push to drive up North. After a little bit of haggling, (bc the lady didn't want to give us the rate that we were told over the phone), we ended up paying for a week for a spot there. We took a walk around and set-up the van in our spot. We had spot #2 @ Clark's!

[caption id="attachment_1844" align="aligncenter" width="300"] # 2[/caption]

They had a pool, that wasn't working, but I was told (by the lady that worked there) that I wouldn't want to get in it anyway, it would be too cold. I thought that was somewhat rude, how does she know what I like? They also have goats there for your ears' pleasure and squirrels that have never seen/eaten peanut butter before...pure-natured squirrels! I'll keep ya posted on how it goes the rest of the week.

[caption id="attachment_1839" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Give me food[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1840" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I don't think that squirrel knows what it's getting into![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1843" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Ello[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1845" align="aligncenter" width="300"] “The Sleep-away Camp” Bathroom….scarrrry[/caption]

PEACE

66- Checking out Clark's Campground by Ayevangabond