Sunday, February 8, 2009

I can't believe a whole week went by that fast. Grandma and Norm took us out for breakfast at the Golden Corral and then drove us around Betmar to what they call "Nobhill". That is where the more expensive mobile homes are located in the park.

One of the days, we got into a conversation about the show, "Girls Next Door", which is the one that Hugh Hefner is in. Norm told us he met Hugh Hefner back in Oak Park way before Hugh was famous. Norm went to one of his parties where he had a bunch of women. Anyway, Norm was given an opportunity to invest $10,000 with Hugh to start Playboy, but at the time, he didn't have that money. Imagine if he had had that money? I was surprised that Norm said he gets Playboy magazine. Grandma said she likes the articles. I got such a kick out of that.

It was sad to leave Grandma and Norm, but we had to get back to Michigan.

I was not looking forward to coming back to the snow and cold.

Saturday, February 7-Ave Maria/Ken & Peggy

We left Fort Myers and headed for Naples.

Mom wanted to check out this development called AVE MARIA which is about 10 miles east of Naples. Tom Manahan, the man who started Dominos Pizza, started this development. There is a huge Catholic church in the middle of the town, with housing and businesses around it. There is an elementary school and university there. Right now, there is about 500 students at the university. They want to have around 5,000. They are working on building a Publix grocery store there.

My aunt Marianne's brother used to be good friends with Tom. Tom is originally from Ann Arbor. He wanted to build this community in Ann Arbor, but there were problems with the city, so he built it down in Florida.

We went to Naples in 2007 and really liked it. We stopped at the Coastland Mall in Naples to visit with Lori Lear, who just moved down there in July. She works at the Estee Lauder counter at Dillards. It was nice to see her. I didn't like the clerk in the Petites dept. She was quite snotty and not very helpful. I am not sure I would want to live in Naples with all of these rich people. I would probably feel inferior next to them, as I am middle class. I feel better in an area with more middle class people.
We drove down Fifth Avenue in Naples. It was much more crowded this time down there.

Drove around Fort Myers Beach. There were many beach properties for sale down there. It seemed like every other house was up for sale.
The traffic was terrible there.

We got to Ken & Peggys in Sarasota around 6:15 p.m., which is much later than we wanted to. We got to see their mobile home and had a nice visit. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant on US 41. Ken said this is the first time he has ever taken us out to dinner. It was very nice of them to take us out. We came back to their place and chatted for a bit and then had to go back to Zephyrhills.

I am not big on driving at night in strange areas, but luckily, we made it home safely. I prefer not to drive at night, but it seems like we end up doing it on vacations. We try hard to get to our final destination before dark, but it doesn't seem to work out.

Friday, February 6, 2009 Flea Market

Jim and Marty took us to the big flea market in Fort Myers. We got our tray holders for our dominoes and I got an electronic yahtzee game.

We had lunch at the deli at the Publix store. They took us to Cape Coral as well as North Pointe. Jim's niece has a lovely home in Cape Coral so he took us all around the area.

We played another round of chicken feet. Jim won last night's game and Marty won tonight's game only by a few points.

Todd had a big interview at the University of Georgia in Athens so I was wondering how that all went. He called later to let me know how it went.

Thursday, February 5 Fort Myers

Mom and I got on the road again and headed for Fort Myers to visit Jim and Marty Zylstra. We met them in 2006 on our bus trip to Canada. They live in Zeeland, Michigan. They rent a condo for a couple of months each winter down in Fort Myers.

We did make one stop at the outlet stores in Ellenton. We got to Fort Myers around 1 p.m.

Jim and Marty showed us around Fort Myers. They took as to this park to see the Manatees which was quite interesting. Due to the cold waters in the Gulf, the manatees were seen more in the waters in this park.

We had a nice dinner at Arizona Pizza and then played dominoes (chicken feet).

The condo is very nice. The lady who owns it is 85 yrs old and lives in Grand Rapids (not far from my aunt).

Wednesday, February 4 Grasswire Shops/Saddlebrook

Mom and I went to Wesley Church (outside of Tampa) to check out the new outdoor mall called Grasswire. They have a JCPenney, Dillards, Chicos, Talbots, Macy's, etc.
It opened in October 2008.

While we were driving down 54 to Zephyrhills, we decided to check out the Saddlebrook resort which we have always been curious about. We ended up having a nice lunch at the Tropicana Room restaurant. The prices were not too bad, either.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 Lake City/The Villages

We had a nice breakfast at Abi's and then headed back to Zephryhills. We stopped in Lake City to see where Lorraine Zeller is living. She was at work so we didn't get to see her, but it was interesting to see where she was living.

We kept going down I-75 and then saw a sign for the Villages, so thought we would go back and see it during 'high season'. We had lunch at the Panera Bread at the Villages and then walked around the stores. It was quite chilly there. The traffic is very heavy during 'high season'. It wasn't as nice as when we were there in Sept. 2007. My mom was glad she didn't buy the house that we were serious about buying in 2007.

Tallahassee/Laughter Yoga-Feb. 2

Mom and I got up early for our drive to Tallahassee to visit with her friend Abi. Abi lives in Monticello which is outside of the city. On our way, we stopped in Ocala to look around. I found out that John Travolta's house is in the city of Anthony, so we went to find it. There isn't much in Anthony. It is quite the hick town. I called Jeanne from work to look it up on the computer so we could see Travolta's house. It was at the Jumbo Aviation Estates. We couldn't see much as there was a gate at the entrance. But, we did find the runway that is on his property.

On I-75, there are Florida Citrus stops. We stopped at one and had some samples of different types of oranges.

We took highway 10 to Monticello, which is where Abi lives.

Abi took us into Tallahassee where we saw the capital buildings. Her daughter, Lyyli, is a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Florida. We got to see her office, as well as the Supreme Court. I got a picture of myself sitting at the Chief Supreme Court's seat which was pretty neat.

Abi took us around Florida State University and through town.

We got back from Tally and she took us to a laughter yoga class. I always wondered what that was like, after meeting the guy who started it in California. I met him at the Lucille Ball celebration 2 yrs ago. His name is Sebastian. There are over 5,000 groups across the world that do this. I never laughed so hard!
It strengthens your stomach muscles.

After that, we went back to Tally to meet Todd Kramer at the Barnes N Noble. I met him on the internet a year ago and we talked off and on. One of the first things he asked last year was if I would convert to Judaism, which I said No to as I don't believe in that. So, that was an issue late last year and we stopped talking. But, I thought that since we were in the area, I would look him up, so sent him a text message and he responded. It was nice to meet him in person. I was always curious. My mom and Abi came along. I don't usually bring my mom to meet my dates, but being that I was in a strange town, I figured I better bring her.

Lakeland, Florida/Superbowl Sunday-Feb. 1, 2009

Today, Norm and Grandma took us to Lakeland for a wonderful dinner at Red Lobster. Then, I drove us all over Lakeland to see more in the daytime. There are alot of lakes around here. Leah pointed out that southern Lakeland is a nicer point of town, which I could see from our drive around. She lives on the southern part of town.

My mom wanted to check out Bartow which was nearby. There is a nice senior mobile home park there. We drove on highway 60 to Bartow and went by Mosaic, which is where Leah works. However, I found out later that that plant is the chemical plant. She works further south.

We got home around 6:30 and started to watch the Superbowl. It was a great game. The is the first time in my life that I have watched an entire Superbowl game and was actually excited about it. Pittsburg Steelers and Arizona Cardinals were the teams that played. The Steelers won the game. This was their 6th Superbowl title.

January 31, 2009 Lakeland

Saturday, January 31, 2009:

This is the first time in my entire life that I packed smart. I had 1 suitcase and a larger, light weight purse and that was all. I didn't drag a carry on and a bunch of other junk that I barely used.

Our flights were all on-time. We flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago and then down to Tampa. We got our rental car right at the Hertz desk at the airport. Things couldn't have gone smoother. What a wonderful feeling!

It was great to finally see some sunshine.

We stopped at my grandma's house in Zephyrhills at Betmar Mobile home park. It was great to see Grandma and Norm.

In the evening, my mom and I drove over to Leah Engle's apartment in Lakeland, via the Polk highway. It was nice to see her. I hadn't seen her in several years, as she was going to school up at Michigan Tech and then moved to Florida to work about 1 1/2 yrs ago.
She lives on the 3rd floor and overlooks this tropical looking pond. She said she has seen alligators there.

She drove us around Lakeland. We had dinner at Harry's Seafood in downtown Lakeland. The food was delicious.

I enjoyed driving around Lakeland to see the town. That was where we were planning to move last fall.