Palm Bay, Florida

Rainie & Tom drove us to Orlando to meet up with our North Dakotan friends Kathy & Milt who live in Palm Bay, about an hour south of the Kennedy Space Centre and 3 hrs north of Miami. They spend 6 months in Florida during the winter, then head back to North Dakota for the summer. Their house is very comfortable, and they have a large shell collection they have accumulated from their trips to the beach. They showed me some dried pods that are locally called 'Mermaid Purses' and they are in fact Shark eggs.  Apparently 40% of sharks lay eggs and the others deliver baby sharks! Did you know that? I sure didn't!

We have had an enjoyable 3 days with them, and have done some things we had never done before - they have a trikke 3CV which takes a bit of practice to keep it going in a headwind. They also taught us to play dominoes which is nothing like I imagined it would be! Each game took us 4 hrs, and we played 2 nights in a row - we have now bought our own set to take home!

We spent a few relaxing hours at their local beach - the fisherman there were hauling in whiting just off the beach - seem to be a bigger species than our Australian ones.

Needing a hand on the trikke during headwind!

Dried Shark eggs

Original Shark Egg

Milt, Kathy & Murray heading to the beach

Murray in the zone...

Buckets of whiting all along the beach

First game of Dominoes

Our Ship - Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas

This morning Kathy & Milt drove us to Port Canaveral where we met our friends Dick, Jan & Nicole for lunch in a nearby cafe. We saw our Royal Caribbean ship 'Freedom of the Seas' as we drove past. After lunch we boarded and are now waiting to sail in an hour. After that our internet will be off for a week, so sorry about the emails and games that will go unanswered until Monday 7th May. Back online then...

Back in USA

Our last weeks at home in Ballina went very fast. My friends Jenny and Leonie came for a last girls' get together, and my sister Ret made a last minute, but very welcome decision, to join us. As usual the four of us had lots of laughs. We also had a last family dinner for 9 of us at our usual round table at the Chinese Restaurant on the Saturday, and the Sunday we were treated to Gemma's delicious roast chicken dinner and a special travellers blessing - thanks Gerard, Lew and Catherine! Next morning, Bill kindly agreed to accompany us for a 4.30am departure for the Gold Coast airport, and drove our car back to Ballina. 

Jen, Trish and Leonie walking to dinner

Leonie Ret and Jen lunching at Melba's

Before we knew it, we were in Sydney preparing to board our aircraft for USA. As luck would have it, Benn was also at the Sydney International airport ready to pilot an aircraft to Manila, so we had a chance to say hello and goodbye one last time before leaving. Hopefully he and Daina will get to join us in the RV somewhere in America this trip. 

We had a smooth flight to Dallas, Texas, and we both caught up on the latest movies. From Dallas we had a connecting flight to Tampa, Florida where our friends Rainie and Tom met us at the airport at 7.30pm - 29 hours after we left Ballina. We were ready for bed! Next day Rainie had to go to work, and Tom took us to Verizon (Phone company) where we updated our old internet USB that could only plug into one laptop and replaced it with a 4G WIFI that does up to 5 devices, just like our Telstra one at home. Murray and I each bought our laptops over, plus I have my iPhone where my games are, so now we are cooking with gas. Not only did we get the latest device for a one-off $30 upgrade fee, but we were on an old plan whereas the new plan is $10 cheaper a month for the same 5 GB per month. Very happy with that! While many of the RV parks have free wifi, because there are so many people using it, the speed can be slow - with our 4G WIFI, our internet and games will be much faster than ever before.

Following our trip to the Verizon store, Tom kindly took us to Walmart - just had to pay a visit and reacquaint ourselves! Now we KNOW we are back in America - we have no Walmart in Australia. 

After Rainie got home from work she changed into her horse riding gear, and I accompanied her to a nearby horse park where she has two riding lessons a week. I was able to watch her put her horse Tedders through his paces ready for an event they are competing in this weekend. 

Rainie leading Tedders in to saddle up

Rainie putting Tedders through his paces

About to enter the Theatre

Then it was home for Tom's steak dinner before making our way into the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa. The four of us had tickets for a New Broadway Production called Burn the Floor. Many of the cast were not only Australians, but many were finalists in various countrys' version of 'So you Think You Can Dance' or 'Dancing With The Stars' or were Broadway or West End dancers. Talk about energy - those guys and gals can really dance! 

Now I am up to date. Tomorrow we meet up with friends Kathy and Milt who spend their summers on the East Coast of Florida in their second home. Their main home is in North Dakota, but the winters are pretty nasty there, so many locals escape south. We will stay with Kathy and Milt until we board our cruise ship on Sunday 29 April.

Sydney & Darwin

Grandma Ret with Jethro

I mentioned in the previous blog that my sister Ret & I were planning to fly to Sydney for the celebrations of her youngest grandson Jethro's 1st birthday. They were expecting around 40 adults and a posse of children to help celebrate with a picnic in a beautiful park. Ret & I flew in on Friday afternoon, and after playing with Jethro (he is at that stage where he points to everything - so cute) until he went to bed at 8pm, we made some delicious pizzas for dinner and then helped Ret's son Pete's wife Sam put some smarties on the cake to finish it off. Sam & Pete did a great job making the cake - a number 1. The birthday morning was glorious and it stayed that way all day. The party in the park went like clockwork, and the birthday boy was so well behaved he even had a sleep in his pram after the cake was cut. As the party was winding up my son Benn invited me to join him for a coffee, so we drove off to his suburb of Coogee and had a coffee, followed by a stroll to check out Coogee Beach. I shouldn't have been surprised to see all the cafe's patrons spilling out onto the footpath - with such delightful weather the Sydneyites were making the most of the nice days before the cooler autumn weather kicks in. That night Pete cooked us a slow roasted pork belly and Sam made some tasty accompaniments. After a few nice wines and a lot of laughs, we all slept soundly!

Happy First Birthday Jethro - with mum & dad

Jethro always pointing

And again...

Still pointing... with Grandma and Benn

3 generations Pete, his son Jethro, and Pete's dad Chris (Jethro's Pa)

Benn wondering why I was lagging behind

Coogee Beach

Meanwhile, in Australia's far North, my brother Tony, his son Nick and Murray were taking their chances among crocodile infested waters, fishing for the mighty barramundi! Tony caught the best catch of the 3 days - see photo of his fish below. They had a great time. Murray rated it 10 out of 10. After 3 days they pulled up anchor and headed into Darwin City where they had a dinner party hosted by Nick's wife Karen, and my youngest son Mark was able to catch up with Murray & Tony. 

Nick & Murray with Tony's Barramundi

L-R Karen, Mark, Tony, Murray and young Rebecca (Karen & Nick's daughter)

Murray & I both returned to Ballina to catch our breath before heading up to the Gold Coast on Easter Monday to celebrate Tony's birthday. Should be a great lunch! But first things first - tomorrow morning we are having a Cafe 29 breakfast to celebrate Easter Sunday with my sister Gemma, Bill, their daughter Claire & her family. Happy Easter to all.