Tampa, Florida brrrrrrrr

We went to Tampa for 9 days recently and it was cold ! I watched the weather report leading up to the trip...72, 75, 78...perfect! But, a cold front came down from the north while we were there and the temps were in the upper 40s/low 50s during the day and lower 30s at night. So much for laying by the pool !

This was a business trip so there were LOTS of hours. It was a proposal/interview that was to happen waaay back in July but just came up. I got to be with some good friends of mine that I have not seen in a while...Phil Waller, Susan Chanen, Greg Tate, Jim Harris and Bob Parent.

We used a 55" Vizio TV for the interview so, on Sunday when I worked, this is what my workspace looked like.

You can really see details at this size.

On Saturday...the one day that was 74 degrees, Kim and I drove north about 85 miles to a place called The Villages. It's a vast retirement community that we've been thinking about looking into. There are 80,000 people that live there ! They have over 2,000 activities....everything from bocce ball, to softball leagues....two bowling lanes, an entire building full of the latest woodworking equipment, swimming, drawing, etc etc. There are golf carts EVERYWHERE because that's how most of them get around. There are a number of shopping centers cattered to the residents.

So many of the golf carts have been customized....up to $20K for some of these.

Just one of the many shopping centers.

They have parties nightly.

The Villages is loaded with lakes, natural and man made...also over 30 golf courses.

They have a program that you can get Golf For Life....on the executive courses.

On the way back to Tampa we took the back roads to see what the countryside was like.

We heard about this Christmas Store in Clearwater....supposed to be one of the largest in the country...over 100 decorated trees so we went over to see it. On the way over the bridge I had to get near the water (of course).



The entrance is not much to look at but the insides.....!


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They had a number of small villages set up with LOTS of miniature items.



They had some terrific life-size animals. Kim fell in love with this goose.

When we got back to the Sacramento airport, Santa was in the area so Kim went up and asked him for a MotorHome ! (We only have a Fifth-Wheel. Motorhomes are 40' long !)

Here's a 1:37 minute video of the inside of the store. It moves a bit fast but the ending is worth it.

Merry Christmas to you all !

Christmas Decorations

We (me, really) decided to go minimal with the outside decorations this year so I've posted some of what we've done so far. Mostly we've decorated the inside of the house...very festive.



This is one of the reasons to not decorate outisde this year.



 

We have one tree we like to put in our front window for the neighboors....very old fashioned.

 Here are a series of inside photos. We put garland and lights around our large mantle and Kim loves to put our animal collection in amongst the "branches".

And of course....our tree....

We have an outside trellis that does not have anything growing on it now so I decided to make a nice display that looks good during the day also. My lights in the past all look rather dull in the daylight so we wanted something for people to view as they drove by in the day.

These large bulbs are hard to find.

...of course, I had to have some supervision....

 The end result....slippers, PJs, decorations...and college football.

We have a trip planned for Tampa, Florida in December. We'll be sure to take lots of photos.....here's one Kim took from our hotel room during our last trip in the summer. Yikes !

...hope you enjoy the photos....send us your house decorations photos so we can enjoy them too.

Kim and Steve

New Side Gate

Before putting the RV in the sideyard we had to take down the old side fence then build a new gate. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Old. Fence. This is looking out towards the street.

So....off we go....

...had to take out all the nails, then remove the vertical posts that were set in concrete.



View from the street....side gate is already removed.



Fence removed....gravel put in.

I put all the old fence on the front lawn in case I needed use it for reference on how to build a new one.

First build a gate frame.

Add some nice hinges...

Meanwhile, Kim was putting the redwood boards on the large frames.

First gate done...now on to the larger one.

This larger gate will pivot from your right so we can get the RV in and out. This one proved to be heavy!

I got it all up, then found out I needed to add a wheel to roll over the gravel so I had to take off the redwood planks, put the wheel on, then put them all back on.

Almost done....notice the open frames....we thought it looked nice but decided to add latice.

Finished product. This project took about a week...had to only work a few hours a day.

While working, this balloon came over the house across the street. I heard a big "whooooosh"...turned out to be the flamed being turned on.

Next up.....front porch decorations !

...hope you enjoy this episode....we did not do any travelling because of family obligations but, after that,  then we'll post some new ones for you !

Keep those comments coming...they're great!

Kim and Steve

On The Rocks !

Kim and I went down to look at the river but it got kinda slippery getting back to land....(Make sure you have your volume turned up before viewing this one).

Kings Canyon Movie

This is a movie I took with my Droid from the Kings Canyon overlook turnout that shows part of the immensity of the canyon.....waaay off in the distance to the right lies Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain the the lower 48 states.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Kim and I took our first extended trip with our new 5th wheel to the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It's located in central California east of Fresno and Visalia in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The trees are much much larger than the coastal (and more famous) redwoods located in Northern California which are taller. These are older. Those are taller. These are much older as well. Some of them are in the 2,000 to 2,500 year old range.

This is an example of how old these trees are. This one was outside the visitors center in Three Rivers (if you click on the photo, it will enlarge for you).

We took so many photos that it is difficult to put just a few here so a number more are posted here where you can view them at your leisure.

http://picasaweb.google.com/100376105788369441882/SequoiaAndKingsCanyon?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPcl_ix0fCDpgE&feat=directlink

Here are a few more .....

General Sherman tree with Kim in the foreground.

Kim right in front of Sherman tree. 36.5 feet in diameter (the tree not Kim).

President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed it the "Nation's Christmas Tree" on April 28, 1926. On March 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the tree a "National Shrine", a memorial to those who died in war. It is the only living object to be so declared.

Looking up at Grant tree.

A vista point. We are headed waaaaay down there. This is a small part of Kings Canyon.

Finally...the Kings River and valley floor.

We also took some time to take other photos.

Early morning view of the Kaweah River right outside our RV.

As always, I could not resist getting in the water.

Proud Papa, youngster and Mom.

Nattie's favorite driving location.

Paul Bunyan carved out of one of the 2,000-year old fallen trees.

Well, that's it for this adventure. I hope you get to see all the other photos at the link above and remember, you can click on the photos to get larger images.

Bye for now....next trip is to Florida in December !