CHRISTMAS VISIT

My sister and son left Phila on Wednesday night and arrived at our RV at 10pm on Thursday,Dec 22. Friday I baked more cookies and di food shopping for Christmas.

Saturday we went to Gatorland.

One of my gifts to Larry and Bob was to go Zip lining.

All dressed and ready to go.

There were 12 of them in their group. The guys in the yellow hats were their guides.

This was were it all started. That is Bob taking off.

Followed by Larry.

After more than an hour, seven zip lines, and crossing a swing bridge they were racing each other to the finish.

Larry won. They loved it (all but that bridge).

We watched them feed the alligators. The weather was a little warm for now but still the alligators were a little docile.

All the signs were very informative.

It is a white alligator not an albino.

I think this is him, but he wasn't the only one in the water and they all looked big to me.

A lot of gators!

When we weren't looking at gators we had plenty of birds to look at.

Our last show of the day was gator wrestling.

We went to a 11 o'clock Christmas Eve service and then spent Christmas Day celebrating together. We had a very nice day. Lynda and I gave Bob a laptop computer. He knew he was getting it but hadn't been given it till Christmas. It kept him busy while he was here.

Monday we met Barb and Mike at Plant City and had strawberry sundaes. Bob hadn't seen them for awhile so it was a nice visit. I went to college with Barb and Bob's dad was working with Mike in Nigeria when Bob was born.

Lynda and I are the strawberry queens.

We left Plant City and drove to Clearwater,FL. It is over by Tampa.

Bob hadn't been to the gulf, so of course we had to get our feet wet. The water was nice and if the sun had been out it would have been great.
People from Phila know about Clearwater because it is where the Phillies have spring training.

No game today but we had to stop in and look around.

Wednesday we went to Kennedy Space center and spent the day.

We took a bus tour that allowed us to go in the vehicle assembly building (VAB) and out to where they launched the rockets. This is one huge building.

This is the actual Endeavour.

Launch pad A. The last time we were here Discovery was on pad A waiting for it's night launch - it was cancelled at the last second.

It is a long trip from the VAB to the launch pad.

1968 was the first time man made it to the moon. As we waited to go into this building there were a lot a interesting facts about that year. (It rained while we were in this building looking at all the exhibits. It was the only time it rained during the week.)

This is the Apollo 14 capsule

I'm not sure who was in that space suit.

Everyday Bob spent time at the lake here at Thousand Trails looking for alligators.

It was great that the weather was pretty nice because he slept outside under our pop up tent in his sleeping bag on an air mattress. Only one night was it a little cold. I think he found it all an adventure.

Their last excursion was an air boat ride where we saw alligators in their natural environment.

Aior boat rides are fun but noisy.

We saw two good size alligators. opps I missed his head.

To end the day Lynda took us to the Elephant Bar for dinner. She had heard us talk about it so much she wanted to go. We have never had a full meal here before for we always went at happy hour. Everyones dinner was excellent. They want one in Phila now.

Friday we spent a leisurely day around the RV. I made pork and sourcrout for lunch and they were on the way home by 2. They had no problem going home and arrived in Phila at 4 on Saturday. It sure was a nice visit. The good part of their leaving is Bob is going home to a job on Monday, after being unemployed for a year. Happy New Year!