We were in the car by 5:15 am. The luggage was neatly stored away in the back, the cooler was full of ice and tea, and we were off. It was good to be leaving Louisville early before rush hour traffic. Even…Read More

We were in the car by 5:15 am. The luggage was neatly stored away in the back, the cooler was full of ice and tea, and we were off. It was good to be leaving Louisville early before rush hour traffic. Even at that hour, the roads were surprisingly populated with cars and trucks. as I sipped the hot coffee we left the city and the humid weather that had settled over the city like a wool blanket. The deep south would surely be better in terms of a lower humidity. The heat we could deal with.
Pat and I talked as we headed down I-65 towards E-town, past farms and the college town of Bowling Green where our son spent 2 years at college. At Horse Cave, Ky we stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's. The Egg McMuffin was cold and the coffee was hot. One counter acted the other, resulting in a mediocre meal.
As in the past, we stopped at the border and took a photo of the Tenn state welcome sign. The rest of the state was seen from the car and the traffic flow was smooth through the Music City of Nashville and eastward towns Chattanooga.
Old towns and city exits came back from our past trips via car to Florida. The last time for the two of us had to have been 15 years ago and much of the Volunteer state had not changed. Mount Eagle was still there at the top of the mountain, followed by the steep 6 degree incline drop as we moved further eastward. There was South Pittsburgh, followed by the signs to "See Rock City" and "See Ruby Falls." Some time in the future we will make that a stop on our trip.
At the Georgia state line we stopped for a Welcome to the state sign photo. Georgia was 3 to 5 lanes through Dalton - the carpet outlet of the world - and Atlanta. The flow of traffic was smooth and no problems were encountered.
Past Atlanta we stopped at Lane's Orchard, a peach and pecan outlet and got some neat photos there as well as some good samples. What can't be made from peaches? Then it was back onto I-75 headed south to the border.
That's when trouble developed. The car had a shimmy and we could smell rubber burning. After pulling off to the right emergency lane we discovered that the back left tire was flat! As trucks and cars passed by going 70 plus miles per hour, I tried to change the tire, which was only 3 days old. The lug nuts were on and unmovable. We called Triple A and after a 2.5 hour wait, in the 100 degree heat, our help arrived. He had the tire changed and the doughnut installed in 10 minutes. He also advised us that we would not make it to Lake City.
We headed back to Perry and the Super Walmart there. They did not have a tire that matched the other 3 on the car. They advised us to go to Sears 10 miles north.
We made it safely there and had a new tire placed and balanced. While they worked on it, we had dinner at O'Charley's. By the time it was all finished we decided to spend the night in Warner Robbins/Centerville, Ga at the Fairfield Inn and Suites All that was available was a suite and after the long day we had, the extra room was good to be in for the night. Over reruns of Law and Order, we fell quickly asleep.Close

Palm Beach has so much to offer. The concierge at the hotel can help you set up tee times or schedule a deep sea fishing trip, diving adventure or court time for tennis. Palm Beach has a great jogging and bicycling path to work off…Read More

Palm Beach has so much to offer. The concierge at the hotel can help you set up tee times or schedule a deep sea fishing trip, diving adventure or court time for tennis. Palm Beach has a great jogging and bicycling path to work off all those extra vacation pounds. Try the Palm Beach Bicycle Shop at 223 Sunrise Avenue - 561-659-4583 for reasonable prices. The afternoon heat can be intense so get up early for your work out and spend the day staying cool at the pool or shopping! Close

One of the best things at the West Palm Beach Dreher Park Zoo is the Mayan exhibit. It makes you feel like you are back in time living amongst the Mayans in the middle of the jungle. You can learn about their way of life…Read More

One of the best things at the West Palm Beach Dreher Park Zoo is the Mayan exhibit. It makes you feel like you are back in time living amongst the Mayans in the middle of the jungle. You can learn about their way of life and how they lived it. Complete with architecture you can see and touch. Simply breathtaking! A great place to sit, relax, and enjoy the view after a day of walking.Close

The day started off with a storm passing overhead. It came from the east, out over the ocean and the sunrise was covered by the dense dark clouds. The weather service was calling for a 40% chance of rain and storms and I…Read More

The day started off with a storm passing overhead. It came from the east, out over the ocean and the sunrise was covered by the dense dark clouds. The weather service was calling for a 40% chance of rain and storms and I just hoped that it was over for the day. We did our 4th day of the Insanity program and outside the sun began to appear. It was a short program today and we were poolside with blue skies, dotted with clouds.
Over the course of the next hour, as we read our books which we'd brought from home, the clouds re-appeared from the south east. The wind started to pick up and just off of the coast there was rain. As people came up from the beach, we began to pack up our belongings and there was a glimmer of hope that just maybe, the rain would not come inland. Our hope faded as the wind increased and at first we felt a few rain drops, followed by a downpour.
Back in the villa, we ate a light lunch and watched the outside through our large set of windows in the living room. By the time we were finished eating the weather was back to being sunny and the speckled clouds in the blue sky reappeared. So, we packed up our dry towels from the dryer and some fresh cold tea and headed back down to the pool.
We were able to reclaim our chairs and umbrella and were quickly back in them and reading our books. Gradually, others came down too.
To cool off, we walked to the beach where I went snorkeling around the pump station. The tide was coming in and the water was much deeper than the other day. The fish were there, but they were hard to photograph and the turbulence of the water not only made the water sandy, but added to the difficulty of getting a clear, crisp shot. It was fun just looking at the many varieties of fish that were there.
I was able to get some good photos of my wife in the shallow regions of the ocean. We went back up to the pool area and after rinsing off we played in the pool for a short time. By now, many more people, especially children, were back out and they were fun to watch. Some were not much older than our two grandchildren and we look forward to the day when they will be able to join us down here.
By late afternoon, we had enough sun and even though we didn't do much, we were tired. So, we headed back up to our room, got cleaned up and decided on staying in for the night. Pat, my wife, made a fantastic turkey meat loaf, with a side of cauliflower and broccoli, along with a fresh salad and we enjoyed one of the better meals since arriving last weekend.
The rest of the night was spent watching television, reading and enjoying the view from the villa. Sometimes a day can be just as enjoyable relaxing and doing nothing. There is beauty all around and if we are busy all the time, we tend to miss the inherent beauty of that moment. Close

Before starting our day with Insanity, I phoned the Water Taxi service based at the Sailfish Marina and scheduled two spots on the 12 o'clock shuttle to Peanut Island. After the 41 minute workout, we showered and dressed in bathing suites, we made the…Read More

Before starting our day with Insanity, I phoned the Water Taxi service based at the Sailfish Marina and scheduled two spots on the 12 o'clock shuttle to Peanut Island. After the 41 minute workout, we showered and dressed in bathing suites, we made the short walk across Singer Island to the Marina.
We arrived early and paid the $10 per person round trip fee and the Captain agreed to take us over at 11:20. The island can be seen from the marina and was formed from the sand that was dredged years ago to make the inlet from the ocean into what was then the fresh water of the lake, now part of the intercoastal waterway. Originally, the island was to be a shipping point for peanuts, which never developed. In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis developed and for two weeks our country and the world lived in fear of nuclear destruction. It was then that the government constructed a fall out shelter on the island for President Kennedy and his family who vacationed frequently at their home in Palm Beach.
The ride over was rather scenic and there are boats and sail boats anchored in the waters off of the island, which made for excellent photos. There are newly constructed docks on the island and we were let off on one of them. The island is only 1.3 miles around the periphery and we made the short walk once to see the sights and get acclimated where things were. We saw the Coast Guard house and the Kennedy Bunker - both of which were closed and signs were posted saying not to go beyond this point. I didn't come over to look from afar at what was so pivotal in our country's history. So, we went back and took some photos of the helicopter landing site, the coast guard house and the entrance to the bunker. We finished our trek and decided on lunch at one of the many picnic tables on the island. The one we chose was in the shade of a palm tree.
It was a beautiful, hot sunny day and we had to watch our tea that we brought over, since there were no stores where one could buy liquid drinks. There was one vending machine and we saw no food machines.
After eating we found a table under a thatched pavilion and as I applied suntan lotion to my pale skin, I listened to three men as they talked about visiting Cuba via a south American country. One elderly man had been there and he was telling how beautiful the island nation is and must be seen by the other two before they die. I thought I was in Miami and memories of other trips to south Florida came back.
Once oiled up, I took my mask and snorkel and the underwater camera and went into the warm water off of the island. There are man made reefs just off the sandy shore, which is also manned by life guards. The fish were incredible and colorful. There were more fish here than in the spot off of the beach at the Marriott and these came up to you and were not afraid of humans. I was able to get some good photos. One lady we spoke to had seen a manatee in the water and she said that they were all over the place. I did not see any.
Later that afternoon, we made the shuttle trip back over to the marina and spent the rest of the afternoon poolside at the Marriott.
That night we walked down to Wings and bought some sotuveniors for us and our grandchildren. As all of the Wings, this one was large and everything imaginable was sold there.
On our walk back, we stopped at Johnny Longboats for a lite dinner. There was live music by a one man band and he was good. The night ended on the excitement of a woman being arrested for DUI and an out of date license plate, while the patrons watched from the open bar. The one man band played "Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What's You Gonna Do...."Close

The day started off like those you dream of in Florida. The sunrise was beautiful and there were lots of vivid colors in the sky. Some say that is a good sign, others say it's a warning. I can't predict what will…Read More

The day started off like those you dream of in Florida. The sunrise was beautiful and there were lots of vivid colors in the sky. Some say that is a good sign, others say it's a warning. I can't predict what will happen, but I sure enjoy watching the morning start the way today did.
We first exercised to our second day of Insanity. At the end of the 41 minute program, the instructor said to drink plenty of water and refresh the nutrients in our bodies. We decided to visit Johnny Longboats for a light lunch. We tried going the night before, but the place was to crowded. It was always crowded whenever we passed by and that was a good sign.
We were seated in the outdoor section and enjoyed our lunch in the shade, to what was turning out to be a rather hot day. More detail can be found in the review of the restaurant found elsewhere. Suffice it to say, the service and the meal was excellent. The portions are large and we took two doggie boxes home with what we could not eat.
Back at the villa, we changed and went poolside where we read and soaked up some of the sun's warm rays. Then it was time to cool off and we headed to the beach. Walking on the sand was difficult for me since I chose not to wear my sandles and the bottoms of my feet felt the hot sand before we reached the cooler sand by the water.
The ocean felt good and there were no waves today. The visibility was excellent i the clear blue waters. After taking some photos we went back over the cool sand, then the hot area of deeper sand to the gate where we entered the secure area of the Marriott resort. After showering, we went into the warm pool water and there we soaked up more of the South Florida sun.
That night we walked over to the Sailfish Marina to watch the sunset.Close

The sunrise out over the ocean was beautiful this morning. The sky started changing color around 6:15 am and by 6:45 there was a large orange ball out over the water, above the flat horizon. I snapped away with my camera, adjusting the…Read More

The sunrise out over the ocean was beautiful this morning. The sky started changing color around 6:15 am and by 6:45 there was a large orange ball out over the water, above the flat horizon. I snapped away with my camera, adjusting the exposure to deepen the colors as they appeared. There were a few other photo addicts out there with me and they seemed to be enjoying the serene beauty unfold before our eyes too.
I then took some photos poolside with the soft pastel colors all around me. Deep inside I knew these were going to be some good shots. Another Nikon user stopped and we exchanged greetings and he too was in that special place. With no people in the pool or anywhere for that matter, I was able to get reflections of the sky and buildings in the pools of the Marriott. In the next few hours, that would all change as people woke up and came down to claim groups of chairs and tables.
The villa we are staying in is a small, well equipped condo, with a master suite and a second bed room. Talk about space for two people, we have it. I rearranged the furniture in the living room and we put the first DVD of Insanity in the player. For the next 40 minutes we did Day 1. What a discovery to learn how out of shape I was!
After pealing our bodies from the floor, we changed into swim attire and headed for the pool. We claimed two chairs under an umbrella and collapsed. I barely had enough strength to apply the Coppertone lotion to my exposed body.
We rested and read for an hour and then applied more lotion and went to the beach. The pump station sat in the water just off shore like some monster that had crawled from the depths of the ocean. I took some photos and from what I recall from past visits, the old lady had been painted.
I cleaned my snorkle and mask and while my wife sat on the shore, I swam out to the reef just along side the pump station. In the many large rocks there are hundreds of fish. Some small, some large and many with lots of bright colors. The sky was clear and the suns rays were penetrating the water, which created excellent visibility. I used the Fuji camera to take some photos of the fish.
Out of the salt water of the ocean, I rinsed off under a shower by the pool, and then Pat and I went into the fresh water of the pool. There we played for 45 minutes. The pool was full of families, many with small children; faters playing ball with their sons and daughters, moms on rafts. The pool is large enough that no one really infringes on another's space.
We had lunch in the villa, followed by showering and dressing for the hot day it turned out to be. Then we made the short 20 minute drive up to Jupiter Beach and the LightHouse there. For an entrance fee of $7 each, we took the guided tour back to the red lighthouse that had just celebrated 150 years of providing light to the area the night before. Here I was able to take as many photos as my heart delighted in taking, both from around the lighthouse and from 105 steps up the spiral staircase inside the lighthouse up to the top. What a view we had from the plateform at the top! Don't miss this if you're in the area.
On the drive back to Singer Island, we stopped at Publix and picked up some needed items of food and dropped them off at the villa. Then, it was off to 5 pm church services at St. Luke's of the Sea Catholic Church.
We had dinner at The Tiki Waterfront Sea Grill, just off of Federal Highway. It was crowded with bikers and the noise they bring when they start up their cycles. The view was poor, the food was okay, but overpriced. Would I go back? This was our second visit here and most likely our last.
Back at the Marriott, we watched the sun set into the western sky and there was a glow in both of us from such a wonderful first full day on Singer Island.Close

We woke up fully refreshed from a good night's sleep and all the trouble from the end of the previous day were now just memories. The Fairfield was a new hotel and the smell of the newness was in the air. With a…Read More

We woke up fully refreshed from a good night's sleep and all the trouble from the end of the previous day were now just memories. The Fairfield was a new hotel and the smell of the newness was in the air. With a fresh mind and eyes, we could see the beauty of the place where we had slept. It had all the luxury of home and the suite was decorated beautifully.
After eating breakfast in the lobby, and filling the cooler with fresh ice, we were once again heading south on I-75 past terrain we had been over the previous day, before the flat tire.
We stopped just at the border and took the Florida welcome sign as a State Trooper sat and watched. A short distance further down the road we stopped at the Welcome Center and yes, they still serve a paper cup of fresh squeezed orange juice. I recall all the way back to the mid 60's stopping there and drinking the orange elixir.
We drove the next stretch of road to Lake City, Florida. Then it was on past Gainesville and the four exits to the college town. Just south of the final exit, I-75 turns slightly to the right and you discover you are at a high spot in the road. In the past the view before you was one of a straight path to I-75 and nothing but green orange trees on either side of the interstate. Unfortunately, that has all changed due to some cold winters, lack of rain in the summers, resulting in the orange groves dying. Some things do change in the passage of time.
We continued on and before we got onto the Florida Turnpike, we stopped for gas and lunch. Our lunch was a BLT sandwich at Arby's and it was quite good.
The Florida Turnpike was initially $2.50 to enter and it was crowded. Traffic thinned out past Orlando and that's when we saw some orange trees; and there were what appeared to be miles and miles of them.
The names of the rest centers came back from past trips. They had all been modernized and they were still in the center of the turnpike.
The final leg of the journey we were parallel to I-95 and I recall back in the 80's or early 90's when it was under construction and some drug runners landed an old aircraft on the road. They left the aircraft, and got away with the drugs they'd brought into the country.
We got off of the turnpike onto PGA Blvd and the final toll was $11.20. The drive from here was easy to the Marriott Ocean Pointe on Singer Island.
We checked in with no problems, hauled our luggage up to our room and then went to Publix for food. For dinner we ate fresh salmon with a salad and then took a short walk around the Marriott property. We were back in our room after sunset and in bed by 10 pm. As Pat watched the flat screen television in our bedroom, I fell fast asleep.Close