~New RV park and new places to visit~

This week we have been staying at a park in the Fort Myers area.  On Sunday after church we all met at the tennis courts where the park was putting on some activities.  First we had hotdogs, pop and chips and then we were able to watch these 2 brothers from Austria doing tricks on their motor bikes.  Very cool!

The guys used this wooden ramp/contraption for a lot of their jumps etc....

This is "our" new pool  in the park.   The kids spend most of their time at the deep end of the pool and all the other park members seem to migrate to the shallow end :)  FUNNY!

They have a nice hot tub too which allows all ages.

Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed a few hours at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.   It was all so very interesting and  we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Here they all are with Thomas Alva Edison.

These trees are all around the park - SO cool - they are called ficus trees.  Edison planted this collection of  trees to research the source of domestic rubber.

Even the bathroom windows were in the shape of lightbulbs!!

Thomas Edison was a very famous American inventor who developed SO many devices that have greatly influenced life around the world.  He invented the long lasting light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera, sandwich maker, waffle maker, iron - just to name a few.  Over his lifetime he had 1093 patents. WOW!

Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He also designed the famous "Model T".

This is the engine.

Look at all those different light bulbs.

This sweet lady called us all over and gave us some information on the phonograph.   She even showed us how it worked and played us some music - very neat!

This is Edison's wheelchair that he used when he was around 82 years of age.

We even got to see Edison's chemical lab - incredible!

This was all so interesting for us, as we had studied Thomas Edison last year.

This is the winter home of Edison.

And, this is Henry Ford's home - they were neighbours.

We had a lovely afternoon and as always came away knowing more about these two amazing men than when we entered.

~Jessie's Birthday~

Well.....our precious Jessie turned 17 years old on the 26th - wow!   Where did the time go?   It seems like just the other day I was holding her in my arms and now she is a beautiful, young lady.

She began the day with a table full of gifts and cards................

......her favourite breakfast meal of crepes, strawberries, whipping cream, nutella and cinn/sugar...........

......and then some awesome serenading, gifts and cards from the Goldens.

We decided to spend the day on beautiful Sanibel Island.  We went to Lighthouse Beach - the lighthouse there is the first lighthouse on Florida's Gulf coast north of Key West.

The day was stunning and the beach was beautiful.  This may look like white sand but actually most of  the beach was made of crushed shells and near the water it looked like this............

We had so much fun looking for shells.

We set up "camp" for a few hours and enjoyed the beach, going for walks, volleyball, football, looking for shells etc.....  There was a strong current so swimming was prohibited.  We did all wade in the water tho' as it was a very hot day!

Next we took a drive through J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge.   The Refuge is world-famous for its birding and is home to almost 250 species of birds.   We drove the 4-mile Wildlife Drive and tried to see how many different birds we could find.   They are all so different and so amazingly created!

This is the Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron - wow - isn't it beautiful??

There were hundreds of these White Pelicans.

This is the White Iris.

Here is the Great Egret.

This Osprey was sitting high in a tree eating a fish!!!   Very cool!

This is the Anhinga also known as the "snake bird" as it uses its sharp beak to spear its prey.

The kids had a blast as they rode in the back of the truck and saw the birds that way - very fun!

Then off we went to Bowman's Beach for another few hours of fun in the sun.

These are some of the shells we found.

Jessie's choice for dinner - Chinese food - yummy!

And of course what would a birthday be without cake............or rather ice-cream sundaes with m & m's, sauces etc.....     And no......she did not turn 98.....but rather 17 which is the sum of 9 and 8 !!!  The best we could find  for candles!!

Love you Jess - Happy Birthday!!

~More Florida Fun~

 Thought I'd put a few photos of our time at the Thousand Trails Park in Wauchula, FL.  The campground is on the Peace River and these 2 alligators love to sunbathe on the shore - very cool!!

 This is the view from our walk along the river.

 The pool was heavenly and we spent many afternoons enjoying it.

 The kids were sometimes in the pool for a few hours at a time without getting out!!

 Look closely and you will see hundreds of birds in the sky.   Everyday we would see these birds and wondered what they were doing.  We drove across the road the following day and found a wildlife refuge park where these birds hover over.  Apparently they are waiting for the food that they feed to the animals there.

This is what the buzzards look like.......close up -  nasty!!!

 Almost every evening after dinner we would play pickleball - so much fun.

Such a great game that people of all ages can play.

 One lunch time, the park put on a "Tater" Potluck.   They provided baked potatoes and hot dogs and we had to bring toppings for the potatoes and a dish to share.  They try to get people to mingle and enjoy the company of other campers.

 Playground time - always fun.....even for the older kids.  I don't think you are ever too old to enjoy the swings!!!

 They had a great hot tub too which we all enjoyed while staying here.

The park had these great pedal go-karts that the kids spent hours on each day.  WHEW - what a workout - they were hard work!! They were behind the maintenance shed in a pile, but with a bit of "help" from Scott he got them all fixed up and running!!

We spent one more afternoon at the u-pick strawberry patch and came away with another 14 pounds of berries - SOOOO good!