Friday, January 30, 2015

Happy Birthday EMMIE!!!

7 Years young today!

Hope you have a terrific day Emmie!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Canadian Snowbird Extravaganza!

Again this year, we made our annual trek up to Lakeland, in Central Florida, to attend The Canadian Snowbird Extravaganza! Why??? Cause it is a lot of fun, thats why...

Lakeland is a bigger City than most people give it credit for, and it has a real nice conference centre where they hold the big show. Oh ya, it's FREE!!!!! Go figure!
They have a lot of displays, but best of all, a lot of good free entertainment, including headliner, John McDermot and Michelle Wright.
Ever want to know what to do with your old Rubics Cube, that you could never figure out how to solve! No problem, I found the answer at this show, check out the short video below on how to fix your cube.
All these people above were with me! We were just waiting for the show to start... you would never know it, but there were about 2,000 other people in the theatre with us. We were just at the very back of the balcony!
Had a blast!
Till tomorrow...

 

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Cirque Italia and a touch of Canada!

Yesterday Judy arranged for 4 tickets up at the Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, for us to attend the Cirque Italia along with Tom and Cheryl... turned out to be a great day!

Above is a pic of the Joker Marchant Stadium, Winter Home of the Detroit Tigers!

Cirque Italia set up shop out in the parking lot... They put on a great show for everyone. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours, and was fun to watch.

These two guys above were strongmen, and you will see a vidio below of part of their performance. They were unreal! Wish I could do some of this stuff...

There were waterfall all over the place during the show, and this Mermaid above posed for pictures for the small, small price of $10.00...lol... (Judy said "NO, you cannot go...")

This was one show where they actually asked you to take pictures and videos during the performance, and then make sure you load them to your Facebook Page...

There go those strongmen again... did some crazy stuff. If you have a bit of time, you can check out the videos I will post below...

A good time was had by all, and no one ran away with the Circus!

Today was Canada Day at Rainbow Resort. They put on a nice Dinner of Chicken and Salads, etc., and some entertainment to keep us occupied.

 

They had the Rec Hall all dudded up for Canada Day... About 150 people celebrated today!

Judy and Cheryl are waiting for our table to be called for dinner...

Canada Day Selfie!

 

THIS JUST IN!!!! NEWS ALERT!!!

Emmie wins Silver! In only her third down hill race, Emmie came in 2nd today, to win Silver, up on the slippery slopes up in Tennessee!

That is her on the left of the podium...

Here she is, making sure that medal is pure silver! Way to go Emmie, we are proud of you!

Till tomorrow...

 

Friday, January 23, 2015

How to pour cement!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=aOOuKMnNHIQ

 

Shawn and Jenn are installing a new pool, and they recently poured the cement for the deck. 7 cement trucks with 1/2 a load each had to back up the 1/4 mile plus driveway, with 2 switchbacks, to make the continuos pour of cement . There is 10 hours work converted to just over 1 minute of video, using a Go Pro Camera.

The pool itself looks small, but it is just about 20 X 40 in size! The round hole in the deck you see, is for a fire pit.

 

Till tomorrow...

 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Manatee County Fair...

On Wednesday, Judy and I took a run over to the City of Bradenton on the Gulf Coast, to meet up with her Brother, Howard and Wife, Terri. Was probably one of the warmest days this winter, as the temps were way up there in the upper 80's. No snow to shovel around here!

Howard had phoned and asked us if we were interested in visiting the Manatee County Fair, so we figured, hey, why not!

Terri has had problems with her legs lately, so she stayed at home, while the three of us hit the Fair... only $5.00 each to get in as it was Sr.'s day...it pays to get old I guess...

We got there just past 12:00 so the window for lunch was open. LOTS and LOTS of food booths at this Fair, as Judy and I split a nice Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, while Howard fired back a great looking Angus Burger... No one was left hungry!

They had a bunch of exotic animals on disply, including a Wallaby...

Howard and I were sitting in the stands waiting for the start of the pig racing... yes, they race pigs, seems to be a big thing around here... check out the video below and place your bet!

There were all kinds of people out to watch the race, including a bunch of school kids and their teachers who made a field trip of the Fair.

Now, our friend Debbie, (and Gerard) would have been right there for the performance of the Sun Coast Murmers... a big orchestra that put on a good show with about 1,000 people in attendance. Oh...Gerard and Deb are on their way out west as I type, heading for Az. Have a good trip you two!

There was a Tricky Dog Show... all reclaimed dogs, this guy did a great job, but it was really hot, so he cut his show a bit short until it cooled down later in the afternoon. Check out the short videos below...

They had a Manatee County Museum we went into, and Howard found an item below, that even the Museum People did not know what it was. It is not a bell, the handle on the top shifts to 3 different positions, and does nothing in the bottom of the thing. Let me know if you can identify it! It was used in farming is about all that we know.

Darned if I know what it is...
We finished up at the Fair, and headed back to their rental unit for a great supper that Terri put together for us. Had a great time you two! Thanks again for dinner!
Till tomorrow...
 

 

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Cypress Gardens Water Ski Show...

Whew...back to blogging again after another break. I have been taking a bit of a break from daily Blogging lately as you have noticed, just due to the nature of the beast. We have been enjoying our time in Florida, and I am reluctant to Blog about mundane things happening around our Park.

Yesterday was one of those days we had something happening. We got to take in the Cypress Gardens Water Ski Show. This Group has been doing these shows for over 50 years now and people have come from around the World to watch them.

The Show has changed a bit from the older days... but they still do a lot of the same things...

This picture above is typical of a Cypress Gardens Show... their trademark! They did this exact stunt yesterday for us, but alas...my iPhone had died by that time so did not get the pic! Rats! All of the following pictures I took yesterday, some may have a bit of a blur, as I was back from the action a bit, and have cropped a lot of the pictures...

The girls above were actually just kids, and did a fantastic job with the pros.

Above is part of the large crowd that showed up for the show. It is free, however they do take a free will collection at the shows...helps with the cost of the show and gas for the boats. Tom and Cheryl came to the show with us, on Lake Silver in Winter Haven. I took a series of different videos with my iPhone and will post them below for your viewing pleasure if you so desire. They are all fairly short clips and give you an idea of some of the action during the show.


Overall just a great way to spend a couple hours on a nice Saturday afternoon in Florida.

Till tomorrow...

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Largest RV Show in the World...

Every year in Tampa, at the Florida State Fairgrounds, they host the largest RV Show in the World!

$6.00 will park your car, or $12.00 will park your RV if you choose to bring it! Many do... We took the Cruze today.

$18.00 to get both of us through the turnstyle and onto the Fairgrounds. If I counted right, about 100,000 other people joined us! It was busy. Guess what... the U. S. economy has recouvered! All is well again, and even the gas prices are low, so it must be the right time to buy a new RV!

I could not even begin to count the RV's at this show. Crazy, is all I can say. From very small to the big 45 foot diesel pushers! From $20,000 to $1,000,000.00, it just depends on the size of your wallet!

Now I did find a few things that I never ran into before... check these out.

#1. How about opening the side door of your brand new RV and seeing this!!!!

Can't recall ever seeing this before, and I have been through my share of RV's. I guess it would be OK if you were outside and got cut short... you would be right there.....lol

I really like this motorhome layout above. Talk about being able to watch the Leaf's play while you enjoy your dinner! Allright! That TV just pops out of the counter top, and as you can see, it is not a real small one. Nice coach! The pic below shows the rest of the layout inside... I could handle this one! Had to drag Judy out of this one, as she was starting to look for the phone number of our Financial Planner! Sheesh!

We hot a laugh out of this armidillo chuck wagon below, being followed by the cowboy on his horse! (the chuck wagon was electric...)

 

We ran into some people from our Park while at the show, and also met up with John and Shiela, who summer in our Park up in Woodstock! They are enjoying the Florida harsh winter, and we plan on meeting up with them soon.

It was a big show, and we had a good time walking around for most of the day!

Till tomorrow...

Sunday, January 11, 2015

And the next Olympic Gold Medal Winner is.....

Congratulations goes out to Emmie this evening, as she ran her first downhill ski race this weekend and came in 4th overall!

 

That is Emmie up there in the Starting Box, just getting ready to race down the slope! The Ski Slope is just an hour and a half from their home in Johnson City.

Emmie was supposed to race a couple of weeks ago, but the race got cancelled due to no snow on the course...that seems to be fixed now! They have been having great weather the past few days in Tennessee. Way to go Emmie!

Not much on the go here today, just took life easy. Helped out Tom with an electrical problem on his truck, but that was just a blown fuse. We hit up in the 80's today...felt great!

Till tomorrow...

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Bits and bites...

While everyone in Ontario is freezing we continue to enjoy the warmth of good old Florida. Today the temps just got up into the 70's F. and there was lots of sun, so all is good. Next few days it goes up over 80 again. We will take it!

Last Thursday our Daughter, Kristina celebrated her Birthday. We had a real good laugh with her when we called her first thing in the morning to sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

When we were all talking on Facetime, Gwenny runs up to the iPad and says " Hey Granny and Pop Pop, we got Mommy earings for her Birthday, but it is a surprise!" What comes out of the mouth of babes... you had to be there... kinda funny! I was also laughing as Gwenny wore a tiara on her head everytime I saw her, to celebrate Mommy's Birthday.

 

Looks to me like Charlie is just getting ready to push his big mitts into that Chocolate Birthday Cake if you ask me...

I borrowed these pics above from Kristina's Blog. It was sure great to be able to see Kristina enjoy Her special day with her Husband and Children. She is doing well, and is getting ready to welcome # 3 early in March, so get ready to move over Charlie and Gwenny!

The last couple days we have been taking it easy around the Resort, enjoying all the facilities. (That means hot tub for me!) We made a trip up north with Tom and Cheryl, Roger and Terri to attend a couple Saturday Markets. The first was a disappointment up in Winter Haven, located in the old Downtown section. Only about 7 or 8 little booths with not much of anything. They did have some different art and scupture work in the Park though...

I took the above pics of a couple of the pieces... the lower one is a horse, and I thought it was kind of neat...all made out of drift wood pieces!

The Winter Haven Police had their fancy car there, advertising two different rides home... the one in the Taxi for about $20.00, or a ride home in the Police Car after being convicted of DUI, and costing about $7,600.00! The choice is yours!

We carried on up to Auburndale and attended the big market there...never got any pics... but had a good time, and then we all went out to lunch at Chilis! Great way to spend a day!

Till tomorrow...