A trip through Alligator Alley

We decided to sleep in this morning and take our time getting ready to drive to Naples. Sleeping in for us, is 8:00 a.m. and we enjoyed a nice relaxing breakfast at the hotel. We left Miami without even looking at the beach. Can you believe that. The weather doesn't entice you to the beach. The drive from Miami to Naples is 2 hours. LOL We arrived in Naples at 4:30... We just loved Alligator Alley and would highly recommend everyone to take that drive one time. If you love nature, you will love Alligator Alley. I don't know how many Alligators we saw, but they must number close to 100 and the birds... there were hundreds of them. We would stop and walk around and before you knew it you saw birds in the tree's, wading in the water, you just had to know where to look. You wouldn't believe my excitement when I saw the first alligator. Ralph almost slammed on the breaks!! We had to stop and take a picture. I laughed when we finished our trip through the Alley, thinking of how we responded by the end... oh, there's another alligator - oh yah, that's nice, like it's something you see all the time. We went for a walk along a boardwalk which was quite interesting. We saw Cyprus knee's which I know are used for painting, an Eagles nest (didn't see the bird though we were told that there were egg's in the nest) and lots of birds. It was quite interesting.

We're at our Hotel in Naples right now currently looking for a place to eat. We plan to have a quiet night, probably go to bed early as we have a full day planned tomorrow. We've decided that we'll start driving home (slowly) on Thursday as they are calling for very cold weather and who know's if that will bring snow. We'll see as we drive along.

Our day at Doral

We got to Doral nice and early. It gave us a chance to walk around and check out the resort and golf course. What an amazing place. The weather was pretty cool but nice if you were out of the wind. We were able to tee off about 15 minutes earlier than our planned tee-off which was nice. We both played good games, actually Ralph played an awesome game shooting an 80 while I shot 100. I was pretty happy with that score as I had 3 bad holes, but was able to recover nicely. It's an awesome course. The next time we come down, we'll try the "Great White" course.

The big Day

I was up at 6:30 and Ralph was already gone... He's downstairs in the computer room at the hotel seeing if he can get his work done. The speed of the internet connection in our room isn't quite fast enough for his reports. I'm sure he wants to have all his work done quickly this morning so we can head over to Doral. I'll take a leisurely shower and go and have some breakfast and relax until he is finished. It's suppose to be 61F today so, I know for sure it's not a "shorts" day.

Sunday January 3

We got up early this morning and packed up the truck. We were on the road by around 8:30 and stopped and got a coffee at Starbucks and headed south. It was chilly this morning - at 39F...brrr.. By the time we arrived in Miami it had warmed up to 61F which was nice but the breeze was still cool. We listened to a sermon from Pastor Rand on the drive down. It was nice, but unfortunately I think we have now heard this one 3 times so it's time it got returned to the church library.

We had a wonderful day yesterday golfing at Orange County National - we golfed on a course called Panther's Lake. It's a very nice undulating course. Tiger Woods made his golf commercial at this course...it was interesting to see his pictures there...

While golfing we think we saw either a lynx or bobcat and the people at the course said that it's possible as there are cat's that roam the area. A coyote was also sited yesterday at the course. I took a picture, but it's not really in focus. The cat was quite a way away and it was getting dark. It's enough though to give you an idea of what we saw. We both played very good games. I shot a 95 and Ralph shot an 89. I got a little help from Ralph because of my sore ankle, where if my ball was on uneven ground he allowed me to move it to something more level. I still would have broken a 100 no matter what as I was having a great game. It was sunny yesterday and we really enjoyed ourselves. I think the temperature got as warm as 63F.

In the evening we went to Downtown Disney... It's crazy how busy these places are. We wanted to pick up a little something for the girls, so we braved the crowds.

I've bought some new glasses which I'll get my prescription filled when we get home. I couldn't decide which frame I liked better but the price was so good that I decided to purchase both. You'll have to let me know which ones you like ;-).

We checked out Doral today. What a place! I think we have to take Valet parking tomorrow and we planned to make sure our camera's are fully charged. The place is awesome. I'll have to give some thought as to what I'm going to wear tomorrow for sure. I hope it warms up. I think the forecast is for aroundn 61F.

Tomorrow morning Ralph has to do some work, so I'll take it easy and read my book. On Wednesday we plan to drive through alligator ally. I plan to have my camera and tripod ready. Driving here today we saw something like 20 hawks in the trees and we think we saw a few Eagles as well. It's really quite marshy along the drive. It will be interesting to see what is along that part of the highway.

Stayed tuned for an update tomorrow of our day at Doral.

A beautiful sunny day

Today is a beautiful sunny and cool day. The temperature is in the low 5o's but we shouldn't complain because it's going to be the warmest day for the next while. Yesterday it rained most of the day and as a result we cancelled our golf game. It's a blessing actually as I don't think I would have been able to walk the entire course. My ankle was pretty sore. We've been icing it and the swelling is going down somewhat, but it has turned pretty black. It's funny how the bruising is, as my toes are all black yet it's my ankle that is sore and swollen. Today Ralph helped me put my golf shoe on (it took some doing with the tensor bandage on) but the shoe acts as a brace and I can walk better with it on. I guess there is more support. We changed our golf tee of to this afternoon so we're about to head out after we finish our coffee. We've packed up our bags and hope to leave early tomorrow morning. We're have a tape sermon with us to listen to for our 4 hour drive down to Miami. We thought it might be nice to explore the area tomorrow. Ralph has to work a bit on Monday morning so I'll relax and enjoy my book. We're golfing at Doral in the afternoon. We're both really looking forward to that. On Tuesday we're planning on driving through Aligator Alley. We'll been invited to spend the night with Chuck and Claudia on Wednesday so we'll spend the day with them on Wednesday. I really hope that the weather is a little warmer. We'll see.

My sore ankle

I thought you might like to see my sore ankle....It's getting better...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!! We hope that you enjoyed yourselves last night. The last couple of days have been nice. Yesterday we visited with Eve in Sarasota. She has a really nice shop with Orchid's. There are so many types that I have never seen before. I wish we had something like that at home! We bought a few nice orchid pots to put on our newly finished window sills. We enjoyed a great dinner at Bern's for New Years Eve. We had escargot and blini's with Fois Grois for an appetiser and then shared a 17 oz Chateaubriand... hmmmm it was so good and tender you could cut it with your fork. The meal started with french onion soup, and a house salad. I had a dressing that was a mix of pear and vanilla - it was sooooo good and Ralph had a Blue cheese dressing. There was so much cheese in it, it was amazing. We had hoped to see the fireworks at Downtown Disney last night but they were cancelled. There was rain in the forecast so I guess that they didn't want to do it because of that. We were disappointed.

On Wednesday we golfed at Falcon's fire. We had a bit of a mix up when we got there. They didn't have our reservation, but were able to get us in still. The course was so busy. It was crazy - it took 2 hours to golf 4 holes (3 par 4 and 1 par 3). You waited with two other groups at each hole. We were able to get 14 holes in, but only because we drove back to the first hole after finishing the 8th hole. Otherwise we would have been luck to finish 11 or 12. I got distracted while playing and tripped over the curb and feel flat on my face. I hurt my ankle pretty bad. I was able to walk it out and I don't think it's broken, but I think I have a pretty nasty sprain. I thought I was going to throw up with the pain initially. I was able to keep playing, but it continued to swell up and we stopped at the drug store in the evening and got a tensor band to wrap it up. It got really stiff over night and I was struggling with putting pressure on it yesterday. I was walking pretty stiff legged. Thankfully Ralph was there to help me and we didn't go for any extended walks. Today it feels better, but I'm still not walking the best. It's pretty bruised now and still swollen.

We're hoping the rain will stop as we have a 2:00 p.m. tee off. It's pouring right now. I guess we'll wait and see.

Otherwise, we'll go to downtown Disney and see what's going on there.

We hope you all are having a nice week and wish you a wonderful relaxing extended weekend.