Weeks 42 & 43: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties – The Disneyland/Corona Virus Edition

It’s been another busy two weeks and we are currently prepping to close up our Florida house, at least for a couple of weeks, as we are also eagerly planning our return. I can’t say I’ve been super productive when it comes to my bucket list except for a few categories. I’ve continued my French classes through Facetime as well as kept up my Duolingo streak (day #937). I’ve decorated our Florida house as well as entertained friends and family here. So onward and upward, let’s take a peek at the last two weeks.

My husband is here for our last week and last weekend my youngest daughter Sammi flew in. She arrived late Friday evening and departed late Sunday evening. She had expressed that she wanted a low key visit, with time for hanging out with family, relaxing and working out and I would say mission accomplished. We barbecued one evening and on Saturday we headed to Celebration Park. It’s located in Naples and is a collection of really great food trucks. It is located right off the water and has a outdoor bar at the end of the row. They offer live music. It’s usually open from 11am until 10pm. It was pretty crowded when we were there but we managed to snag a table after loitering around a bit. Mike and I ordered something off of the Cousins Maine Lobster truck. This truck was also featured on a Shark Tank episode. They also had trucks with gyros, tacos, ice cream, and an assortment of other options. We all chose something from a different truck. I would say it’s a perfect casual spot to grab food when you’re with a group with varying tastes. This was located directly across from the dock where we took our tiki cruise over our family New Year’s vacation. It would make a fun combo activity you had a little more time to spend.

Cousins Maine Lobster food truck at Celebration Park

There were quite a few picnic tables and standing tables to accommodate diners and a bar at the end of the row.

Since my last post, I’ve also attended a barre class (OUCH) and a yoga class here at the fitness center. The barre class was effective, my daughters loved it, but working until your muscles shake uncontrollably is not my idea of fun. I did enjoy the yoga class though. We’ve continued walking the dogs to the dog park here, which amounts to about 3 miles a day as well as using the workout facilities, primarily for weight lifting.

I’ve been working on finishing up a few items in regard to decorating. All the remaining curtains and valances are in. I ordered 2 paintings for the den. They complete the room nicely. I also ordered a large metal hanging for the back guest room, a painting for each guest bathroom and a silver dipped feather piece of art in a shadow box for my dining room. (I know, it sounds weird but I love it!) I still need to find artwork for the long living room wall and the two hallways.

*Really loved this piece of art which hangs over the bed in the rear guest room.*

My daughter Jenna has been wanting to show us the new Star Wars ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios so on Monday, we headed out. We boarded our 3 dogs at Country Pet Ranch, which has a lovely facility nestled in a wooded area. The dogs all loved it! We decided to stay at a medium level resort for the night and had a reservation at Port Orleans-Riverside. We had stayed there with the kids 20 years ago when it was called Dixie Landings. The room was fine for the night and the grounds were nicely appointed. On Monday, we walked around the property then took a boat ride over to Disney Springs. We had lunch at Guy Fieri’s Chicken Guy! This is his only fast food restaurant and it was delicious. They have a limited menu but offer over 20 different signature sauces. The place was packed. We returned to the hotel and had fun walking around the grounds before heading back to Disney Springs for dinner.

For dinner we hit Morimoto Asia. My daughter follows Disney bloggers religiously and this one was recommended as a favorite. It didn’t disappoint. My daughter and I each ordered Orange Chicken and miso soup. Beware, serving sizes are large and I wish we’d have shared the entree. After dinner we headed back to the room by boat then on to the Polynesian Resort to Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto. This was a fun experience. The bar is small and doesn’t accommodate a lot of people at once. We sat on the patio and had a drink before being called inside after about a 20 minute wait. Many of the pricier drinks make “funny things” happen. You might get sprayed with water, or a part of the bar area may light up. Limited appetizers are available and if you are looking for something fun to do, order a less expensive drink and sit back and watch the fun. Then, here’s something Jenna discovered, we could watch the fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian. They simulcast the soundtrack. While you miss out on a few of the holographic displays on the castle, you enjoy the fireworks in a far less crowded setting. Get there early and snag a beach chair! We were back in the room by 10:00pm.

At Trader Sam’s Grotto. We met a nice couple who shared their table with us. Great conversation!

The next day we made it to the park forty-five minutes prior to opening. Jenna had planned our day, having obtained fast pass reservations for Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror and Rock and Rollercoaster. Our goal was to make it to the newest ride, Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway. New rides don’t offer fast passes. We were there at “rope drop” and waited maybe 45 minutes once the park opened. The success here was the first 45 minutes of waiting were done before the park even opened. That was by far the longest wait of the day. This ride was very unique, nothing scary about it and perfect for families looking for a fun and innovative ride. I don’t want to give any spoilers but this trackless ride is one of the most unique rides that the Imagineers have come up with so far.

Super fun ride! Jenna channeling Mini Mouse:-)

With Mike’s achilles still healing, he brought his knee scooter and, sanctioned by his physician, we stopped by guest services for a disability pass which allows you to bypass standing in line. Instead you are given a return time and go up the fast pass line. It worked out nicely as Mike didn’t have to stand on his feet too long. In fact, for many of the rides, his knee scooter could go all the way up to embarkation and a worker would have it waiting at the conclusion of the ride for him. Here’s tip from my daughter for getting fast passes for the rides you want:Get your passes the minute you are able to (60 days prior if you are staying on property and 30 days prior if you have your tickets and you are not staying on property). Literally, get online ASAP for the greatest chance of getting good rides and times.

The other new Star Wars ride, Rise of The Resistance, does not allow fast passes, you must virtually sign in with the Disney app and you are given a group number with a two hour window to report for the ride. There are guest services representatives available to assist those less tech inclined. There is no guarantee you will even be assigned a time, so again, do this as soon as permitted. For us it was 8am. Some people may be assigned super late times or not be able to be assigned a time at all. She signed on and we were given group #40 as our assigned group. It ended up being called around 1pm. This was another awesome experience. I would say if you have a child that frightens easily, parts of the experience could be a little scary but otherwise, I highly recommend it. Another job well done by Disney. We successfully concluded our day at 3pm, having done everything we set out to do, record time for us! We headed out for the 3 hour ride home back to Estero.

For those wondering about the impact of the Corona virus on Disney, there were still a lot of people there on a Tuesday. We asked a few workers if they were seeing a reduction in attendance because of the Corona Virus (COVID-19), they said they didn’t think so. There were several hand sanitizing stations and we used them every time we passed one. I wouldn’t say they were in abundance but I heard that they placed more in the park today. I only saw one middle aged Asian couple wearing a mask during the whole day, which I wouldn’t even say is an increase, as on previous visits we’ve encountered people wearing masks (maybe immunocompromised folks?). So on 3/11/20 there really was no observable difference in our park experience. Obviously this may change if the virus continues to spread. By contrast, my daughter Sammi did have several people wearing masks on her flight back to Michigan.

We are closing up the house this week but are planing to return for a long weekend in April and again in May. We are looking forward to discovering more fun things to do in and around Estero. The weather here has been amazing. We’ve watched the houses next to us go from shells to finally getting their landscaping. It was a fast and efficient process. They look ready for occupancy any day. Since we weren’t around to watch our own house go up, it’s been fun watching the progress on similar models. It would have been nice to meet our new neighbors but the properties haven’t closed yet. All this time spent with my daughter has been wonderful but I do miss my Michigan friends and family and it’s time to head home. “Snowbirding” has been a fantastic experience and Estero does finally also feel like “home.” As my bucket list is whittling down, I am going to keep up the biweekly blog posts as opposed to weekly. We will be heading back by car on Saturday, dog in tow. We are planning to stop in Chattanooga Tennessee for the night. Stay safe, and have a great week. See you soon from the mitten state! Now go wash your hands…

Week 34: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties – Welcoming 2020 from Florida

I am currently writing to you from Florida though I will be back in wintry Michigan by the time you’re reading this. We loved kicking off the New Year here in Estero! I am happy to report that I’ve checked off item #20 on my bucket list: Entertain friends and family in our Florida home. I hope this is just the beginning of many more wonderful times shared together with our family and friends here in sunny Florida. We gifted our children and their spouse/significant other with a trip down here as part of their Christmas present. They all stayed at our home in Belleville overnight so we could make a 6am flight on December 31st. That left us pretty tired for ringing in the New Year that same evening but we managed. Our clubhouse had a ticketed event with the popular theme of Roaring into the 20’s. We all dressed as flappers and gangsters. We didn’t quite make it to midnight though and ended up heading home a half hour before the clock struck 12 where we rang in the New Year in our jammies. It was a lot of fun.

Mike and I ready to ring in 2020. We were teasing Mike that he was a cross between a gangster and an Amish Orville Reddenbacher.

I will share a few of our activities in case you are ever in the Estero/Naples area. We hit the Miramar Outlet Mall which is maybe 10 minutes from our house. It is a very pleasant little outdoor mall with a lot of great shopping options, like Kate Spade, Vineyard Vines, Ann Taylor, Loft, Banana Republic and more. The next day, we did a little shopping in Naples, stopping to dine al fresco at Barbatella’s, a cute little Italian place which served the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. Then we headed over to Naples Beach, which was crowded, but not unmanageably so. We ended the day with ice cream. We enjoyed walking around old Naples and the newer areas of Naples. We still have so much to learn and discover here and I am very much looking forward to it! The kids took a day trip to Universal Studios which was about a 3 hour drive each way. They loved the new Harry Potter ride, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, despite the long wait in line. On their arrival, the wait time for this ride was over 6 hours. They managed to get in line later when it was a “measly” 2 1/2 hour wait. They said it was worth it. While they were busy having fun, we ran errands and met our dear friends for dinner at Cirella’s Italian Bistro and Sushi Bar (IKR? Italian AND sushi!) topped off with liquor infused ice cream (say what?!) from the Tipsy Cow. This little shop had super cute branding and the ice cream was yummy. They also had a non-alcohol option. It’s something we will definitely do again!

We also enjoyed having Mike’s mom over for a nice visit. She came bringing Mike’s favorite home-made cookies, which of course were a big hit. We brought her out to lunch and the kids had fun quizzing their Grandma on what kind of child their dad was: a good one, much to their dismay.

Mike’s thoughtful team gifted us a Tiki cruise departing out of Naples. I can not recommend this enough! It was one of the most memorable parts of our trip. The limit is 6 attendees so we were a perfect group. We elected to do the sunset cruise departing at 4:30. We boated past fabulous multi-million dollar homes while enjoying a cocktail or two. It is BYOB and we brought a nice selection with us. Captain Steve was experienced and an enjoyable narrator. The highlight of the trip though was spotting a couple of dolphins just swimming around. We were able to follow them for a bit. It was relaxing and enjoyable. We followed that with dinner at Watermark Grill which was also very good!

We hooked up with another tiki bar boat to borrow some bug spray for Jenna who was the only one getting bit!

Just one of the beautiful homes we saw along the way.

In other activities, the guys got in some golfing and we ladies did some shopping. We enjoyed spending time with our long-time friends who started the ball rolling by building down here in the first place. We squeezed in a few work outs at our amenity center and Mike and the kids enjoyed laying by the pool. All in all it’s been a fabulous time. We’ll be back in wintry Michigan soon enough though.

Here is a link to my original bucket list, if you want to have a peek. As far as item # 16: decorating our Florida home, our sectional was thankfully delivered the day of our arrival, along with our den desk and side tables. We are still awaiting our barstools which will be delivered on our next trip down. Mike and I also bought table lamps for our living room and our bedroom. The last layer of decor will be fabric selections for the all of the bedroom and bathroom curtains. I have an appointment with our awesome designer, Janet set up to select fabrics on our next trip down. We will need paintings, decor, and outdoor furniture for the lanai, once the pool is complete, which will hopefully be sometime during our next visit. It seems to go quickly once they begin each phase. They laid our patio pavers in one day while we’ve been here. Next up is the cage and gunite for the pool and hot tub. I am really looking forward to utilizing the outdoor area!

Living room sectional has arrived. It is large and comfy and allowed our group of 6 to watch TV with room to spare!

The den has a pull out sofa to accommodate overflow guests.

Pavers in, awaiting phase 2 of the pool installation.

Moving on to other bucket list items, my year-end wrap up on reading for 2019 amounted to 72 books, which totaled 27,143 pages. Of the books I read, Goodreads rated the most popular at The Great Alone, which I also highly recommend. The highest rated book that I read was The Hate U Give. I exceeded my goal of 50 books by 22 books. I hope to have more time to read in 2020 so my goal will be 80 books. I am currently reading my first book of the year, The Guardian by John Grisham. I hope to finish it on the plane.

I am still on track with Duolingo. My streak is 872 days, I learned 10,301 words, completed 2,943 lessons and spent 197 hours on the app this year. I will be starting private lessons via Facebook live after the holidays through Alliance De Francais as I will be spending a lot more time in Florida and unable to regularly attend classes.

The unfortunate topper to our trip was a calf injury my husband Mike sustained while playing pickleball just hours before our scheduled departure. My son-in-law made a quick trip to CVS for crutches and with a little help from ice, an ace bandage and a wheelchair, we managed to catch our 9pm flight. I am still working on convincing him to go to the doctors but at this moment on Monday morning the man has hopped off to work with a swollen ankle and the inability to bear weight on it. I am working covertly with his amazing office manager Cathy to get him to go to Urgent Care at the very least. Not the best way to end our trip, but certainly a memorable one.

On to happier things, aside from my reading and language goals, I am still thinking over what I want to accomplish in 2020 and that is where I will leave it for now. So far my “lesson” has been to expect the unexpected! Happy New Year all! I hope the coming year brings new goals, new insights and amazing opportunities for growth and happiness to you all.

Week 30: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties – Florida House Update

I am writing this a bit bleary eyed as we just made it back home from Florida at 1:30 am. My husband Mike and I decided to squeeze in every last minute by taking a late flight and we are both paying the price this morning. Mike is off to work and I am peddling madly trying to catch up to my normal Monday routine, so I will keep this brief. If you want to see my original bucket list, you can do so here.

A quick bucket list report: My Duolingo language streak is intact. I have French class tonight. I hope I don’t nod off during class. In bucket list item # 18 – read 50 books, I finished reading “The Oysterville Sewing Circle” which I enjoyed very much and also finished “Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me,” a troubling memoir that’s being compared to The Glass Castle in regard to family complexities. I was riveted and finished it in two days. Thank you plane rides. That was book #69 for the year. Not quite sure what my next read will be. I am open to suggestions so please send them my way!

The comparisons to The Glass Castle prompted me to read this book. I would recommend it.

In item #8 – complete 50 NordicTrack work-outs, I managed to squeeze #60 in before we left for Florida, a studio interval workout. I did use the treadmill at the clubhouse in Florida and while I didn’t like it as much as my NordicTrack, I did get in a good workout with a spectacular view of the pool. We also managed a couple of walks through our neighborhood, stopping to greet neighbors and their dogs. I think our dog Kobe will enjoy it down here. I see a lot more walks in his future. The weather was beautiful, mid 70’s and plenty of sun.

We were in Florida from Thursday to Sunday and the trip was a productive one. We arrived early and were met in the driveway by workers. This pretty much set the tone for the visit. We had lined up a few things to be done while we were there and were able to check most of them off!

So happy to report that our pool is underway. They set up the external structure on one of the days we were there and poured it on Friday. It’s fun to see the skeleton of the pool and watch it come together. Can’t wait until it is done and the lanai is up. We are looking forward to coffee by the pool in the morning and cocktails in the evening. I can just about feel the steam off the hot tub.

We had fun checking out our new light fixtures and the furniture that had arrived since our last visit. We still need our sectional, our barstools and the desk and side tables for the den. We had also ordered a few accessories to be delivered while we were there. Actually the delivery window was a day before our arrival to the day after. We got really lucky because almost everything arrived while we were there. We were informed that our sectional has shipped so we are hoping for delivery before we return. There is still a lot of decorating to do, curtains, wall art and other design elements but I am going to take my time here. I am in the process of selecting accent colors and am waiting for some fabric options to complete things. We had selected a few things without actually seeing them, from a catalog. So far, we’ve not been disappointed in anything. Below I’ve posted a couple of the rooms in progress.

We added a backsplash and under and over cabinet lighting as well as changed out the standard light fixtures to customize the home and make it a bit more to our tastes.

We added the light fixture and Mike added lights under the console and around the television. We are waiting for our sectional.

Happy to report we have dining room chairs this time around!

We had envisioned a bit more of a relaxing trip but our days were packed. We met a couple of our contractors to pay them after taking a look at the jobs. We scheduled to meet a painter to give us a bid on our added trim work. In a happy surprise he came in at a good price point and was able to not only start it, but finish it while we were there. He and his two sons did a fantastic job. When does that ever happen? With the trim painted, our electrician came in and did the recessed lighting in our bedroom ceiling. He also added a couple of smart switches. He had already done some under cabinet lighting for us in the kitchen. We are really happy with the way it is turning out.

I did a lot of shopping to equip the house with the basics. I always think I’m done and then we notice something we’d forgotten, like shampoos for all of the bathrooms and extra beach towels. Target and Bed Bath and Beyond are starting to feel like my second home. I half expect to be greeted by name.

Mike has been happily making our home as high-tech as possible. It is already a smart-home with a ring doorbell. Mike has set up an Echo dot in many of the rooms, blink cameras for the front driveway, back pool area and main living areas of the house. He’s also added a few hue accent lights. He’s really in his element!

We are happy with the progress that’s been made and are looking forward to sharing it with our kids and extended family and friends in the near future! I also have to give a big thank you to my daughter Jenna and her husband for watching our dog, Kobe while we were gone. They have 2 dogs and 2 cats of their own and I am sure Kobe will very much miss all the excitement once he is back to our quiet house.

Cheneaux, Kobe and Roary all settled in to watch Lady and the Tramp. Kobe is going to miss these guys!

We topped off our visit with a quick stop at Mike’s mom’s house where we brought in dinner before heading to the airport. Our trip ended up being 80% work and 20% leisure.We were disappointed that we couldn’t visit with Mike’s brother who was unable to join us but we know we’ll have a bit more time in the future as we are hoping the work/leisure percentages shift to a bit more leisure.

I haven’t done a bit of Christmas shopping except for a few “Angel tree” gifts. Our neighborhood club adopts some families and everyone takes an angel or two off the tree with gifts written for the family members. The deadline required I get that done, so I did. Looks like I may have to give myself a deadline to get the rest of my shopping done. Until next week I hope that your work leisure ratio is looking good. May the odds be ever in your favor!

Week 12: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties

Good morning from Michigan’s upper peninsula, where the drinks are cold and the internet is spotty. We are up in Cedarville for the week, renting cabins with extended family and friends. I hope to have more to share about it and a few more bucket list items to check off next week. Since I am on vacation, this will be short and sweet.

Prior to heading out, I did manage to check off item # 44 on my bucket list. I took Kobe to North Bay Park near our home for a nature walk. This is a lovely little gem on Ford Lake with a wooden boardwalk that goes through the lake and wetlands, perfect for viewing water fowl and wildlife. Kobe loved it and I hope to get back there with him at least one more time this year.

The boardwalk in the water. You can see a viewing platform in the distance which we didn’t climb as Kobe has difficulty with steps.

We also had our contractor Tony back out to replace some cracked thresholds and tiles in our foyer (Bucket list item #4). We were lucky to still have some tile stored from when we built the house 20 years ago. I was a little worried the new grout lines would be obvious but we thought we’d go this route first, and if we didn’t like the results we’d rip it out and select new tile. But we were fortunate and Tony did a masterful job. It’s hard to distinguish between new and old grout. Can you tell?

Can you tell where the replacement tiles are?

Despite our spotty internet connection, my Duolingo streak remains intact at 719 days. French classes restarted last week. Since I’m up North, this week, I’ll be following along remotely. I’ve finished John Grisham’s new book, The Reckoning. It was pretty good. Now I am on to the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Less by Andrew Sean Greer. I am on book #44 of my 50 book challenge, which puts me 14 books ahead of schedule, a comfortable enough lead to let me tackle the last book in the Poldark series after this. Update on skydiving, it’s been rescheduled for August 25th due to my daughter’s work conflict. We are looking forward to tackling this together.

If you’ve lived in Michigan for any time, you know “going up North” is what one does for vacation, or at the very least for a long weekend. We are at Spring Lodge, in some cute little cabins along the lake in the Les Cheneaux area. Les Cheneaux means “the channels” in French. There are a series of islands which form long channels, thus despite being one of the Great Lakes, these smaller channels are calmer, making them perfect for boating and water sports. Our family has been coming up since my girls, now in their twenties, were little. My daughter has even named her dogs Mackinac and Cheneaux. As we’ve been coming up to this area for so long, it can be difficult to find something new to do. Castle rock? Check. Mackinac Island? Check. Mystery spot? Check. Soo Locks? Check. The list goes on. But after widening the circle a bit, I believe we will be heading out sometime this week where I will tackle bucket list item # 25 -take a day trip to somewhere we’ve not been before while in Les Cheneaux. I hope to share some awesome photos with you.

Well that’s it for this week. I know I put down my cold drink down somewhere. I’m off to find it. Either that or a nice nap. Cheers!