Monday, March 14, 2016

A Fun-Filled Day but Relaxing Too!

Ken and I woke at 7 and did some reading.  We packed our lunches, made eggs for breakfast, cleaned up, and then had time to go outside to do some talking while drinking our tea.

Last night we learned that Dane, our son-in-law, just got accepted to do an Ironman competition in Arizona in November.  We are excited to be a part of that great endeavor and want to be there to support him.  So, Ken and I did some soul searching and knew that taking a trip to the northwest in April and not being home till the end of July was not what we wanted to be doing if we would also be heading that direction in the fall to be in Arizona for his competition.  So, going through different senarios we decided that we should wait to go out west until the middle of August after our family vacation and do our touring of the northwest National Parks on our way to Arizona.  The hard part was telling Chuck and Melissa of our change of plans and hoping that somehow they could join us for at least part of the adventure.  We know that type of trip is more fun and memorable when you have friends to share it with. But we both came to the realization that waiting until August was the sensible thing to do, both time wise and financially.

Melissa called us at 8:30 and said that there were showers at Manatee Beach which was where we were planning to go at 9:30.  She suggested that maybe we should play some pickleball this morning and then head to the beach around noon.  Sounded great to us.  So we told John and Cindy about our change of plans and said we would meet them at the beach around lunchtime.

We walked towards Chuck and Melissa's campsite and rode with them to the courts, playing from 10 until 11:30.  The wind was okay when we first arrived, but it became rather challenging the longer we played.  Still, we had a lot of fun! On the way back we told them we needed to discuss something with them and shared our thoughts about our western trip.  It was so hard to change plans and miss the opportunity to be with them for 3 months, but they were very understanding of our reason for the change. 

Back to the CG to change and get our beach "gear" together and we were on our way to Manatee Beach by 12:15.  Traffic was rather heavy and we only  arrived there at 1:15.  We sat with John and Cindy, ate our packed lunches, and then the men went for a long walk.  The ladies enjoyed some quiet time reading with some chatting too!  Later I took a walk also.  It was a gorgeous day on the beach with light winds, plenty of sunshine, and warm temperatures. Everyone did a lot of reading today and it was so relaxing.  The ladies did walk to the concession stand for delicious ice cream cones! 

We only left the beach around 5:45 and had very little traffic on the way back to the CG.  We showered, I talked to my mother, and had small salads for dinner.  The 6 of us played cards at Chuck and Melissa's from 8 to 9:45 with the men winning both Skip-Bo and Up the River.  What is that about?

Earlier today Ken had talked with Jamie to tell her of our change of plans.  She left him know that she was excited that we would be around for most of the summer.  He also tried calling Lanie, but he had to leave a message.  We hope to talk with her tomorrow and explain what our new schedule will be.
We were in bed by 10:30.  Looking forward to driving to Manasota Beach tomorrow with Chuck and Melissa where we will meet Ernie and Noela.  Then the 6 of us will have a late lunch at Farlows on the Water.  John and Cindy decided they will relax at the CG pool tomorrow.

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