Usalola’s Weblog

Making our way up the west coast of Florida, we drove through the Everglades and took one of those water-skimming boat tours. Did I happen to mention there are ALLIGATORS galore in this state?!!  and did we see the mother ( and papa) of all alligators. Check it out – “Mama” weighs about 200pds, and “Papa” about 300.

Do we really need a sign to remind people?

"Mama" - yes, I was this close

"Papa"

Continuing on our way, we drove by literally hundreds of ‘gators in the swamp water along the road. Amazing!    We stayed in Sanibel Island for a couple of nights -right near the beach and the town with all the Christmas decorations up. After 20 yrs of living on the west coast, it’s still a little odd to see decorations and people walking around in shorts and flip-flops. We enjoyed our time there riding the paved bike trails around the island and going out for  fresh fish. The big downside (for me) was getting eaten alive by the no-see-ums. Biting #$%&*@ -bugs that, surprise, you can’t see, but caused me  a tremendous amount of pain. One stop to the urgent care, and lots of anti-itch cream later, I was back on track.

We headed up to Orlando, where I dropped Glenn at the airport and had a week to venture around town. As usual, I hunted down a winery (I know, I should have known better..) – Lakeridge winery, and open-mindedly tried 2 of 8 wines of unknown-varietal before my palate shut down and said “no more”. Well, I tried..

Another afternoon, I bought a ticket for a holiday ice-sculpture show. For some reason, I’ve always dug ice sculptures, and I thought if they’re charging 20$, it must be something- and it was!! For the past 8years, this hotel has been bringing in 30 professional sculptors from China for this show. They carve through 2 million pounds of ice and keep the rooms at 9 degrees, so hence my massive parka ( no, I didn’t just have it in the RV).

It's all colored ice!

Check out the size of ice-Santa!

The rest of my week I spent hangin’ out with the kitties at, what has become one my favorite state parks, Lake Louisa SP outside of Orlando. Small and  serene, perfect for the kids to chill while I read a book…

I picked Glenn up at the airport, and for the next few days we traveled along the Gulf and out of Florida, and started to feel that holiday spirit in the RV…

Gulf of Mexico- Seaside, Florida