Sunday, December 12, 2010

Happy Anniversary (to us)

It's Sunday morning, December 12 - and it's our 5 year anniversary - and we still actually LIKE each other! Wow! It's raining right now (actually, for the first time since we left) and by the end of the day another really cold spell is expected to move in. It's supposed to drop into the 20s overnight, with a high tomorrow of only 44 but lots of sun. So we'll take it. We're going into Gainesville this afternoon to see the third of the Narnia movies, in 3-D. Then we'll grab a bite to eat, do a little shopping and then head home. Sounds like a good day to me...
Yesterday was fun! We went to the Cedar Key Christmas festivities - you have to love a small town celebration. In the morning, I went to the Methodist church and did the "cookie walk" - I paid $7 to buy a plastic box (sort of like a take-out box at a restaurant) and walked around in the church's social hall and filled my box with an assortment of homemade Christmas cookies. What fun - and homemade cookies are like an EXCELLENT treat for me! Now I just have to figure out how to hide them from Dave. After I picked out my cookies I took a quick run into Chiefland and then we took the kayaks out again. We went back to the island but this time we went in and out of some of the inlets running through the island. I just heard yesterday that this was actually the "original" Cedar Key, but it was destroyed by a hurricane years ago and the population moved to the current island. We definitely need to get to the museum while we're here - we love to learn about the history of the places we visit. Anyway, it's really pretty out at the island because there are all these little back bays and little creeks and stuff - hard to explain, but pretty! I'm attaching a picture that might show it just a little bit. Oh, and we saw a bald eagle flying around the island, too, which was pretty neat! (The other picture is just a few horseshoe crabs - they are all over the island - so strange-looking!)

After we were done kayaking we went back into town for the Christmas boat parade - the parade started just after dark and consisted of about EIGHT boats or so - it was SO cute! The boats were all decorated with Christmas lights and trees and Santas and stuff. We went to this neat little bar named the Black Dog - it calls itself a "beer, wine and cigar" bar. There's a deck off the back that literally hangs over the water, so we sat out there and chatted with people and watched the boats - it was cute because people on the deck were literally yelling at the people on the boats by name - "Hey, Carol, is that you....?" Then, after the big parade was done (which took longer than you'd think because the boats went past, then circled back and then came back again!) we went to the city park for the Christmas Potluck supper. It was in the park, set up under the gazebo - the attached picture is the sign over the entrance to the playground. So anyway, the people in town just bring a dish to pass and anyone could just come and eat! (We DID make a contribution to the food pantry fund - we didn't just go and eat their food! Geez!) It was dark in the park, so once you got your plate loaded up and went to one of the picnic tables to eat, your dinner became "mystery food" because you literally couldn't see anything (...hmmm, I THINK I taste chicken....). They also had Christmas karaoke (we all sang "Jingle Clams" together - I'm serious!) and they had Santa Clam sitting under one of the other gazebos, wearing big red rubber overalls... (Are you picking up a theme here?). People were there with their whole families, their dogs, and in one case their Christmas bunny - I've attached the picture even though it's kind of hard to make out - but, yes, it's a little white bunny in a Santa outfit! Afterwards we headed home, driving through town (which is about 3 blocks long) with all their Christmas lights up - and of course instead of Christmas bells and stuff like that, their Christmas lights hanging through town are things like clams, conch shells, starfish, sand dollars, etc. Obviously, for us it was pretty neat, because this is probably as close as we'll get to any kind of Christmas celebration. The people here are SO nice and SO friendly and it was just a really nice time for us.

When we got back to the RV we sat around a campfire with our neighbors for a while - they are Ross and Leslie, from Fort Meyers, and they are up here having a little Christmas get-together with their elderly parents who are camped next to them. Mom and Dad had gone in so we sat with the "kids" (who are our age) for a while. Ross gave Dave his card and told us to contact them when we get down in that area in January - doubt if we will, but it was nice to actually socialize a little!

Going back one more day, on Friday night we went to the Cedar Key Sharks' basketball game. We think the WHOLE school (K through 12) might have 100 to 150 students - there's only one school on the island - so obviously the high school basketball team is a little....weak? We watched the last of the girls' game (ANOTHER jump ball????- the final score was 17 to 17 so we had to go into overtime, but the Lady Sharks did win!) and then the first three quarters of the boys' game (they were playing the First Academy Eagles and getting SPANKED!). At 8:30 we had to leave to pick up the pizza we had ordered on our way in (great bargain - a 14" pizza plus 10 wings for $15- and VERY good pizza), so we bid adieu to the Sharks. I'm not thinking we'll catch another game while we're here, but it was good small-town fun! We love doing stuff like that.

Anyway - got to go - busy day today! Hope you're all staying warm and safe.

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