beach:o'clock – Page 5 – Thoughts that litter my mind while living on ISLAND TIME.

Pleasantville, FL ,,, aka The Villages

Published on May 22, 2015January 18, 2023 by Island Boy2 Comments

We are days away from embarking on the next leg of our Journey – Panama. But that will be another story. For the last 4 weeks we have been guests at Denise’s parents home in The Villages, FL. They have been tremendous in putting up with us, especially me. Guests after 3 days start to be like old fish…Anyone who has watched at least the Golf Channel has seen commercials for The Villages. The weather has been wonderful – low 90s each day and barely any rain. I do agree there is no place like this anywhere else. It is a 55+ community. Some call it Paradise, Heaven’s Doorstep, God’s Waiting Room, Florida’s Friendliest Hometown, …. I have a like/dislike for the place. It has many amenities and is well maintained. It currently has 3 town squares, 11+ Country Clubs, 30+ executive golf courses, every neighborhood (Village) has its own maintained swimming pool like a Mormon neighborhood has a church. there are community centers and, I am told, a club for every interest. Every town square has multiple restaurant/bars with patio seating. They all seem to have ALL day EVERY day happy hour of $2 draft, $2.75 wells, etc…and 7 nights a week there is live music on the square(s) with dancing if you wish. Most everyone has a golf cart they can drive everywhere on special cart paths and under-road tunnels as well as some streets. Some of these carts are really laid out and cost more than cars. See my pics below. Everyone will tell you it is great here, say hello, wave, almost as if everyone is on Oxycodone.

OK so now you say, what is there to dislike? Well to me something seems off. It is very possible that it is me and not the place. There are approximately 114K residents and growing. It is one of the fasts growing communities in the country. I grew up in the Youngstown, Ohio area and this place is 2X the size of Youngstown today. Everyone here is old and it seems everyone has 1+ dog(s). There are dog parks and most everyone has their dog’s name hanging from their light post (see pic). Did I say everyone is old?

I feel like I am in a cross between the movie Pleasantville and The Truman Show. Everything is just so, every home is dress-right-dress. Everyone has at least their one obligatory palm tree, their dog sign, their golf cart, everyone says Hi, waves….if you haven’t watched Pleasantville, rent it on Redox (if you can). Everything seems a little too Pleasant, a little too perfect. Over the weeks I have observed some of the ‘underbelly’ of The Villages. If you go into a town square in the morning you can watch some of the patio bars begin to attract some folks as soon as they are open. Did I say they are old? Of course if I was 70+ maybe having a cold Yuengling for $2 instead of morning coffee would be where you would find me. Some folks go dancing ‘at the ‘square’ or go to watch those that do, many of the folks are up doing the same line-dance step to fast, slow, rock, jazz, country, etc….the same same, all in a row. a perfect line dance. Did I say they are old? Yes I feel like I am in Pleasantville or Truman, living in a fake world as an experiment.

Oh, also if you are a guy and want a date I guess this is where to go. If you hang around long enough a (cougar is way to young of an age to use) older female will be on the prowl. I am not saying there aren’t guys prowling either but males expire earlier so the population is swayed a bit. Did I mention everyone is old? Did you know that the Villages has the highest incidence of STD in the country. Some might see all this as an attraction but yes ‘Pleasantville’ has a ‘colored’ underside to it. If you saw the movie you would know the reference to ‘colored’ vs non ‘colored’. For all you liberals reading this, this has no racial reference – though this place does look awfully anglo but coming from Seattle many places might look that way. Did I say everyone is old?

All in all it has been a very ‘Pleasant’ visit. We were able to spend time with our parents, yes my mom lives here also. We saw my sister, Arlene, who was visiting my mom on Mom’s day. We visited with my Aunt Rita and Uncle Danny – yes they live a ‘Pleasant’ life here. And finally we were able to spend a rather not so ‘old’ night with Bob and Wendy McFadden, great friends from back home in WA who have a winter home just outside of the ever ‘pleasant’ Villages.

So like/dislike. I certainly would rather be here than where it is cold, rainy and grey most days. Maybe if I were old? Some say i am old-er (57) but I guess it is a matter of perspective. I can’t image even 20 years from now that I wouldn’t rather want to be at a beach with a mixed community but then again maybe ask me again in 20 years. That cold $2 Yuengling is actually sounding pretty good right now as a pre-lunch cocktail.

One of the Town Squares – Sumpter Landing. Supposedly modeled after Key West

Should be wearing her ‘Life is Good’ shirt.

Lots of sand on this course – if you make it across.

This cost more than some of these folks 1st house – 4-door, AC, Stereo

Mermaid in our neighborhood pool with her floatie.

A town square dance night – get down and ‘line-dance’?

Those here to watch the dancers or who can’t line dance or can no longer stand or ….entertainment

Everyone has 1+ dogs, some push them around town in strollers. Their new babies.

More entertainment – I guess at least they are not just sitting.

Band is getting ready – got to start early since the sidewalks roll up at 9PM SHARP! If you are out past 7:30-8 you are obviously up to no good.

Avoiding all this ‘oldness’ is exhausting

13 Day Odyssey – Seattle to Florida

Published on May 4, 2015January 18, 2023 by Island Boy2 Comments

Denise and I have safely arrived in The Villages, Florida where we are preparing for the next leg of our trip to the tropical beaches of Panama. The 13 days started off rocky but by the time we got to lucky 13 we were cruising. We purposely drove all and any coast road we could within reason. We first stopped off in Portland and had lunch at the vast fields of food trucks with dessert at Voodoo Donuts. From there we headed SW toward the coast. We went through the Willamette and Tillamook Valleys. I never saw such a great variety of wineries and vineyards. We didn’t get any Tillamook cheese but did see way to many people who looked like they ate our share. Lot of dairy in the airy-a. The drive down the coast was amazing, views were spectacular. I am so glad we came this way.

Proceeding into Californication we first wanted to see the redwoods. All this time out west (24ish years) and never stopped to see these. We went through the Valley of the Giants where we saw supposedly the world’s tallest tree as well as a big statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe. The quantity of trees were impressive but I feel that for anyone who has spent time in the Olympic Peninsula and Hoh Rain Forest has also seen some pretty damn big pieces of wood. I guess it would have been more exciting for people who had never been to the PNW (Pacific North West – for you newbies). There were a lot of signs in Northern CA about Bigfoot. Ya right, I didn’t see him once in CA. You want to see Bigfoot, then come to the PNW. I saw him 4-5 times up there.

From there we continued hugging the coastline on Highway 1 and 101. California has some beautiful coastal roads but nowhere near the ruggedness of Oregon. Finally on the 101 we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure it is big and picturesque but does it swing and collapse like in Washington? Neat bridge though. We made our way to the Fisherman’s Warf, again another first. Other than seeing Alcatraz from a distance it was a bit of a let down – tourist trap on steroids. I wouldn’t go back. SF as a city seemed really neat but unfortunately we decided to get on down the road and not stay there for the night. A return to the city of SF could be a future trip. California has all kinds of wonderful smaller cities on the coast that we passed through. Many we saw on TV or heard about in songs. It was neat to drive through – Malibu, Carlsbad, etc..,etc.. We avoided LA as much as we could. I have been there, done that. Before you know it we were passing through La Jolla, past Torrey Pines (played and stayed there – highly recommended) and heading to our lodging on Hotel Circle in San Diego.

Lodging is another story. Some places were cool and some dumps. We used Trivago a lot but one person’s 3 stars (our agreed min in quality) is anther persons dump and then they add smiley faces, frowns, and color shades to the ratings so hell it becomes a crap shoot at times. Our San Diego lodging was not to bad.

While in SD we decided to stay 2 days and spent time with Rich and Ginny – my oldest brother and wife as well as Neil and Nicole, my Nephew and his wife as well as Grace and baby Stella. We had never met Nicole or the kids before. We had a wonderful time and got to know Neil and his family a lot better. They live in a very nice house a 5-minute walk from Hotel Del Coronado so we were able to go to the beach with the kids for a while and also spent an extremely pleasurable evening dinner at Hotel Del with Neil and Nicole. They were great hosts/hostess. Grace and Stella are cute as buttons. We also spent some great time with Rich and Ginny. We haven’t seen much of each other over these many years. We missed the rest of Rich’s family so Tracie and Erik and family will need to come to Panama to visit us.

Nicole/Neal/Stella/Grace — Nicole/Neil/Stella/Grace

From SD we headed East on I-8/10. We had crossed the country multiple times but never this far south. New Mex, Ariz, and Texas are for the most part very rugged but beautiful at the same time. We stopped overnight in Tucson and had a wonderful dinner at the home of the infamous Steve and Sandi Parker and their daughter Katie. What great hosts and beautiful home. We really enjoyed the visit. After that it was 80 MPH across desolate Indian lands and amazing giant cactuses. Seemed we were always going up but not coming back down the hills. Denise’s car developed a drinking habit and we ended up putting in 7 quarts of oil in the puppy over 13 days. That speed and those climbs were brutal to her baby.

Entering the San Antonio area we saw things start to green up, pretty area. We stayed overnight there and visited the Alamo. In honesty it was a bit of a let down. Our expectations were different from what is there but it is worth checking it off your list with a visit. While in San Anton we watched an online Jimmy Buffett Concert live at Orange Beach, Alabama. At the end Jimmy said for folks to follow him, as he will be playing in NOLA Sunday. We said, Damn, we will be in NOLA Sunday. Bottom line is we went to the NOLA Jazz Festival and were 30 yards from the stage for the J. Buffett concert – way way cool. NOLA is now one of my top 5 favorite cities. We stayed in a quaint French style place near Frenchman Street that was real cool. We had the typical gumbo, music in the streets, red beans and rice, hurricanes, dancing with a hula-hoop (Denise) after the hurricane on a dance floor at about 11AM with about a dozen other die-hards. Nola is just real cool, beautiful architecture, great food and drinks, and on and on. All we wanted to do was walk around and see the crazy people. Well the day we were there they had Tornado Warnings and massive downpours. Yes we were the ones out in that. We became the crazies we came to see.

From NOLA we stopped at the Flora-Bama, made somewhat famous by Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney. It was not what we expected. It really is a hole in the wall with well over a dozen different bars, rooms, and tents. We had a lunch of boiled shrimp and Oysters on the deck looking out to the beach. I found a small pearl in my oyster!

ATM machines - hope there is some paper! — ATM machines – hope there is some paper!

The Alabama/Florida panhandle beaches are a beautiful as they say – powder white sand. We again drove the coast as much as we could. We arrived in the villages and our truck of goods beat us here. We now need to hit the ground running to get it emptied and get ready for the next leg of the journey.

In-laws back yard on golf course in the Villages

Picture of beach area from Condo in Gorgona, Panama near where we will stay (thanks Suzi)

Comments or questions are tolerated. If you don’t want to share my ramblings then why are you reading this?

I need to practice my Spanish so – Adios

Going Coastal

Published on April 18, 2015January 11, 2023 by Island Boy4 Comments

I have spent quite a bit of time on the A1A on the east coast. I really like the A1A especially in S. FL. Well now I am on the 101 which is kind of the same thing as the A1A but on the west coast. I had been on the 101 in Washington a number of times but never south of there. We jumped on the 101 in mid-Oregon. To get there we headed SW from Portland. OMG, there are a ton of wineries, vineyards down that way. I mean a ton. We also drove through the Willamette and Tillamook area. It reminded me of Ohio, well at least the people. Drive throughs were not for expediency but because the people were to big to get out of their cars!

The true magic came when we hit the coast. Everything you have heard about the Oregon coast is true. Amazingly beautiful but unfortunately it is still pretty chilly chilly. The 101 on the coast is an amazing drive. Many, many spots to pull off and take pics or even walk down to the beach. The road in many places gets pretty serpentine, almost Grand Pri-ish. You will be going 65-70 and then all the sudden have to slow down to 25-30-35 for curves. There were also a lot of little towns you needed to slow down to 25-30 to pass through.

When we hit Californication it seemed either the smog had moved north or the ocean mist had not burnt off. It is also quite pretty in N. CA with the Redwoods and all but the mist is pretty heavy. It is late afternoon and it is still here. We stopped at a Redwood tourist trap and got pictures with Paul Bunyan and Babe (see Denise ‘boxing’ babe). We will hit the Avenue of the Giants tomorrow before San Fran to see the real trees.

For now we are staying in an Indian Casino Hotel overlooking the Ocean at a distance. Our room faces the Ocean. We actually could see it if it was’t so damn foggy/misty out. For now we are planning our invasion of San Fran tomorrow, drinking mimosa’s and then Makers when that is gone. Finally we will see what the live entertainment in the Casino Lounge has to offer.

BTW – our last night in Seattle was shared over dinner with Katie and Sean at Ivars Salmon House on Lake Union with a view directly back onto downtown Seattle. It was a great meal and a beautiful location for a ‘Last Supper’. The company was great. We are so proud of both of them.

For now – Good Day

SOLD, PURGED, and PACKING

Published on April 11, 2015January 11, 2023 by Island Boy1 Comment

Ah, just a few more days. Yes the house sold and closes in 4 days. It was a long process but we received everything we wanted with no requests to make any changes. Inspection and Appraisal was a breeze. This process to move has been double difficult since it was not just packing everything up and transferring to somewhere else. One of the main efforts was going through everything we have accumulated…everything…and purging things we will no longer need or want to take. After 18 years in the same house and 30 years of marriage plus kids there is a tendency to have ‘stuff’. On top of that our plans are to store what ever we keep for a couple year while we travel. Last thing you want to do is pay for storage ($$) for a bunch of stuff you won’t need anyway.

Actually the purge has been the hardest part. You go through everything and end up with two piles – ‘keep’ pile and ‘purge’ pile (in our case garage/moving sale). After the first selection you then go through the keep pile again and do the same thing. Finally you do it a third time with the hopes of really being down to nothing more than what you feel you can’t part with. I truly believe Denise has done a great job in doing this but I also truly believe that in the end, a number of years from now, when we finally go to use this stuff we will find that there is still a large amount of items we will again want to get rid of – can’t avoid it.

I am not a fan (yes I despise them) of garage/moving sales. So all three weekends of doing these were quite the chore for me. Denise is much more aligned with doing these and again did a great job preparing everything and orchestrating successful events. With everything that sold there was still about a dozen large boxes remaining. After the 3rd sale we loaded up all that was left and took the stuff to Goodwill. Well now we are down to packing, packing, and more packing. Since we had some time, at least we thought, we purchased used packing material on Craigslist which saved a small fortune, and began to pack. Wow, this is another extremely time consuming chore. We are down to the last couple days and are just about done. We are bringing in some outside help to pack the kitchen and help professionally load the truck. We started out with using a POD like storage/moving system. It is called Upack by ABF. Since we had no idea of how much space we really would need we cancelled the Upack and they are bringing out an empty truck. The way this works is we load the truck and where our stuff ends they provide secure temporary doors that seal our things off from anything else with locks only we have keys to. We only pay for the space we use. After they pick the truck up they can then back-haul other commercial material in the balance of the space and then deliver our trailer to Florida for us to unload into a permanent storage unit. So far it has worked out well except for all the work on our end. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and in less than a week we will be heading south out of Seattle pointing toward San Diego and then Florida stopping along the way wherever our fancy steers us. After about 4-5 weeks in Florida we will ‘be leaving on a jet plane’ for Panama. First stop is the ‘Coronado Golf and Beach Resort’.

Last night we had a gathering at the Fairwood Country Club to say good-bye to friends. About 40 people came by and it was nice to have some cocktails and dinner with them. It is funny as about 1/2 think we are just crazy for what we are doing and the other 1/2 are excited and almost jealous of us. Each to their own I guess. They say don’t let others dampen your dreams.

btw – if you want to follow our adventures it would be a good idea to bookmark this site and feel free to comment if you have any words of wisdom but don’t feel that you need to just to do it :).

D-21 Days and Counting

Published on March 26, 2015January 11, 2023 by Island Boy2 Comments

Our D Day is approaching. Yes ‘departure’ day. The house sold at full price, no questions asked. Things went so well that we received a call 2 weeks ago asking if we would agree to move up the closing date by 5 weeks. Unfortunately it was to late as we already had moving arrangements confirmed as well as needing to get rid of more ‘stuff’. It is amazing how many things we actually have to live.

This weekend is the final Moving Sale. After the sale ends on Sunday what is left will get boxed up and will be donated. From there we start packing what we so far think we want to keep or take. There is a good chance that most of what we take will end up in storage for a couple years as we travel. If it was up to me it would all be gone and not stored but in a partnership ya got to consider the desires and needs of the other party, ho hum.

We hope to have an Open House Good-bye ‘party’ at the country club before we are out of here. There are also a few folks asking for good-bye gatherings separately. This is hard to do with all the work needed to be done to move especially on Denise as she currently has the brunt of the work dealing with the household stuff. Oh well, I was never one to turn down a party! I have been doing my part by focusing on a few tasks such as the on-line postings for all the stuff we are trying to sell and the liquidation, literally, of our alcohol. The Scotch went first and now I am getting pretty low on the Jack and Makers. I still have some Jim B and Crown and then some various Rums, some Vodka, Gin, etc… I slip in a bottle of wine here or there in between. This is all hard work and Denise has been no help at all as she is busy with her own tasks :).

A couple random comments: 1) We used Redfin as our listing agent. I recommend them. They did a great job and saved us 1.5%. 2) We have moved 4-6 times in 30 some years and each time it is strange how people basically acquaintances for years but as soon you say you are leaving they get all emotional and want to be close friends, get together, say they want to keep in touch and visit, etc… People are strange animals. I know it will be harder with Denise’s friends as she has many and well, I guess i will miss my friends.

Quick tips: Start getting rid of stuff NOW. Simplify your life. You don’t need all that stuff. How many things do you need?

The tropics and surf is calling and we are getting closer. I guess months of waiting is finally going to pay off. I think this is a rather bland post but hopefully soon I will have lots of interesting adventures and pictures to tell about and share.

For now, be cool!

Purgatory

Published on February 15, 2015January 11, 2023 by Island Boy2 Comments

Purgatory, …. is an intermediate state …. in which those destined for heaven “undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”…..

Yes that is where we feel we are at. Waiting, waiting, waiting…..to get to a paradise of sun, warmth and beach – a heaven!

We are not yet ready, not yet prepared. But soon oh very soon. The first big ‘purification’ event is getting the house sold. We have had many showings and lots of interest and we are now so close to offers. The value of a home located on the fairway of a country club becomes much more evident when the sun is shining and some folks are swinging the sticks. The weather is improving and so has the traffic looking at the house. Word of offer(s) are rumbling around.

Our second ‘purification’ step will be the moving sale(s) and deciding what we will take/store. This will be no less stressful than the house sale itself. It is life changing to depart with items that have supported your life for 10-20-30+ years. Denise is doing her part by sorting through and deciding on things and I am doing my part by listing items on-line and reducing our liquor inventory to save storage/shipping expense.

In the mean time we keep the house in ‘show’ condition, work on the offer negotiations, plan for the moving sales, and oh yes…reduce the liquor inventory. The move to heaven is coming but it seems you need to first go through a little bit of hell!

Remember: Keep Calm and Purgatory on!

Dreary January

Published on January 10, 2015January 11, 2023 by Island BoyLeave a comment

January in Seattle is like living in a cloud. Dreary, gray, wet/damp, cold, can’t see worth shit and feeling like you are trapped with walls closing around you. On the positive side of things the Seahawks are again in the hunt for the Super Bowl and for us ex-Ohioans, the buckeyes are in the national championship against the somewhat local Oregon Ducks. Football usually means beer and beer helps to dull the pain of the Seattle dreariness. I just hope we can survive the winter weight gain. I have thought about working out more, maybe even twice a day. Hasn’t worked so far though since I haven’t done it. Isn’t it the ‘thought that counts’!

The Hawks play Charlotte today and Katie and Sean are supposed to join us for the game. We also just sold a few more items today anticipating our move. On the home selling front we continue to have lots of activity. Lots of Realtors are calling our realtor and some of their customers are interested. Some have said ‘call us if you get an offer’. For homes like ours on the golf course there have been multiple offers once they got one so we are keeping our fingers crossed. People just seem to be in a ‘holding out’ mode and not yet out of the holiday slowdown. Another thing holding folks back is the climate/weather here. The day light is so short here that it limits the time folks are out looking since it is hard to see the place in the dark. Prices continue to firm up and rise and supply has dropped. Hell maybe I should resist at a higher price!

During the last quarter of 2014 we had a unique and pleasurable experience of meeting a young woman from France, Victoire. Years ago we had a French student stay with us. Through this student we were contacted by Victoire looking for assistance in finding lodging for 3 months during an internship at Seattle Children’s Research Center. Well long story short, Vic ended up staying with us for a few weeks, we helped her move to Seattle, and then saw her off when it was time to leave. Vic is a delightful young woman. We hope to visit her in France someday on our upcoming travels.

We continue to be very anxious to get out of this dreary environment. It is getting old waiting but I feel good that something will happen in the next week or two. Got to get to SUNSHINE!!!!!

Bitter Sweet

Published on December 22, 2014January 11, 2023 by Island Boy1 Comment

I meant to start this blog over a year ago but I guess better late then never. For now I will try to capture the activities that will bring us to beach:o’clock.

We have been in Seattle now for almost 20 years and now it is time to leave. It is truly a wonderful city and area – for 3 months of the year. That is when it is warm and sunny. The rest of the time it is gray, wet and dreary. If I am going to drink my self into a stupor I would rather do it on a beach. We are in the process of selling the house and a large amount of our possessions in order to move. It has been a pretty good home. It is on the 9th green of a Country Club fairway so i will not complain.

It is a couple days before Christmas so we know it was not a good time to go to market but we know it will sell soon. As soon as the house sells/closes we will head down I-5 stopping to see the Redwoods along the way and making our way toward San Diego where we will visit family. The plan is that from there we will head east toward Florida and use south Florida as our jump off point for some adventure. For now we need to keep the place tip-top shape for any showing and keep selling stuff off.

The anticipation is great which causes a lot of anxiety which is the opposite of beach emotions. I guess I will just continue to consume my stored liquor while I wait.