2023 -2024 Cruise ~ Weeks 13 &14 ~ December in Fort Pierce

   Our final Taco Tuesday of the year was held on December 19th. This semi-monthly, I-Dock get together blossomed from our usually 12-15 to 24! A few of us invited friends, plus we had 3 additional couples who were transients on the dock. Somehow, we had enough food. I was worried that my dessert would not serve everyone. With my oven nonfunctional, I made a no-bake-cake. Using 2-large, Entenmenn’s Butter Pound Cakes, sliced. then stuffed and topped with fresh strawberries and Cool Whip. Then drizzled dark chocolate over the top. The hardened chocolate and the sliced strawberries made cutting the 2 cakes into 1-inch slices rather challenging! Somehow, I was able to slice dessert so that all 24 enjoyed a great ending to a wonderful meal. Melissa and Mike organized the "Naughty Santa Gift Exchange."  Needless to say, there was secrecy, thievery, bribery, taunting and laughter. Definitely, a hit and a great time was had by all!

 

  
Another I-Dock Taco Tuesday in the books and 24 slices of cake!

     The rest of the week was spent in preparation for Christmas. We left a festive Ft Pierce on the 22nd heading to share Christmas with our family up North. This is PEKABU dressed up for the holidays ~

  

Christmas aboard PEKABU

 
Christmas in downtown Fort Pierce

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 We left the marina during a break in the rains, at 2:15am on Friday morning, December 20th. Somehow, around 6:30, the sun managed to brighten and beautifully color the sky to the East, but it soon hid once again behind the clouds for most of the day. 

 
Sunrise somewhere over Georgia

 

95 N heading to DC

     Our drive was smooth and uneventful until Richmond. . . then the traffic and heavy rains began. and we added 3 hours to our trip. We were exhausted by the time we parked in Greg and Jenn’s driveway.

     Saturday, the 23rd, we headed up to my sister, Debi and Mom’s for our “Steiner Christmas.” Deneen and I had discussed getting together with NO STRESS. So, we came up with a Christmas Pizza Party. The kids brought appetizers and Mom gifted the pizza. No one had to plan and prep a meal, not fancy table setting needed to be made, no dishes, pots and pans to clean, and everyone had all the time to just chat, laugh and enjoy each other. All of us present decided this should become our new Christmas tradition! Now if we could round up the rest of the clan! With another sister and her family in South Carolina and my brother and his family in Italy and the kids having to share time with extended family, it is a BIG  Christmas wish!

  

 

 

     Christmas Eve was relaxed. Greg introduced us to the movie, “Oppenheimer.” It was long, but very well done. After, I prepared a special dinner for Jenn, Greg and Heather. I made sure there were plenty of leftovers for future meals.

     Christmas morning, we drove over to Kel and Chris’ to celebrate the craziness of Christmas with our kids and granddaughters. Some of Kel’s family were also able to join us for a while. The walls vibrated with the excitement of Christmas.   We left close to 6 pm and embraced the quiet on the hour-plus drive back.

      

     Pete and I decided to make it a "2-for" at King of Prussia Mall. Monday, the 26th, Pete met his partner, George at the Yard House while I met Carolyn at our favorite place, Maggiano’s Little Italy. Both restaurants were on the grounds, but separate from King of Prussia Mall. We all had great meals and enjoyed the company, and beat the rush of those returning gifts and hoping to score on the after Christmas sales.

Traffic 95 South of DC

     With things being so busy, we discussed staying an extra day with Jenn and Greg, but changed our minds when we realized we needed detour to our storage unit on Kent Island. With the detour and traffic, we decided to split our trip home. So, we left their home around 9 am, Wednesday, the 27th and headed to the storage. No problems until we got south of DC on 95. Thank heavens we opted for the express lane! We passed miles (25+ miles) of bumper-to-bumper traffic in the local lanes heading south. Of course, all good things must come to an end. The last 3 miles of the express lanes backed up due to the merge. I am pretty sure we saved about 2 hours of traffic delay. We spent the night at La Quinta in Selma, NC. Thursday, the 28th, and our next challenge was in South Carolina, south of Yamasee. We opted to take Route 17 to bypass about a 15-mile backup on 95 South. Though we saved a lot of time, the 2-day trip still totaled 18+ hours. Without the traffic and/or weather, we usually make the trip in about 15 hours.

 
 Route 17 detour in Spotsylvania County, VA ~ Talk about complete opposite of 95!

Complete with a mill with some really cool-looking silos and evening fog

  

     Friday, the 29th was wonderful just to be able to chill out after unpacking, but recouping took a couple of days. The ride didn’t negatively impact Pete’s knee, except for the expected stiffness. Unfortunately, he isn’t healing as quickly as his other knee. He is sore and very achy, with a little complaining thrown in. We believe that the other knee was so bad for so long, he continued to compensate for it long after it healed, so it never strengthened to equal his left knee. PT has modified his therapy so help.

< --  Tillie was the perfect and warm blanket on a chilly day!

 
One of may recent unmanned launches from Cape Canaveral

     On our walk early this morning, I was inspired by the crystal clear air and sky and the beautiful golden sunrise. A beautiful morning for a walk AND photos! I even surprised myself when I processed the photos and found I had a "2-for" with the bird photo! Our New Year’s Eve was quiet and we celebrated with one of our favorite dinners and then watched the Fort Pierce New Year's Fireworks at 9, which were sent off across the ICW from the marina. They were good, but abbreviated, only lasting 10 minutes with a very subdued grand finally. I guess they spent more on the drone show 2 weeks ago.

This morning . . . 

 

and this evening . . . .

    

     Our wish for our family and friends is for 2024 to bring new opportunities and beautiful memories, wonderful friendships, good health, and the kind of happiness and peace that truly matters. Happy New Year!

~ ~ ~ /) ~  ~   K & P

2023 - 2024 Cruise ~ Weeks 10-12 ~ December Fort Pierce

Christmas lights up the marina

     Pete continues to do well, but the soreness continues (which is expected at this time). Staples were removed during the first week of December and he is going to PT 3 times a week. We opted out of 1st Friday Evening on the Square, with all those yummy, food trucks, as well as the Saturday’s Farmer’s Market so he didn’t overdue on the knee. 

   

                                                    

Tillie and I are racking up the miles and photographic memories on our walks . . .

Feathered friends from our morning walks

  

Sunrises . . .

 

. . . and sunset over River Walk Park

 
Tillie verified and approved that this is the best place for Pete to work

and still keep the ice machine on the knee.

     December 3rd was celebrated with Sights and Sounds on 2nd. There was a lot of activities on Second Street with food, face painting, games, performers, etc. The everyone found a great viewing area for the Christmas Parade that started at 4.  This year's parade theme was “Under the Sea.”  There were hundreds of participants, with floats, costumes, bands, performances, cars, boats, bikes, police & firetrucks and horses. It is always fun to see all the participants, their costumes and the strong sense of community.

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 5th turned into a rather busy day. . .  

A surprise visitor to the marina

    Georgia installed the redesigned connector and made the pattern for the enclosure's sides. All this was done around her mom’s shoulder surgery. She did deliver the 4 side panels and Pete was able to install the hardware for them onto the boat. She will return to pattern the three panels for the aft after the holidays and Pete will have to install that hardware, too.

     We thanked Freedman’s for the hospitality by having a care package from Katz’s Deli in NYC. Howie insisted that we join them to help enjoy all that good food. Since Pete had a follow-up appointment in Delray Beach, we joined them for lunch. We did need to be home by 4 as we had the 2nd Taco Tuesday of the season. Nancy and George, SV INDIGO MOON, joined us again with their outrageously good  and very popular Jalapeno Poppers with raspberry jelly.

 

 
Another great Taco Tuesday on I-Dock!

Christmas at
Taco Dive

     Thursday, December 7th, as a reward for Pete’s improved mobility, we joined Marilyn and Jon on Thursday for lunch at Taco Dive. It was a beautiful, but windy and cool day. We opted to head indoors.

     Saturday, December 9th, was the Orchid Show and Sale over in the park. When Tillie and I walked at 7:30 this morning, they were already prepping. So many colorful, diverse and beautiful flowers, too bad I have a black thumb!       

A feast for the eyes!

     Around 3, we headed over to the beach on the inlet and claimed a great parking spot for the Christmas Boat Parade that started at 6. It was a great spot to sit, people watch, and read for a few hours. We had picked up Mike’s Jersey Subs for dinner and grabbed food and water for Tillie. The parade kicked off on time and the participants were slow and spread out. There were a few fireworks were informally launched close Chucks Seafood. After about a half hour, we decided to leave as it seemed that the parade was over. As we crossed over the bridge, we could see another 20-30 waiting for their turn to parade down the inlet! Oh well. Once we were back at the marina, we found out that the final act was a Drone Show! Somehow I miss the announcement on social media announcing the event. It is something that we both hoped to see one day. I am so sorry we missed the first few minutes, but did see the final 3 minutes. It was truly spectacular. If I can conquer the problems uploading, I have some drone video I am hoping to post.

 

Storms passing during the afternoon

Santa and the Boat Parade beginning at sunset

*The sunset picture and the line of boats above 

was courtesy of the Fort Pierce Police Department*

     Sunday, December 10th, was the motorcycle Toy’s for Tots Ride. We didn’t see it, but we could hear the roar for a good 5 minutes while the 200 or so made their way through “The Fort.”      Also today, our daughter, Heather and her BFF, Natalie, returned from their vacation.  They had an exceptional time during their Viking River Cruise down the Danube. The Holiday Bazaar Cruise was interesting and fun, great people, magnificent architecture, picturesque cities, delicious food, wonderful wines, and great memories. They are looking forward to future cruises.

     Tuesday December 12th, CCYC South met again! Dan, Martha (SV BRUNNELL) and John and Betty (SV ANDIAMO) stayed at a time share in Cape Canaveral. Marilyn and Jon (SV ESCAPADE), George and Lisa (SV BAY WIND currently in Cape Canaveral) and we were invited to join them for an evening reunion. We had a fabulous dinner courtesy of John’s culinary wizardry with contributions from all of us. The evening was full of laughter, friendship, food and great memories, but all too soon it was time to leave.  It was unfortunate that our friends arrived shortly before a strong cold front arrived. Temps started in the high 40’s and hopefully made it to the mid 60’s. After 2 days, it brought 5 days of steady winds in the high teens to mid- twenties with gusts over 40 and rain, but on a positive note, temps rose to the low 70’s. Jackets were still required due to the strong, cold and damp East winds off the Atlantic.  I am sure that it was similar to the weather they returned to up north.

   

     They were hoping to catch a launch while they were here. A Falcon Heavy, with a secret military payload (a space craft?) was scheduled to be launched, but was scrubbed numerous evenings due to technical and weather issues. 

Tillie "helping" Pete work

     Tillie is still a very excited puppy at 14 months. Some of the training has worked. She is great walking on a leash. She is getting better at coming when called, telling us when she should be fed or needs to go out, and when we ignore her, she eventually knows that she needs to stop barking. Unfortunately, when around other dogs, she elevates to an excited state. If she can’t play, she will usually calm down in about 5 minutes of a hissy fit. This is a problem with our grooming and boarding facility here in Ft. Pierce. Their philosophy is free-ranging dogs, both in boarding and grooming. We had hoped to have her board the day of her grooming so that she could socialize and acclimate to the other dogs. Currently, there is a worrisome, dog respiratory problem on the rise across the country. As a precautionary measure, boarding dogs are being kept in the “condos” and they are afraid she would be a problem, So, no socialization. It didn’t pay to head to the dog park before the appointment as the dogs are usually there between 8 and 10 and 4 to 6. So instead, we walked around town for about an hour and did 3+ miles. It didn’t work. As soon as we walked inside, she spiraled up and never calmed down. 2 to 3 dogs walk around the tables where grooming is being done waiting their turn. With a new dog in/old dog out of the mix every half hour, she never settled. Since this is her second offence, she is no longer welcome. Kyra, the head groomer, too, felt bad, so she gave me the name and number of a friend that she trained and now does individual grooming at her home. I managed to get onto her list when she returns from Maternity Leave.

 December 15th, 16th, and 17th . . .a week of crazy weather! 

     For days, the temps were still reasonable, but the winds blew and the rains came. The WINDY and WEATHER BUG Apps were being monitored faithfully.  The kite boarders were probably the only ones enjoying this weather. (Hopefully, I will figure out how to upload the video!)

Dawn brought some breaks in the clouds. . .

. . .and later, the storm moved out over the Atlantic

     So far it has been an interesting month!

~ ~ ~ /) ~  ~   K & P