Love Living in Lakeland !

"HOME SWEET HOME"

We moved to Lakeland, Florida  on Friday, March 1 and haven't looked back.  This has been a terrific choice!  We absolutely love it here.  We have a site in the Lakeland Carefree RV Resort.  The resort is somewhat rustic with plenty of great Oak trees and lots of shade. Definitely our preference over totally manicured lawns, concrete slabs and a palm tree here & there. There is a large heated pool which we have yet to try, and a kiddies pool for our grandchildren, that is when the temperature finally warms up.  We have had two of the coldest weeks we have known in a long time.  Poor Peter has had to put on his leather jacket to walk the dogs in the morning, and once found frost on the ground! We are certainly  not living in Miami anymore!!

 

There is so much to do in this area, and we are only a half hour to Tampa and a half hour to Orlando.  Lakeland is a small city with great charm and lakes everywhere.  We spent a lot of time driving around getting our bearings.  We found the malls, found a number of wonderful playgrounds to take Claire to, went to the Plant City Strawberry festival, (more strawberries, whipped cream, and country singers than I have ever seen before.....everyone should go to the Strawberry Festival ONCE in their life), have been to an art festival, the Spring Obsession flower show and sale, a wine and food festival & Disney World twice.  After church shopping for three Sundays, found a charming little church to attend during our three month stay here.  Believe it or not, we are going to participate in the church's Passover Seder on Monday night. It is going to be far from traditional, but who cares, its the thought that counts. Peter is going to make Brisket, and I bet they hope we are here next year to cook again.  I am so looking forward to being on the "sitting down" side of the Seder, and not the "frantic side of running around".  LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

Claire with her "sleep-over" suitcase

The most fun so far though, is having time with our Grandchildren. Claire has already spent 2 nights sleeping over with us and another one is planned for this weekend.  She is so much fun to have around.  Elliot is adorable, but still a little too young to go to the park or sleep over.

We plan to stay here until the beginning of June when we head down to Miami for 4 days for Peter's next check up with his Doctors.  Once that is behind us, we will return to Brandon, spend Erika's birthday with her then head out on our trip to Yellowstone National Park and places yet to be decided on.

Moving to A Winter Wonderland?!?

Leaving the Hide Away Lodge was difficult.  We had grown to love Wolf and Lilli and saying good bye was very hard.   However,  it was time to move on.....but first we had to take that inexpensive vacation to Florida.  We hooked up "Escargot" to the new car and we were off. It was October of 1971 and Disney World had just opened. We just had to stop there.  It cost $7.25 to get in to the Magic Kingdom and we can remember the people in front of us complaining about the price. Sheessssh, hope they don't try to go there now!  It was a great little vacation. We drove all the way to Key West and then  headed back to New England to start our new job.

 On our way to Vermont, we stopped in Connecticut and  bought an Old English Sheep Dog puppy.  We had our choice of 27 puppies.  We chose the runt of the litter, he just begged us to adopt him.  What a joy he was!!! As he was our Christmas present  to each other, we named him Kris Kringle!!

 

 We headed north to start our new position at the Sonnenhof Inn in Jay Vermont.  We had  been hired as a team to run their dining room.  Peter of course would be doing the cooking and I would have my very first Dining room to run. How exciting it was.

 They gave us a beautiful 3 bedroom Chalet to live in. The view from  our living room window was of Jay Peak Mountain.  They also gave us season ski passes so we could ski any time we weren't working.  It all seemed so wonderful. 

Everything went really well with the running of the restaurant.  I hired 3 older Vermont women to work as waitresses. They all had experience slinging hash, not necessarily working in a somewhat formal dining room.  But they always showed up and could carry more dinners on a tray than any waiter I've ever worked with.  They were from strong Vermont stock!
  

The only glitch with the job was the family that owned and ran the lodge. Hospitality and customer service were not part of their vocabulary!  Their two young children were totally without manners and terribly overweight!  The parents also lacked manners, were uncaring for their guests and had no respect for life.  The wife was always sporting a black eye that she would blame on the door knob of their bedroom.  They let one of their horses die of starvation, and nearly starved their two husky dogs to death that winter. However, they were the first people in the dining room for every meal and demanded they be fed first!!  We made it until the end of the season, despite them making our lives so difficult.  The guests of the Inn would come to us, to complain about how they were being treated, and the lack of concern by the operators. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to remedy their issues.  We had originally thought about staying on after the season was over, however there became no choice but to pack up and leave!!!  We weren't sure where we would go or what we would do, but we couldn't stay there any longer!!!

Good bye Miami.......hello Lakeland!!!

Upon returning from our cruise our thoughts turned to moving nearer to the girls.  We got our tax information  put together and met with our accountant, we reserved a campsite at the Lakeland Carefree RV Resort, and then started packing up what was left to travel.  We made a weekend trip to Brandon with the last load of "stuff" to go into storage there.  The day before we left for Brandon, Peter surprised me with tickets to see Andrea Bocelli in concert. It was my early Valentine gift!!!  The concert was wonderful. What a genius musician he is.

The next two weeks were spent with doctor appointments, finishing the organization to make our move and trying to see all our friends before we left the area.  It was a great time, but bittersweet.

The management team that had taken over our restaurant at the condo had turned in their notice to cancel their contract with the condo, after only 2 months. When we stopped in to pick up a few lasts payments, we were asked if we wanted to come back!?! "do I want to go from 7 days off a week to  one day off a week????"  Thank you but no thank you!!!

We planned to leave Miami on Tuesday, but I procrastinated in getting laundry and last minute things done.  How lucky was I when the phone rang Tuesday morning with a call from friends at the TowerHouse asking if we would like their tickets to see Les Mis that evening!! Our favorite show. So our last evening in Miami was at the performing arts theater in Miami! Sometimes procrastination is a good thing!!!

We left Miami around 10 am on Wednesday to head to Fort Myers for a 2 night stay at Seminole Campground.  It is a beautiful campground, and it was a half way destination.  We relaxed and had dinner outside by our campfire and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Friday morning, March  1 we arrived in Lakeland Florida, and began setting up our newest adventure, hands on "Grandparenthood"!  LIFE IS GOOD!!!