CHRISTMAS

Kelly, Dan and Michael are here at Indian Rocks Beach for Christmas. The beach is wonderful. Instead of cooking this year, we had a wonderful champagne brunch at Don Cesar's, a wonderful elegant hotel.

Indian Rocks Beach

We have stopped for the holidays and are staying at the Holiday Inn Harborside. Fitzcat has been decorated. Kelly, Dan and Michael have arrived from Boston.

Cayo Costa State Park--Pelican Bay

We raft up with Terry and Bob, friends on their boat Second Wind.
Lagoon just off of Pelican Bay

Fitzie loves to ride in the dinghy with Don. We are exploring Pelican Bay.

Bob, Terry, Don and Fitzie riding in the tram to go to the beach at Cayo Costa SP.

A view of our boats rafted together.

Ft. Meyers--the western end of the Okeechobee Waterway

We celebrate our wedding anniversary with our friends Bill and Carolyn.
Above is a view near their apartment.

Our anniversary lunch.

We are docked at Shell Point, a retirement community where Bill and Carolyn live. There are manatees in the canal. This is a frustrating attempt to photograph them.

Crossing Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway

Much of the waterway is very pastoral--lots of farms and cows. Certainly not the high rise condos of both western and eastern coasts.

After crossing Lake Okeechobee, we enter the swampy, grassy areas around the edge of the lake.

We meet new and old friends at the Franklin Lock and share our experiences.

Rainbow over Fitzcat at the Franklin Lock.

The beauty of cruising.

These are pictures from the our slip near the St. Lucie Lock. We also cooked Thanksgiving dinner here. Although we could not find a small turkey that would fit in our oven, we cooked a chicken instead and stuffed it like a turkey.