Everything but Lemurs...

I know what you're thinking - what about the lemurs? But this post is about everything but lemurs, so you'll have to wonder what that means for at least another day or so, ha-ha! But trust me - there will be lemurs! 

The six day adventure with my mother-in-law began with an almost fourteen hour drive beginning in Virginia and taking us through North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia before finally depositing us in Central Florida! The adventure was not without road bumps - we realized when we were approximately an hour from my MIL's house that she'd left her purse at a Culver's in Savannah, GA! 

Blessedly - the manager was kind enough to ship it to her house, so all's well that ends well there! We arrived in Central Florida around 9:15 (13 minutes ahead of schedule) and after a quick Wal-Mart run, it was into bed! All day car rides can be tiring...

I slept until about 8:30 and then woke up and had coffee on the lanai - my favorite spot at my MIL's house! With the cushy outdoor furniture, ceiling fans and screened in porch overlooking the nature preserve - it's the perfect spot! If I had to guess, I spent most of my time in Florida either on that lanai or asleep in the bedroom, ha-ha (I mean - you do sleep something like eight hours a night). 

After a lazy morning of coffee, breakfast and chatting - we headed to get my visitor's pass and on to one of the 100+ swimming pools that there are to choose from! We took the golf cart, because that's how everyone gets around at The Villages! There are whole roadways dedicated to golf carts and people soup them/pull out all the stops to have the fanciest golf cart(s) - I mean, look at the one that looks like an old school surf buggy! 

 

 

We had a late lunch of BBQ after sunning for a few hours in the lovely swimming pool... and then headed back to the house, where I read on the lanai and later in the evening, watched my MIL work on the sweet corn she'd brought back from Lancaster, PA - she husked the corn, then cooked the corn, then cooled the corn and then used a tool her mother used to use to remove the kernels from the stalk! She bagged eight to ten bags of sweet corn for use in Chicken Corn Soup later in the year! 

We also had some animal visitors - including the Sandhill Crane family that she's been daily feeding a little corn - and video that was completely unexpected of a black bear scaling her neighbor's back wall! Y'all, I didn't even know black bears were a thing in Central Florida - I thought I'd left those things far behind in Virginia! This trip was filled with animals - and a lot of them were right outside my MIL's back door, ha-ha!

I'll share about Saturday in a separate post (lemurs y'all - lemurs). Sunday I attended church with my MIL and Doc and then we met up with family for lunch at the Metro Diner (my husband's uncle, aunt & cousin). After a delicious lunch and wonderful conversation with family, my MIL and I returned to Doc's for the afternoon and evening for a water sports filled Sunday afternoon! 

 

We poked around in Little Lake Weir, went kayaking on Little Lake Weir, rode Doc's pontoon boat from Little Lake Weir along the canal to Lake Weir and back. We sat on chairs in the lake and let the waves created from passing boats wash over us and they even encouraged Maggie to try out the kayaks and she rode on one for a little swirl around the edge of the lake in front of Doc's! 

 

After all our water sporting - the sun was beginning to set and so we warmed up all our leftover foods from Saturday night dinner, sat on the screened in porch to eat and then it was time to head back to the MIL's house! Y'all - please take a peek at Maggie sitting on top of the AC vent in the house, cooling off after an afternoon in the Florida heat! 

We slept in on Monday and had breakfast, and then I was lucky enough to be treated to a wonderful massage at the Hand & Stone in the Villages! The massage was wonderful and was followed up with a shower, time spent wandering around Brownwood (one of the villages squares) looking in the shops and having late lunch at the Mexican restaurant on the square! I spent the afternoon reading on the lanai while it rained - it was heaven! My MIL had a hair appointment and I told her that I was more than thrilled to hang out on the lanai and read... and that's exactly what I did! 

We closed out our Monday with Klondike Bars and went to Brownwood to hear a band play and dance around in the square! And then, after a couple card games - it was time to crash again for the final night in Florida! 

I finally saw a gator on Tuesday morning - and you can see it in the above picture, but all you'll see is the tip tip of his head, ha-ha! I think that's enough of a gator for me! I joined my MIL to watch her pickleball game and then it was time to head for the Orlando airport - with a stop along the way at Bobbalu's Bodacious BBQ for lunch! All too soon I was boarding my flight, where I discovered that my window seat didn't actually have a window... whatever! The flight was smooth and uneventful and I was beyond thrilled to see my husband again - goodness I missed him so much while I was gone!

It was the most wonderful and relaxing few days in Florida - and y'all get ready, because I've got another post for you and it involves - yep - lemurs!