Navy band at Battleship Memorial Park & Mardi Gras float

Today Judy and I went to Mobile and the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park to see and listen to a Navy band in town for Navy Week and the Mardi Gras activities.  It was a 5 piece band from Jacksonville, FL here participating in several parades and this free concert.  It was interesting they had 5 more sailors with them, a sound man, photographer, 2 master chiefs, and 1 lieutenant.  They did good but I like orchestras, larger bands or marching bands.

As long as we were here and it was a beautiful mid 70s day we walked around the park and took a few more pictures.  Here's the USS Alabama and a lady I saw there.

 

And a B52 bomber.

And the same lady with a B25 Mitchell bomber.

 She was even by a tank!

But she disappeared by the time I got a shot of the Mobile skyline.

 And a picture of the USS Drum.

 She even rang my bell.  And a loud bell it was!

 

The snowbirds made the campground rounds with the Mardi Gras float which they do every year.  This is a practice for the Tuesday parade in Gulf Shores.

Bill & Kay are this years king & queen.

 

So, how do you spend time doing not much?

It's been about a month since I've blogged, we haven't been doing anything too exciting or out of the ordinary this winter here in Gulf Shores.  The winter has been very very mild, in fact the warmest winter since we have been coming here for 10 years.  Here's Judy taking advantage of the warm sunshine a couple days ago. 

We continue to meet several of our friends every Friday at 11am at Mikee's for lunch.  Fridays they have half off their dinners and we pay with 50% off meal cards we purchase in November.  That makes it very hard to pass up a nice shrimp (or something else) meal for $10 including a nice tip.

Judy has organized 3 monthly (the next and last one is coming up in March) casino bus trips from the campground to various casinos in Biloxi, Wednesday evening euche games at the American Legion, Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening euche at the senior center, and morning water aerobics.

I really enjoy playing poker 4 afternoons here with my friends at the campground.  Four of us returned to the Scarlet Pearl in Biloxi a couple weeks ago for a Texas Holdem tournament but none of us were in the money.  Today we had an Omaha tournament here at the campground and I made $115 coming in first so I'll have bragging rights.  I'm winning a little more than I lose during our regular afternoon games.  

It's been a good winter here in Gulf Shores.

Randy to Daytona & Judy to Onsted and home improvements

Everybody has been busy but I got to relax!  How sweet it is! 

First, Jody and Renato have been having some home improvements made.  They have had the old back porch rebuilt with windows so it can be better used year around, a new deck has been added across the back of the house, a second garage door has been installed and they are in the process of REALLY cleaning out their basement, the front porch entrance has been rebuilt and plans are underway to replace the siding with stucco.  They are keeping the economy rolling.  Renato's daughter has returned to Brazil after several weeks with them making Renato and Maria happy. 

Randy's company had a suite at the Rolex 24 hours in Daytona and he went along with other employees and customers for the weekend and enjoyed the race and all the activities.

 

 

While he was in Daytona Judy decided to make a trip to Michigan to spend the weekend with Devyn.  It was a spur of the moment decision which she really enjoyed. 

They got to have lunch at Barry's Bagels and spent Saturday shopping.  Judy was so excited that she got to see and play in the snow.....................

 

It was cold up there so she complimented her limited winter clothing with some of Randy's.

Here's Devyn, Dan and Molly staying warm.  Looks like Molly should be the warmest.

Wasn't that a party?

 

 

 

The Brasil's in Gulf Shores

On the 27th Randy headed back to Michigan, Judy and I back to Gulf Shores and the Brasils followed us a few hours later.  Seems packing up kids takes a long time.  Don & Zola offered the use of their fifth wheel while they are back in Michigan for Christmas.  After spending two days with us the kids are off to Mississippi to visit Renato's brothers and families and his mom.

We took them to Foley and the train museum, who doesn't like trains?

 

 

 

                   Well, who's going in first?  I double dare you!

It was two days of shrimp, a regular shrimp fest.  We ate shrimp at the Shrimp Basket, Mikees and Steamers.  There were some oysters in there a coupe of times too, but NOT for Judy and I.  Of course they were all you can eat shrimp.  Renato had 5 orders at Mikees!  The rest of us stopped at 3, maybe 4.

Christmas in Flowery Branch

The beast is on guard duty.....no one messes with the presents!

Judy & I traveled to Jody & Renatos's home for Christmas and Randy came down from Onsted.  We all arrived on December 23rd.
Renato's daughter Maria from Brazil is with them for two months during her school's summer break.

 One of the first items on the to do list was making Christmas cookies.

Santa arranged for one gift to be delivered early Christmas Eve morning........................

Dustin & Brianna didn't quite know what to think about this.................

But they figured it out pretty quick, Maria was the first King of the Hill.

 

Uncle Randy reminded them that all the local cats will appreciate the sand pile too.  The weather was great so a pontoon ride was in the days schedule.

Renato loves to cook and has lost quite a bit of weight too.  I'm not sure if this is breakfast or dinner....

Who said sand piles are just for kids?

And the BIG day arrives.....................

 

 

 

The turkey has been in the oven so it's time to get started on all the fix'ens.

 

And now it's my turn to get into the show, I've been waiting for this!

But we can't forget Devyn who's with her mother this Christmas!

            We hope everyone had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!