Merry Christmas from SIT!

To keep up with my tradition I am calling 2016 “The Year That Cruised By.”

Seems it really doesn’t matter anymore what year it is, they all cruise by at an amazing rate. Our year started out with us buying a little home in Vero Beach Florida. Why did we pick this place you ask? Well, location, location, location is the answer. Oh and fishing right out of our door almost. So we are now officially snowbirds! The best part is we have a guest room so if you want an escape you can just let us know. Oh and we will continue to maintain our blog as you never know what we might be up too.

We did some work to the place before we moved in. Then once in we decided to go ahead and do more! Guess we want to make sure our “beach bungalow” is beachy!  

We bought a small older boat to get out onto the Indian River, AKA Intracoastal Waterway. So you can probably guess what we did besides work on the house! Oh and there are several golf courses not too far away as well. Oh and did I mention a huge dog park about 2 miles from us and the beach is only 5 minutes. Well by now you can see why location is the descriptive word!

We returned home mid-April and had a beautiful spring. Steve got the garden ready and we enjoyed having home grown tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and cantaloupe. We decided to put the 5th-wheel in a small RV park in Cascade for the summer. This way we could get out of town and try some fishing without having to haul it each time. It worked out nicely although Steve wasn’t thrilled that the fishing this summer wasn’t very productive. It turns out it wasn’t for most fishermen. Oh well we will try again this coming year.

I think house rehab is in our DNA as we decided to go ahead and sell another rental property. This one just happens to have been the one that brought Steve and I together. We spent a couple of weeks getting it pretty and then sold it ourselves. We were quite happy with the process and pleased at how quickly it sold. I don’t know if we will continue the trend in 2017 with another one but you never know.

The rest of the time was spent enjoying family and friends. I also flew down to California to see my brothers and Steve’s brother. I made a quick trip in June to Washington to surprise a dear friend for her 80^th birthday. I won’t name names as it is not nice to tell someone else’s age! Izzy went with me and we made a quick stop in Portland. I visited a cousin and Izzy visited Mia! Well played actually.

Not sure what 2017 has in store for us or any of you, but we hope it is filled with great health, adventures, love, and peace!

How about golfing with the wildlife?

November 20-December 25

We have been busy with getting things taken care of around our place. The yard needed some attention so we tackled that, but also needed to have some fun. We have managed to get out golfing a few times since we arrived and one of those times we were playing with the wildlife. I must admit we seem to be a bit better at golf than they are!

Any of the courses we have played since we got back to Florida have provided us with an audience of birds, turtles, and alligators. We pretty much let the alligators play through if they happen to be near the tee box, fairway or green!

 Hanging Out

 Hitching a Ride

Pals

Besides golfing we did decide to go ahead and do some further remodeling in the house. We have now replaced the living room floor with the same flooring we put in the bedrooms in February and painted the living room and dining area. It sure has made the living room look better. We are now working on a wall to add a special effect.  When it is completed I will post some before and after pictures of our “beach bungalow.”

When not having this type of fun we fish. We decided to go out on the Intracoastal Waterway at our end of the river with a guide. Steve enjoys doing this once so he can learn from the locals about the best places and times. He has been researching a lot so plans on getting our boat out with the goal of finding the elusive Snook and other great tasting fish that swim around here. I pretty much just cast and catch!

Speaking of catching, we had a fun morning with Captain Brian and caught a lot of fish, of which we only kept one. I once again was the successful fisher person and caught the biggest fish and the only red fish. It was fun to catch and made a couple of great dinners and is a very nice tasting fish.

We have also enjoyed walks along the boardwalk that is at the ocean and nature walks at a nearby park. Both of which you get to see different things. This family was attempting to get their two young boys to cooperate long enough to get the perfect Christmas card picture before the waves hit their sleigh!

Izzy has been having fun at the dog park and on walks. I think she likes these days much better than when we are out golfing or fishing, and especially when we are doing the work around the house. She pretty much lets me know when it is time for her to go out and play or have her dinner.

 

I Want More!

 Nature Walk to the Bay

Christmas has sped by along with the year once again. The community here held a Christmas dinner and party so we attended. We sat with our neighbors who are becoming good friends and enjoyed meeting a few more people.  I will post our annual Christmas letter so those of you that don’t receive it can take a gander if you choose.

 

Friends Betty and Steve at end of table

Neighbors and Great People

Stay tuned for home improvement updates and my new project!

Cheers from SIT!

Fish On!

SIT began the next segment of adventure with heading to Florida November 1^st.

We drove the car this time around so had to be quite frugal in our packing, although Steve being the MacGyver that he is was able to have a rack built that our truck box would fit on. That became our suitcase for the trip.

This meant Izzy got the entire back of the car for herself. We think she was happy as she could get up and walk around, lay in her bed, sit on the seat, and of course hang her head out the window.

Our route took us through a couple of states we had not been through before so we can add two more to the list of 34 for adventuring! Iowa and Illinois have now experienced SIT! Along the way we stopped for gas and stretching of the legs and came upon this old tobacco barn.  Well, not so old tobacco was hanging in there so had to get a picture or two.

 Quite Old

 Tobacco Barn

Leafy Encounter

We arrived at our little Florida home on Saturday and began to get settled in. Steve had to do a little work on the boat and of course get a new hydraulic motor so you can raise and lower the boat motor. He conquered and we got onto the water for a day of fishing on Thursday.

We caught quite a smorgasbord of fish and could keep a few nice sized ones with me being the successful biggest fish catcher person and the first flounder for us in Florida!

 Biggest Fish

 Variety anybody?

Tasty!

We will be in Florida for the winter so be sure and stayed tuned for more ramblings from SIT!

Summer Time Fun

It has been awhile since SIT has posted anything so I figured it was time. Well Izzy did since she seems to get her picture taken quite often and has tons of fun.

We put the fifth wheel in Cascade Idaho for the summer with the vision of coming here frequently to get some lake fishing in. Well, the frequency hasn’t been that often, the fishing has been happening if you call putting the boat in the lake, casting, and reeling but without fish on the hook. From what folks are saying the fishing has been pretty bad for everybody. That makes us feel better!

 Peaceful

Snow Hangs On

So, instead of catching fish we have been enjoying reading, walking, golfing, boating, and getting Izzy in the water. We were up here at the same time as our friends Everett and Nancy one weekend. We had a nice long boat ride around the lake and enjoyed some dinners and cards. Izzy had fun hanging out with us too, although she doesn’t care much about playing cards. Chasing squirrels yes!

 Cooling Off

 Posing

Protecting

 Chipping with an angle

I'm in Heaven

You Have To Let Go So I Can Throw It

I'm Tired

Dinner Time

 On The Lake Keeping Watch

Boating with Everett and Nancy

When we weren’t up here we were busy working on another rental house to sell. That’s what changed the summer for us so we were using a paint brush instead of a fishing pole. The great thing about this though is the sale of the house is happening now – keeping our fingers crossed. The sad thing about this though is this is the house that brought Steve and I together.

For those of you that don’t know this story I decided to sell my house in order to buy a bigger one. My Mom moved in with me shortly after I moved to Meridian. It was time for a bit more space. Along comes this nice looking gentleman who is in the market for a house. Long story short, he bought the house, and gained a wife! So we will always have wonderful memories from our first rental property as Henderson and Henderson!

Will try and post more excitement from the world of SIT soon!

One More State

April 13-21, 2016

SIT hits the road again as we are heading home. We have many routes we could take as we journey west, so decided on one that would take us through an area we had not yet explored. Plus going this way we can cruise through one more state!

Izzy was in heaven when we could have the windows rolled down since the weather was a bit cooler than Florida.

We planned on pretty much just driving and spending the night in each place once so didn’t get much exploring done at the places we landed. We did spend one night in Tupelo Mississippi which was fun since we had been to Graceland during our two year adventure. So now we can say we were in the town where Elvis was born!

As we continued our trek home we decided to stay an extra night somewhere along the way. We chose The Lake of the Ozarks. This was new country for us and gave us a chance to do some exploring of the pretty interesting landscape.

We stayed at the state park so had a chance to wander on some of their trails and of course Izzy had to adventure in the water. We hiked the Coakley Hollow Trail which is located at the Ozarks Caverns. Their season hadn’t started for giving tours of the caverns but the hike was nice and the flowers were in bloom. The Dogwood trees were in full bloom and I can only imagine what this place looks like in the Fall.

Color along the trail

Silk worms at work

See that Butterfly?

 In Motion

Our camping spot provided us with some exclusion as well so Izzy got free rain and of course a place to chase her floppy or sticks!

 See I Found a Stick

Get Ready Izzy

We left this area on a Monday and continued west. We managed to travel through Kansas which was a new state for us. We also thought Kansas would be boring and flat, but the area we went through was quite pretty and plenty of topography and scenery. Much like we found Missouri to be.

We spent one night in Laramie Wyoming and wandered around after dinner. We came across this place in town. It is the Ivinson Mansion and was built in 1892. At one point it was used as a boarding school for the Episcopal Church. Today it is a museum and events center. It was already closed when we wandered around but the architecture and grounds are pretty cool. If you are ever in the area stop by.

We arrived home on April 21^st and hit the ground running. One goal for the summer is to utilize the boat we bought last year a tad more! Stay tuned for fishing fun from SIT!

Sunrise Fishing

March 2016

As out time here is winding down we wanted to get out one more time with the boat and do some fishing.

We managed to get on the water by 7:15 and were treated to a beautiful sunrise.

The wind decided to start blowing which means the water gets pretty choppy. We started out with a bang as Steve caught a nice sheepshead. Unfortunately all the rest of the fish must have seen that happen since we didn’t get anymore.

We headed back to the dock around 11:00 since the water was trying to kiss us now as well as rock us to sleep!

Besides wanting to fish one more time we also played golf. We had better luck on the course than on the fishing. The course we have played most while here is very nice and can be pretty tough. That’s just fine with us as we are there to enjoy the scenery and have fun. It’s not like we are making our living by playing golf. Good thing as we would starve!

Izzy wasn’t left out either as we got her to the dog beach again. It’s fun to watch her play by herself although she does try and get us to throw something for her to fetch from the water.

 Hunting for Shells

Will You Come In With Me?

We are busy getting everything ready to leave our winter vacation spot for now, although heading back to Idaho and the beauty of the west is just fine with us!

Stay tuned as more to come from SIT!