Having a great time in South Florida.  There is no better place to be right now. Has been in the 80’s but today only upper 70’s.  After the very cold weather at home this is paradise.   And winter starts next week?

This was our chance to open the condo for the season.  Everything came through the summer just fine, except our Florida car.   I took it in to get oil changed and some of the noises checked out.   And now have new drums/wheels/complete braking system except master cylinder.   The salt air and 176,000 miles took its toll on the metal.  But now the system is safe and will outlast the rest of the car.  And the air conditioner is working, at least for now!  And installed the late arriving slides for our kitchen pots and pans drawer and restrictor clips on the doors, so kitchen is good.  We had forgotten what the new kitchen looked like, but are very happy with it.

Noel and JoAnn came to visit, we saw the Boynton / Del Ray boat parade go by on the intercoastal on Friday night.   It had more boats and bigger decorations that past years so very enjoyable.  We had grilled out before hand and ate down in the clubhouse.   A good crowd from our association gathered at our pool to watch the parade, and desserts and coffee were served afterwards.  Noel and I skipped the coffee.  We had a great time with Enders, ate and drank almost too much (can you eat and drink TOO much?).   And topped it off by watching the Packer win at a local outside restaurant.   What a game!!

So back to the cold and work soon.  But with a rejuvinated attitude!  Jackie we will be back after Christmas!

Just a couple of lines to say we hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Most of us have been very blessed, and it is good to reflect on that once in awhile!  Our life has been good, and we have been enjoying the last few weeks.  I had the opportunity to go out for the Wisconsin deer hunt.   Some of us received a Fort McCoy hunting permit this year.  Fort McCoy has there own permit system above the state permitting process.  So we send that in early in the year, and Noel, Andrew, Lou, Pat, Denny and I all received permits.   And Lou, as an Army retiree was able to get us rooms on the fort for a GREAT price!   And that makes the early morning trip to our hunting area very convenient rather than having to drive in from town.  Since we get out there well before sunrise some extra minutes help.  We had a great time,even though none of us filled our tag!   It was the coldest hunting season opener in 23 years I heard,  below zero Sunday morning.   But there is something very relaxing about the woods!  And for me after the long weekend it was back to work for a couple of days, then the Thanksgiving weekend.  We made it down to Milwaukee first and spent some time with Mom.  Then Thanksgiving morning off to Holland Michigan.   Mary Jane and John drove over from Detroit, and Skip Claire and Denise came over from Wisconsin.  We rented a house that we had rented 5 years ago.  It is a very nice 5 bedroom house that works out well for us.  We had our Thanksgiving dinner there after Mary Jane and John made it back from the Packer game!   And there was foosball and air hockey.   And then a couple of days of sight seeing.  The group was good to me,  as I like micro brews and wanted to take advantage of some of Michigans offerings.  Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids is one of the best in the country, and while I have had their beers I had never been there.  It’s taproom was larger than I imagined, and very well done.  A fun place, and a large outside patio that with heaters was being used even this weekend!   And the beer selection was worth the trip.   Then we stopped in downtown Grand Rapids to see HopCat brew pub.   RateBeer rates it as the #1 brewpub in the country, at least that is what HopCat says!   I did not check, but with the large variety of tap beers and world renowned bottle beers besides their own brews,  I can see why it would garner that rating.   I had a Rodenbock on tap, we had some appetizers and took in the ambiance.   The State of Michigan beer scene is growing in leeps and bounds.   Leaving Grand Rapids to head to our weekend home I found 2 brewpubs in a small town of Hudsonville that are both fairly new.   We stopped at Pike 51 brewery, originally a winery the owners have added their love of beer.   I was very impressed by their large selection of unique brews.   I had the chance to talk to one of the owners and he even showed me 2 bourbon barrels in back that are aging their first sour beers.  They had a smoked pumpkin scotch ale, a belgian quad- 15 beers on tap.  In addition to their wines!  had a tasting flight, and we left with a case of wine!   Then to White Flame brewery near by.  Another impressive list of beers, we did a flight of all their beers, and we decided to order food their!  Interesting the food is made in a mobile truck parked at the door, but it was very good!   And on Saturday we did our usual tour of downtown Holland.  Which is interesting and fun,  we spent some money on small business Saturday!   And managed to stop at a new brewery, OUR,   and New Holland brewpub that is one of my favorites.   again some great beers (MJ had a 12.2% stout) and we decided appetizers were in order.  And when we got home for the evening Skip and Claire made us some chili.   We had lots of food and drink, and a great time.  We even got a sheepshead game in.    I had to shovel the driveway from overnight snows when we got there,  but then the weather was good.  Saturday was fairly warm, and the drive home was good with partly sunny to make it a good drive.   The long drive home is not the fun stuff, but the weekend was worth it.   Now getting back to a week of ‘catch up’ at work.  But we have a Florida trip coming up soon, and will look forward to that.    So good times to you,  God Bless.

White Flame flight

Founders

HopCat