Merry Christmas Everyone. Our Christmas Holiday season is being spent relatively local this year. Travel restrictions still keep us from visiting our family in Australia so we are just enjoying what we can where we are. We officially opened our Christmas Holiday Season by sending out our annual Christmas letter.
We have received many cards and emails again this year. It is always fun and interesting to read, and see in many cases, how people have changed or spent the year since we last heard from them. Always good to hear from friends and family.
On the 10th of December Nancy and I went downtown Tampa to enjoy the Tampa Symphony perform their Annual Christmas Concert Special at the Straz. A lovely evening. We spent the evening in town, had dinner at an excellent Moroccan Restaurant, enjoyed the symphony, had a night cap at an Irish Pub, and spent the night at a hotel downtown. We returned home Saturday morning.
So, now we are preparing to spend Christmas itself. We have attended dinners and parties in our neighborhood. Visited and greeted friends and neighbors all around where we live. Tune in later to see what we did for Christmas and New Years.
CHRISTMAS DAY – Again, Merry Christmas Everyone. We are snuggled into a quaint cabin in a ridge above Pigeon Forge, TN. Below us you can see all of the Pigeon Force city area as well as DollyWood.
We arrived here on the evening of 22 December after a scenic drive up though Florida, Georgia, and through The Great Smokey Mountain National Park from Cherokee, NC to Pigeon Forge, TN. The last leg, through the park, was sixty six miles at thirty five miles per hour but very scenic. All the leaves are gone so it’s a bit drab but still very impressive We did see a herd of Elk grazing in some of the lower pastures the park provides. As I mentioned, we arrived here in the evening of 22 Dec. I carried our stuff in from the car and Nancy unpacked the coolers and whatever needed unpacking. It was late so we drove down to Pigeon Forge to find food … you know, Hunting! We lucked out and found a very nice Brewpub (we like brewpubs) that served good food.
After a fulfilling dinner and a couple IPA’s we proceeded back to the cabin, unpacked and went to bed.
The 23rd was set aside for setting up for Christmas in our cabin and doing whatever we wanted. There was a very nice tree already here (with bunches of bright flashing lights) but Nancy still put our little tree up. I may be prejudice but I like ours better. I get photosensitive epilepsy from the flashing lights. Consequently we leave the big tree unplugged. It looks quite nice without the flashing lights. We do keep our little tree lit and shining on us throughout our time in the cabin.
After getting everything squared away at the cabin we decided to go back downtown and see what they have to offer. Pigeon Forge is much larger than one would expect and has an endless variety of shows, rides, restaurants, souvenir shops, museums, and whatever you can imagine. We drove around a bit and then parked and walked through an area called the Island. Interesting place. Best part was a huge fountain that performed to music. Comfortable chairs set up all around it so you could sit and watch and listen as long as you liked. We strolled, shopped, watched, and had a pleasant afternoon.
That wrapped up the twenty third. Christmas Eve morning found us enjoying home made cinnamon roles and coffee as we worked our way into a day of relaxation and meditation. Here are a few pictures of the cabin where we are staying and the view from our back patio.
Last night we went to a Christmas Mass at a local Church. First packed service we have seen since the COVID stuff started. A long but nice service.
When we got home we called our family in Australia. Being way down under they were already well into Christmas day. We got to talk with all of them, joke about our presents, and had a very pleasant conversation. They are all doing well … Thanks for asking. We adjourned for the evening and turned in.
Christmas morning found Santa had come through and filled our stockings. Nancy cut some German Stolen, I made some coffee, and we set out to see what he had brought. A pleasant morning remembering Christmasses past, opening gifts, answering texts from all over, eating Stolen, and drinking coffee.
That was our Christmas Morning. This afternoon Nancy gave me some more pool lessons. Beat me at Cribbage and Gin several times, and we listened to bunches of Christmas music. Later Nancy will be serving one of my favorite dinners; Cornish Hen. After Dinner we will again call Australia to wish our son Andrew a Happy Birthday. More tomorrow.
Wow!! Who would believe it’s the 6th of January in a new year?? My only excuse is that my films got lost at the photo center and I had to wait for them to be found. I’m sticking to that one.
We did call Andrew on his Birthday. We had a nice chat. We also undecorated the cabin from what we had put up and went down to the Brew Pub we started at for dinner. We had a nice dinner, came back to the cabin, packed the car, and got ready for an early departure the next morning. Which we did.
The drive from Tennessee to Florida is kind of interesting and takes about ten hours to drive … if you don’t get stuck in a traffic jam. Which we did. About one hundred miles from home we encountered the transformation of I75 from an interstate highway to a parking lot. Traffic stopped or moved very slowly. We finally bailed off of the interstate and zig zagged across Florida to the west coast and came home that way. We got home only a couple hours later than we had planned. On the 28th we unpacked, Nancy washed, we repacked, did some errands, spent a few hours with some friends, and prepared for our New Year’s event which was meeting Nancy’s Brother Brian and his wife Deb in Miami and driving down to Key West to spend New years. We drove to Miami on the 29th and checked into a hotel near the airport. We were tired so we just walked to a nearby pizza place for dinner. It turned out to be quite interesting as it claimed to be an Italian Pizza Place, but was ran by a Cuban guy who had lived in Italy. He had some friends there from Venezuela. It was an interesting group, we had a pleasant dinner, had an interesting conversation, and went back to the hotel and turned in.
The next morning we picked up Brian and Deb at Miami International. Was an interesting event as there was no parking available so we would park at some curb until the police chased us off and we would move to a new spot. Thank goodness Brian and Deb we only about an hour late. We scooped them up and headed south to Key west. It was a ninety mile drive that took four hours! A bunch of people were joining us!
We checked into our hotel, which was on Duval Street, and walked towards downtown looking for dinner. We found some food at an upstairs place that over looked the street. Shared several appetizers.
We spent the rest of the evening exploring and turned in to rest up for the 31st.
The 31st we spent the day visiting local points of interest, local watering holes, and celebrating New Year’s Eve. Fun day, long, but fun.
We had a very good diner at a nice restaurant on Duval and continued the evening’s activities till about one or two. I think I crashed first.
New Year’s day was kinda mellow. The hotel provided a pleasant breakfast so we enjoyed a leisurely time having that. Then we walked about the pier watching the big Tarpon swim around. Stopped at an interesting place for a late lunch, then boarded a big Catamaran for a Sunset cruise. The cruise was great, the sunset spectacular.
That was it for New Year’s day. It was up and at them the next morning. Brian and Deb had an 8 PM flight out of Miami and there were rumors of bad traffic all the way there. Consequently we left early and encountered a little traffic but not bad. Because we got back to Miami early we decided to show Brian & Deb The Everglades National Park. It is Winter so there was not much activity. It was a nice drive and we did see a lot of birds.
We got them back to the airport in time for their flight and they were off. I did find an interesting advertisement.
This is the real thing. If you want to be treated for a hangover they inject fluids and vitamins and you are supposed to feel great immediately. None of us tried it but we did run into one guy who had and he said it worked great.
So that was out holiday season from Pre-Christmas to New Years. It is different each year and a chance to try and enjoy different things. Wish you all could’ve been along.
