Activities in Florida

We love kayaking at Silver Springs State Park, and seeing this little manatee was extra special!

     This past winter we were back in Florida again, at Thousand Palms Resort, the same campground that has been our winter home for a number of years now. It is under new ownership and management, and is now primarily a membership campground, which has brought many changes, good and bad. The good is that we were hired as the activity staff for the winter, the bad is that many of our friends will not be back next winter. We enjoyed leading the weekly schedule of activities. Mark taught line dancing 4 days a week and gave pickle ball lessons, while I led yoga classes twice a week. We had a cooking club, where we, or another camper, demonstrated and sampled a new dish. We set up for the weekly carry-in dinner socials and bingo nights. We had fun with the kids doing crafts and game activities each week. We organized parties and decorated for New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day. We also made soup each week for up to 30 people. Our recipes included homemade chicken noodle soup, ham and bean soup, beef barley soup, chicken and rice, lemon chicken orzo, Hungarian goulash and more. There were campfires, movie nights, and ice cream socials, and all sorts of fun stuff to entertain and amuse our fellow campers, and to encourgage everyone to be active and social. We are so thankful for the opportunity to lead the activites, and for the wonderful friends that we have made over the last few years.

Palm fronds make great reindeer!

A short stop at the Gulf of Mexico

Mark serving soup!

Hiding in the balloons before we put them up
 for the Valentine's Day Party

The finished backdrop for pictures that we put together

This barred owl joined us at our campsite
during dinner one evening!

Dressed up for Mardi Gras

Kid's acivites

Our friends that we line danced with all winter!

Friends!

Mark was part of the magic show, and somehow he didn't get
water dumped on his head! It must be magic!

More kid's stuff!

Cooking club, chocolate mouse pie!

We collected chilren's books and had a scavenger
hunt to find them around the campground before
putting them in the campgound library

This spring our adventures will take us to Europe and the UK. My goal is to update you after each country that we visit. We won't be bringing our camper, just our backpacks!