Key West for Thanksgiving!

Oh my, it's been quite a while since I've done anything worth writing about!!

We had long-ago planned to fly to Key West to enjoy Thanksgiving.  Buddy and Sharon flew the airlines and met us there.

The trip actually started a day early since I was concerned about an approaching cold front that might cause some nasty weather at home.  It actually was unnecessary to leave early, but, hey, what's wrong with an extra day of vacation???

We decided to land at Tampa Executive Airport instead of flying all the way to Key West in one hop. It was late in the day when we decided to leave, so it was getting dark as we approached Tampa.

As we were taxiing in to the terminal, we saw this blimp doing some practice work....pretty cool!

The next day was bright and sunny!!  Very nice flight on southward to Key West.

Approaching Key west you can see the two huge cruise ships in port.  I will tell you that the town is much more crowded the days that the ships are in port.  They do appear to depart by 5pm each day, so the crowds are not bad in the evenings.

Not a lot has changed in the town since we'd been there last (several years ago).

Still lots of chickens - everywhere.  Even at your feet in restaurants!

We had a very yummy traditional Turkey day feast at the Schooner Wharf.  

And I have to share this.....while walking back to our condo....we saw some amazing athletics.....yep, that guy gets a strike with a frozen turkey.....

Fun day and shopping

Today was my "play day"....I had arranged with Robert to have lunch near his new job at Allscripts in North Raleigh.   I picked him up at the fancy office building - it's been a long time since I've been north on Six Forks Road....my, things have changed! I hardly recognized a lot of it!

He's enjoying his new job, by the way - says he's liking the people and learning alot! We had a nice lunch and I took him back to work - but I completely forgot to snap a photo!

Since I was in the "big city", I took the opportunity to do some fun, healthy shopping. This is by no means the complete "haul"....but I hit Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Aldi. Good fun!

A little snow

Driving west towards Asheboro Airport this morning....I was shocked!! We had a little chilly rain overnite....and woke to a very cold morning. But I had no idea it has snowed west of us!

Kind of pleasant and peaceful....and nice that the roads were all clear!

Cold gray day at the airport

Brrrr! Our first real chilly day....started off nice and 58 degrees. The wind started gusting and the temp started dropping. The skies are now gray and the light-sensor-controlled runway lights have come on at 4pm!   You can see them behind the airplanes on the ramp.   I'm ready for spring already! Whine, whine...

Sugar Cookies!

I was getting ready to bake some of those yummy "Faux-Girl Scout DoSiDo's" for game night...I was looking in my cabinet for the recipe when I came across this one instead for sugar cookies.

It has been forever since I have baked sugar cookies. I think maybe the last time was when the boys were little and we always did the Christmas cookies for Santa Claus....and since you always have the right ingredients for sugar cookies.....

They were melt-in-your-mouth fabulous!

New Car! (New to us, that is)

Always fun - getting a new car!  Its a 2 yr old Mercury Milan - (like a Ford Fusion).  It's a nice ride with an good sound system and some fun options.  Duane needed a replacement car - and now that we don't live on a dusty road we could shop for something other than a white one!!

Whoopie Pies!

While we were traveling in Maine, we kept seeing hand-written signs on the side of the road that said "Pies for Sale"  and occasionally "Whoopie Pies".  We didn't investigate at the time, but just thought that there were lots of people up there who baked "pies".  You know, like apple pies, pumpkin pies.....

Then we went to a Halloween Party at some friends house last weekend.   It was "costume optional" so we did not dress (if you're wonderin').

The host, however, dressed up.  EEWWW!  I hugged him on arrival and got gooey "blood" on my white fleece vest.  It washed out fine....I'm digressing, aren't I? 

What does this have to do with Whoopie Pies?   Patience, Grasshopper!

It was a chilly night - they had several fires going.  Very nice...

OK, now we're back around to whoopie pies.  These are our friends dating back about 20 yrs to Pack 93 Cub Scouts.    They are also wonderful cooks, chefs, cheesecake bakers, etc!   As a treat at the party, they brought....you guessed it......Whoopie Pies!!!  They were fabulous!   

So, I had to try and make  some of my own for our Friday  night game. 

There are recipes all over the internet - it's really just a couple of LARGE chocolatey cakelike cookies surrounding a sweet marshmallow fluff filling....all ingredients were in the pantry except the "Fluff"....

I got so busy that I forgot to snap photos....but you get the idea.  They were de-lish!!!  (and huge!!)

Fall!

I thought I might better snap a photo of some leaves around here.  This is on the driveway....they're not the best this year.  A lot of them just turned brown already and dropped off.  We've got a couple of very windy days ahead - so I suspect a lot of these pretty leaves will have "left"!