Our Home-Stuart and Other Adventures

While I have written a couple posts about our travels since we got back to Stuart, I have not done any about what we have been up to locally. A big reason that we picked Stuart as our new home is there are so many things happening here that we love to do. Number one, there are many great local restaurants offering a variety of food. In 2020 we did not get to check them out but we have made up for that this year. Another thing we love is the many music venues. Several pubs have local musicians and the Lyric Theater has top notch acts. Also the weather, especially in the fall, winter and spring, is fantastic. Of course, there are the beaches just a few minutes away and we have done some short Florida road trips exploring our new state. All the things we like about Stuart was recently confirmed when Southern Living placed it in their top ten places to live. 

Our first road trip was to Orlando to see the Duquesne women's basketball team play FCU. It was a great game even though the Dukes were on the losing side.

Here we are with Washington native and the Dukes head coach Dan Burt. It was nice seeing Dan and seeing a game in person.

Another annual Stuart event is the air show. We don't have to leave home to see the planes as fly really low over our home. By going to the field we got an up close look at many different planes.

The acrobatic planes are always fun to watch. 

Every Sunday the Rockin Riverwalk downtown on the river has a free concert. There is all kinds of music 50 weeks a year. Dotty Kelley is now one of our favorite blues singers.

Another big move was buying a new car. Our CRV had 160,000 miles on the odometer and was towed another 100,000, so it was time. We went just to look and five hours later we drove our new Hyundai Tucson home. I'm now old enough that I have a car that was more expensive than our first house. 

A new car calls for a new road trip. It was back to Orlando with George and Nan to see the Van Gogh immersion show. 

It was a very interesting way to see his art projected on all four walls.

An interesting Van Gogh self portrait. Well worth a visit if you get a chance.

The beaches are great. It is always possible to find a spot with few or no people. There is plenty of parking and unlike other places we looked it is all free.

Another great music venue is Terra Fermata. It is outdoors with old patio furniture seating. This night it was the Treasure Coast Blues Society featuring Dotty Kelley and Joel DaSilva

A little condo project. We collected many things during our twelve years on the road. Nanc made them into a coffee table collage. It brings back wonderful memories everyday.

Sometimes living in a condo complex can get a little weird. In Lexington Lakes there are 22 buildings with a unit 104. One evening as I was closing the door this is what I found. I called the Walmart (they had delivered it) and the security guard. Neither offered a solution. Just as we decided to put the perishables in the fridge a neighbor from the next street showed up to claim her groceries. She was lucky as we were only the sixth unit 104 she went to.  

We did another road trip to the Gulf Coast to spend a couple days with Rick and Denise, Missy and Marty, Dawn and Jed (friends of Rick and Denise).  This is the only picture I took of the people, Missy and Nanc shelling. We did enjoy getting away.

All these folks are friends we met at Betty's RV Park. Kathy and Dave are still on the road while George, Nan, Nanc and I have settled in Stuart. The travelers were here for a week so we got to show them around our new hometown. 

It was Mardi Gras so we had everyone over for a Cajun dinner of shrimp etoufee and a king cake.

All dressed up for a show at the Lyric. The Lyric is a small theater that was renovated during Covid. The first show we saw was Jazz great Branford Marsalis.

We also saw blues singer Ana Popovic. The Lyric is a great venue and there is not a bad seat in the house.

We had our first and only visitors this season from up North. Our friends Mike and Sherri stayed for a few days. We went to the Elliot Museum where George is a docent, so we had a great personal tour. 

The Elliot has a great collection of old cars. They are on a rack kind of like Carvana. You tell the docent which car you want to see and the machine picks it up and brings it down to the turntable for a close look.

There was a special exhibit featuring paintings by the Highway Men. They were Black artists who painted and sold their work along the highways to Florida tourists back in the 50's. At the time they were very inexpensive, but some are now worth thousands.

While these paintings are well known in Florida, they aren't as popular in other places. Since they were bought by tourists there is likely many up north that people have and don't realize their worth.

A walk on the beach with Mike and Sherri. We do enjoy having friends visit and hope things get back to normal so more people will be traveling.

We decided we needed a longer road trip so we went to see our friend Betty in Louisiana. We had not seen her since our 50th anniversary party on the Outer Banks in 2019.

We visited our friend Elda whom we met in Abbeville several years ago. She was doing well, but like all of us looking forward to more normal times.

It was Cajun Jam Session Saturday at Touchet's where we saw many Cajun friends. The accordion player was a young man who is deaf. He was truly amazing.

The group from Betty's in the Horny Corner. 

At Touchet's they have a special tribute to musician Dave who was killed in a tragic accident last winter. He is someone who we always looked forward to hearing when we went to Betty's. RIP our friend. 

Just this week we did a day trip to Sebring to get together with Escapade Directors Duane and Jean, who we worked with at three Escapades. As we always say, getting caught up with friends when traveling is the best. 

Our future plans include another cruise. This one is out of Miami, through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast of Central and North America. It ends in Seattle where we will be spending a few days with our sister-in-law Kazuko and Nanc's sister Judy.  In July we will be heading north, staying six weeks in WashPA. 

Life is Good - Stay Safe - Stay Healthy. 

Norwegian Encore

I have not written anything about what we have been doing in Stuart since last October. I may catch up with that someday, but this post is about another vacation we took last month. Our friends John and Patrice told us they planned to take a seven day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Encore and wanted to know if we were interested. Since the Encore is the ship we will be sailing on for our three week cruise through the Panama Canal to Seattle, we decided to consider it. We monitored the latest Covid numbers and ten days before the scheduled departure date, February 6th, we booked it.

The Encore is a huge ship designed to carry 4200 passengers. It was launched in 2019 and, of course, like the entire cruise industry, was shutdown by Covid in 2020. We felt safe as all passengers had to prove they were fully vaccinated, were tested before boarding and masks were required indoors unless you were eating or drinking. Another reason we felt safe was, there were only 1300 passengers and 1700 crew members on this cruise.  

Here we are with John and Patrice in the Observation Lounge, our favorite place. The ship was built with Alaskan cruising in mind so this lounge would seat hundreds of people where they could view the sites on that trip while staying warm.

This is typical of the "crowd" in the Observation Lounge.

Another reason we liked this cruise, we could drive to Port Miami in a couple hours. Ships leaving here, go to the end on the port by the city. then do a 180 degree turn to exit the port. This is a Carnival ship that sailed before us.

After turning around our ship sailed between Miami Beach and Fisher Island into the Atlantic Ocean. Our original itinerary began with one day at sea and day two we would stop in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. 

When we checked in we learned day one would be in Nassau, Bahamas and day two at sea. A sailing ship passing in Nassau. Some of the houses we could see were heavily damaged by the hurricane they had a couple years ago.

This is Atlantis in Nassau. We have been here before so we did not leave the ship on this stop.

Lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor.

There were plenty of things to do to keep you busy. Yes, you can go-kart race on the ship.

A day at sea with another ship on the horizon and a beautiful rainbow. While rainbows require rain, for the most part showers stayed off in the distance.

Interesting chandelier in the atrium that changed colors. Like every ship we have been on, the decor was fantastic. 

I think Andy Warhol was on board.

Docked in St Thomas US Virgin Islands. It amazes me that this huge ship turned around and backed into the dock among all these much smaller boats.

Unlike the Bahamas and Florida, the islands of the Eastern Caribbean are mountainous. Not very high, but having very steep hills and roads.

We opted to take a tram ride for a view of St. Thomas. The Encore is the ship on the left.

We enjoyed the view, took a walk along the harbor and did some shopping on our way back to the ship. Masks were required everywhere in USVI.

Upon returning to the ship we had to wait to board. It turned out, one of the crew members had passed away and the body was being removed from the ship while the crew paid their respects. 

Part of the welcoming committee.

The next morning we arrived at Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We later learned we were only 12 miles from St. Thomas. The ship just did a slow figure eight over night to get there. 

We did a land and sea excursion. The sea part was aboard the Bel Aire.

While more than a dozen islands make up the BVI, only four are inhabited by locals, six are privately owned and the rest are a national park.  This is Salt Island that gets its name from the old salt works there where they boiled sea water to get salt to preserve meat and fish.

This island was a resort for the super rich. There were several homes here, but most were destroyed by a hurricane. Bill Gates' home was the only one that survived.

We saw several huge yachts in the ports and anchored. Oh the tough life of the 1%.

Yellow tails feeding. But fishing is not allowed in the national park.

The next part of the excursion was in an open air bus that took us up, down and around some very steep roads. Great views at every turn.

We stopped at Stout's Lookout for local drinks or beer, plus the view. 

Here's the spot where you can sit down and enjoy a fantastic view while having a drink....

....but be careful when you get up, it's a long way down if you fall.

I had to try the local beer, Carib Premium Caribbean Lager. It is the go to beer, biere, cerveza, starkpol (yes four different languages) for the Eastern Caribbean. 

Very steep and a bit scary when you meet a truck on a switchback turn.

A good look at the road on the side if the hill.

Our boat in the harbor. We enjoyed our time in BVI and were glad we took the excursion to learn a bit of history about the pirates of old and new who have been here over the years.

The next day was another day at sea. Nanc with a bottle of Louis XIII cognac. You get to keep the crystal bottle if you buy the bottle for $4,200. As you can see, they do not sell a lot. The bartender told us a guy once bought a shot for everyone at the bar. I was nervous with Nanc holding it!!!

There was different entertainment in the lounges and the atrium everyday. One of the big shows was Kinky Boots. It was wonderful.

There were two water slides poolside. Yes, I did it! That is me waving at the top. You get in the tube and suddenly the floor opens and you zoom through the tube. Not everyone makes it to the pool at the end. We watched many people who had to get out of the tube via one of the escape hatches. It was fun and I will do it again.

This was the pool on a typical day. I can't imagine what it would be like with 4,200 passengers on board.

That said, this is the pool the day of our last stop, Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. Most people went ashore to go to the beach so we had the pool to ourselves.

Moon and clouds over the Atlantic.

Tender returning from Stirrup Cay as the sun sets.

Another great show was The Choir of Man. It was a lively show of song, dance and beer drinking. Not to give anything away, but if you go to see it, sit near the front. Here is a link to their web site.

We really enjoyed getting away and are looking forward to seeing the crew of the Norwegian Encore again next month.