We escaped from Washington the day after Christmas and beat the weather – more snow, sleet and cold – to head to FLA for the last week of ‘09. The plan was the Fab Five (at least a few of us) would return to Sandpiper Marina for sailing, golf and New Year’s Eve.
We arrived to a chilly 70 degrees in Florida and were very happy to get back on the water. Needless to say, we lost the socks, put on shorts and had a relaxing drink to celebrate sunset.
As usual, the wild animals were out and causing trouble.
The first few days of the trip, Phyll and I were in town alone and decided to try a couple of restaurants – expand our horizons so to speak. We ate at 11 Maple on Sunday in Jensen Beach. Good food with small plates that were very interesting. Monday night, we were back in Jensen beach and ate steaks at Peter’s Steak House. Tuesday, we were hoping we would be eating with Richard, but the timing just didn’t work. He was here for business and we could never get our schedules aligned. So Tuesday night, we hit the Black Marlin in Stuart for a very good meal. Tony, from Fortunate arrived Tuesday and joined us.
Sunday was a golf day. Got in 18 holes at the Sinners course with Jack. Phyllis, who doesn’t play golf, was happy to get her nails done. Monday, we got the roller blades out and went out for an hour. We hadn’t been blading for a while so it felt good to get out and get some exercise. Tuesday, Tony joined me for 9 more holes of golf. I haven’t played in a couple of years and it showed – ughhh. Only game worse than Tuesday was Thursday. The rest of the gang arrived and we had a foursome with Josh, Christy, Tony and me. I was terrible, but we all had fun as the whole crowd was here.
Tuesday was a great day with warm temperatures and good wind so we took the sailboat out. The nice breeze let us get it really going and we hit 7.5 knots. Jack took a couple of hours off and joined us on our cruise. It’s fun going up and down the river looking at the houses. Only real difference between here and Annapolis is we end up tacking more often. Going down the river and back, we get about 9 miles of sailing.
This was the first trip where Phyll and I could spend time doing nothing and visiting the sites. We went down to the beach – for the first time – on Monday. Jensen beach was really pretty and relatively deserted. The weather was a bit chilly, but the beach was nice.
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Well, I have just been told that we need to leave at 11:30 for our tee time today. I’ll have to finish this entry later. Lot’s more to add. Golf was rained out – our first day of bad weather since we got here. Actually, its nice to just sit on the boat and chill for a while. We’re watching the Winter classic, finishing the blog and reading the newspaper.
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Our time at the beach was fun. Beautiful sunny day and refreshing breezes.
Every afternoon this week, Phyllis and I walked around the Club Med resort. It’s an interesting place filled with families and kids. They really have a lot of activities for the children including a huge circus program. We have been fascinated watching the trapeze training, really interesting and fun.
For New Year’s Eve we were originally going to go to the parties at Club Med, but they were sold out. This actually turned out to be a blessing. We set up some tables between Fortunate and On Course and cooked ourselves a feast.
As you can tell from the pictures, it was another tremendous evening with good food and friends. It’s hard to complain with New Year’s Eve being celebrated al fresco on the docks.












































































































