Sunbathing In Freezing Temperatures

 

Juno loves a spot in the sun more than just about anything in life!  Caleb set her up yesterday with a double-chair and soft blanket rig.  She was a happy hound for a LONG time!

Steve's Unquenchable desire to receive a tummy rub

When you get close...

 

And when you start passing by him without recognition!  LOL!!

Valentines Day 2021... 2021!!!!

I am, hands-down, the worlds worst giver of gifts.  I'm terrible, pure and simple.  I'm occasionally good at something slightly arsty and was much better when Rob was a wee lad.  This year, I had the idea to start low on the hill in the driveway with little hearts that would grow in size as Mama Chaos would drive up to, and into, her garage stall.  Well, it was cold.  Not just cold, but REALLY FRIGGIN' COLD!!!  Only one heart got "painted" and enlarged after I realized the original idea had been frozen out.

 

The Past Meets the Present!

Caleb discovering what an old 4-track cassette recorder looked and acted like!  So fascinating to watch!

 

Vaca 2020 - Day 11 - Castillo de San Marcon

So roughly 10, 11, 19 days into vaca at this point and we're all a little frazzled. Whenever something doesn't go smoothly, which rarely happens on a vacation, one of us is more miffed than the others and expresses their personal displeasure. 

We were all at a somewhat stable place when we "arroved" at the grand fort, or Castillo. This reminded me of a soap opera in the late '80's / early '90's where there was a Castillo, maybe a Bo & Hope... Victor Curiaucis (sp???), ALF and perhaps some others. 

No matter, here we are at the "Castillo" ready for as much of the tour as we can do because, you see, apparently the 'Rona is inside the fort/castillo and everybody who has entered the aforementioned has perished but those who remain just on the other side of the walls are safe, so for the outsiders sake, they closed the inners... 

It was still a pretty cool thing to see, and as such, we shall take you on the 'Rona safe self-guided-tour that we self-guided ourselves on. Let's go!

Cannons.  I need a cannon.  And when you see the "oven" later on, you'll see what kind of a cannon I want/need!

One of the few family pics from this vaca as you didn't just walk up to strangers and hand them your obviously 'Rona afflicted phone and demand a pic.  Mama Chaos, who plans our treks, is obviously still in fine form even though she's likely been berated by all of the boys at this point for something that she "obviously misplanned" or whatever,  Caleb appears to still have his wits about him but Rob and I appear to appear like we're pretty much ready to be back home.  I really like home.  Vacations are cool, but this is dragging on a bit at this point. 

This is the wall that fortifies the fort from the ocean waters.  I'm not exactly sure what it's made of, but it was crazy looking!

The previous photo is what Mama and Calebber are standing on here.  Caleb lost a tooth shortly before this so, as a bit of tradition, we like to have the kids throw teeth into the ocean.  If you don't like that, I don't care... move on.  So I believe that we have kids' teeth off the coast of Maine, Hawaii, Oregon? and now Florida.

Ah, the Castillo!  Really a pretty cool thing to see!  We're in the moat.

Speaking of the moat, click on the pic to make it bigger and read a bit about it.

I need a house with a moat around it.  But it needs a straight driveway, not a driveway like we have now where people, unwisely, try to back down and slide off into the ditches.   Here they would slide off into my gator infested moat and then I would not be able to help get them out.  They would be on their own.

This is a close-up of the stone from the wall of the fort/castillo.  Crazy stuff.

Hmmmmmm...  looks like their outdoor cooking space, aka oven!

So if I get a cannon for my birthday, I will need to build one of these where I can get my cannon balls up to red hot but also be able to smoke meat when I'm not in need to send red hot cannon balls at my enemies.  This seems justified.

The Chinese lad on the other side of the "castillo" but still in the moat.

And what does that pic look like from a different angle?  A bit like this!  Mama and Rob were faster than Calebber and myself, so that's how this happened.  I'm not gonna lie as that would be unbecoming, but there was a dad/scout master/something of authority who had four teenaged boys with him.  He was trying to teach the 4 lads about the rocks that were used and everything else about the fort. The boys, being teenaged boys, were paying attention about 10% of the time and not heeding the bosses commands. At first he calmly stated, "Please, do not touch the monument.". He started ramping up to, "C'mon guys, DON'T TOUCH the monument!", until he finally flipped his lid when Caleb and I heard, "GET THE F--- OFF OF THE F------ MONUMENT!!!!!". I giggled and we made it a point to put a bit more distance betwixt our party and theirs. LOL!

Here we see the entry bridge that we saw from the other side earlier in the post.  I'm beginning to think that we really need a castle!

And it seems our visit has concluded and we were back on the road heading up the road to Jacksonville.

Curly Schmitz Lambeau

Walking out of the Packers tunnell with the fake crowd noise building.  It gives you goosebumps!

 

Bubble Boy

Robby at his 2nd birthday party catching bubbles that Mom was blowing to him.  We're coming up to the 14th anniversary of this pic and should get him bubbles for his birthday!  It looks like it would make him happy.