We got to Florida and Lake Worth just before Thanksgiving. We left the boat in a nice secure marina at Lake Worth on the East Coast of Florida just north of West Palm Beach and drove to Fort Myers where my mother and oldest brother live.

We needed to get all the usual doctoring things done, dermatologist, dentist, cardiologist, urologist and of course my visit with Dr Reeves about my ITP which is stable and doing well. Hartley also has been doing physical therapy for his thumb injury and is slowly getting it to move again.

It has been great getting to see some of my family again. My Mom will be 90 in February and is still going very strong. We ran the Turkey Trot, a 5K race , on Thanksgiving and she did very well. The age group was 75 and above and she came in 3rd at almost 90 and the two ladies who beat her were under 78! I was impressed with myself as I managed to run ( no walking) the whole thing.

 

Being on land has really shown me how lazy I have become and that I really need to get back with it. Running is an easy thing to do, no equipment necessary, so that looks like one of the activities I will have to keep up. It has become quite a family affair as Lya and Ariel in Phoenix, our two daughters, have started running and are doing very well.

Keeping up with my Mom is always a challenge. Her usual routine, and therefore mine when I visit, is water aerobics for an hour, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and running Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Also we go see her trainer at the gym for weight work once a week. My cardiologist said I didn’t need a stress test this year as he thinks I do enough that it is a self test. He also says he wants to meet my mother!

Mom and I drove up to Clearwater, Florida the second weekend in December so she could run in the state games so she could qualify for the National Senior Games in Alabama this summer. She didn’t have any competition as she was the oldest one who ran period and the only one in her category (85-89).

My brother Iain has been very busy this visit. He sold his old house and bought a new one just after we arrived. He was kind of sad as he had done a lot of work on his old house and had it the way he wanted. But the new house is right on the water and is beautiful. With a bit of work he will make it his own. He and his partner Patti are thoroughly enjoying it.

He has a dock at the back of the house where he can go fishing. He keeps his motor boat and PWC there as well.

The newest addition is standup paddle boards. I tried it when we were over on Christmas day. I did pretty good, only one face plant. The area near his house has some shallow spots and I got the fin of the paddle board stuck in the mud. I thought I had it freed but not really and when I gave a big push I went forward and the board did not!!.

While we were In Fort Myers we had parties.

We watched the boat parade with our fancy hats and in general had a great time.

 

Hartley had been running back and forth from Fort Myers to Lake Worth (about a 3 hour drive) to get some work done on the boat. I finally came out this week to get things ready for our next off shore adventure. I am busy, once again, redoing how things are stored in the port side bunk. Oh well maybe this time will  be the last. Ha Ha!