Winter in Florida 2018

When I get ready to post on this blog, it makes me realize what a good life I have carved out for myself.  This is my 9th winter in Savanna Club (the name of my 55+ community) in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  I have made friends in here, at church, and have kept up with dive buddies from long ago.  I'll just share a few highlights from the winter/spring of 2018.

Women's Club "Basket Meeting"

This is one of our best fundraisers for the year.  (The Woman's Club donates to many causes, focusing on local charities.)  

What is a Basket Meeting?  Ladies form themselves into groups and each group creates a basket with a theme.  They get together at someone's house to plan, shop, and execute their idea.

Themes include anything from gardening to cosmetics, to chocolates, to movies, to beach accessories, cleaning items, to first aid items, to pet items.  It's always fun to see what clever themes and catchy titles people come up with.

One of the especially popular ones is Dinner Around the World, which includes gift cards for various restaurants.  Ladies also like the wine and cheese baskets.

At the meeting, you buy tickets, go around and view the baskets, then drop your tickets into bags by the baskets you would like.  Then they have a drawing.

There are over 300 gals in the Women's Club, which makes for lots of fun and games!

Sweetheart Dance

Every February the Social Committee hosts a dance to honor all the couples who live in Savanna Club who are celebrating their 50th anniversary during the year.  This year we honored 8 couples (although there were a few more who didn't choose to participate).


Here are the Social Committee members who helped put on this lovely and elegant celebration.  I am way down near the other end.

It's a lot of work but we always enjoy seeing the beautiful decorations and sharing this monumental occasion.  In this day and age, it's quite an accomplishment to stay together for 50 years!



Hattitudes Paint with Attitudes

I am in two Red Hat groups.  One has 26 members, therefore I call it my Little Red Hats group but their real name is the Hattitudes.  On February 22, 2018, we Hattitudes painted with attitudes.

In 2015 we went to another place like this.  Here are my two paintings - the vertical one is the 2018 one. 

It's not the finished product, but the process that is fun.  But, if I ever have a chance to do this again, I don't plan to paint another black palm tree!

Sunday Lunch after Church

I go to the First United Methodist of Port St. Lucie in Florida.  This is my 8th winter in Florida as a snowbird and I have made many friends at church.

I met Judith Beckman in my UMW (United Methodist Women) Circle.  Here we are at Grandpa's Diner after church.  We both had eggs Benedict (Gary's favorite!) 
 

Meeting Dive Buddies for Lunch

Gary and I met Julie and Russ Manhold, my longtime dive buddies.  We were in the same Undersea Adventurers dive club in Ft. Lauderdale back in the 1980s.

Gary and Russ hit it off and we had a delightful lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in West Palm Beach.  Gary and I had plans to take the Diva Duck tour after the lunch but that fell through because someone (me) didn't do her homework.  They are not open on Mondays!

Soooooo....... we met Russ and Julie again for another lively lunch!  When it came time for the Diva Duck tour, the company cancelled it because it was too windy that day.  Looks like a third lunch might be in order when Gary comes to Florida again. Oh, well........

The Elliot Museum

We took my two dear friends, Bobbie Steinberg and Norma Pennie, for a little day trip.  We went to the Elliot Museum on Hutchinson Island in Stuart.

The Elliott Museum was built to honor Sterling Elliot (1852–1922), who was a prolific inventor.  He held more than 125 patents, one of which was the "knot tying machine."  The museum has permanent and changing exhibitions, including baseball, bicycles, over 90 cars and trucks, and many, many more more.

One of the neatest features is a unique robotic racking system with 50 vehicles displayed.  You press a button for the car you want to see, it gets the car and brings it down onto a turntable.  

The Elliott Museum has one of the largest collections of historic Ford Model A and Model AA commercial vehicles in the world.


These are some of the highlights of the winter/spring of 2018.  Hope you've enjoyed reading this half as much as I enjoyed living each event.