Shayna's Room

Here is a peek into Shayna's room:
Her bedroom window looks out to the backyard (left side) and the canal.

The night stand above I got on Craigs List for $10 (and in Boca close by too). I am still looking for a tall white bookcase/cabinet type piece of furniture to place in the spot where the books are all lined up on the floor. the green poster is from the Morikami museum, on Monday June 25th Shayna and I went because they had a special 25th anniversary day and it was free that day. It is very similar to the Japanese house in Philadelphia.

South Beach Walk

We went to South Beach in Boca (part of the 3 beach park system we have the parking pass for) for a beach walk tonight. South Beach is also the beach that has a webcam.

Right in front of the main pavillion there were maybe 30 surfers which we watched briefly. They were very good. Below is Skyler walking, holding Shayna's pail and his shoes. You can see there is a volleyball court/net behind him. Its tough to get a real exercise walking session with him because he stops a lot to put sand in the pail or just walks very slowly, so we have ordered a new all terrain stroller (after much research I chose the B.O.B. Revolution all terrain stroller and ordered the 2006 model). We will use it for beach walking and hiking.

We found a ship wreck during the walk, or at least many artifacts from a ship wreck. After looking at the many items we think it may have been from Cuban refugees.

We also found this neat ancient coral bed, with a huge crack in it:

There were a LOT of coconuts on the beach. We tried cracking them open but had no success:

There were also a lot of sea turtle nests, which were roped off with signs like this:

The sea turtles come onto the beach at night to nest and lay thier eggs...so it is possible if you walk on the beach later at night (after 8:30 or 9) to see a sea turtle. You may have noticed the seaweed in some of the photos, they do not clean this uo because of the sea turtles.

At some point later in the summer, the turtles will hatch. Then we may see the cracked shells left behind after they crawl into the ocean.

Mizner Park

Tonight we went to the ampitheater at Mizner Park to see a free concert. Mizner park is in the "downtown" and "old" part of Boca, close to the beach. Its a huge spanish/meditteranean style shopping plaza. It also has an art museum. It reminds me a bit of something you would see in the south of France or Spain (architechture and style) and has a lot of outdoor trendyish restaurants. It was a bit too hot and the music too cheesy for us, so we went to the old fashioned ice cream parlor there.

The day before this we also briefly checked out the Town Center Mall, which is our local mall near us in Boca. WOW. what an amazing mall. It has some over the top features like valet parking and $3 "up close" parking which are laughable (there are plenty of spots including many covered types). It has great restaurants (not mall ones), but also the standard food court. Manny likes the living room posh furshished seating area located about every 100 feet or so in the middle walking areas...great for husbands waiting for wives and daughters while they shop. There is a Children's Place, Macys, Sears, Bloomingdales, and Nordstrum (these are some of the main stores I shop at), I think a Gap Kids too and an Old Navy. The other store I frequent, Target, is also not far from our house. I also had my hair done (roots/blow out) at a hair salon at the mall and what a great color and blow out (better even than my old city salon which says a lot). The mall also has Saks and Neimen Marcus.

Pool Slide

Go here to see a video of Skyler going down the pool slide at our house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBhP4iERAp8


as you can see, skyler is now wearing arm floats and the level 3 swim aid that has foam pads on the front and back. he is now down to one foam layer in front and back. I will post some photos of his new swimming skills later.

Red Reef Park

We went to Red Reef park to celebrate Fathers Day, a few days after the actual day since it rained. Red Reef is set up for snorkeling and scuba, as it has coral reefs.

We brought our snorkels & masks and took turns snorkeling so someone would always swim with Skyler. Wearing the mask I am able to swim underwater (contacts) and got quite a lot of swimming, plus an extra work out becuase the water was very choppy. we saw a lot of colorful fish, all about 90% the same ones, and some yellow tails, plus I saw one colorful blue parrot fish. At one point we were swimming around in the shallower area, and I grabbed some sand, like I do to see whats in it, and I had grabbed a pure white crab! Shayna and Skyler were looking at it, and I asked Manny to hold it so I could run and get the camera. when I got back he had dropped it, as 2 men were playing paddle ball nearby and wouldn't you know it they hit the ball RIGHT into the hand Manny was holding the crab with. we spent most of the time in the water, and here are shayna and skyler at the very end playing in the sand at low tide. see the exposed coral tops to the right.
at red reef park, just after you get off the beach area, there is a beautiful shady area with grills. we had brought along chicken to grill and to have a picnic dinner. we also brought salad, fresh fruit, and drinks. they have an outdoor shower so you wash off all the salt and ocean water and sand, I even brought body wash to clean the kids hair. In fact, now I have a special waterproof bag (from boating days) with shampoo, so we all shampoo our hair in the outdoor shower from the beach, going home nice and fresh (this makes a world of difference). Here is Manny at the picnic table and the lit grill. we have never used real coals before, so that was neat.

Just behind the spot we had, was the play area, so while waiting for the food to cook the kids can play:

there are also 2 other full fledged play grounds in the park...good for the cooler months after walking and treasure hunting on the beach. on the way out we saw a raccoon.

The Iguanas

There are 3 iguanas that live in/near our backyard. Here is the biggest one, he is all grey, and we named him Gigantor:
The smallest one, seen below on the dock, is all green. we still need a good name for him, all I can think of is Kermit:

We see them every day, they wander all over the back yard, even coming close to the house by the deck. The middle sized iguana is about half green and grey. There are also hundreds of geckos, they are our own personal exterminators.

Dining Room

Here are Shayna and Skyler having breakfast in the dining room at our new house in Boca Raton, Florida:

as you can see, it has a great view of the canal and also the pool (off camera to the right).

Luckily, Publix and Winn Dixie (the 2 supermarkets here) both have Cookie Crisp cereal. I have since discovered Publix is a much better store...they even have a great tortilla espanola, fresh figs and knishes!

Auto Train

After spending Saturday night at my parents condo and Sunday night at my brothers house, on Monday we took the overnight auto train from Lorton, Virginia (about 40 miles from my brothers and not far from DC) to Sanford, Florida (near Orlando).

It was very easy. You pull right up to the station, they slap a magnet number on your car, and you put your carry ons onto a cart, leaving all your luggage in your car. Then you go inside and get your boarding passes. There is a huge waiting area and a shop with a place to sit and eat. You can see the train right outside the window where we were sitting, below. Straight ahead is where they load all the cars onto the train. we had enough time to relax, have some drinks and snacks, look in the gift shop (behind in the photo off camera), and for me to make some business calls.

At 2:30pm it was time to board the train. I was surprised to see it was a double decker and we were on the top level. Luckily, since everything was up there- the lounge and dining cars, etc. The bathrooms were downstairs. we were in coach, it was very roomy. here is Shayna in her seat:

Shayna and Skyler in the seat. The legrest comes all the way up to make it cozy:

when we first got on the train we walked around to see all the different cars. Maybe if we go again we'll get a sleeper car, as it was tough to sleep in coach. Skyler loved opening the doors between the cars and wouldn't let us press the button that opens them.

They had a really nice activity book and crayons.

Here is the lounge car. There are huge windows so you can see the scenery. In the booklet that comes with the boarding pass it gives you a timeline of where you will be at each time. They had some basic snacks like small pretzels, and coffee.

They also had bananas and oranges. Shayna took this photo:

Skyler fell asleep. I had brought a lot of things to read but spent most of the time talking and meeting the girl scout moms from south florida sitting in front of me. they were so friendly and came over to talk to me after hearing we were moving to Boca. They were all from broward and dade counties, fort lauderdale and miami areas (south of us). They had gone on a girl scout trip to DC.

At 7:30pm it was time for dinner, in the dining car. That was fun, although the food was just OK. Skyler wouldn't eat the chicken fingers and he almost always eats them, so that says a lot about the quality. They give you a whole carafe of wine with dinner...maybe to help you sleep!

At about 9:30pm, the lights go out, and about everyone goes to sleep. everyone except skyler, since he took a nap. I think by 10:30pm he and shayna - somewhat- went to sleep, as did I, as it was extremely uncomfortable, but we managed.

Around 6:00 or 6:30am the lights came on and the train came alive. I felt like I was in summer camp. Around 7:00 am or so, we meandered over to the dining car for breakfast, which was some warm bagels and cream cheese, muffins, juice, cereal, and coffee. Not bad and better than dinner.

I think the train arrived around 8:15am or so. After getting off the train, you wait for your car number to be called as they come off the train. This takes a little while, and we were one of the last to be called, but I didn't mind. It was nice and breezy in the station, and very bright and airy. It was so wonderful to be in Florida.

When our number was called, we went right out to the car (its like valet). Then off for the 3-4 hour drive to our new house in Boca Raton.

Moving Day

Today was our big move day. Here is what the U-haul looked like:
we really got about 100% usage and value out of the available space:

see what items you can identify. I think it is like a work of art. not sure if you can see it (unless you click & enlarge for details), but I placed a diving magazine inside the potty seat so it makes a frame around "florida keys" and I think the scream guy is saying "Oy vey! I'm moving to Boca!"

sadly, we could not fit everything we had intended to take, so had to decide what was to "make the cut." we decided to leave non sentimental or items that can be easily replaced. For the few that were left but we hoped could be saved, my parents took: things like Ben's plant, Freda's glass bowls, the hand painted birdhouse, and Shayna's box of dress up stuff. They even took some things we were glad to leave behind, like the annoying vacuum.

It was a crazy day/night. besides the actual moving, I had to go to the office twice, set up a new patient, and had people, at least 3 different sets of people, coming to the house to purchase and/or see items we had for sale.

at least now we were at the top of the hill after climbing up, and were now ready for the hike downhill.