NEWS FLASH: Granddaughter Wears Out Grandparents!

How did we ever have the energy to raise 3 kids, when just one granddaughter completely wears us out in a week?!?  But, you gotta admit…we totally spoiled her rotten before giving her back to her parents!

She learned some new things the week with us, like body surfing in the breaking waves of the ocean shore; like high tide & low tide on the floating dock; like paddling a kayak for the first time on an ecology tour of the marine estuary; like finding the north star by using the Big Dipper.

But one of the highlights was going to the Marineland Dolphin Adventure aquarium to swim with the dolphins.  As long as you had a fish or squid in one hand, the dolphins happily followed your hand signals to dance around & splash the swimmers.  (I know the dolphins were happy, ‘cause they smiled all the time!)  Because Madeleine was just 8 years old, Sue went into the water with her & also got to shake hands (or flippers) with a dolphin.  An added benefit was Madeleine holding an easel board while a dolphin held a tube of acrylic paint to create a masterpiece of dolphin art.

And then we headed to the Orlando area to spend 2 days at LegoLand Florida.  Madeleine has been hooked (by her dad) on anything Star Wars, especially Lego, so she was in heaven for the entire time.  Between the amusement park, where she was fearless on all roller coasters, and the water park, where she tried to become a dolphin in the water, she decided to live there from now on.

There were numerous creatures around the park, all
constructed with Legos.  It took Lego artists many months
and several million Legos to construct all the creatures/structures.

Coming off one of the roller coasters, Madeleine fared
much better than her "Opa" did!

For those of you old enough to remember,
the new LegoLand took over the property where
the old Cypress Gardens ski & water show used
to be.  Lego still offers a ski show for entertainment.
This Southern Belle in a big hoop skirt, like we
saw in the old Cypress Gardens, is now
made entirely of Legos!

Yes, we enjoyed entertaining her for a week.  It was probably the highlight of our summer, too.  So now we’re in Chattanooga caring for Sue’s mother, who has her 94^th birthday tomorrow.  Sue is going to mess up all the diabetic residents in the nursing home by bringing in a birthday cake for all to share.

After that, we’ll head back to the boat to prepare for our travels.  We’ll have 2-3 weeks to get to the St Pete/Tampa area before we need to put the boat up for a week while we attend a wedding in Ohio, with a detour afterwards to visit our friendly attorney concerning the estate of Sue’s uncle.  Looking to close our cruising season a month early this year, around Oct 1.