Walt Disney World

We are at Fort Wilderness Campground since April 15th having an awesome time. Yesterday we went to the Spirit of Aloha at the Polynesian resort with Harry and Jackie and Jim and Carol. We had way too much fun. Food was great. It was fun to see the kids on stage having a good time with the dancers. Today we toured the pools at some other resorts. We've done Epcot and Animal Kingdom. So much to see and do here. Chiko has been to the Pet Spa to be groomed and pampered. Grandkids want to come back. Maybe next year as we'll be back to Florida in the Fall.

Belmont Splash Pad

At the Belmont Kids Park Campaign Kickoff yesterday, the team announced that they have secured $270,000 of the $300,000 goal to build the new Splash pad and Skatepark. Now they will call on the community to raise the difference as they try to schedule completion this summer instead of 2014. We are so proud of our daughter, Dione, and the many hours she has put into this project. Dione took on this effort in an attempt to give back to the community that supported her and her family during their struggles with Jack's cancer. Belmont is def a community that cares.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

We packed up our home after the kids left and moved to Gold Rock Campground in New Smyrna Beach with Dewayne and Nancy for a week or so. We joined the Deer Creek FMCA club for the Balloon Festival and decided to stay on. Clean pleasant campground and we will def return next year for a week or two. Enjoyed the Balloon Festival even tho too windy for the Balloon Burn. Air show was great. Mike and MaryAnn had recommended Our Deck Down Under in Port Orange so we went there for dinner. Excellent choice. Even had dolphins joins us over the end of the deck. We spent time on the beach a few afternoons. Saturday we attended an old car show in historic downtown New Smyrna Beach and were amazed at the large number of impressive cars that showed up for the show. Very pleasant afternoon. Monday, April 15th, Dewayne and Nancy will head to the great white north and we will move to Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground for two weeks.

Belmont Splash Pad

Dione has been involved in raising money to build a splash pad in her community in Ontario. Their goal was to raise enough monies to start build in 2014. Well, the past 3 month have been an exciting time for her and her team resulting in enough funds pledged to start the project this Spring with scheduled completion this Summer. And they haven't even started to campaign for funds from the local area.  The connecting link on this blog about Dione being nominated for the Canadian Walmart Mom of the Year indicates that the Splash Pad was her charity of choice should she win the award. This will provide an awesome play area for the small ones in Belmont and the surrounding community.  We are so proud of Dione.

SOUTH AFRICA March 2013

Time has gone quickly and before we knew it, it was time to take off for South Africa. We flew from Orlando, FL to Atlanta, GA and then on to Johannesburg SA. Long time on the plane but they did have current movies to pass the time. We had pre-booked two nights at Mo Africa Hotel and Johannesburg before joining the rest of the group. When we arrived we found that Mo Africa was full so they had moved us to their sister hotel, The Sarah Club. It was even nicer. Loved the hotel and the rooms. Had gotten a great rate on the rooms as well. First thing was off to find a Vodaphone store and get SIM cards for our iPad minis. Found it was as cheap as Italy. We got the 7 Gb on a prepaid card plus the SIM for 50 Rand (which is approx. $50 US) And was working before we left the store. Wish Canada and US were as easy. And,,,, in the centre of the mall was an ice rink with a hockey game going on. In South Africa no less.  The next day we hired a tour guide to take Rick n Bonnie, John and I on a tour of Johannesburg and Soweta. It turned out to be a fun and educational day. We toured the Regina Mundi RC church, the FNB Stadium, the Apartheid, the Hector Pieterson Memorial as well as driving past the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (the third largest hospital in the world); the  homes of Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela's current home. We stopped at an African buffet for lunch. Our guide was well informed and gave us a lot of information about the area. Even took us to ghettos and explained the different levels of ghetto living.
We moved to the Kopanong Resort and Convention Center to join our tour group. Beautiful resort. John and I tried lamb and were surprised at how much we enjoyed it. Upscale dining room and we ate some interesting foods.
Then onto Bobo's to rent our motorcoaches and get started on our caravan. We stayed mostly in National Parks that were clean and quite nice. The guys soon learned to drive on the left side of the highway with the steering wheel on the right. And stick shift. The trip included 6 nights at Kruger National Park. Two of those nights we spent at Kirkman's Kamp. Very upscale, great service, awesome food and would highly recommend. We did 4 safaris (6 am and 5 pm daily) in open land rovers with a tracker and a guide. Between Kirkman's and Kruger we saw the big five. We saw wild dogs which is rare. It got that giraffes, impala, elephants, zebras and hippos became old hat and we got more excited seeing the leopards, lions and rinos. It was amazing, educational and breathtaking to see the animals, countryside and nature at it's most primitive. We went on a total of 7 safaris while in South Africa. Again, took about 2,000 photos. Nice to be able to upload to Facebook daily. The rv's were small but lots roomy enough for our trip.  Think we can easily say this was our most awesome adventure. South Africa is promoting tourism and we were treated very well there and in Swaziland. Cost was moderate as well.

Pizza place in Clarens with best pizza
and Sangrias

Our new home for a few weeks

Rick n Bonnie, John and Sheila

Toes in the Indian Ocean

Baby Leopard hiding while waiting for mom

Lots of giraffes

Dancers entertain us in Swaziland

Family and friends

Campground even had it's own Zebra

Our land rover for our hunts

Hockey game in middle of mall in Johannesburg

Lots of Hippos

Similar story to the March for Freedom in the U.S.

John looks like original owner of Kirkmans

Spotted Hyena waiting for leopard to drop antelope from tree

Sharing the road

Mom and baby

Many kids on roads walking to school every morning

Dung Beetle - Impressive

Dressed in Zulu outfit at Basotho Cultural Village

Walt Disney World, Florida March 2013

Well the kids came to Florida for our Family Disney Vacation and we had just the most awesome time. Dione and her family flew in March 27th. We had to cancel Michelle's family flights the same day as Tate's hockey team made the OHMA hockey finals and winning had resulted in a final game March 28th. They rented a van and drove to Disney arriving late Friday night. Boardwalk was crowded but we still enjoyed each other's company at the pool and on the Boardwalk. Downtown Disney was a much fun as always. Lou, our neighbor at Deer Creek who also owns DVC points, recommended we consider going to the Polynesian Resort pool for a day. His tip was absolutely the best. We spent the day at that pool, laying on the beach in the sun and taking the kids for a ride in the motorboat. Hardly anyone at the pool although it had the same activities for the kids as other pools. Will go there again. The resort we were staying at 'Boardwalk' had an Easter Scramble on Sunday, Easter morning, and the kids cleaned up on candy. Disney has a fun day planned that the kids enjoyed greatly. As the theme parks were so busy, we decided to go to Blizzard Beach for a day. Turned out to be an excellent choice. Dione, Bob and Jack went down the big slide. Jack was so proud of himself and Dione, who loves thrill rides, said she would think twice before going down again. Have to take a gondola ride up to the top. Everyone had a great time and def want to go back. Dione, Bob and the kids flew home April 3rd and Tim, Michelle and the boys drove north on Thursday morning. Awesome time together.