Cool temperatures followed our Michigan visitors to Florida!

The kids were hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures when they came to Florida last week, but unfortunately the record artic temperatures followed them all the way to south central Florida. 

It may not have been consistently warm and sunny, but it wasn’t bad enough to keep us inside!

There was golf . . .

 

they had a fivesome while we waited for Nick to arrive . . .

and a group of six for their second round, once he got there.

A good-looking group of golfers!

Tom and I got some bike riding in while they played 9 holes,

and it was almost dark by the time they finished and ended up back by our site.  It was a pretty good course for the kids to practice on (all but Hannah are fairly new to golf) . . . par 3 and fairly understanding residents . . . I think everybody hit at least one house or RV!

Another afternoon was spent on the tennis court . . . just for fun, not much score-keeping!

I think this was Nick & Bryce’s first attempt at tennis, and they did pretty well.

Tom gave it a try, too . . .

and the dogs were just waiting for a bright yellow ball to bounce their way!

In the evenings, we all gathered in the clubhouse to play pool, watch football (Michigan State was in the Holiday Bowl – and won!),

and play lots of card games – Euchre, Wizard, and anything else we could come up with!

One cool but dry day we took a trip to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge to do some hiking.

The Palm Hammock Trail was a nice 2-mile loop.

It was a nice day for a hike – cool enough that a brisk pace felt pretty good!

The hammock of trees overhead were very interesting, even if we didn’t see any wildlife along the trail.

We made a quick stop at the Visitor Center, but didn’t see any alligators, and drove out to the Manatee viewing deck, but it was too cold for them, too! 

All we saw was this big guy!

We took a quick trip down to Playalinda Beach at the Canaveral National Seashore . . .

and it looked a lot different than the day Tom and I were there . . . lots of big surf today!

We were all getting a little hungry by then, so we headed over to the most famous restaurant in Titusville for an early dinner . . . lots of seafood, the boys had gator bites, and I had chicken fingers (my usual at a seafood restaurant) . . . oh, and those powdered sugar coated corn fritters . . . yeah, we all had a few of those!