Crocket turns 12!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We have been blessed to have such an amazing dog-son! While he may take more rests than when he was a puppy, he still gets crazy dog! He is loving his new big yard and the many walks we take each day. He has so many new smells and spots to mark, he is happily busy these days.

THE Most Asked Question...

Our bike ride to Joe Patti's in Pensacola, FL...we enjoyed traveling land by bike

"What was your favorite stop?"

We get asked this EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. our Great Loop travels are the topic of conversation. I love this question even though it is a tough one to answer. It borders on near impossible to pick a favorite. It seemed each stop we made, became our favorite. So, we kept track of all the stops we want to visit again.

The list is in order from our first stop to our last.

We did not include any stops along the Great Lakes since we consider this area our home waters.

So, here goes my first attempt, this is just the first few favorites...lots more destinations to come. In the meantime, check out each of these stops, maybe you will make one of these your next vacation location.

The Wharf, Orange Beach, AL - We found Billy's Seafood with awesome stone crab claws, royal red shrimp and a great town with shopping and restaurants. Although the marina was large, it still had a small town feel. The locals were very friendly and welcoming. We had great food, great night life and gorgeous surroundings. Check out our time at The Wharf...

Tarpon Springs, FL - All things Greek, a great marina and impressive butcher in town, makes this stop a MUST revisit on our list. Read about our fun in Tarpon Springs here.

Pensacola, FL - I'm not even sure how to put into words the love I have for this town. It was pretty much all I needed to see on the trip as far as I was concerned when we arrived. We enjoyed our time exploring the town and enjoying the wonderful food (we made 5 visits to local seafood market Joe Patti's), the shopping was eclectic and fun and the people were welcoming. We spent a week and found ourselves in the middle of two different town celebrations...a town that celebrates like these people every weekend definitely needs a revisit! Check out our week long visit to Pensacola here...

St Petersburg, FL - We arrived here for a couple of days, stayed a week and I could have stayed a month! Next time around we will be here for a month at least. The municipal marina puts you within walking distance to what I call the ideal town. Complete with museums, excellent food ranging from vietnamese to indian, great night life, many bars, safe town and lovely neighborhoods. Our favorite farmers market is held here every Saturday. It is the largest we've seen along the trip and draws something like 20K people.

Ana Maria Island, FL - This is like being in the Florida Keys but in a classy, slow paced kind of way. The island is fairly small but loaded with perfectness! Restaurants, beaches, shopping and great people. We spent two months here and wanted to stay longer...heck we were even contemplating moving here. My only reason for saying no is that I love my winters too much.

Marathon, FL - We really enjoyed our time here, two months to be exact. We stayed at a wonderful marina called Faro Blanco, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. We explored by land (bikes) and by water (dinghy), eating, hitting the beach and checking out the keys. The food here is delicious, the people fun and the atmosphere is laid back. The views spectacular and the weather glorious. Down the street is the Turtle rescue, a dolphin research center and you can rent a flight in a by plane! We can not wait to get back here!! Click here to read about our wonderful marina in Marathon

Hollywood, FL - Wow! This one was the most impressive as far as expectations. The marina was run by a great group of people and very safe and secure. The boardwalk was across the Intracoastal (easy bike ride across the bridge) and what fun to people watch, eat, drink and just soak in Florida. The beaches are gorgeous with white sand. The town was a couple miles from the marina but no problem for us to ride our bikes. The town was adorable and had the best food, Monday nights food trucks gather in town, and the shopping is awesome. We found pizza that was so good, as soon as we rode our bikes back to the boat after eating, I ordered another one and rode back to take it with us along our travels. Next time around Hollywood will be a must stop and for a month if possible. Click here for a bit of day 1 in Hollywood...

It's a Crocket post...the amazing Looping dog

Ben mentioned the other day that I never designated a post about our wonderful dog and his Looping life!!

Crocket was my personal greeter...he met more people than I did. I would walk him and people would approach us calling him by name, otherwise strangers would want to pet him. All he would care about is if you can throw a toy or a ball and how far. He really really enjoyed the social aspect of cruising full time. We were never far from fellow boaters looking for a good time and that seems to be Crockets purpose in life too.

Crocket is English so he is very proper as well as used to routine when it comes to his hygiene and his bathroom duties. Both he seemed to have handled very well while on the boat. We had his hair cut three times in the year we were gone and all three times he was overly excited when we picked him up. Seems he prefers his old groomer, that's all he's known so it makes sense. As far as his bathroom duties...We were never able to get him to go potty on the boat. We literally tried EVERYTHING, we had our aft deck covered with sod, Ben bought a fern to hang so he could lift his leg if he wanted, we cut a section of his best dog buddies yard (which was recently marked) to put out, Ben tried marking the sod. We had scented puppy pads and we even grabbed some of the shrubbery right after he marked it thinking he would want to do it again. All he would do is look at us like we were crazy.
To Crocket, the boat is his house and he was trained to go potty outside, NOT on or in his house. So, we said lots of prayers and talked to our vet about our 24 hour straight travels across the Gulf of Mexico. The vet assured us he would be fine. So, we limited his food intake and water the day we crossed and he did great. Once we reached our destination 24 hours later, he took the longest pee ever!

Crocket was a bit confused and nervous about always being in a new location. Dogs tend to be territorial and with us on the move constantly he did not have his yard to check on daily to get his pee mail. He enjoyed when we stayed at port longer than a day, but that was not always our plan. But all in all Crocket was a great addition to our trip. And I think he loved having us with him everyday all day long, something he never had before when we both were working.

Many people ask about us having our dog on our boat. To us he is part of our family so of course he goes everywhere we go. He loves his boat, swimming, people and us. We never lacked a place to take him potty, we loved that we had him to cuddle all the time, he got us out walking and meeting new people.
Bottom line...did it cause us more work to have him with us? YES Would I have him on the Loop again? Absolutely YES!!!! We shared the experience with our dog and it was wonderful to watch him wake each day stretching, smelling the new air and taking in this most amazing adventure.

We got snow!!!

For our first snow fall we got close to 10 inches of snow! That's a pretty big deal here in Door County, especially this time of year. This area isn't known for lots of snow, so we will take what we can get and enjoy it as much as possible. We knew we had bitter cold coming with strong winds so we played as much as we could beforehand.

Ben trying the disc down the back hill

Crocket, in his boots today, on our daily morning walk down the driveway

Snow selfie

Ben's second snow plow of the day!

Crocket in the woods!

This dog kills me, he loves to go for rides on ANYTHING that moves!

Crocket and Ben going for a ride on the Phazer

Keeping busy here in Door Co...

When we first moved here, one of the locals said he was worried about us as the winters are long with few people around. Well, we seem to be doing just fine so far. We love the quiet, we love the snow, we love the slow pace of life, we love that there aren't a lot of people here, we love the fact that there isn't any traffic, we just love it here. 

I've been cooking up a storm, decorating for Christmas, baking, cleaning, getting myself certified to substitute teach in Wisconsin and still organizing our lives in the new house. 

We got our tree!!

Baking while Heidi was visiting

Ben has been busy restoring our in-floor heat in our garage. The pipes froze between the house and garage and the clever Ben ran a smaller pipe through, then with the help of the heating/cooling guy our garage is now officially heated! Woot Woot! 

Ben had to cut a hole in the plaster to get to the in-floor pipes. These run from our basement across our breezeway and into the garage.

Pipes coming into the garage...

We have heat!! The day before this read 43!

Ben also has been busy getting my new 1986 Yamaha Phazer in working condition, it is now running like a champ...AND we are going to be getting more snow!!! Yay!

We are also looking forward to the water freezing here so we can spend time ice fishing (my favorite!!). But in the meantime, we will be embracing this time of year as last year we did not see any snow. 

Ben and Crocket getting ready to move a pallet of wood close to the house for use in our fireplace

The Phazer! Crocket loves it!

I love the old Phazer!! My husband spoils me! He made me a trail around the property, so fun!!

I thank you for your part in my journey

So, I had a birthday this past week...AND my best friend flew in for 5 days to spend it with me!!! 

OMG! How lucky am I????!!!!

What more could a girl ask for? Heidi and I have been friends since we were 4 years old. She is one of a select few who know me better than I know myself sometimes. When we get together there is usually lots of laughing and relaxing. We just enjoy our time together. 

Growing up Heidi was always taking care of me and anyone else who was close! If my room wasn't clean (which it never was) I was not allowed to go out, Heidi would clean it. The days she drove me to school she included a chocolate doughnut for breakfast and a thermos of coffee. She is always doing for others so to have her here and see her relax...it was the best birthday gift for me!! Of course she still spoiled me with tons of special treasures and YES, she cleaned!

It was a very special birthday!!!

Crocket loved getting treats from Aunt Heidi...and ear and back scratches too!

Matching PJ's

Great times with great people!

Great friend Max came for an overnight visit...so we bought them PJ's too! Poor Guys!

We took this picture as we were leaving to take her to the airport, only to bring her back for another night because of snow.  Yippee! 

Fun times being crafty with Aunt Tamara and Heidi

Yay! We got snow!!