We visited Magnolia Mound plantation today. It was a French colonial plantation awarded by land grant, so the home was not as magnificent as others are in this area. It was an interesting tour, though, conducted by a young woman who was excellent at talking to the kids. This plantation originally grew indigo. Indigo was such a carcinogen that the average life span of a slave working with it was only 5 years. YIKES. They switched to regular cotton, then to brown cotton, then to sugar cane. Sugar cane was a very lucrative crop. The kids got the chance to touch and feel items in an outdoor kitchen as well as try their hand at the sugar cane mill.

We have a few of our gang feeling a bit under the weather, but nothing too serious. We arrived in Baton Rouge yesterday and plan to stay 2 more nights to hit New Year's Eve together, then we will start to split up. That will be a sad time as the kids are having such a fabulous time. We are staying at an RV park that is on a 300 acre equestrian centre. The horses are fascinating for the kids, but unfortunately, we cannot get close enough to pet or ride because they have a disease they are quarantined for.

Gulfport, Mississippi was virtually obliterated last year with hurricane Katrina. Four of us drove down from our campsite where you could barely see any damage, to the coastline. The scenery took our breath away. There were concrete slabs left where once mansions stood with Gulf views. Rubble is strewn in the grass that was once manicured lawns. Over a year later and there are still debris clearing crews there. We drove around a few city blocks and managed to get a chance to talk to one clean up crew. There were a batch of people from a church in Ohio. They were down over Christmas break to help as much as they could. We got to lend a hand for a few minutes and broke out our stash of pop in the truck's lockbox. We were awestruck at how many homes were still sitting there needing attention. We saw homes with "please demolish" spray painted on them. People have left, but hope that city cleanup crews will just mow down their destroyed homes. The wind and storm surge just destroyed everything in the first two blocks along the shore. It's hard to believe without seeing it. There are many vacant lots with only cement pads left that are for sale. The beach is absolutely beautiful, but also mostly closed. We're not sure why, but suppose there may be contamination from the flooding and probably tons of broken glass in the sand. It was very sad to see, but also inspiring to see how many people had managed to clean up and build brand new homes already. There were only a few, but it was a testament to the strength of human spirit.

Merry Christmas to ALL from the Orser, Taekema, and Morch families.

We are so fortunate to have been able to spend this holiday with so many great families. Thanks Dan for your awesome photography. Dan is the only person we've seen two Christmases in a row in some years. We spent Christmas eve huddled under our awning extended with two big blue tarps. It rained hard all day just to make us feel like we were back in BC. Only thing different was it was warm enough to stay outside in it. We had a great variety of appetizers all night and are now looking forward to the big turkey feast tonight.
We wish all our friends and family back home and around North America the best holiday season and health, happiness and success for 2007.
Jim's thoughts. Who would of thought that a ten minute conversation in a rest stop in Wiscosin would have led to Christmas on the beach for 13. Each family has there own story why they are doing this trip and they are all different. One thing for sure is that we are all bound together by this experience. We all get along and it is busy with all the kids and they are all so good. It has made our Christmas one not to forget. It is ironic that we are all homeless at this point but we all plan to settle in the southern interior of BC. Canadian Christmas in Florida. Dan gave us a slide show, with music of our times together here, in Gettysburg and San Diego. It is beautiful and probably the most thoughtful gift I have ever received. Thanks Dan. Merry Christmas everyone.

Henderson State Park. Another beautiful day at the beach. The kids had a great time on the skim and boogie boards and the rest of us fished swam or just soaked up the sun. The 13 of us are having a great time and it really feels like Christmas with us all here even without the snow or cold. We all miss our families and friends back home.

Leslie Yvonne and myself wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and hope it is the best ever for you all. Love Jim, Les and Yvonne.

Sunrise at Destin, Florida. What a beautiful spot this is. We were just a beach to the west in 2003 with Mike and Josie. It's as gorgeous as we remember it. We are at Henderson Beach State Park which has a walkway that comes out right at this beach on the Gulf of Mexico. We have joined up with the Taekema family again. We have also been joined by the Morch family that the Taekemas met in Key West and we met in Port Canaveral. We will also be joined to day by Dan whom we spent last Christmas with in San Diego. We've got quiet the party going. Today will be seven adults and seven kids. It's a great time and the kids are all playing so amazingly well. We had our first game of prize Bingo yesterday and it was hilarious. The giant chocolate bars were a hit. We've got a variety of prizes and everyone puts in a quarter to play and the last game is for the money. This morning was spent doing Christmas arts and crafts with sand dollars, shells, and glitter glue.

Da Funiak Springs, FLA is a nature-lover's paradise. Our campsite has a bunch of different types of birds. There are cardinals here, but my photos just didn't work out well. Will try again early tomorrow morning. We had another great travel day and put a lot of miles behind us. We travelled through a time zone, so are now on Central Time - only 2 hours ahead of home. It's only an hour to Destin in the morning, so it will be a very easy travel day.

Way on down by the Sawannee River, long, long ago........ WOW, what a difference 200 miles north makes. We had an uneventful driving day and made it safely to White Springs, Florida. It is at the junction of I-10 and I-75 at the north end of Florida. We now head west towards Destin. The palm trees have given way to pine trees and deciduous trees draped in Spanish Moss. The scenery is totally different from central Florida. It was still a nice warm day, so we got to spend a bit of time outside tonight by the fire. Yvonne and I (L) went to movie night to watch Polar Express on a big screen. It's truly amazing the little things and sounds you miss when you watch it on a small TV at trailer audio levels.

Honeymoon Island - again. Well, today was a day that really makes you realize why people flock to Florida in the winter. It was mid 80's F and just gorgeous. We returned to Honeymoon Island that we last visited with the Taekemas. We ended up staying for over 5 hours. It was such a gorgeous day, we didn't want it to end. Yvonne made friends and played like crazy. We went shell hunting and found a whole ton of cool ones. This was our last day before we start heading to Destin, so it was a special blessing to have such a nice day.

Jim Wrote. It is hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you are on a beach getting baked and it is 85F. That will change when we get up to Destin on Wednesday and the 3 Canadian families get together. 6 adults and 7 kids. I got hockey sticks on board. Maybe we can get a ball hockey game going. How are the Florida Panthers doing? It is a very odd feeling when it is this warm and you read reports of the storms that have hit at home. I have been trying hard to feel bad for being here while the guys I used to work with are working there butts off in the worst conditions. It is not working though, I am thankful I am here. Yvonne and I built this sand castle today and had a great time doing so. The sand is perfect for it and you don't have to wet it.

Went for a long walk along the beach today and kids were playing in the sand, lots of people fishing and boating. I got down a way and there were about 8 or 9 dogs on the beach. Every entrance onto the beach has a sign in 4 inch high letters. NO PETS ON THE BEACH. The Ranger came a long and told everybody to get their dogs off the beach. This one idiot with the boxer who 5 min before had let his dog take a dump on the beach yelled at the Ranger. How come dogs aren't allowed on the beach? There is no cure for illiteracy and stupidity I guess. Hope i spelt illiteracky write. The biggest surprise of all is that I did not even get the urge to kill the stupid sob and didn't even make a wise ass remark. This retirement really mellows one out.

Any way it was too nice a day to get worked up about anything. To the guys I used to work with work safe and be well. I want to see you all there when I get home in March.

Florida orange juice - right at home. We pulled into this week's home on Saturday. On one side of us, our neighbour has an orange tree and came over and told Yvonne she could pick as many as she wanted. She of course went to town. Our neighbour on the other side has a grapefruit tree, so he came over later with an armful of grapefruits. We ended up borrowing his juicer and making orange juice and grapefruit juice. Yvonne and Jim worked at it for a couple hours. She now knows how many pieces of fruit goes into a little bit of juice.

We are in Port Richey which is just a bit north of Tampa. Our park is a quiet, adult only park. I guess they aren't too strict on the kids as they let Yvonne in. Our neighbours are quite enjoying the kid fix. We tried to sell her, but no go. Hee hee. She's going through kid withdrawal this week. Luckily, she's got the Taekema kids and Morch kids to play with next week.

Jim had an unfortunate incident this week. We were intending to go to the beach, and he took Yvonne for pizza before going. While eating his lunch, he felt his tooth crack. Instead of the beach, we went in search of a dentist. Luckily there's a dental clinic right across the street from our RV park. Paying cash gets you right in front of the line, so he was in, X-rayed and scheduled for an extraction within an hour. Unfortunately, he cracked it right in half way past the gum, so it couldn't be saved. He thinks it's been on it's way for a long time. So, yesterday he got it pulled and is doing great today. I'm using it as an opportunity to test a few soup recipes for the soup section of my cookbook. He'll be a bit tender for a while and will have to get a bridge built when we're back home.

We're taking it easy for a few days - organizing and cleaning the trailer and going for swims. We have a nice pool here. It's been warm at night and the bugs have cleared up, so it's been nice out around the fireplace each night.

Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-116 lifts off from Cape Canaveral!!! Unfortunately, we had to get a NASA picture for you here as we were 120km away when it finally went up last night. We watched it live on NASA TV over the internet and then ran outside to see the bright orange ball disappear. It happens so fast, it's amazing. By the time I had Yvonne asleep, Discovery was over England. What an exciting thing to witness.

The other fun part about staying at Jetty Park is that the cruise ships pass right buy and into the Atlantic. They are so close, you swear you could jump on. The picture above is the Disney cruise going by. They honked their "It's a Small World" horn and Yvonne yelled out "They're going to Disneyworld". It was a pretty exciting three days.

We also got to meet the third family planning to join our Christmas gathering. Dave and Cheryl are also from BC (North Van) and have two little ones - Peter (17 mos) and Kayley (3 yrs). Yvonne and Kayley speak the same Barbie language, so they played like they were long lost pals. We were lucky to be in the same place at the same time to meet before we all meet again in Destin.

We are now in Port Richey which is just north of Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico. We are a mile away from the beach and supposedly can bike there, so we just have to find out where the trails are and we'll head over. Yvonne's just wanting to sit and read books. We did a book trade with Cheryl who has far superior books to us and Yvonne is thrilled to have new reading material.

The Shuttle Launch got scrubbed. Major bummer. We were all piled into the back of our truck on the beachfront. The wind was blowing and cold as a cold front moved in right around dinner time yesterday. The cloud became too thick for the shuttle to launch, so we got the excitement, but no bang. Oh well, we tried. We had a great and inspiring day at the Kennedy Space Centre today. Jim and I both are ready to run away from our lives and join NASA. The work they are doing on the International Space Station is so inspiring and amazing, it brought tears to both our eyes. It truly is an amazing program and hope everyone gets a chance to visit either NASA in Houston, which we did 6 years ago, or NASA here in Cape Canaveral. It's truly a life-changing thing to see.
Cheers for now, I'm on battery power, so gotta be quick. We off to Port Richey just north of Tampa tomorrow.

Space Shuttle Discovery is about to be launched in 5 more hours. The picture at the top is Discovery on the launching pad waiting for it's 9:35 launch tonight. We took the picture while on the Kennedy Space Centre tour yesterday.
I took a picture of the campground this morning at 9AM, looking back from the water’s edge. That is posted above – our trailer is the one in the left hand corner. I will take another picture in an hour or so to show how busy it gets around here. We were so lucky to get the last overflow camping spot here. Unfortunately, we don’t have power, so we have to run around to find a plug in to use so we can keep y’all informed.
Yesterday, we went to the Kennedy Space Centre and did the bus tour around the entire complex. It was very, very interesting and inspiring. We will return to the Centre tomorrow to see all the hands-on exhibits.
It’s very exciting being here and feeling the tension and anticipation build up. People in RV’s and cars have been streaming in all day, so it’s getting pretty busy. We’ve been told it gets so busy that if you leave the park, you won’t be able to get back in (by car, that is). We took off for a bit of a bike ride this afternoon and made it pretty close to the cruise ships. There were two huge ones in dock today. We are right on the route for all the ships to go out into the Atlantic, so there are container ships and casino ships going by all day. Very cool.
The other picture above is the VAB – Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the tallest free-standing building in the world. The space shuttle is brought in and attached to the rockets and fuel tanks in here before it is sent out to the launch pad. The American Flag painted on the outside is also the largest painted American Flag. Some of the patchwork looking missing tiles on the building are from hurricane damage from last year’s nasty season.
We will update again tomorrow – hopefully with some shots of the launch.

Our last day with the Taekema's for the next two weeks was spent at the beach at Honeymoon Island and at their RV Park with the girls playing dress-up. All the girls have so much fun together, we are so lucky we've managed to hook up a few times. Our next time will be in Destin for the Christmas holidays.
Honeymoon Island is a state park just west of Tampa and is on the Gulf of Mexico. The sand is a lovely, soft talcum powder white. We found some wonderful shells and enjoyed the warmth.
Today was a cool day and a good day for work catch-up. We managed a nice swim as the pool here is very warm. Pays off on a cool day like today, but it's difficult to get out of.
We have another quiet day tomorrow before we head to Cape Canaveral - YIPPEE.

Busch Gardens, Tampa is an African theme. We went there yesterday with the Taekema family. We had a great time. Right when we got there, Santa was setting up, so all the kids sat on his knee and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Yvonne has her heart set on the 12 Dancing Princess's Carriage - don't know where we're going to put it!!! We spent some time looking at the animals. We were all amazed at the length of a giraffe's tongue. Jim waited to get the perfect shot. We also went on a few rides before we pooped out. It was pretty hot and muggy. When we got in the car at the end of the day, our thermometer said 86F and that was at 4:30. The bottom picture is Yvonne on her first loop-de-loop roller coaster. You can see me (Leslie) and Catherine in the second to last car. Yvonne is right behind me although you can't see her and Rachel is beside Yvonne. Yvonne absolutely loved it.

Today is a relaxing day with the Taekema family coming to visit for dinner. We're cooking turkey - FINALLY. Couldn't get a fresh whole one, so we've got a load of pieces going in the outside oven right now. We will spend the afternoon around our pool. There's three pools in this RV park and the one we've been going to is warm like a hot tub. Very luxurious.