A Walk and a Waffle

Good morning, my friends. The day has all the makings of an excellent day. As we sat chatting yesterday evening, this email came:

All you can eat? Waffles and Mimosa's? Count us a big IN! So we hung around the RV until it was time, and then we walked down to the clubhouse to cash in...or something like cashing in. This park is beautifully landscaped, and so of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing along the way. These magnolia blossoms were high overhead.

This is bougainvillea. It's one of the things I miss most about my home state of California.

This next one has us confused. It had about a half dozen of these pear-sized fruits that look for all the world like avocados. But avocados are an evergreen tree, and this one was completely denuded of its leaves. It sure looks like an avocado.

Okay and upon our arrival at the clubhouse, they were quick to hand us two flutes of champagne. Also available were orange, berry, and guava juices to top them off. There was also fresh fruit available for either mimosas or waffles. We both chose orange.

We waited just a minute or two for them to make our waffles, and mmm, mmm, mmm. That was a tasty way to start the day.

I took more flower photos on our way back. These white roses...

and these little yellow puff clusters. The flowers are tiny. About the size of a head of a glass-headed pin. These were on a low-growing shrub. Take a look at the leaves.

Now compare it to these clusters of flowers growing on a taller tree. The flowers appear identical, but the leaves are different.

There is blooming rosemary planted all around the park.

I believe this is also a magnolia. When we stayed here last time, these spent pods were littering our space.

At first glance, this appeared to be an avocado tree.

Moving closer, though...not an avocado. It's getting ready to bloom. We may get a chance to see it before we move along.

This is statice. We don't usually see this growing. Usually it's seen already cut and added to flower arrangements.

Here's another flower growing throughout the park. Are they some kind of orchid? I don't know, but this one is growing at our site.

We passed by a walkway that led to a play area. Please note the rules and behave yourselves.

Definitely no having fun. Straighten up, y'all.

And, basically, don't be a cretin.

We needed a gate code to get back inside the RV park, and we didn't know it. We had to settle for looking through the bars. When we got back to the RV, we called for the gate code, and so we'll take a look around later today.

There were just a few more blooming things on our way back to the RV. This hibiscus, which isn't completely open.

This is growing beside our RV. Not sure what it is. It looks a little like rosemary, only pink instead of blue, and the plant is slightly different. Heather maybe?

When we got back to the RV, nothing would do until we got Smitty out for a walk. He prefers these parks where there is lots of landscaping. He feels less exposed when he has places he can hide. We could hear children playing nearby, but he took it in stride.

Sadie watched from the catio. It's hard to see her in there, but she's there.

Sadie has been such a good traveler this trip. She's resigned herself to being an indoor-only kitty when we're traveling. If you're relatively new to reading the blog, you should know that Sadie goes wild off her leash. She gets into full panic mode. We nearly lost her on a previous trip. And please don't recommend this or that harness. Believe me...we've tried them all, including the full body straight-jacket-type vests. She gets out of every harness we've tried in mere seconds. She's so quick, we can't even get hands on her until she's gone and running away. So...no more chances. She's indoors when we're traveling.

As long as I'm linking to old blog posts, I'm including this post showing the interior of the RV, for anyone who's curious. I wrote this post a few days after Mike arrived home from South Carolina with it in tow. The images of the RV are in the bottom half of the post, so scroll down to see it. The thing I like most about this RV is the kitchen set-up. A while back, I posted this image of Mike on the far side of the island to help me make Enchiladas Suizas. It's one of Mike's favorite dishes. 

Getting back to Smitty's walk, he practiced being a tiger in the weeds. It's a little like being a member of Seal Team 6.

He was extremely disappointed with this California grass. You'd think a cat traveling in a legal state could get some decent weed, but no. These were all some kind of bulb plant and too tough and fibrous for his tender palate. Finally, we found some growing on the far side of our RV. Nom, nom, nom.

The children playing nearby were sounding more raucous, and so he sat and considered his capacity for heroism. Eventually, he decided he'd reached his limit, and we went back inside.

For his courage, he was awarded treats of valor. Sadie received treats of condolence. It's really all about the treats. Outside, Schmoutside. Who cares as long as we get the treats in the end.

The pictures of Smitty were on my phone. When I uploaded them to my laptop, I found this photo of some orchids we saw in the grocery store yesterday. Beautiful.

That morning mimosa is going to have me wanting to lie down for a nap, and that's exactly what I'm going to do next. Or maybe lunch first, then a nap. We're still in relaxation and calm-down mode after skedaddling out of Oregon so fast and then facing scary freeway traffic, bad weather, and broken springs. There's nothing on the agenda for the rest of the day. We're having dinner with a friend tomorrow evening, and so I'll be baking an apple crisp tomorrow as my contribution. That will wait until tomorrow, however. Just now, I'm resuming relaxation mode. I recommend it for you too.

Oh yes, and my friend Cherie reminded me I haven't given you a Starlink update. We heard from them a few days ago, acknowledging the unit was no longer operational and promising to send a new unit. We've given them a friend's address, and we're just waiting for a shipping notification at this point. I don't expect it to be shipped before Monday now, but we still have plenty of time here. They'll ship FedEx, and so it should arrive quickly once shipped. Yay!