Joanne - President of Friendship Force of SW Florida

Joanne on a Friendship Force Exchange in Australia

We joined Friendship Force of Southwest Florida a few years ago when our friends, Sue & Rob Linehan, told us about this neat travel exchange club.  Guess what?  Joanne recently became its President in a landslide victory!  (OK, so not many people wanted to run, but Joanne lept at the chance to lead this wonderful group.)

Sure, you can book a cruise or a trip with a travel agency or on your own...but why not, have a deeper experience by actually meeting the people of the country you are visiting? Friendship Force (FF) makes this a reality!  

Here's how - You travel with your club members or go on-line (to find other clubs) that are traveling to a country that you may want to visit.  You'll stay with a club member at their home and their club will take you to see the sights of their local area. 

For example, when we visited FF's 2 clubs in Australia, we saw kangaroos in the wild on club member's land not available to the public, unless of course you are in FF.  One club member even took us for a ride in his private plane.  These experiences don't happen with a travel agency! 

The lifelong friends you make and the experiences you have traveling with FF are unique, memorable and unbeatable.  You have the opportunity to be an "ambassador" for the US as you talk about our country and come to a deeper understanding of their homeland.

What else? Our FF club hosts exchanges (people coming in from countries outside the US and from other states in the US).  This spring we are welcoming 12 people from Costa Rica and this fall, a group from Nebraska is scheduled.  Our club members volunteer to let them stay in their homes and other club members take them to see the sights of SW Florida.  We host a Welcome Party and many events for them.  It's fun for everyone and gives you an appreciation how others view our country.

Check out our club website at www.friendshipforceswfl.org  Hope you'll join our club if you are in Florida or if not, check out one in your area of the country.  There are 380 clubs worldwide.

Commodore Richard, PGIslanders

When a boat club changes its officiers, it's called a "Change of Watch."   Our wonderful boat club, the PGIslanders celebrated its Change of Watch on Friday, January 10th, with 165 members gathering for a terrific celebration complete with BBQ dinner and lots of thank yous for past officers and current ones!

Here's a picture of Richard being presented the club burgee complete with the 3-star flag of Commodore!  He ran the first meeting with a slide show to keep members interested and on track.  He is excited to lead this wonderful group in 2014.

Photos

New Year's Eve

The PGIslanders bent the needle on the Fun Meter down in Pelican Bay on New Year's Eve!         

Four large catamarans rafted to form a huge party platform to host a record number of people, 58 PG Islanders and their guests. Recent new members Bruce & Marilyn Conklin, Dave & Diane Commens and Tom & Joyce Mack joined the fun. The host boats Linehan's Catalyst, Johnson's Chat-eau, Rommel's Desert Fox and Hilke's Dues Paid were festively decorated and lit. 

The weather was perfect, breezy and pleasantly warm.

The Islanders gathered just before dusk and were delighted by a surprise event, dinghies that danced to the Blue Danube sans tutus before everyone in the attentive anchorage. Nine Islanders dinghies performed many precision maneuvers in close proximity, including the Demolition Derby Figure 8, all without incident. The conclusion was an awesome red and white pinwheel finale complete with a Happy New Year's wave. The Blue Angels would have been proud. 

The clever Dinghy Ballet was envisioned and choreographed by the Haswell's and Clark's. Dinghy pilots included the Brandt's, Terry Clark, Richard Collins, Toby Haswell, Steve Johnson, the Lennon's, Rob Linehan, Chuck Millburg and the Oberle's. 
 

On New Years Eve the food was both plentiful and delicious and the holiday mood was high. The party started early so a champagne toast was celebrated at Punta Gorda midnight of 9 pm. We also celebrated the incoming Commodore Richard's birthday with a homemade carrot cake.

The following morning the Islanders and guests welcomed the New Year with a lavish breakfast feast. Some Islanders stayed to enjoy the beach of Cayo Costa while the others headed for home.   What a great way to start the New Year! 

Click Photos

Watch the Dinghy Ballet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKAfv9JyJg

Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays 2013

Richard says "This is the kind of
soldier I'd like to find in my toy chest"

It was 10 years since we last visited Fort Wayne, Indiana, home of my sister, Mary, and brother-in-law, Al.  Guess What ? Allegiant Air now flys directly from our little airport straight thru to Fort Wayne in just 2 hours! (75 degrees to 24 degrees!) It was a wonderful Thanksgiving family time, celebrating my Mom's 93rd birthday, followed by Turkey Coma and then, a baby shower for our niece, Holly, who is expecting her first child in early March.  lOTS to celebrate!



Hideaway

Upon arriving home, a frenzy of activities...brunch with Friendship Force (our travel exchange club), holiday parties with our boating clubs (PGSC, PGIslanders and Isles Yacht Club) and a gift exchange with our neighbors! 

We helped create this beautiful lighted sail for Hideaway, our friend's (Trudy & Chuck) boat as a new entry in the Lighted Boat Parade.  What a great time we had waving to throngs of visitors along the 7-1/2 mile canal route!


IYC Fleet Lighting



Snowman on Eagle's Wing with our house behind boat

Our boat, Eagle's Wings, was decked out in snowman lights and participated in the Lighting of the Fleet, an annual tradition, at the Isles Yacht Club (IYC).  We had more than 60 visitors aboard munching on seafood, appetizers, Pasta Fagioli soup, homemade Christmas cookies and liquid refreshments.


Christmas Eve was a wonderful evening with Cousin Constance, Bill and Cousin Jake and Mom at our place!  



By the way, the January-February 2014 edition of Where to Retire is now on newsstands across the country. If you'd like to read the article featuring our home town of Punta Gorda, A Treasure on the Gulf Coast, click link (in red) below snowman picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltElQD7mRBdExaVmk5VVZlb0k/edit?usp=sharing



Veterans Day - Honoring Women in the Military



           Our town honored women's role in the military at a moving tribute in Punta Gorda's Veteran's Park.



Grace Chicken & Marie
 

A highlight of the ceremony was a speech by Grace Chicken (age 99) relating  her nursing experiences caring for the wounded. 

She was one of the first women trained to airlift soldiers from the battlefield aboard C130 and C141 planes. She served at many foreign posts had a distinguished military career. 

Not one to be left behind, my Mom enlisted in the Navy shortly after her brother was drafted.  She also contributed to her country's war effort by helping administratively with supply distribution.  We were so glad to attend this moving tribute.

IYC Admiral's Cruise and French Picnic

Low Tide at Pelican Bay - that was the challenge facing us as we headed out Friday for the Isles Yacht Club (IYC) Admiral's Cruise.  The weather was perfect for sailing down Charlotte Harbor!  Gorgeous sunny sky, low humidity, temps in the high 70's and a north wind pushing us along at a rapid clip.  We reduced sail as we approached the anchorage off Cayo Costa to enter on a rising tide. Two cruisers with five foot drafts wisely decided to anchor at Usseppa to wait for high tide.  But we slowly motored our way into the anchorage at dead low tide calling out depths along the way to the rest of the fleet: 5'8", 5'6", 5'2" ... just a few inches of water below our 4'6" draft boat, Eagle's Wings!  Southern Belle, a new member's boat, elected to follow us, failed to hug the beach and unfortunately went hard aground. Fortunately, a small power boat came along and pulled them off before the captain succumbed to that "I'm aground, the bottom have me in its clutches" feeling we all have experienced. If you haven't been aground, you haven't been around.

All the IYC boats began to arrive for the first fun event of the weekend - docktails on the catamaran, Chatty Cat.  Wow!  24 people crammed on the boat and we had a great time catching up and sampling the appetizers that everyone brought aboard.

Saturday morning we participated in a "Dinghy 101" Refresher Training arranged by Jane on Halcyon.  The highlight of the day was our 4th Annual "French Picnic," a gastronomical delight!   We dinghyed to shore with our food treasures and we hopped the Ranger's tram to take us over to the pristine shoreline picnic area.  We sampled the delicious cuisine and voted for the winners.  This year's top dish was Cranberry Chicken Salad Croissants prepared by Diane Ufer, 2nd runner up was Tom Weekes', Salade Nicoise, and Best Dessert was Lemon Tarte by Peg Vasu.

On the way back, we went over to Manatee Hole - check out the great pictures below!




Pictures

Going to PERU ! - Her Story

Peru...a dream destination that was on our heavily populated Bucket List ... that came into our reality last December when Joanne attended a talk by Magda Cooper at the Isles Yacht Club.  It was about one of the most spectacular settings on earth - that the great Inca ruler Pachacuti built - that is known at Machu Picchu! 

Magda grew up in Peru and volunteered to take interested people on a tour of her beautiful country.  We immediately signed up to go on this unique opportunity with her and her husband, Ford.  Magda met Ford in Lima, Peru.  They both worked in the American Embassy when Ford was a young foreign service officer.  As we got to know them better, we realized how fortunate we were to travel with this remarkable couple.  They have a world view since they served in many diplomatic posts throughout South and Central America with an extended stint in Finland.

Landing in Peru's Capital City, Lima, and Flying to Cusco

With Ford and Madga

Only five hours in the air from Miami, we landed in Lima!  Magda's nephew and wife welcomed us there with an authentic cowboy hat for Richard and a Peruvian purse and pin for Joanne!  They took us on an open-air bus tour of Miraflores, a beautiful area and treated us to lunch in a lovely place overlooking the blue Pacific Ocean.  We then headed back to our hotel for rest before flying the next day to Cusco, the ancient Inca Capital City that is 11,000 ft elevation.  The city is located below the equator, thus, their seasons are opposite than ours here in Florida. September is the best time to visit because it is the tail end of the dry season before the rains come and beginning of Spring.  We found the weather to be quite comfortable - in the high 50's and 60's, sweater weather for sure!

Since we live at sea level, we obtained RXs for altitude pills to help us adjust to the thin air and high altitude.  We also drank many cups of their coca tea, a local remedy to aid in our adjustment.  We never were sick although we did drink only bottled water and avoided raw vegetables that were not peeled, e.g., lettuce.

The cuisine was delicious ... many grilled meats (beef, chicken, pork, lamb), vegetables (multiple varieties of potatoes, rice, beets, cauliflower, etc.) and yummy desserts (flan, cookies, cakes). We loved the home-made soups made with chicken and quinoa (a high protein grain). 

We tried the national cocktail of Peru, Pisco Sour (something like a Whiskey Sour)!  Yum!  Also, we had Chicha Morada, a non-alcoholic drink made from purple maize with some cinnamon and/or cloves mixed into it.  We like Inca Kola, sort of like a Cream Soda, and also Chicha, a beer-like drink.

Train Trip to Machu Picchu

After spending 2 days touring Cusco and the Sacred Valley, we boarded Peruvian Rail for a pleasant five hour ride to Aguas Calintes, the closest railstop to Machu Picchu (MP).  The travel guides and pictures simply do not do MP justice.  It is meant to be experienced in person to see the scope of the buildings and the magnificent scenery.  We stayed in the InkaTerra Resort, a gorgeous place, with nature tours provided and excellent food and service. 

In the late morning, we hopped on a bus for the winding drive up to the the ancient site.  On cue, the weather cleared and the sun shone as we scaled the paths up, up to admire the perfectly cut stone buildings that were engineered in the 1500s by the remarkable Incans.  There is no mortar between the huge stonework.  It is grooved to fit perfectly and it is mindblowing that they could create such masterpieces without modern tools and machinery. 

It is thought that Machu Picchu was built for use by the Incan

royalty and the most beautiful buildings constructed to honor the gods.  There was a beautiful serenity there and I especially enjoyed hiking up to the highest point, the Intiwatana Stone, where I said prayers for family members.  Of course, Miluska, our guide, did a terrific job explaining and answering our many questions.

Onto Lake Titicaca and the Uros People

Next on the agenda was a 7-hour bus ride over the highest mountain peak (14,500 ft) to Lake Titicaca.  The lake is HUGE...the size of the country of Belgium...and is the largest navigable high mountain (glacier-fed) lake in the world!

After spending a lovely night in our new hotel, we awoke and boarded a small boat.  We traveled through a check point to visit an ancient people, the Uros, who in the 1500's in order to avoid the Spanish Rule, hid on their boats on the lake.  Eventually, they built over 70 floating islands make of reeds that grow on the edge of the water.   The islands are about the size of football fields; approximately, 20 members of extended families live on each of them in reed huts.  They paddle reed-built boats to catch fish and to travel around and even eat the reeds! 

This was the most amazing part of the entire trip!  These people live a primitive life that is unknown to us in the modern world.  They graciously invited us into their little huts and dressed us in their traditional costumes.  They sang songs in their language and took us for a ride on their reed boats.  We were so touched by their sincerity and kindness.

Full Circle back to Lima by Air

We flew back the next day to Lima for a lovely city tour of fabulous churches and museums.  The 8 days had flown by and we sadly bid goodbye to the other 8 members of our tour group.

Before we left, the group discussed some of their favorite moments.  Here are some of them...

• The  Uros People and their habitat on Lake Titicaca ..it was like being on a National Geographic Special of amazing ancient cultures!
• The awe inspiring site of Machu Picchu, a wonder of the world
• The friendly Peruvian People and guides
• The magnificent Andean vistas
• Lovely markets featuring silver, handwoven Alpaca sweaters and rugs   .... and last but NOT Least
• Magda and Ford Cooper, who educated and entertained us with their extensive knowledge of Peruvian and South American politics, customs and traditions.  Thanks so much!!