The Post Office Box: the “loneliest mail-box in the world!”

You may remember how much Joan likes the Post Office and finding small and unusual ones.  She just read Floreana by Margret Wittner, an amazing and true story of a German couple who in 1932 moved to Floreana, a Galapagos Island, and how they coped with living there, where there was nothing of “modern” conveniences; they had to make everything. But there was a Postal Box: used by the whalers in the 1800’s first.  Even for the Wittners, mail went in and out there, maybe taking six months before a passing ship would come by and pick up and drop off their mail.  (And it is still used there today.)

     Imagine this:  You’ve only been married as few weeks, and at Christmastime, 1931, you are looking at a men’s shop, and you say to your husband, “Maybe we ought to buy you a new suit.”  And he replies, “Yes, or a rifle, I can’t decide which.”

   And you ask blankly, “A rifle?  What on earth do you want a rifle for?”   And he answers, “In case we go to the Galapagos Islands.”   (page 16)

     Hmmmmm.  Would  have been nice to have had an inkling of this idea???  But, they went and stayed …

Christmas in St Augustine

Although we were away from family, we were blessed to have some of our best friends with us on Christmas Day: Nancy and Stu drove up from the timeshare in Titusville and our friend Myrna.   

   Myrna had her own unit but Stu and Nancy spent the night before driving back south so we could spend more time together.

Our decorated table, we bring the placemats, candles, etc

Joan found this decoration to serve as our "Christmas tree"

Another Christmas tree- napkins that had been saved for a long time

Lunch on the Beach

We left Orlando today to go over to our timeshare in St Augustine, taking Myrna with us.  She treated us to lunch at one of her favorite places in St Augustine, the Beachcomber, right on the beach.  Then we were able to check into our units.

It's been here a long time

Informal inside and also sports on the TV

Right at the end of the street

We could have eaten outside right on the beach but it was too cold.

 

Ron went over later to help Myrna set up the TV…her unit’s owners had a complicated wire set-up!

The Week in Orlando

Tuesday we picked up our good friend Myrna, whom we met at the Townhouses about 6 years ago. Since her husband Marv had passed, she had not returned to the Townhouses, but she decided to come this year, as we could pick her up at the Orlando airport, she could stay with us a week at the Magic Tree  and then she could go with us to St Augustine where she was renting a unit for a month.

   In addition, our good friends Nancy and Stu were staying at the Parkway, so we got together almost every evening at one place or the other.

    They will take some of our “Stuff” in their van to their next timeshare stay (in Titusville) as then we will have room for Myrna and her luggage.  We’re getting together at Christmas in St Augustine, so they will bring the items then.

Ron, coming in from unpacking the van through the back door in the 2 bd condo

The pool was great and so was the weather all week

The clouds were so unusual

 

We had to go to the post office and this one at Celebration was the closest.  Isn't it pretty?

We enjoyed playing ping pong with Myrna.

Back to Florida, Earlier This Year

Since we procured Week 52 on eBay in our same unit 609 at the Townhouses at St Augustine Beach and Tennis Club (where we already were reserved for 4 weeks in January), we found out last year that airline costs are so much higher toward Christmas week.  So we decided to travel down to FL in mid-December. 

   As we will need to leave our van at our friend’s house in Atlanta at the end of January since we will be in Seattle such a long time next year, we needed to fly to ATL and then rent a car one-way to go to the Townhouses where it was parked from our October flight to Seattle.  We are staying a week at the Magic Tree Resort in Orlando, so rather than driving two cars from St Augustine to Orlando, we elected to drop the rental off at the Daytona Beach airport; it worked out very well.  We did have to get a hotel night since we had not arrived in ATL until 5:30 pm.  We drove to Valdosta to spend the night on the way.  And we were able to keep the rental for just the 24-hour period. 

   We left Seattle on the 14^th and then arrived at the Magic Tree on the 15^th, thereby losing a day, but, the air fare was much better on Sunday.

   We’ll go to the Townhouses next week, staying in one of our floating weeks until our fixed week 52 starts.