It was a quiet, peaceful Sunday morning in Ancient Oaks RV Resort in Lake Okeechobee. But, it doesn't usually stay that way for long. Someone says, "Hey, let's go to Stuart". Someone else says, "Yea, we can do some shopping, and someone else says, "And we can get some pizza while we're there!"
Boom! In a flash, six seniors are in Ted and Pat's Yukon heading East to Florida's Treasure Coast. We are heading for downtown Stuart where's there's a great Italian restaurant that sells pizza by the slice and it is oh, so good! The Stuart downtown area is the older section of Stuart and is along the Intercoastal Waterway. The trip is just under an hour, but seems to take only a few minutes with all of the conversations and laughs. We turn into the square and hunt for a parking spot while our mouths begin salivating. We know we are in for a treat!
"There's a parking spot!" "Quick before someone else gets it!" Ted wheels the Yukon masterfully into a really tight spot. It was like driving a Cadillac into a keyhole, but he managed to squeeze the Yukon into a really tiny spot. It was a miracle! However, we couldn't get the car doors open and the sign says "Motorcycles Only". We back out and find anther spot and six seniors spring out as though they were late for dinner, or just found a great bargain at Wal-Mart! We cross the street and walk a couple of blocks and hunger continues to build with each step, several break into a trot. We gotta have some of this great pizza. Now, we're only a 100 feet from the restaurant and folks are drooling all over themselves. We are all yelling in unison, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!" Now, only a few more feet and we'll be there. We sprint the last few feet and skid to a sudden stop at the front door.
"Damn!" They don't open on Sundays until 4 PM. "Damn!" That's over three hours away! We'll all starve to death and wither away to nothing by then! Who's idea was this anyway? Alas, we notice that the restaurant is open, but only selling pizza through their outside serving window. Darn! There's no outside tables available, they're all full. Maybe we can stand next to a couple of tables and stare at them until they get up a leave.
We all gather on the sidewalk and decide on a plan. "Let's go back up the street and get some ice cream!" Well, you don't have to say ice cream twice to a group of hungry seniors. "We'll have desert first, then pizza!" "Great idea!" In a flash (well...actually not exactly a flash. We seniors don't do anything that fast anymore), we invaded the ice cream parlor. Using exceptional restraint , we all just get one or two scoops to hold us over knowing we'll be getting pizza later.
Ahhh! That really hit the spot! Having quelled our hunger for the time being, we walked around the downtown area looking at all of the stores and finally came to the waterfront. There was a live band playing and some tents set up selling various works of arts and crafts. The music was great and we stood there and listened to the band until they took a short break.
Here's a couple shots of the waterfront area in Stuart and the live band.
We continued walking the downtown area and found ourselves back at the restaurant. We found some empty tables outside & began feeding our pizza craving in earnest. It was oohh, sooo good!
After a few brief shopping stops, we headed back to Lake Okeechobee. Along the way, we decided to head to the lake and watch the sun set. Ted wheeled the Yukon towards Port Mayaca where we could get a great view of the sun setting over Lake Okeechobee from atop the rim.
Here's four of the six of us watching the sun set.
L to R: Susan, Ted, Pat, and Barry (Kitty and I are not shown)
These pictures speak for themselves.
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