Our Crazy Christmas Kiosk Gig

Port Charlotte, FL (82 degrees, blue skies)

We are back again at the Town Center Mall in Port Charlotte Florida managing what we call the Crazy Christmas Kiosk.  This is our second year working for Slippermania at this mall and we are sharing it with our friends Randy and Fran.  We work all mall hours, seven days a week, selling fun sport team related items.  

You name it, we have it in a sport team item (mostly NFL and college teams)  We sell reasonably priced items such as Christmas wreaths, beach towels, gnomes, Christmas ornaments, lanyards, wrapping paper, scarves, piggy banks, blankets, and yes lots and lots of slippers.  It sounds like a crazy type of gig but it's a lot of fun. Folks love talking about their favorite teams and tell us some great stories.  They are thrilled to find items with their team logos and the time for the most part goes by quickly.  

Last year we ran the kiosk by ourselves and attempted to hire a few young adults to help out.  Finding good help as we soon found out is hard to find. You have to be open all mall hours, seven days a week and being on your feet for such long hours can take its toil.   This year we decided to ask our friends Fran and Randy to join us and it has worked out splendidly. We met four years ago at a NOMADS project in Eustis Florida and have kept in touch every since.  They are lots of fun and such a pleasure to work with each day.  John and Randy especially like going out to breakfast together and Fran and I enjoy movies at the theater in the mall during our time off.

Randy and Fran

We've been here for 2 1/2 weeks and have put a lot of effort into setting up the booth and tagging all the items with prices.  Fran has alphabetized everything to help finding an item so much quicker.  Randy has offered some great suggestions on making the booth look more appealing.  Each item as it is sold is entered onto a sheet which is faxed in each day to the warehouse. Twice a week items are delivered to our kiosk for restocking.  The owner of the company has 26 locations in Florida malls and hires folks like us to work in November and December.  He is a great guy to work for and gives you a lot of flexibility in running the kiosk.

This year he added a second kiosk with stainless steel barbecue tools called Sportula's.  They are really cool and are selling well.

Sales for the Red Sox's have been phenomonal

We are staying at an Harbor Lake RV Resort (Encore park) which offers a buy one month / get one month free deal.  It's well maintained and has a nice pool.  This time we can actually enjoy it due to sharing the hours at the mall.  

Our sites

We are enjoying kayaking more and more and decided to try and find hard sided kayaks for each of us. Our inflatable kayak has served us really well but we now wanted one of our own with more versatility and improved tracking.  Facing alligators and rough oyster beds in Florida in an inflatable is a little unnerving.   Randy has a Wilderness System Tarpon which he recommended as a good choice. After several months of searching on Craigslist and outfitter shops I found a gently used and reasonably priced one for sale nearby.  We are now the proud owner of this twelve foot blue beauty  Now I just need to find another one for John.  :) 

Wilderness Tarpon 120 Kayak

Life continues to be good.  John celebrated with 29th birthday yesterday (with 30 years of experience). Our friends brought red velvet cake over last night to celebrate with a funny singing candle.  Yum! Happy Birthday to my favorite guy!

Jimmy's favorite pillow

The Wonderful World Of Disney - Whirlwind Visit With Family

Orlando, FL (86 degrees, blue skies, hot)
(Note:  Due to my limited ability to type with my cast, I'm now catching up with a few posts about our recent travels)  

We had a fun filled visit to all four parks with my brother, sister in law, and niece at the Disney World in Orlando. My brother was there for a pharmacy convention and we met up with them after he finished. John was able to use a  retired military benefit and purchased a four day hopper pass for $159/person for all of us.  What a great benefit for active/retired military, however, tickets must be purchased at military base or Shades of Green (military hotel in Orlando) prior to your visit.

Walt and Mickey in front of the castle

Magic Kingdom was all decorated for Halloween.  It looked great and even Minnie wore a cute orange Halloween dress...of coarse.

For our visit we used a great book (Unofficial Guide to Disney World) to plan our visit.  This was a busy time to visit due to the Columbus Day holiday.  The book has plans you follow for each park and it can save you about 2-3 hours each day in line.  It's also packed with all kinds of information about hotels, shopping, and restaurants.  

We won't go into all the details of our visit but would like to share with you some of the highlights.  No visit would be complete without a visit to a Princess.  Alison and her friend really enjoyed meeting four of them.  

Our favorite princess

No visit is complete without a character breakfast.  We did this years ago when Alison was very little. Reservations can be made at each park (way in advance as a rule).  Thankfully Jackie thought to make reservations in advance and we went to a restaurant in Animal Kingdom.  The buffet was excellent and the characters stop at your table and of coarse pose for pictures.  

Character breakfast in Animal Kingdom

The evening fireworks/parades at each park are fantastic and we'd recommend including them in your visit.  Taking a break in the afternoon if possible helps you stay awake for them.  :)  Except during peak times the evening shows are not always held every night at each park, so plan accordingly  We used our hopper pass to go to another park for the evening show.  

Illuminations (Hollywood Studios)

Electric Parade (Magic Kingdom)

Wishes (Magic Kingdom)

Wishes (Magic Kingdom)

EPCOT

There was a Food & Wine Festival going on at EPCOT.  You could eat your way around the world stopping at each country to sample their cuisine and beverage.  It is a very popular, crowded, month long event.  We stopped at two countries and the food was delicious.  

We had a great time and it was "magical" to spend time with my brother and his family.  We sure were tired at the end of our three days and John said he's planning his next visit when he turns 80. LOL!

Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios.  It has great rides and an amazing evening show.  However, Magic Kingdom was a close second.  

Best Evening Show:  Wishes (Magic Kingdom)

Best Live Show:  Finding Nemo (Animal Kingdom) - IMHO worth the price of admission.  It's an awesome show and my personal favorite

Best Rides:  Tower of Terror (Hollywood Studios), Splash Mountain (Disney), Expedition Everest (Animal Kingdom)

Tips:  

• Having a day off in between parks would be ideal.  
• Arrive prior to the opening of the park to get ahead of the crowd.  Plus, when you return at night your parking spot is close by. 
• Be sure to make reservations way in advance if you want to eat dinner in the park (other than fast food).

Great Campground:  Bill Frederick Park.  It's a beautiful city campground and park near Turkey Lake and Universal Studio, with great rates.  There are some full hook up sites.  The only site which may get satellite reception is #34 (water and electric). Bathrooms are it's weakest link but the manicured grounds are lovely with nice trails and a Frisbee golf park.  Reservations are a good idea.

Whew!  It was fun to reminisce about our visit again.  Being with my brother and his family was priceless.  Disney World is a great family destination and with all the pixie dust floating over the parks I'm sure you would have a good time too.  

THE END

Enjoying A Beautiful Waterfront Campground - W.P. Franklin COE

Alva, Florida -along the Caloosahatchee River (82 degrees, clear blue skies)

 

Our site #18

Just east of Ft. Myers, Florida is a beautiful Corp of Engineer Park along the Caloosahatchee River called J.P. Franklin.  For $12 a night for a water/electric (50 amp) site this is super deal using a Golden Age or Access Pass.  Even at the full rate of $24 it's a bargain, especially for Florida.  Most of the sites are along the water and reservations are a must.  Even in the off season the campground was full most of the time of our visit.

We decided to stay here so we could participate in the "Ding Days" a special week long festival held at J.N. Ding Darling NWR where we volunteered this summer.  The Wildlife Drive was closed most of the time we were there for a major overhaul and we were looking forward to checking it out.  Luckily the government shut down ended and these parks are back open.  Sanibel is about 1 1/2 hours from the campground.

Our campground overlooked a lock system and we enjoyed watching the boats come in and out.  We even saw a house going down the river.  Check this out...a barge on a barge. 

We attended two of the  "Ding Days" and especially enjoyed the special reception for the Duck Stamp winner. These stamps are sold at Fish and Wildlife refuges for $15 and offer free admission to any refuge for a year.   Hunters also purchase them to hunt migratory waterfowl.  Ninety-eight cents out of every dollar generated by the sale of Federal Duck Stamps go directly to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the system and Ding Darling designed the first stamp in 1934.  The contest, originally established by Franklin Roosevelt, can be entered by anyone 18 or older. It's quite an honor to win and this years stamp was created by Robert Steiner.  He has traveled over 50,000 miles this year talking about the program and it is the second time he has won. He would autograph your stamp upon request. There is also a Junior Duck stamp program for children. This years winner was only six years old.

2013-2014 Federal Duck Stamp

Duck Stamp Winner 2013-2014 Common Goldeneye

Junior Duck Stamp winner Madison Gramm Canvasback Duck

We also went of a photography trolley tour with a few of our friends and saw  the new improvements to the Wildlife Drive.  The road used to be a dusty gravel surface and it's now been paved with asphalt and looks terrific.  Riding a bike will be so much more enjoyable.

I learned some great tips for improving my pictures of birds.  Our guide suggested if possible to shoot your pictures with the wind at your back.  Birds fly into the wind and if you have positioned yourself correctly you might get some great in flight photos.  Another great tip when using a point and shoot camera is to use the  sport setting for moving birds.  It has a higher shutter speed and your pictures are less likely to be blurred with their movement.

Photography Tour

Alligator checking out all the tourist along side the road

We are now on our way to begin what's now been christened The Crazy Christmas Kiosk gig in Port Charlotte with Slippermania. You might remember we did this last year.  It's lots of fun and it pays fairly well.  We are sharing the kiosk this year with our friends Fran and Randy.  I'll tell you more about it in our next post.