Christmas in Wilmington North Carolina

We spent a  wonderful Christmas in Wilmington North Carolina.  Rob's (Jen's boyfriend) Mom and Step Father (Linda and Mark) live here and they welcomed us into their home for all the holiday festivities.  

Christmas eve was spent with Rob's sister Jill and husband Landon. They had a nice holiday party. It was fun to watch the children decorate ginger bread cookies. Jill had made cute aprons for  the little girls.  They were all dressed in pretty white dresses with bows in their hair  (a Christmas tradition in the south).

Christmas day we went over to Linda and Mark's home where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and opened presents afterwards. 



Mark, Linda, Rob, Jen, John, and Carol



Our campsite during this time was at the local Elks club. Many of the clubs offer camping in the back of their facilities for their members.  For only $15 per night we had 30 amp service and water.  It was conveniently located only a few blocks from Linda and Marks home. 

The next day Jen and Rob went with us to Fort Fisher Aquarium. We traveled past Carolina Beach and had a picture taken on the beach. It was snowing, cold, and windy. The weather has not exactly cooperated. Did you hear about the blizzard along the east coast? Raleigh had over 7 inches of snow(last time that happened was in the 1800's)  Under the circumstance we are fortunate to be here.  The snow in Raleigh may have really delayed our departure.  Whew!

The aquarium was very interesting and it was fascinating watching the large tank filled with over 32 species of fish.  Here a couple short video's that I took with my Droid of some of the fish. 

Stingray

Amazing Jelly Fish



Sea Horse




Diver in the large tank answering questions by under water micro phone



Beware!  I never knew eels could be this long

We finished our visit by going to the river front today. These pictures were taken along the Cape Fear River. There are a variety of interesting shops and restaurants in this area. John toured the USS North Carolina today. It is permanently docked in this area and was in service during WWII.



USS North Carolina

John and Jimmy enjoying the river front



Interesting Bed and Breakfast

Tomorrow we are heading south to Charleston South Carolina.  The weather man is promising warmer weather!

Renovations & Maintenance

(Greenfield) We ordered some very cool shades called Magne Shades for our coach at the Escapee Rally in Goshen.  They are held to your windows by very strong magnets.  They arrived this week and they were very easy to install.  They come in a variety of colors and patterns.  You can even custom design your own.





Installing front and side shade

 


Entry door shades




Front view.  Note windshield wiper covers

They are very easy to put up and take down.  Inside our coach you can see out. However, you can not see in our coach from the outside during the day.  It dramatically decreased the temperature in our coach after installing.  This is sure to come in handy when we are in Florida and Arizona.  We really like them.

Here is a video demonstration  I found on U-Tube.

John went back to Amish country (Topeka, Indiana) to pick up my wall hugging recliner from Lambright. It fits perfectly in the living room and is very comfortable. Notice the emphases on "my" :). It takes up far less space and does not hit the wall like our previous one.

Our friend Al (see previous 5/11/10 post) came by to help John change the oil in the diesel engine and the generator.  He was able to get  the filters at a great discount for us.  It took 6 gallons of oil.  Amazing!  It was sort of a messy job but with Al's great guidance we saved a lot of money.  John said it was much easier to do than he had anticipated. 

Oops, a little oil on the top knot!

Thanks again Al for all your help!

My Favorite Guy

Picassa has a new upgraded 3.8 version that you can upload into your computer.  There is the coolest new feature called "face movie".  Picassa has had the ability to find all the faces in your pictures.  You identify each person and they are then automatically sorted by person.  The new addition allows you to take those pictures and make them into a face movie.  It keeps the person's face that you select right in the middle of each picture.  

It takes a little bit of time to identify all the faces.  However, once that is done making the movie is just one click.  You can remove any photos that you do not like and they can be arranged in any order by dragging them back and forth..  I made one today of my most favorite guy.   It was really fun to do! You can also make it into a gift CD to give to a friend or family member.  Check it out!