It's been a long time since I have missed a day of blogging. Even when traveling on the Camino, I always managed. However, there is a very good reason I missed, and it's called -- lack of time.
I was fast asleep in my bed (two nights ago) when I was awoken at 11:30 PM. What awoke me? It was the sound of SAWING. Yes --- it sounded like someone was sawing something. What could they be sawing, and where were they? I've no idea. But it sounded like they were right next door to me. So, sawing the bed apart? I thought of calling security, but I didn't. And after the sawing, I also heard voices in the distance and sounds of movement and moving things around, it stopped after 20 minutes, and I fell asleep. I know --- my patience level is way more than it should be. I SHOULD have called the front desk because whatever they were doing, they shouldn't have been doing it at 11:30 at night.
Then I was awakened again at 12:39. Same thing, but it didn't last as long. However, this time, I could NOT get to sleep. I tossed and turned, read for a bit, and sleep eluded me. I was planning to walk with Claire in the morning, and I was finally awakened by her texts when they made it through my deep sleep. Too late to walk with Claire as by this time (6:45), she was already in the gym.
I grabbed my clothes, and I went out for a walk by myself. I managed to get in 6,000 steps before breakfast. But there was ZERO time to blog. Yes -- I chose walking over blogging because I didn't have time for both.
I happened to meet the person in the room two rooms from me, and she heard the same thing from the room between us. The front desk denied any work was done in that room last night, but I heard that someone else had to move because of noise, so something went on, but no one is saying anything. Let's say that last night was total silence.
So the previous day, we had our certification training on the Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 3.
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| The DESIGNER EPIC 3 |
I'm not even sure where to begin to tell you how amazing this sewing and embroidery machine is. There is a comparison list between the EPIC 2 and the EPIC 3. I had looked at it and thought to myself, yes -- there is plenty to make me want to switch. But we were one hour into an all-day class, and I had seen enough to make me switch! There is so much new that you will NOT recognize this machine.
All I will say is WOW -- my mind was completely blown, and I sure hope I retain most of what we learned. Of course, sitting back in front of the machine will make me remember. It was an amazing day; we made a couple of samples - and, well --- I'm not going to go into details right now.
But -- the presales are continuing until the end of this month. If you are thinking about it and it fits your budget, I'd go for it. This is a NEW machine with loads of bells and whistles. It is MORE than just an upgrade to the EPIC 3.
After that day of training, we had a group dinner by the water. OK -- the pond. There are loads of ponds in this area. Are there alligators? Oh yes --- the place where we had dinner is called the American Gator Club. And we spotted this guy in the water.
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| A gator |
We never saw more than his head, and to think that Clair and I walked the grounds! But we weren't really near any ponds.
After dinner, I needed to get out and walk, so I headed out to see if I could grab a geocache or two. I headed off to this garage. Of course, because of the ponds and some trees -- I was NOT cutting through trees in the dark, I had to walk a bit extra before I came to this parking garage. Yep -- only I would be happy to walk through a parking garage by myself in the evening.
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| The location of a geocache |
I did not find the cache at this location, but it was NOT for lack of trying. I was popping off these caps along the posts but found nothing. I did find a hole where I'm sure it was, but it was empty. So I moved onto the next cache, which was a bit further away.
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| Searching for a geocache |
Yep -- I got that cache, and I got my badge for Florida, as I had never found a cache in Florida before. Shoot -- I forgot to check if there was one at the Washington DC airport as there often is, and I missed that opportunity. I'll have to go back! I'm taking a different route to get home, so I will not be going through that airport.
On my mad dash walk yesterday morning, I decided to walk along the road past the entrance to the gated community where the famous golf course is. There is a PGA golf course here. Actually, there are two golf courses. One is currently closed. I am not sure if this is the famous 17th hole or not, but it looks like it. This is NOT a course that I would play, as I would never get my ball to this green. OK -- I would never play golf!
I had to cross the road to get that picture, and the grass was soaking wet. As I went into the bushes, I heard a noise. I did NOT linger! The dangers I take for you all!
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| A green on the golf course |
Then, we were off to the convention area of this hotel to get set up. There are rooms and rooms of sewing machines that needed to be set up. Thankfully, they were all unboxed, as that would have been a very thankless job, and those machines are heavy.
I was thrilled to hear that we were done shortly after lunch. I got my challenge pressed, and wait until you see what it was pressed on! I didn't get a picture, and the product is BRAND new, but I didn't want to post it today. Well, now that the dealers have arrived, everything sitting in that area will be all over social media, so I can probably share it later.
Claire and I decided to go to the beach, while Margaret went for a tour of the golf course. Sadly, she only got a tour of the clubhouse, which is better than nothing.
The first thing we saw on our way to the beach was this. Not a good start.
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| At the beach |
It's not that I don't like snakes -- well, I don't like snakes. Yep -- plain and simple. But we were able to bypass this guy, and we were good.
The beach was amazing. That is the Atlantic Ocean. It was pretty calm yesterday, and the sand was so hard-packed that I was able to walk in my shoes. We got lucky that it was a clear and warm day. We had a beer at the clubhouse. OH -- we had to take a shuttle bus to get to the beach; while it's not far, it's far enough when you don't have a lot of time.
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| The beach |
The houses along that beach are HUGE!!! And there was hardly anyone on the beach. What you see above is pretty much how it looked the entire time we were there. EMPTY!
Back to the hotel and all dressed up for the GALA opening event. I wore my thrift store find for the event. Shoot -- I did not take a picture of my glitzy sequin top. I had a pair of fancy black pants with an organza skirt, and I was good to go! However, what does one wear for shoes?
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| My shoes -- heels even! |
Here are my feet after the evening. Not too bad, and I did NOT need to take my shoes off once. A heel and strapless, no less. We had a great dinner and met up with many dealers from Canada, so we had a great chat with all of them. We'll be seeing more of them today. Well, I guess it depends on which class we are helping with and which class they are in! But there are lunches, and I think we are free tonight to do what we want!
I got back to my room, and before I went to bed, I had to clean the place. I don't get my room serviced every day. I hate having them come into the room. So, with the mad dash from the morning, there was stuff strewn everywhere! It looks much tidier now.
OH -- I should mention that I'm not having the best time at this hotel. The night before, I arrived at my door, only to find the key didn't work. Turns out it wasn't the key card, but the battery was dead! And it's hilarious because my alarm system is giving me a low battery alert at home, which is just stupid since I changed the batteries before I left. I had to wait 20 minutes for someone to come and fix the battery. More steps as I had to go back to the lobby and then back to my room! I walked 15 KM yesterday!
On that note, I'm going for a walk this morning, and then we have an early breakfast, so we can get to the rooms to help out with the classes.
Have a super day!!!!!
Ciao!!!!
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