Phillips family around the world in 68days

Day 54 – 55 – Nov 23-24 Weather – Warm and muggy We spent a wonderful month over at New Smyrna Beach at our condo – Moontide. I think we were all a little sad to be leaving, it really was a great spot, with a wonderful view and an awesome pool up on the roof. It was great to be so close to Rusty, Chi and Wiley, just hanging out and spending time, getting to know Wiley a little better. It was also great just to have our own place to come back to. Sometime you just want to read a book or watch TV, and not plan some huge activity. I’m not sure we’ll be able to stay there though, in say 5 years from now - I worry about the beach– it has all but disappeared. I have a feeling that a few more hurricanes from now, Moontide and all the beach side condo’s will have been demolished to make way for the rising sea. On the plus side, that will mean that Rusty and Chi’s condo will be on the beach… But who knows? Maybe the government will build some huge sea walls and dikes like in Holland and t...

Day 51 – 53 – Nov 20-22 Sorry for the lack of updates – it has been a very stressful couple of days. As many of you know, Katie had a health complaint that resulted in a trip to the ED at the local hospital in New Smyrna Beach – Advent health – and then admission and two nights in the hospital total. I have to say, it has not been the best hospital experience, and our local hospital is Box Hill, which is a pretty low bar – and I would say that my preference would be Box Hill back home!!! I won’t go into the details of the emergency – only to say that Katie is now fine and we are able to continue our trip. It was a bit of an ordeal and while the nurses were all wonderful, the level and standard of care was constrained by the resources they had at their disposal. There also seemed to be very few actual doctors – part of the delay in getting discharged was waiting on seeing a doctor. We did get to see a nurse practitioner who was great, but even she had to wait on the doctor as well. Th...

Day 44-46 – Nov 13-15 Weather – Cooling down, cloudy VEHICAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING  I’m writing this after very little sleep last night – I think maybe 4hrs. We made the decision yesterday to head down the coast to see the Artemis 1 Launch live from across the water near Kennedy Space Centre in Titusville. I had found out that the 4 th attempt at the launch was happening in the early hours of Wednesday 16 th , so I had started scoping out some options to view the launch. Artemis is NASA’s moon rocket that it is planned will take astronauts back to the moon. It is currently the most powerful rocket in operation – although SpaceX’s spaceship will overtake that soon. I have seen two rocket launches from New Smyrna Beach – one night time and one day time launch. The Night time one was quite impressive, however the day time one wasn’t much of a show. It’s about 50kms – 60kms from our Condo to the Launch pads (Depending on which pad is used) – so I was looking at options for better view...

Day 42-43 – Nov 11-12 – Clean up, catching up with Friends and Gator Football Weather – All over the place There’s been quite a bit going on for the last few days. Clean up after the hurricane was actually pretty straightforward. The previous hurricane – Ian – had cleared out a lot of the weaker branches, so there wasn’t too much to worry about. We did have a couple of big branches that came down. Mac used the chain saw to cut those up, and Rusty and I clearer them out by loading them up onto the golf cart. The girls wondered around the driveway and cleaned up the debris there, and Mac mowed the lawns, and in no time at all the house was looking good. We had planned to catch up in downtown Deland with Katies Friends for dinner and drinks – our first night out in Deland for about 4 years. Deland has a pretty lively bar and restaurant scene. One of Katies good friends – Jessica, picked us up around 5 and we head into town to meet her husband Chris. Our first location was on the cor...

Day 40-41 – Nov 9-10 Weather – Wet and windy We spent most of yesterday afternoon awaiting the hurricane. To be honest, there wasn’t much to do. Rusty and I decided to head down to Publix around Lunch time to pick up a few supplies for dinner – probably a mistake considering the car park was full and there were hoards of people picking up some last-minute items. They had closed the schools as they use them as refuge centres, and we bumped into Kristin and her kids as they were checking out. No one seemed to be concerned. I decided to quickly pick up some important necessities – you never know how long roads might shut down, we could be cut off for quite some time. It could be hard but if you have the basics you can get though. The necessary supplies for our charcuterie platter were selected, although I must point out that there were no good soft cheese options. Is Brie not a thing here??? I guess a soft Goats cheese will do, but I except some justifiable criticism. There seemed to ...

Day 39-40 – Nov 8-9– Evacuation and waiting for a hurricane Weather – Lots of rain – windy – I think there’s a storm coming… Still warm. Well, it turns out that there is a tropical storm/Hurricane on its way. Tuesday morning, we woke up and it was a lovely day – Sun was out at times, a little bit of wind. What storm I thought. I went up to the top deck to have a look around, however the gate to the pool was locked. I recall thinking that the maintenance guy had over reacted (You know, because obviously I have heaps of experience about these things and know better right…). There were clouds and rain off to the north east – the direction that the storm rotates, so I knew some weather was coming our way.  High tide is first thing in the morning at the moment – around 8:30am, so I wondered down the beach to check things out. The wind was picking up and the waves were smashing against the beach already. The concern is the tidal surge – even at this early stage the beach is already c...

 Day 35-38 –  Nov 4 - 7 Weather – Warm, some rain about, a little windy The last few days have been pretty quite. On Thursday night, Kathy and Mac came over to hang out and they took the kids for the morning. They left around midday and we kept Wiley for a bit so Rusty and Chi could have a belated anniversary, they went out for brunch at the Bakers table and by all reports (and photos) it looked really good. So good in fact that we decided to go the following morning – it’s very close to our condo, so we walked (A very unfloridian thing to do -they mostly drive everywhere). I actually got the best eggs benedict I’ve had for a while – legitimately good.  And their house made donuts were excellent – I have a feeling we’ll be back again! Kristen and her two girls came over in the afternoon for some time at the beach and they ended up staying for dinner. It was great for Lucy to have some time with the girls – Libby is her age and Charlotte is 18months younger. They had a...

Day 32-34 –  Nov 1-3 – Fishing, Hanging out at the condo Weather – Very warm and muggy, then cooling off – 85 to 75F Little bit of a gap in the blog, I’ve fallen a little behind, so I’ll update a few days here. Post Halloween and Lucy had a bit of a sugar hangover. Coming home the night before she said she had a sore tummy and didn’t feel too well. No wonder given the amount of sugar consumed (And god knows what additives they put in all the candy here…). We had planned a quiet Tuesday – I think Rusty was working and Katie had work from 2pm, and we all needed a quite day after all the action from the previous few days. Just relaxing around the pool and the beach seemed like a good idea. Although, it did get off to an exciting start - while we were up at the pool on Monday, a lady mentioned that there was a SpaceX launch today at 9:45am. We watch the Falcon Heavy rocket launch from our balcony – unfortunately I flew straight in front of the sun so you didn’t get a great view f...