Biking around the neighborhood

We did bring our bicycles here and I love being able to ride all around the beautifully landscaped areas right from "home".  Back in St. Louis we use to spend 30 minutes or so driving to somewhere to ride.  Love that all I have to do here is open the garage and be on my way!

  Love the wide paved bike/walking paths.

  and all the scenic canals

  I even come across a couple golf courses on some of my rides.

 With it being summer, I usually ride near sunset when it actually feels very pleasant here.  Have seen some beautiful sunsets.

 Now to get serious about biking again!

12-9-15  Biking a new route and awesome Christmas lights!

Finally, the rain seems to be lifting and there was actually some blue sky today!  Haven't seen that in several days.  The wind was even way down.  Plus the temps were only about 80, albeit still a bit humid.  But it was a great day to get out on my bike.  So much so, that I went exploring on a route I hadn't taken before and got in about 12 miles.
I started out with one of my normal routes to the end of Coral Ridge (Knob Hill) to see how the construction to Loxahatchee was coming along.  It was still closed off.  On the way back, I decided to ride into the gated community of Heron Lakes.  This is the view as I'm sitting at one of the benches overlooking one of the lakes in the community.

   It makes a huge half circle that goes all the way to the edge of the everglades.  There's actually a dirt road behind it that runs parallel to the Everglades berm.  I decided to check it out.  The berm is on the other side of the canal.

There's my bike waiting for me to come back for it.  Beyond it is the little road I found that led behind the gated Heron Lakes.

I decided to ride the dirt road for awhile, but didn't go too far.

 Back into the large Heron Lakes subdivision.

When I got back to my apt. complex, I decided to check out the pool.  I was surprised to see someone in it.  I waded into it and decided it was still doable so went back and put my swimsuit on.  The water was probably about 73, but after riding for an hour or so, it felt pretty good!

That night, we went for a ride into Plantation to find some Christmas lights that were on tv a while back.  This is the Hyatt House---not well liked by the neighbors.  They claim it's a nuisance having cars blocking and parading up the street all night.  They asked for police to direct traffic and not let gawkers in, but were supposedly denied.  I say supposedly because when we went, there were about 2 or 3 police cars in each direction not letting none residents in.  We were directed to a church on the south side and were told to walk down.  Ken wasn't interested in walking, so he let me out and I went and gawked by myself.  I was surprised that there was noone else there.  I guess making people walk to it is a deterrent.

Wonder what their electric bill is like!?

Ken had read online that there were several more houses in the area with lots of lights.  We drove around a bit, but didn't really find a whole lot of houses lit up.  But I did find a few worthy of a picture.

So we thought we were done.   Little did I know the best was yet to come!  We actually found it by mistake.  I thought we could take a short cut to the main road we needed to head back to Coral Springs, but the road didn't go through.  Instead it took us to Plantation Baptist Church!  This light show was to music and was put together phenomenally!  The whole light show lasted about 1.25 hours before repeating the music.  We were probably there for about 45 minutes.  I would have liked to sit in the chair provided and watched more, but the chairs were wet and my ankles were being eaten my mosquitoes.  So we left---but not before I got a complementary hot chocolate.  There was no fee for this show, even parking was free---but we did give a donation.

 I even took videos and uploaded a couple of them to youtube---
https://youtu.be/xgfFcokbzM8
and
 https://youtu.be/W6Jux7LDC-w

Sept. 8, 2014 --- north to Seaside for the night:
ok, so we have the Sandpiper for a week, but before I knew we would like it so much, I found us one night in Seaside at the Worldmark there for Monday, Sept. 8.  We thought about skipping it and loosing what we paid for it, but it was a pretty day so we decided to see the north coast with blue skies.   Although early morning had fog rolling in as seen here from our patio.

 Yep, breakfast at Lil' Sambo's again.  This time I got the German pancake.  Tasted pretty much like a crepe and I like crepes, so I was happy.

Heading up the the the scenic loop highway again.

 Oregon has Happy cows, too!

Pacific City.

rocky area seen from the beach at Pacific City.

We drove back into  Clay Meyers State Natural Area at Whalen Island.  It was pretty when we had the picnic there, but so much prettier with blue skies.

Another view by Clay Meyers State Natural Area at Whalen Island.  

And back along the coast.

 A few miles North of Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda is the Sand Lake Recreation Area. It covers 1,076 acres of open sand dunes, surrounded by forests and along side the Pacific Ocean.   Somehow we missed this whole sand dunes area with the Schneides.  We knew it was around there, just didn't come across it.

 One of the most popular activities in the Sand Lake Recreation Area is Off Highway Vehicle riding in the many miles of sand dunes.

 People come from all over the Northwest to explore and ride the dunes.  There's also a 900 acre estuary here which is a great for swimming, fishing, crabbing, kayaking, hiking and wildlife viewing.

 Was getting a little worried with the low clouds here.

Then there would be breaks in the clouds and beautiful scenery again.

 More wild flowers along the road.

 On up to Oceanside Beach---Oregon, not California.  Lots of surfers here the other day when we drove through here with Coni and John.

Love the way the houses are built on the hill here in Oceanside.  Reminds me a bit of Cinque Terre.

 Time to have another picnic!  Our snack supply is dwindling!

Great views from our lunch table.

 even out to sea.

 Bellies full, time to head up the coast some more.

Apparently this area was harvested.

A historic bridge in Tillamook.

coming upon Garibaldi, again.

The scenic train ride rails on the other side of the pond.

 We found this tall skinny house interesting.

another beautiful view from the road.

and another.

 We went to the 3 Capes loop again and had better views today.

 then the dreaded clouds started rolling in.

rather mystical and pretty in their own way.

 I was surprised to see blackberry plants with blackberries still on them in Sept..

Thought it was interesting how the clouds hung low around Haystack Rock.

Now that's biking with a view!

 When we got close to Haystack Rock, it was actually pretty clear and the tide was out.

The interesting tourist town of Cannon Beach where Haystack Rock is.

 Next stop was Seaside where Worldmark Seaside is.

 It's very much a tourist town, too.  Lots of deco and eclectic style and even a nice boardwalk along the ocean.

Our livingroom in our 1 bedroom condo at the Seaside Worldmark.   I had sworn we had stayed here when we brought the kids here years ago.  Then it dawned on me that we weren't Worldmark owners then. 

the kitchen.

living room.

 bedroom

from kitchen towards living room.

We headed out in search of dinner and ended up at the grocery store.   Picked up a big sub sandwich and some soup and called it dinner.  That gave us time to hit the heated pool and jacuzzi before they closed at 10, too.  Turned out to be a fun little excursion and we didn't have to bring everything with us since we were still checked in at the Sandpiper, too.