Fri. Mar. 15 Day 65   62F/16½C @ 9:30AM,  66F/19C @ 10AM,  83F/28½C @ 2:15 PM 

I am feeling almost back to normal today, just a slight back ache sometimes.  Sheila says she is even more tired today than she was yesterday.  She really enjoyed Emilio’s—good company, good drinks, & good free food!  We went up to play water volleyball and today Larry Stevens was playing so I stayed to have lunch & listen.  Sheila did her water running, (to strengthen her knee) and then went back to the RV to have a lower calorie lunch.  Then I came back to the RV to get ready for the Academy Palms Awards Gala tonight.  They have the red carpet laid out for our entrance and the ballroom is decorated up plus they have celebrity impersonators on hand to mingle and have your photo taken with. Dinner is catered & they have an open bar. Everyone dresses up as much as possible; some people even come in a tux. It’s great fun. Doors opened at 4:30 and as we walked in on the red carpet they had celebrities to greet us & take a picture with.  There was Jim Carrey, Capt Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Madonna, and Clint Eastwood as ‘the Man with No Name’ from the spaghetti westerns he did. Just inside the door they had an ice sculpture that they poured a drink in at the top, (Peach Schnapps), and it ran through and came out cool.  Plus the Mega Liqueur Warehouse had a full bar set up with many different bottles of different liquors & spirits, all free, as much as you want, just stand in line to get it. We found our table & I saw there was also Tina Turner & Cher here. All the celebrity impersonators mingled around the hall stopping at tables to talk & pose with people--they were great fun. We had supper, (catered but we still had to line up to get it), they did bring the dessert, (a delicious lemon cake with lemon icing & filling), around to the tables.  Then they started announcing the many awards interspaced with entertainment. We had music & songs from our poolside entertainers, Larry Stevens, Rob Robertson, Michelle, and also from Idaho Dave who plays guitar and did cowboy jokes & songs, (he is a retired school principle, - it must have been a great school to attend). The favourite sport was water volleyball which, much to our delight won over sand volleyball & pickle ball.  The favourite lunch patio entertainment was our favourite, Larry Stevens.  They had awards for males & females nominated for: funniest, most wild & crazy, friendliest, most helpful, most likely to invite you to a happy hour and, most likely to invite themselves, plus awards for: best looking RV site, best happy hour street, etc. etc.  Then towards the end they had Marilyn Monroe come in singing and mingling with the crowd and afterwards posing for pictures. They had the GVP photographer there taking lots of pictures of people so hopefully I can download some of the ones we didn’t get, like me with Jim Carrey and Clint Eastward, (Sheila tried but didn’t push the shutter properly). It was a fun evening, ending a bit before 9 PM.  When we got back to the RV, we looked at some videos of Mikaela showing what she’s learned in gymnastics classes, then Sheila went out to join the awards after party at a site on Fringe Street, the street that won the ‘best block party street award’.  I stayed home to write up today’s journal.