Arrrrr! The Gasparilla Pirate Invasion

Hello everyone!

It is a beautiful evening here in Tampa after an especially warm day. I keep hearing how miserable the winter is in Pittsburgh, and am grateful we picked this year to move down here. Hope you all are staying warm and hanging in there.

Last weekend was the Gasparilla Festival here in Tampa: a made-up holiday about a pirate invasion of the city that never happened. Still, it is a long-held tradition - the first parade starting in 1904, and the whole city participates. You've never seen so many people dressed as pirates in your whole life.

Note: Glenn didn't get a lot of pics of the pirates - so I stole these from a local news site...but seriously - the best pirate costumes ever.

We also weren't there earlier in the day when the armada attacked Tampa, but it looked pretty impressive.

This is the Jose Gasparilla, a ship built especially for the festivities in 1954. You may remember we visited this ship in a different location when we first moved down here.

There was also a big parade full of floats where people tossed beads and chocolate coins into the crowd.

Kinda hard to tell, but this is a giant castle float in front of a building. Everyone at the top of the float is dressed like a king.

We didn't stay long at the parade. It was a pretty day and we spent most of our time sitting by the water.

Mom and Dad, you may recognize that this is out front of Jackson's.

So anyway, that's about it for Gasparilla. It was fun and amazing to see the whole city turn out for one event. However, it was a bit on the wild side - lots of drunken pirates dancing in the street. We left before sundown.

We close on the new house on Friday, and have been signing, scanning and emailing documents like crazy people. This coming weekend we'll be moving the Pod into the new house, so we can finally see all the stuff we've been living without for the past 8 months.

Wish us luck that this move is better than the last one, and that no one tries to punch Glenn in the face. Love to you all!

Atlanta, Bonita Springs, and Beyond!

Hello all -

Sorry it's been a while. Things are ramping up for our move and we are pretty darn busy, but I wanted to check in with you all and share our latest adventures.

Glenn spent a good part of the second week of January at a national meeting in Atlanta. This is the inside of his hotel, which is also, in case you couldn't guess, CNN's headquarters.

His room overlooked the site of the Atlanta Olympic games.

And, upon closer inspection, you'll note the American Cancer Society's headquarters.

Yep, it's the big silver building in the foreground.

It turned out to be an even cooler view at night.

The following weekend, Glenn and I headed to Bonita Springs - about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here - to visit my parents on their vacation. As you can imagine, they are staying in a very sketchy neighborhood.

This is their building. (Photo credits - note, I am supplementing this blog with some of my dad's pictures. Thanks, Sir!)

And a shot of their lovely living room...

We took a walk along the beach, which is right across the street, and attempted our first family selfie.

Not bad, eh?

The beach, as you can see, was terribly packed with noisy and obnoxious tourists.

We also got to see the fitness center, which does not look like a bad place to work out.

 

 

We even saw a turtle headed to the gym.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. One of the places they took us during the weekend was a trip to the Koreshan Settlement. I'll let the sign explain it:

The grounds were very pretty, with lots of neat old historic buildings.

The planetarium.

One of the settler's homes. My dad said I should post this on Facebook as our new house.

 

And here's a pic of my dad taking a picture of my mom. :-)

So wow. Long blog post. See what happens when I don't stay on top of this?

Anyway, signing off for now. I may be a sporadic blogger over the next weeks as we try to pack, move out, move in and decorate / furnish the new place. Hope you all are well.

Best from the beach!

Manatees and More!

Hi All -

So January is turning into a crazy busy month, as we hope to close on the house in Pittsburgh this week, Glenn heads to Atlanta, and we start cleaning out our rental to prepare for our closing on the new house at the end of the month.

In the meantime, cousin Amanda (you may remember her as the flower girl in our wedding) finally had her baby, a little girl named Norah Jane, on Jan. 3. (I stole these pics from her Facebook page...)

She's a cutie!

So welcome to the family, cuz!

About 10 years ago, Chad and Lisha took us to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach to see the manatees. The manatees hang out at the base of the TECO Electrical Plant there because they have a warm water discharge. Unfortunately, when Chad and Lisha took us there, it was too warm outside and there was not a manatee to be seen.

So Glenn and I went again on Saturday. This time, there were hundreds of manatees there. Sadly, manatees don't photograph very well --they tend to look like a bunch of rocks. But anyway, here are a few exciting shots.

 

You can see what a scenic location this is. I just read a blog where the writer referred to Apollo Beach as the "canker sore of Hillsborough County."

Mmmm....toxins!

But anyway, I was happy to finally see my peaceful sea cow friends. And Glenn and I did manage to find some fun photo opps.

And for those of you who've always dreamed of putting Glenn in a hurricane simulator...

The mangroves were kinda cool.

Yesterday, Glenn and I took the dogs to a nearby park we had never been to before. It was also in a rather sketchy area, but the birds and dogs liked it anyway.

Anyway, that's all the news for now. Hope all of you up North are surviving the Polar Vortex okay and stay safe and warm.

Mother Deuce says "Bundle Up!"

Later, gators!

Happy New Year: Glenn and Diane Find a Home!

Hi All -

By now, most of you have probably already heard that we found a house in the lovely town of Safety Harbor. Safety Harbor is about 15 - 20 minutes from the beaches, and about a half hour commute for Glenn.  Not a bad commute, as a lot of it is very scenic - driving over the Bay.

Anyway, we both love this place, and hope to show it to all of you in person eventually, but for now, I shall give you the grand tour.

Neat as a pin

C'mon in!

Family room

Dining Room

Kitchen

 

 

Breakfast nook

Little seating area

Master bedroom

Master bath...//angels singing

One of the guest bedrooms (there is a bigger one, plus an office, not shown)

Guest bath (goes out to the pool)

Laundry Room

Pool / hot tub combo

Fenced in backyard for the pups

Looking out from front door

So that's it! Hope you all like it as much as we do. We are both so excited!

We were also happy to have Mom and Dad come down to see the neighborhood and the outside of the house, as well as sharing a lovely New Year's Eve dinner with us.

The parents stayed at the Waterside Marriott and had a nice view from their balcony.

And were kept awake by the fireworks show at midnight (Dad gets photo credits for these...)

The finale!

Anyway, that's all the news for right now, except I thought this was a cute pic of Deuce with Glenn's new camera.

And here's a close-up of mailbox lizard.

And finally, one of us. Glenn took a pic of some tourists when we were out to dinner and they returned the favor, so this actually is not a selfie.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! Here's to 2014!