Adventures in Florida: The Callihans Take Tampa: January 2023

Hey Everyone -

The good news is that it's still January, so I'm not too late in creating a New Year's Blog. The bad news is that I haven't posted anything since November, so I'm pretty far behind.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), we've pretty much been homebodies over the past months and we stupidly did not take pics during our November trip home (it's called Living in the Moment!). So there's not too much exciting here.

I will warn you that the amount of sunrise pics Glenn has taken on his morning bike rides is staggering, so I'm just going to mix them all in here to keep you on your toes. In fact, let's just dive right in.

Ok - so let's quickly backtrack to around Christmas. You will recall, we suffered record low temps here - albeit much milder than you guys had.

It was so cold, in fact, that we had to bring all our plants inside to keep them from freezing.

And we got Glenn's new Xmas chair...

Eddie got a bow tie as part of a gift package from our friend, Amy. And he has somewhat claimed the new blanket Glenn bought me.

And here's Eva, just to try to give equal coverage.

She's so pretty!

Our poinsettias are still alive - they do much better outside on the front porch.

We also went over to Chad and Lisha's around Christmas, and while I'm sure you'd love to see them, this time, we just got pics of their new kitties.

This is a selfie of me and Monster. He's much tinier than he looks and took a liking to me. Ignore the dumb box in the background.

And this is Rousseux.

CUE THE SUNRISES!!!

Ok. Enough. (For now)

We also spent a super fun afternoon at Tampa Bay Downs, which is becoming a bit of a tradition for us.

Time for some birds.

Let's start with this - one of our favorite pics. Our neighbors placed a big fake goose in their pond to keep other birds away. But now we've seen this Anhinga (also known as a snake bird) riding on the swan's back several times. He seems to be enjoying himself.

Here are some spoonbills.

This is in front of the Safety Harbor Spa.

This is not a bird. This is Gertie, the baby alligator that showed up in the pond near our house. Forgive the terrible picture.

This is also not a bird. This is a dolphin in a sunbeam. Well, actually, it looks like there are some ducks in here too.

WHO'S READY FOR SOME SUNRISE PICS?!!!

This is one of my favorites.

Guys, I'd be lying if I said that was it.

Alright, let's move on to houseplants. My New Year's resolution was to incorporate new plants into the house (I know, I'm all about acheivable goals!) So, here is a sample of some (not ALL) of the new plants that have recently moved in.