Halloween and Lettuce Lake, Part Deux

Greetings all!

It is hard to believe it is November already. Especially considering it is sunny and in the 80s down here. The only telltale sign is that it now gets dark around 6:00 at night, which is going to make walking the dogs even more of an adventure.  But I digress....

Anyway, we don't have a lot of news to share, except that I have recently undergone a slew of medical tests and it appears that, as I always suspected, the sunshine is making me healthier. :-)

Last Thursday was Halloween. They had a costume contest at work, and my friend Julie dressed as Bob Ross, that painter guy who was known for painting happy trees and fluffy clouds on TV. I think she looks pretty amazing...(although she'd kill me if she knew I posted this...)

And, of course, here's her dog Pops dressed as a shark - we can't tell if he is supposed to be a shark or is being eaten by a shark.

Here, we didn't dress up and only got one trick-or-treater - a baby in a stroller accompanied by, no kidding, about 15 adults (have you heard of helicopter parents? This was a helicopter extended family). Otherwise, we basically hid in the house with the lights off.

We did, however, take the dogs on a walk, and were treated to a really cool Halloween sky.

Sunday, we returned to Lettuce Lake Park, this time taking the dogs. You aren't allowed to take dogs on the boardwalk (where we saw the alligators), but there are lots of gorgeous trails through the woods there. We walked for about 2 and a half miles.

We also attempted to get a "family selfie" but the dogs weren't cooperating very well.

Although, this one is kinda funny...

Signing off from Tampa! Woof! Woof!

Glenn's Panhandle Tour

Hi All -

OK - as promised, Glenn gave me the rundown on his work trip across the panhandle, which I will share with you now.

Glenn started off getting up at the break of dawn (actually, much earlier) in Jacksonville where he headed to the local news station for their morning-long promotion of his Cancer Prevention Study (CPS3).

Literally, behind the scenes!

They had a phone bank there with his volunteers and staff taking calls from people interested in signing up.

From Jacksonville, he went to Tallahassee, but took no pictures of our state capitol. He spent most of the day on the phone in a meeting.

From there, he headed to Panama City where he met with more CPS3 volunteers at local TV stations, hospitals and other locations throughout the city to thank them for their efforts. Here he is at one of the hospitals presenting a plaque.

It was in tiny Ft. Walton Beach on the Emerald Coast where he received perhaps his warmest welcome.

There he attended a Relay Kickoff Event where he gave a rallying speech to 140 people.

The senior territory manager for Florida was there as well, and he had lost a bet and had to wear this silly outfit. Glenn made fun of him for this, which would later prove to be ironic.

 

And yes, there is a beach at Fort Walton Beach. This is it.

Finally, Glenn went to Pensacola, his final stop before flying back home. He had some nice meals al fresco:

View from lunch patio restaurant

View from dinner patio restaurant

The next morning was Pensacola's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. Glenn addressed the crowd, which was approximately 15,000 people - the largest group he has ever spoke in front of.

The Pensacola office had recently suffered a tragedy in which one of their top people had drowned, so Glenn agreed when the volunteers and staff asked him to be a good sport to help boost morale. Hence, this:

Yeah, I know. That's a hard image to get out of your head. :-)

Here's the little plane he flew home on.

And a last shot showing why they call it the Emerald Coast.

All in all, a very successful trip, but I am glad to have him back home. Love to you all!

It's a Zoo Down Here!

Hi All -

I will likely have an unprecedented TWO posts for the blog this week. I want to catch everyone up on Glenn's adventures across the panhandle last week (traveling from Jacksonville to Tallahassee to Panama City to Ft. Walton Beach to Pensacola), but I will need his assistance identifying the photos.

So for now, I will entertain you instead with our recent trip to the beautiful Lowry Park Zoo.

We went first thing in the morning, so did not have to deal with crowds, and it was a cool, sunny morning.

This leopard came running over to greet us!

Tom, we know how much you like eagles - here was a beauty. As you can see, the zoo has a very natural setting. This pretty guy had been injured and could not fly, but he seemed to be in a nice spot.

We got to pet some sting rays who splashed us when they discovered we had nothing to feed them, and I finally saw some manatees, although the pics did not come out great of those. You can take my word for it.

One of our favorite things was watching the otters, as they put on quite a show for us, swimming and flipping around and just being all around adorable. Again, hard to photograph - they would not stay still!

Hello

And here is something I had never seen before-- the very rare Florida panther. This guy had  itchy ears and was rubbing his head on a stump. When Glenn and I stopped by, he gave us a loud, cat-like meow.

And of course, it wouldn't be Florida without these:

(Actually, we found out a while ago that there are no wild flamingos in Florida. It is a myth. The only pink bird that is native to Florida is the Roseate Spoonbill. This has been a public service announcement.)

So one of my other favorite parts of the day was going up onto a platform to get up close and personal with some giraffes.

They are so beautiful and strange looking, and their heads are gigantic.I felt like I was in Jurassic Park - they almost look like dinosaurs, but with very long eyelashes.

We weren't allowed to pet them, but they were close enough that we could have.

We also spent some time with a herd of elephants - including this little girl who was born on July 29th.

We also saw this crazy looking enormous bird called a Shoebill Stork. It was probably 4 feet tall.

So anyway, here we are on safari.

Our visit wouldn't be complete without a monkey, and this one was performing some death-defying stunts very high up.

We even got him in the background of our selfie.

So anyway, that's it for the Lowry Park Zoo. We liked it so much, we bought a season's pass. So maybe next time, you guys can come along.

See you animals later!

Making Strides in St. Pete

Hi All -

October is apparently now going to be our Making Strides Against Breast Cancer month. Last week, Glenn was in Orange Park and this past weekend we headed to the same event in St. Petersburg.

But before I get into that, I will tell you that we've had a new couple move into our neighborhood...a pair of what I believe to be Muscovy ducks. Glenn thinks they are ugly, but the dogs and I disagree.

Unfortunately, Glenn didn't get very close so you can't really see, but they are black with a red head, kind of like a buzzard.

"What are those things?!"

So anyway, on Saturday, we woke early and headed to Strides. It was a beautiful morning.

Great place to see the sunrise.

We met with a lot of people, and Glenn thanked a lot of volunteers. We talked with the reporter from the local news station, and saw a lot of people and dogs dressed in crazy costumes. Once again, the storm troopers made an appearance. (Apparently, this group of gentlemen dress up in costume and go to charity events all over Tampa - they were very nice to the little kids.)

It was the first Strides event I have been to, and I was very impressed by how many people showed up.

The walk was three miles long and went along the Bay.

We fell in with a group that called themselves the Hoochie Mammas. They did military type marching chants along the way, which was fun, although it was very hot and humid.

As we walked past the shoreline we noticed some commotion in the water, which ended up being a small shark going after a fish or something. It's hard to see, but perhaps you will note a small dorsal fin....

Anyway, it was a great day, although surprisingly tiring. We later went to Chad and Lisha's house to watch the Gators lose and eat gluten free cupcakes. Sunday, we were able to watch the Steelers win at home and watched an amazing documentary called Searching for Sugar Man, which we highly recommend.

So that's it for this week. Glenn is currently traveling across the panhandle (yesterday Jacksonville, today Tallahassee.) He'll fly home from Pensacola on Saturday. In the meantime, I am keeping myself entertained. With love from FLA--