Glenn's Birthday Blog, Part Deux: More Botanical Gardens!

Hi All -

Welcome to Part II of this Holiday Blog Spectacular. If you haven't yet read Part I, please do that first using the link on the right-hand column of this page.

Before I return to our weekend's narrative, an amusing tale from yesterday.

Glenn decided to climb up on the roof to clean out our gutters. I left him for a few minutes to take a picture of a snake on our front porch...

...and when I returned, he informed me that he could not get down.

(Apparently the ladder had been tall enough for him to scramble onto the roof, but too short for him to reach when getting off.)

Sigh.

We have a bigger ladder - a gigantic ladder - but I was not able to get the monstrosity off the hooks it hangs from in our garage.

It just so happens that, at that moment, our pool repairman stopped by to fix a minor issue we've been having with the hot tub. I had the pleasure of telling him that my husband was stuck on the roof.

To his credit, he received this news as if there was nothing odd whatsoever about it. As if this was a natural, daily occurrence.

So with his help, we were able to get Glenn down. I posted this story on Facebook, and Glenn got a lot of good natured ribbing from his friends. Mostly Three Stooges references:

"I try to think but nothing happens."

"I can't see! I can't see!"
"Whatsa matta?"
"My eyes are closed!"

Aw, Glenn.

Ok, so let's go back to Saturday. I had barely woken up in the morning when Glenn informed me that we were driving to Sarasota to go to the acclaimed Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. (I know! Another botanical garden?!)

Anyway, it was pretty darn nice.

A singing koi.

Can you find me in this picture?

Here I am!

The trees here were amazing. These two are not for climbing...

 Continuing with the tour...

Did I mention that the gardens are on Sarasota Bay?

Back onshore...

And yes, we did see some other wildlife. Mostly lizards.

And yet another snake.

These snakes are called Black Racers, and we've seen by my count about 6 of them so far. They are harmless but very fast (hence their name).

But, by now, you are probably wondering if Glenn took any pictures of flowers. Oh yes, my friends. Here we go!

And those are just the orchids! :-)

Here's a few more in case you didn't get your flower fix for the day.

Jasmine. Mmmm...wish you could smell this.

Alright, I guess that's enough. Now you see why I had to divide this into two blog posts.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the highlights from our weekend. Take care, everyone!

Glenn's Birthday Blog & July 4th Extravaganza!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a fun-filled holiday! We did, and Glenn is still celebrating his birthday...he may continue to do so until August.

So, hold on to your socks! This is going to be big...

On July 4th, I had some plans for us, and since we were going to be gone for most of the evening, we decided to tire the dogs out by taking a walk from the Safety Harbor Spa to Phillipe Park. It is nice because it is right along the Bay, but it was also flaming hot.

Glenn let Deuce drink directly out of our only bottle of water, so I almost died of thirst on the way back. (Thanks, honey!)

That evening I made us a nice dinner and then we headed to Dunedin to take a Sunset / Fireworks Cruise on the Parrotdise Express (Glenn's birthday surprise).

As you can see, it was sunny and lovely when we left the dock, but things quickly took a turn.

Not only did it rain a large percentage of the time, but we also got into some very choppy waters on the Gulf and I quickly found myself getting seasick. Fortunately, a kind woman noticed that I was turning green and gave me some Dramamine.

This is before I was considering throwing myself overboard.

Fortunately, around sunset, it did stop raining for a little while and Glenn got some nice pictures.

And we did get to see some dolphins. We learned that, unlike when you are fishing, dolphins like it when you make a lot of noise for them - they will come over to the boat and put on a little show.

The sun was so huge - it looked unreal!

Before the fireworks show, we had a pretty good lightning show going on. Glenn was trying very hard to get some lightning shots, which is even harder than getting a picture of a jumping fish. Still, he had some success.

How awesome is this?!

We anchored right near the bridge that goes between downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Beach.

This is where they were shooting off the fireworks and we were right by the action. The Sheriff also stopped by and asked us for some rum punch.

Glenn didn't take many fireworks pictures (I told him to just enjoy the show), but we were all ready to be disappointed, since Pittsburgh considers itself the fireworks mecca of the world. Sorry Pittsburgh. This was one of the biggest and best fireworks shows we have ever seen!

Believe it or not, I have so many pictures from Saturday the 5th, that I think I need to do a second entry altogether. So stay tuned for part two!!