The Whimzey Bowling Ball House and More! Parents on Spring Break!

Hi Everyone and welcome to a jam-packed issue of the blog. We have tons of pics to share so hang on! Also, Happy Memorial Day!

I will shortly jump into the tale of my parents' visit, but first, I will take us back a couple weeks, when Glenn and I took a walk at Brooker Creek Preserve and got a few pics worthy of sharing.

This deer was right up next to our car - we didn't really have to zoom in on him.

Glenn and I had also gotten some nice sunrise pics during some of our morning walks, so I figured I would share those here as well.

In other news, I should thank Glenn because he finally succumbed and agreed to pay for WIFI again here at home, and blogging is now much faster.

So anyway, last Friday, my parents flew down to see us, and we picked them up at the airport and had a nice dinner at Cooper's Hawk. Saturday, we decided would be Safety Harbor day, so after breakfast at the Paradise Diner and Starbucks, we stopped down at the pier, where we did see one shy manatee.

We also attempted to visit the Safety Harbor museum, but it was closed, so we instead decided to check out another attraction we'd never gone to - the Whimzey Bowling Ball House - which is actually a few houses in the middle of a regular residential street, built by local artists, who frankly, may be pot-smoking hippies.

Still, it was a good place to take some colorful photos. You are here.

Pink elephant selfie!

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ackerman

Smiley face selfie!

That night, we had dinner on the porch of Parts of Paris, another Safety Harbor favorite.

Sunday we took them to nearby Dunedin (pronounced Done Eatin').

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ackerman

After breakfast, wetook a short walk in Hammock Park, where there is this cute little chapel in the woods, not to mention a loud and grumpy osprey.

We then drove across the Dunedin Causeway to nearby Honeymoon Island, and from there took a ferry over to Caldesi Island.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ackerman

That evening we had dinner at the Columbia restaurant on Sand Key near Clearwater, which was very nice.

On Monday we drove to Sarasota to visit one of our favorite places, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. So just sit back and relax and enjoy some GIGANTIC trees and pretty flowers.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ackerman

Another breathtaking feature of the gardens is the fact that they are located right on the Sarasota harbor.

If you look closely, you'll see my parents having iced tea in this picture.

So, believe it or not, that's just a sampling of the garden pics we have, but that's enough for now. On the way home, we stopped and took a pic of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which looks like it has sails.

Monday night, we took the folks to their belated anniversary dinner at Café Ponte, and they flew back to Pittsburgh the next morning. I think it is fair to say that a good time was had by all.

This past weekend largely involved us taking long walks and floating around in the pool. But on Saturday night we went and listened to a guitar player on the porch of the Safety Harbor Spa, which was lovely.

And Sunday night, we went to Chad and Lisha's place in Ozona for a cookout, and Glenn got some nice pictures around sunset.

So that concludes our giant Memorial Day/Parental Visit Blog Post. I hope you are still awake. In other news, Facebook reminded me the other day that June 1st was our 3 year anniversary of moving to Florida. Miss you all, but as you can see, it's not too bad down here!

Take care, everyone!

Tampa Bay Rays & More!

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying the springtime and that you are doing well.

I recently got a Fitbit, which has given us a little more motivation to be a little more active, although we normally take a lot of walks anyway.

I recently told Glenn that I was curious as to whether it was possible for me to ride my bike to work. I discovered that the Courtney Campbell Trail goes the whole way to Cypress Point Park, which is next door to my office. (That is the park I walk at during lunch every day.)

I wanted to do a test ride on a weekend, but I didn't want to ride both ways. Glenn kindly agreed to accompany me on another madcap adventure. So we drove both cars to the one end of the bridge, locked up our bikes, drove both cars to Cypress Point and parked the truck, and then drove the car back to our bikes to cycle across the Causeway.

Here we are at the start of our journey.

As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day to ride across the bridge.

At about the 4-mile mark, the bridge rises high up over the bay -- a man-made version of a hill. Glenn and I switched bikes because his has gears and mine doesn't. Even though I thought it might kill me, I made it to the top.

Once at the highest point of the bridge, we were rewarded with an amazing site. Thousands and thousands of rays swimming in the bay below.

These people in the fishing boat had no idea this huge school of rays was coming right towards them.

I did some research and these were Cow-Nosed Rays. If you look at the first pic, you'll see they have a square nose in front instead of just being round like a dinner plate. They were probably about 2 or 3 feet wide.

Pretty cool, right?

So that was worth the ride. We took some other pics along the way,

And here we are after completing our 10 mile trip! Hooray! (I will probably NEVER ride to work, but it can be done.)

We've also taken some nice walks and recently caught a nice sunrise.

The birds came out to see the sun.

We actually saw two different woodpeckers on the same morning. This dude on a palm tree...

And this dude on a telephone pole.

And let's see...what else?  How about a BABY MANATEE!

You can see the big momma underneath, pushing the baby up to the surface.

How about a BABY ALLIGATOR?

Aren't I cute?

How about a BEAGLE ON THE SOFA?

This Saturday, we walked the dogs on the Causeway and I got a few more bird pics.

Oystercatchers!

So anyway, guys - that's about it. Oh wait. One more...

Life is tough.

Love you all! Happy May!