Fireworks, Dolphins and Glenn!

Hi All -

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. I hope to eventually show you wedding photos from our big Pittsburgh weekend, but until then, I shall do my best to entertain you.

First, although sadly Glenn and I forgot to take photos (plus it was a stormy evening), I will tell you about the Fourth of July. We went to Ozona, a super quaint little coastal town where Chad and Lisha have a tiny and gorgeous little beach house (which once belonged to Lisha's aunt and uncle.) It's about 900 square feet and may have the best view in all of Florida - looking out over a long dock and an unspoiled expanse of the bay.

Despite some serious rain, we had a lovely dinner with Chad, Lisha, Lisha's mom, Chad's parents, and a very nice family from next door. Later, after the rain stopped, we went out on the dock and watched fireworks from nearby Tarpon Springs, Crystal River, and some other place. We also set off our own fireworks which was very exciting. (no fingers were blown off)

Chad and Lisha gave Glenn a little clip-on bug repellent fan as a birthday present, which is his new favorite thing.

Friday, of course, was Glenn's birthday. We had a nice day - out to a cute lunch place and then I sent Glenn to get a massage. That evening, we drove to St. Pete Beach, where we had a casual dinner at a local fan favorite called Crabby Bills, and then went to Dolphin's Landing where I had purchased tickets for us for the Sunset Sail on the "Fantasea."

 

You'll have to bear with me here, because Glenn took like 200 pictures, so I have tried to pick some of the best. Anyway, we were worried that storms would cancel our trip, but it turned out to be a lovely sail, and we only had a smattering of gentle rain for a few minutes during the 2 1/2 hour cruise. 

 

So the pictures show some grey clouds, but the air was nice and warm. The sunset was not spectacular, but good enough for us.

The ride was very calm...no waves on the bay.

One especially nice part of the evening was when a mother and baby dolphin made an appearance near the boat. I was excited Glenn got such a good shot of them!

And here's the baby waving goodbye! (See ya!)

Here's the view looking up at the sails.

And the birthday boy, enjoying the fresh breeze.

The first mate was kind enough to take a picture of us as well. (Not a flattering pic of me, but I shall let it go...)

Here's a better one we took of ourselves (the infamous "selfie").

All in all, it was a beautiful night in paradise.

Hope you have enjoyed your virtual sail! We have more fun plans for the weekend, so more posts to come!

Weekend Highlights

We had a very active weekend, so I figured I'd share with you all some of the highlights.

We actually started the weekend early, on Thursday, when we went to Rick's on the River, a local restaurant/pub on the Hillsboro River, less than a mile from our house. While there is technically a parking lot separating it from the river, it was a fun place (a band plays old seventies rock there every night) and the views were pretty. This is from the dock out front.

Nice place to watch the sun set.

Friday night, we went to our friend Erin's birthday party, which was held at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. It is (no kidding) next to the St. Petersburg Chess Club and the St. Peterburg Lawn Bowling Club. The shuffleboard courts were all rented out, by young, seemingly normal people.

You can see Chad and Lisha are at the other end of our court. (Lisha and I won). I found this sport somewhat uninspiring, but it was a nice night and we met some new people.

Here's a panorama Glenn took. And the sun setting over the courts...(which you ARE NOT allowed to walk on. We got yelled at.)

Saturday morning we took the dogs to the vet, which was stressful, but we finally got them on super powered flea meds that seem to be working. Then Glenn had to go to Ft. Meyers for the day for work, while I spent a successful morning at the International Mall. Later, we went to a lovely restaurant called Ceviche, where our waiter, Amed, made us feel like every decision or request we made was a superb flash of brilliance.  Me...

Glenn...

And some shots of our tropical surroundings...

Lots of pretty foliage on the deck.

However, we do not have to travel far to see pretty plants and trees. Here is a picture Glenn took of me and Deucie on our nightly walk around our neighborhood. I love this tree.

Finally, Sunday has truly become SUNday for us, as we've been using it to explore different beaches. This Sunday, we drove to Palm Harbor to check out the neighborhood (nice, but too far away), and then we went to Honeymoon Island State Park, which had a beautiful beach...perhaps the nicest we've seen down here so far. The water was a light turquoise and quite warm with hardly any waves, so we even spent some time bobbing about in the ocean. Here's another panorama:

So anyway, that's it for us from the tropics. As you can see, we are having a great time and are very happy, although we miss you all!

Bayshore Boulevard and Pirate Invasions

Bayshore Boulevard is a waterfront road along Tampa Bay, just south of the city. It has what is considered the world's longest continuous sidewalk at 4.5 miles and is very popular with joggers, bikers, roller-bladers, etc.

As such, we decided it might be a fun place to walk the dogs.

Don't they look excited?!

Anyway, we didn't walk the whole length of it (it was a tad hot out), but it was a nice stroll.

You get some pretty views of the downtown area from here.

We made sure to pull off the sidewalk for joggers and bikers.

We saw some pelicans (although I didn't get a good shot of them) and the dogs were completely fascinated  ("What in the hell are those?!")  We also came across this guy, who was unperturbed by the dogs or by me taking a photo of him.

I'm not sure what he is...a blue heron, perhaps? Dad, I think I need your bird guide from Naples.

We parked over by Jose Gaspar's pirate ship. Jose Gaspar, known by the nickname Gasparilla, was a pirate, known as the "last of the Buccaneers" who reportedly raided West Florida in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the fodder for much local folklore and legend. For some reason, some rich bored folks in 1904 staged a fake invasion of Tampa in Gasparilla's name, and now, every year, they have the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which has been likened to New Orlean's Mardi Gras. It's held in January and is a big thing down here.

Anyway, here's the ship (and you can see our Pathfinder in the parking lot).

Here's a pic from the website for Gasparilla, just to give you an idea...

Anyhow, that's the latest from Tampa. Avast ye, mateys!

Settling In

Hi All -

So, this has been the week where we are getting settled in. I started back to my job, working remotely, which has been great. I've been getting lots of nice emails and instant messages from my friends there, who claim to miss me and say the place is very quiet without me (that, I believe.) Here is my new office mate:

He's cute, but he has fleas.

And downstairs, here's Mojo. I would caption this, "You're doing it wrong."

BTW, here's the dining room. It was filled with boxes for a while, but now you can see it. (The blonde dog sneaks into all the pictures.)

In addition to getting back to work, Glenn and I have gotten back to working out. We both joined a gigantic new LA Fitness which is very close to Glenn's office. It is very nice, and I usually see Glenn on his way out while I am on the elliptical.

We've also been trying to take the dogs on a walk every night, although the late afternoon thunderstorms sometimes interrupt us. After I am done with my grueling workday ;-), I've taken to reading out on the lanai until Glenn gets home.

Nothing much else new. I made a vet appt. for both dogs for Saturday, so we will hopefully get the flea situation knocked out. We also have a Shuffleboard party we'll be attending on Friday in St. Petersburg. I will try to get some pics. I need to remember to bring my iPhone everywhere so I can properly document our adventures.

Beachy Keen

Hi All -

With all the unpacking complete, and the house cleaned and stocked, we decided to check out the beach.

Saturday, we went to Ft. Desoto Beach, which has a dog beach. Unfortunately, because we took the dogs with us, we didn't get to check out the Fort or do much exploring. The dog beach was wild - a ton of loose dogs just running over to Deuce and Mojo to check them out or pounce on them. Deuce was curious, but Mojo was terrified.

I was afraid if we took them off the leash, they'd take off running, so we just walked them up and down the beach and tried to avoid getting mauled.

I think Glenn had expected them to joyously go bounding into the ocean, but they both seemed scared of the water and only got their paws wet when we dragged them into the surf. Here we are:

So, quite an adventure for the pups, but we probably won't do that again any time soon. :-)

Sunday, Glenn and I went to St. Pete Beach on our own, which was a lot more fun. We didn't take many pics, but it's a really pretty drive and the beach is lovely. This is the Loews Don CeSar Hotel on St. Pete - a luxury hotel known as the pink palace.

It's even prettier from the front. We shall have to explore it at some point.

And here's us...

Hard to believe we're going to be living down here, just a short drive from the ocean. Very cool. We could get used to this.

Podzilla

So this morning was perhaps the final installment of our move...the pod people (not from Invasion of the Body Snatchers) came to get the pod. I have to say it was an amazing feat to watch, and Glenn and I stood there and watched with our mouths hanging open.

First, the tractor trailer showed up with this giant hydraulic frame in the back (sorry, some of these pics are through the screened in porch...I am mosquito-phobic at the moment).

Then, the driver dropped off the frame and pulled the truck out.

Then the driver used some remote control that adjusted the frame and walked it over to the pod like some sort of alien space creature.

It's hard to see in this pic, but there is a tree on the side of the driveway which made this a dicey procedure.

Obviously, we had a front row seat.

Once the frame was completely around the pod, he attached it with some chains, squeezed it together, and lifted the whole damn thing about 4 feet off the ground. Because of Tropical Storm Andrea, about a swimming pool's worth of water came pouring off the roof of the pod.

 

You'll note in this pic, that the thing is actually called "Podzilla" although I wish I could take credit for that name.

Once the pod was up in the air, the driver backed the truck bed underneath it. This guy must have nerves of steel.

 

Finally, he had to pull out, but because of the tree that was in the way, he had to lay down pieces of plywood and swing out through a portion of our lawn to avoid hitting it. We gave him a round of applause when he succeeded.

So now our possessions are off to some environmentally controlled pod warehouse, and we now have a very spacious driveway. Hooray!

Oops! I forgot one!

Deucie loves his new bed.