I'm So Bad . . .

Last Saturday Wayne and I went to John's Pass for ice cream. Well, we had gone to the Wagon Wheel Flea Market in Pinellas Park to check it out, and after fighting off all those fleas (naturally, I had to get a greasy funnel cake), we headed over to the beaches with the idea of getting some ice cream. There's this wine store, Vino Florida, in the John's Pass Village. I had never gone in, thinking it was only wine, but I found out that there are other things there too; gifts, ice cream, frozen wine drinks, jellies, jams, hot sauces, candy, etc. I picked up some key lime jelly and a jar of creamy coconut spread.

Now, what to put it on. I tried it on some plain pita chips. Not bad. Hmmmm? I wonder? I went browsing the aisles at the NE Publix earlier tonight and grabbed a box of chocolate graham crackers. Mmm Mmm, good!!!

Oink! Oink!

Sarasota

Sunday afternoon we decided to take a ride down to Sarasota. It was my first time going there. On the way down we made a brief stop at the Prime Outlets. Didn't find a single bargain. I bought a glass container to store leftover coffee in the refrig.

Our first stop in Sarasota was St Armands Circle where there are tons of shops and restaurants. It's nice that there are no meters and parking is free. We walked around for a while and then had lunch at Hemingway's. For some reason, Hemingway's was decorated for Christmas. Go figure. We ate out on the porch; was very comfortable with the breeze and the ceiling fans. We could see some dark clouds north of us and saw a couple of lightning bolts and heard some thunder, but luckily, we had sunshine all day!

I ordered the Char-Grilled Chicken, Sliced Pear & Brie Ciabatta ("set atop a bed of arugala with carmelized Vidalia onions, plum tomato and stone ground musta-maise.") Wayne ordered the Cuban Pork Panini ("Hot pressed pit ham and roast pork with melted swiss, dill pickles and chipotle mustard.") Then we swithed one half of each. Both were delicious!

Afterwards we walked to Lido Beach. The water looked beautiful!

Coconut palms . . . I thought I was in Hawaii for a minute!

This was on the way into downtown Sarasota.

The building on the left was an old Kress 5 and 10 cent store.

This was the library . . . interesting architecture!

We walked around a lot and guess where we ended up? A place called "Jolly" for gelato!

After the gelato, it was back over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge back to St Pete.

Universal With Mia and Gina

Mia and Gina took me to Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure as my birthday gift from them! What a fun day we had! The above pic was taken as I was driving across the Howard Franklin Bridge heading into Tampa on my way to Orlando. I love the drive across the Bay.

Universal was first.

First stop was the Simpson's Ride. It replaced the Back to the Future Ride. It's a simulated roller coaster gone wild . . . fun stuff, great animation and action. It was the longest wait we had all day.

We did Mel's Diner for lunch. Bacon cheeseburgers and fries. Actually was pretty good, and we were in within minutes! The guy who waited on us at the register looked and talked like Mel Brooks!

The Hulk roller coaster at the Islands of Adventure.

The Lucy exhibit/store.

This is a model of the set of the I Love Lucy Show.

The Dueling Dragons roller coasters at the Islands of Adventure. We chose "Ice" (the blue dragon). These type of roller coasters are fun, but I don't think they're as thrilling as the old wooden ones with the death defying drops!

A "roller coaster" for the faint of heart. :-)

This area is being torn down and will be the new Harry Potter attraction which will open in 2009 or 2010, I can't remember what the sign said.

Dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

Who Trims Those Palm Trees?

Answer: No one.

Editor's Note: This is a re-enactment of the scene found this morning.

NYC Part 2 - The Show

The main reason for the NYC trip was to see my daughter-in-law Joy in her one woman show in the Midtown International Theater Festival. It turned out to be a mini family reunion in that my family of origin and adult children came down for the same performance.

Joy is amazing! When she was visiting us in Florida last month she expressed fear that after we saw the show we would divorce her! Joy . . . not gonna happen!

Her performance venue was a small "Bohemian" theater, which appears to be a person's apartment, er, commercial space. But it was small and intimate which made the whole experience that much better. And it was cool that half the audience was relatives and friends.

I've known Joy for almost five years now. The more I get to know her, the more I love her. I knew somewhat of her past, but this filled in many of the details. And I was amazed at how it all flowed thru time and from character to character. It was so smooth and flawless. I am in awe!

I didn't use a flash and was afraid of disturbing Joy (I think Joe did a good enough job of that but Joy didn't blink. :-) ) so this is without a flash. I was very self conscious trying to take a picture from the front row!

Here are some shots of the house. Intimate, eh?

And a couple more shots of our table at Carmine's.

And Jeffrey enjoying breakfast at Starbucks.