eating our way

around the island---
Phil's mother Sue arrived yesterday - right on time - from St Louis... we took her home to River Cottage to relax a bit before going out for a fabulous meal at the Sign of the Mermaid- where we had excellent fish and outstanding (award winning) pies for dessert.

then today we headed back to the island to eat lunch outside at the Waterfront where Phil has shrimp and oysters and I had carnitas and Sue had a burger (since we will have seafood again tonight on Longboat)

and just Tuesday night we had a wonderful dinner at AMOB (anna maria oyster bar) the nutty grouper for me and the stuffed lobster for Phil---

other than these things we have been giving Sue the VJS tour of Anna Maria with a full blown history of my family on the island starting in the mid 1920s...LOL (whether she wanted it or not...)

tomorrow we head south to meet up with Phil's brother Larry and spend some time in the sun in Miami.

oh and regarding the family history of the being on Anna Maria- I do promise a blog entry some time this year during our stay at River Cottage... along with some photos if I can find them...

Another stunning sunset

At River Cottage tonight

kitties keep watch

while we go other places and find out our birds are just as cool as the ones that people drive miles to see at bird watching spots...

keeping watch over the river at River Cottage

some of our birds:

and then the view at the Myakka State Park- a big bird watching venue:

Sandhill Cranes at Myakka River State Park

atmospheric view at Myakka River State Park

So we drove a half hour to see birds a lot further away and a lot less interesting than our own- who kenw? Now we do!

what else have we been doing?  looking at apartments for a rental next year and going out to eat at old favorites like Shake Pit (see Killer Cats post from last winter) and hanging out with our neihgbor/landlords for an evening of catching up.  in a day or two Phil's mom is coming for a visit and then we are all going to go to Miami to visit with Phil's brother Larry.  Will keep you posted of course...