my birthday wines

so it is now year two of a "new" tradition of going to Bern's in Tampa for a celebration for my birthday.

our wine collecting friends got together from NYC (Laure & Arno) and Chicago (Sheila & Mary) and Tampa (Chuck & Georgia - CBGB to you from prior posts) and Phil and me...

so we had sent the sommolier the list of things we were interested in and some guidelines on price etc...

and included in the photos here- are the wines we drank for my birthday -

to my mind the Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape was the winning wine but others had their own opinions...

for those who don't know of Bern's- they admit to more than 500,000 bottles of wines in their cellar...

and the food is good too! six of the eight shared a wonderful Chateaubriand (from the past) and the rest of the sides are included (soup salad potato and veggies)- what's not to love????

we had folks with birth years from 1942 - 1949 - 1954 (2) - 1962 - 1968 - 1976 and 1978... and I think I can say a good time was had by all!

a visit from TB

we have been lucky enough to get a visit from our buddy Tom.  That would be Tom of Canada last August and Tom of New Zealand and Australia (coming in December of this year)- my long time travel bud and Phil's long time political junkie buddy.

he arrived on Sunday mid day and we went to the Shake Pit for some down and out greasy cheeseburgers... always a success there but even more popular were the chocolate malts we each ordered.  from there a drive by where we will relocate next winter and then a brief visit to the Cortez fishing village where we stopped at one of the fish market places for some stone crabs and took a few photos (an egret in mating plumage) - then home to relax on the river and drink a bit of bubbly.

later out to our favorite Italian place where we indulged in the fabulous lasagne...

on Monday morning we headed over to the island for the family history tour...

then back home to pick up Phil and head to lunch at Linger Lodge (gator bites anyone?) and spent the afternoon working on some trip ideas for December's big journey.  Dinner was at Moore's for the fab soft shell crabs...  today we have been catching up on news and emails and are about to go out for lunch --- and some touring...

some photos from Cortez Village:

and one from our morning tour of Anna Maria- from the beach...