in reverse order

I am soooo far behind on the blog posts- I do apologize and assure you I will get back to China- but before that I will do the UL Lafayette course we took the first week of December on Cajun history and culture... and even before that a post or two on the second week of December which we spent with our friend Lynn visiting.

She was going to drive down with me (and the cats) in November but conflicts in schedule proved providential in that she arrived here for a week of glorious weather here and horrid weather back in Chicago...

So I met her two hour delayed flight and we walked out into late afternoon sunshine and warm temperatures- rough life- LOL... we headed home- got her settled in and popped some champagne while deciding about where to go for dinner.  It had to be someplace we could eat outside so we picked the porch at The Waterfront.

the next day we went down memory lane (for me) and headed to the Sarasota jungle Gardens (which I actually have no memory of but do have photos of me squinting into the sun, at about age nine or so, with a giant bird on my arm from there and I know when we were kids we would visit there pretty much every time we were down here on AMI (Anna Maria Island)...

so we saw the cheesy but cute bird show and some reptiles and a few flamingos and called it for what it was "old time tourist attraction" of the style TB and I run into all the time on the DART (disappearing America road trip) adventures...

a few photos? I know you are dying to see the place- LOL

Below is Frosty - a long time celebrity who is now 77 years old! He performed his unicycle act on Ed Sullivan waaaay back in the late 60's - got love the old guy- still plugging away at it... he was seriously cute and charming!

a closer shot of Frosty

the map of the gardens- which were more jungle than garden- LOL

some of the non-performing birds hanging out (you can have your photo taken with them for a fee...)

one of a few reptiles they had on display - a few baby alligators - LOL... slim pickings

by the time we got to the Flamingo area the over head sun washed out the pink so you can see their beautiful color much better in reflection than in the direct light-

we met Phil for lunch at Landside so we could eat on the deck outside-

the next day we reserved the tour of the house and private spaces at the Ringling mansion- that will be a separate post as I have lots of good camera based photos (versus cell phone ones) but meanwhile- we also made time to get to the beach and do some shelling- and to stop at the salvage yard (better known as the Sea Hagg) to peruse the junk on offer there!

the water at the beach was still warm so we took off our shoes and rolled up our pant legs to go wading in the crystal clear water-

 

at the beach we saw a pod of six or seven dolphins swimming by following a huge school of fish and of course the terns (black skimmers) were close at hand! so many fish so little time! LOL

We ate outside on the porch at Linger Lodge and our favorite sandwich place (Casa de Pizza- LOL) and got stone crab at Moore's and before you knew it the week was over! boo hoo!  So I took Lynn back to the airport and sent her on her way to the cold white north- it had just snowed the night before in Chicago and was hovering in the teens.  I drove back home in the sunshine... I know- it is mean but sometimes I can't help but gloat.... the morning at the beach was just perfect- the jumping dolphins the warm water and sunshine on the white sand made the blue sky seem even bluer!

stay warm! the next post will be Ringling and then we will head back in time to the Cajun week....