a night at the museum

So the morning arrived - President's Day - a holiday we forgot about because we are retired LOL- we found it strange to not have mail on Monday - LOL until it dawned on us that it was a holiday. We headed to Duval's for lunch. If you are a regular reader of the blog you probably know about our "amusing" evening at Duval's on the first night we tried it.  If not, you can find the post here-

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/a-new-place-for-dinner.html

here is the most relevant passage-

"So when we both ordered the lobster bisque the waitress explained that they were out of it and then went on to explain in GREAT detail why it was so good- LOL (thereby only making us feel worse about it.) We had to prompt her about whether there were other items they didn't have -and yes they were out of two of the three fresh catch of the day fishes and no they didn't have another well reviewed appetizer the ribeye spring rolls and they had no more pork tenderloin.  Mind you we still hadn't gotten to the eight o'clock hour at this point. It was roughly 7:35."

so when the server came to take our lunch orders and I asked for the oyster po'boy and she replied that she wasn't sure that they had the oysters yet I laughed- of course not... she suggested the shrimp one- I said I would look at the menu further because I didn't want the shrimp one... at that she said - "well let me check on the status of the oysters" and went away.  When she returned she had good news - they had them (phew!) so we all ordered the hyped lobster bisque- which seemed overly tomato-y to all of us.  Therefore the AMOB lobster bisque still holds the number one spot in our opinions.

the po'boy was decent but the onion rings were EXCELLENT.  Phil and Maryanne had the seafood cobb salads.  Phil's lobster tail was overcooked... :-(  We passed on dessert and headed home for a half hour before we went off to our lecture at the South Florida Museum.

There we ran into the Greenbergers and chatted with them, introducing them to MAK our guest from NYC... LOL - yes I do love three CAP words and phrases LOL...

The lecture was given by Jeff Rodgers whom I have heard several times before- and really liked. This one was excellent as well.  It was also enhanced by the Q&A afterward when some very thoughtful questions were asked and answered.  We got info about planet X and the newly confirmed gravitational waves which recently reconfirmed Einstein's work.  Then we went on a tour of the museum and learned quite a bit more about the civilization that once covered our area of Florida for more than two thousand years.

Afterward we headed to dinner at Blue Marlin a local favorite and had another great meal but sadly our favorite server there, Dan, was off for the night.  Boo Hoo! because we always look forward to seeing him.  We left the restaurant (closed it down- LOL) at 10:45 and headed home- today- Phil has a busy busy schedule with class and his trainer and other stuff.  MAK and I will do lunch and hang out - tonight we have dinner scheduled at indigenous....

so photos- first Duval's lunch time fare-

then the lecture and museum highlights tour- we started in the planetarium-

we learned how the indigenous people developed spear throwing expertise in order to kill their food-

our "professor" the extremely interesting Jeff Rodgers!

Jeff lectures the group- Phil, MAK and Ellen Greenberger on the far right-

a mammoth skeleton found in the area- and in this room there was also a huge bone from the Bradenton Mastadon... whose bones are in every school in Manatee County (a share the wealth concept that Bernie Sanders would be happy with LOL)

the class room for the school kids visits- looks like they have a lot of fun!

dinner- with the two wines we brought- the Sigrid showed MAGNIFICENTLY- the NSG not so much - drinkable but not brilliant- lost its fruit...

the house comp'd the lobster corn dogs - which contained perfectly cooked lobster - Phil gave them a thumbs up but MAK was less enthusiastic - preferring the standard steaming. boiling or grilling with no embellishments- I thought they were interesting and well prepared but probably would not order again because I try to stay away from fried foods for every meal - LOL and I had already had the onion rings and oysters at lunch LOL

Phil ordered the grouper Fulford and MAK and I had the grouper Provencal with garlic, capers, and grape tomatoes- all excellent-

desserts - MAK had the banana creme brulee and Phil had the bourbon pecan pie and I had the coffee chocolate mousse which had barely a hint of coffee- so I was a teeny bit disappointed-

the life saver in the WC- LOL I guess if you fall into the toilet you can grab on to the ring LOL-

So off we go this morning on another day of adventures in paradise- it is blue sky and sunny and a perfect day for outside! more later.....

everyone loves Snooty

the world's oldest manatee (63 years old) lives in the South Florida Museum near here.  His name is Snooty and he is older than I am and I have "known" him since I first started coming here in the early 1960s.

he is the star attraction but the museum is a small but very nice general natural history museum for a small town and it has some other social historical exhibits as well. 

we had been out the island to have lunch along the Gulf of Mexico at the BeachHouse in Bradenton Beach... we all had grouper sandwiches for lunch and frou frou drinks with umbrellas..

we came back into town and decided a visit to Snooty would be the thing to do on a Saturday afternoon. Snooty is as I said the world's oldest living manatee.  When I was a kid he lived in what was basically and oversized bathtub  in the museum but later he got a brand new big tank and a whole wing to himself- now he occassionally has manatee visitors but he is still hand fed California Romaine lettuce daily by his people buddies.

this is what a manatee looks like (closest relative is the elephant)

here is Snooty in his current digs:

this is a 3/4 sized bronze model of the real guy!

a newsletter from thirteen years ago when he turned 50!



 Snooty loves Phil- LOL

a booklet from the inauguration of his new home:

Lynn and the two of us goofing around by posing in the faux "swim with Snooty" cutouts...

As I said the museum has some other things besides the big guy- and one of them is an historical Bradenton exhibit which featured the bathing beauties of yesteryear from Anna Maria island.

 a worthwhile stop along the way home from the Gulf of Mexico lunch in the glorious sunshine and the bright blue sky!  A perfect January day.