friends visit

So this past week we had friends from Chicago visit - to escape the heat wave that Chicago had while they were here- LOL... seriously it was in the 60s (finally!) when they were away from Chicago- and down here it was in the mid 80s- which actually was a heat wave of sorts (substantially over the average) but hey- you aren't looking for the weather report---

so here is how we spent the time together-

lunch upon their arrival at the Riverhouse-

then a quick trip over to the South Florida Museum to visit Snooty for his last feeding time of the day- then dinner at Blue Marlin (a favorite of ours)

the crocodile god - the logo of the museum-

Day Two included the historic Anna Maria Island tour of the old homesteads of the past three generations of my family down here- LOL - after a breakfast at the popular Peach's on East Bay Drive.... and also after a stop at the beach on AMI-  then we went home and got Phil for a lunch at Captain Brian's.

The beach was quite crowded by our standards and I laughed when I saw how much my photo resembled the Keith Oehmig painting in our living room- except for the absence of clouds LOL-

Odd how the days get away- because shortly thereafter we were heading south to Fogartyville for a concert of Full Set- and excellent Irish band that we thoroughly enjoyed... afterward we grabbed a burger for a later meal and headed home.

a couple of photos from their website-

Original photo by Conor Ledwith.  Graphic Design by Brian Hanlon

Day Three we went to the Pirates game against the Red Sox and then later to our fave Italian place- Cafe Baci.

our dinner red- was just perfect- showed fabulously- despite its age- 25 years old!

the next morning it was back to the airport to drop them off for what turned out to be a smooth flight home and mild weather for them and an amazing evening out for us (more on that in another post)...

not the Patty Duke show

My cousin Michele came to visit and for some reason that song from the Patty Duke show came into my head- "still they're cousins, identical cousins all the way...one pair of matching bookends different as night and day!" sing along with me now- LOL- you know you know this song- just like the Flintstones song everyone of a "certain age" can just fall into the chorus... "While Cathy adores the minuet, ballet russe and crepes Suzette, our Patty like to rock and roll, the hot dog makes her loose control - what a wild duet- still they're cousins..."

well- my cousin Michele and I are not identical cousins- LOL we aren't really even cousins - my actual cousin is her mother. Michele is 25 years younger than I am and almost a foot shorter and maybe weighs dripping wet a third of what I do- she comes from the smaller side of the family and I come from the much larger side- LOL- yes you have recently seen my 6'6" brother next to me- at a shade under 6 feet I am considered tall for my age- LOL but my brother and his kids all are taller than I am... 

I never really knew my cousin Michele (who will hereinafter be referred to as Michele- LOL) until she was nearly finished with law school.  We got acquainted later - as she was starting her career as an attorney and I was looking to end mine... but we really hit it off and became friends who just happened to be related to each other.  How nice is that? makes me smile just putting that thought down on e-paper so to speak...

Michele moved to Miami a few years back - around the time we started spending our winters in Florida and so we've gotten to see her at least once or twice a winter for the last five years... In January we went to Miami and saw her and last weekend she came up to visit us.  We don't usually make a lot of plans because it is just nice to hangout and spend time with each other but this visit she said she wanted to see Snooty- and being 66 as he is- we don't know if he will be here another 25 years or 2.5 years.... it's a mystery... so we take every opportunity to see him that we can.  

She arrived on Friday evening and Saturday morning we went to the South Florida Museum in time for the Snooty feeding at 11:15 and then a show at the planetarium before heading home to pick up Phil and have lunch at Star Fish Company in Cortez.  Our Saturday dinner was at Harry's and on Sunday she and I checked out the local exhibit on Da Vinci and Michelangelo at the Municipal Auditorium before getting Phil for lunch at the Riverhouse Reef & Grill - then she headed back in the mid afternoon to Miami.  It was - as always- great to spend time together.  My cousin is smart and funny (dry humor funny, like I think I am- LOL) and beautiful- so what's not to like? 

here are a few photos of the weekend- starting with my two favorites- 

then a couple from various exhibits at the museum-

this one was from a photography exhibit - the little guy was peeking out of an old beer can that had corroded- isn't he just the cutest? (the actual photograph was in focus - it was my cell phone that couldn't adjust because of the reflection on the glass)

then it was off to Star Fish Company for lunch- excellent as usual!

there is a flock of white pelicans that live around the corner from the Star Fish Company and so we frequently see a few of them there- and always see their brown brothers and some that are mixed coloring-

we took a bottle of 96 Gevrey-Chambertin which was also excellent- for our dinner at Harry's on LBK- (which is local speak for Long Boat Key)

the Sunday activity- the Michelangelo and Da Vinci show-

this blurb is about the above painting-

a detail of perhaps Michelangelo's most famous work on the Sistine Chapel-

so a nice weekend - and finally the cold weather broke on Saturday - and it was even warmer on Sunday so the calendar turned a page to March and I guess the weather god said "oh all right - enough of the cold weather!" Thank YOU!!!  

next up my last week of classes at USF-SM... my post will be about the circus arts conservatory but my last maritime history of Florida class was extremely interesting as it was all about Cuba and the Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis- I have no photos but I did snap a photo of our instructor on the last day of class- I think he is quite the character- LOL

stay tuned for a lot of very interesting circus information for the head of the Circus Arts Conservatory!

who's (on) first?

on Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to CBGB and went home to relax for 24 hours... then on Monday our friends Ron & Mary arrived - they had actually arrived on Saturday afternoon but because we were busy with Forks & Corks and CBGB until Sunday night they headed down to Naples for a couple of days to visit other friends and then returned to SRQ (Sarasota Bradenton) area for four days here...

we met up at 5:30 Monday hoping for a sunset drink but found the Beach House outdoor area closed due to high winds - really high winds... and the sunset was pretty much ruined by low clouds on the horizon - so no good reflection on the water and no great last minute colors in the sky.... because the Beach House had no room for us for more than 45 minutes (read that- "go screw yourselves until after sunset"- we only have one small area open and we don't care if more people show up") we went elsewhere.  The Beach House in our opinion only has the view going for it - the food is mediocre - oh I guess I take that back they do have a lot of good frou frou drinks with umbrellas and fruit in them that are also quite good....

so we moved on and had a drink down the street - we had later reservations for dinner at the Blue Marlin on Bridge Street - across from the Bradenton Beach Post Office (starting point for the Victoria Sterling Historic Anna Maria Family Tour- LOL)- we had a lovely dinner with a couple of good wines - an old Chassagne Montrachet and a new Old Stones Chard from Josh Bergstrom. After dinner we did a quick run from Bridge Street south to the Long Boat Key bridge and back to the Bungalow Beach hotel where our friends were staying... along the way I gave them information about the walking and biking path along the three mile long beach at the south end of the island and a couple of breakfast recommendations -

we made plans for the next day to pick them up for lunch after my arts class and so met about 1 PM and headed to the Star Fish Company- of course they loved it- who doesn't?  Three of us had the grouper sandwiches (yum!) and Phil had the oysters and shrimp combo.... we sat in the sun and basked in the radiant heat even while the day was on the cool side...

in the afternoon we finished the VJS tour of Anna Maria and stopped by the historic Anna Maria Pier for a short walk- there we saw the skyway bridge in the distance and a porpoise close up... after that we headed to our place for a bit of relaxing and to give Ron & Mary a chance to meet Lucy & Penny and see our condo - Mary has bad allergies to cats so they couldn't stay with us and had to limit their time at our place... for dinner we headed to another favorite Waterfront along with a couple of good wines - a 90 red and an 02 white burgundy-

Wednesday brought us to Riverhouse for lunch before spending time in the afternoon with Snooty our resident 66 year old manatee... and a drive by McKechnie Field and somehow the time got away and it was time for dinner before heading to the theater for Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker"- which will have its own post- (I also managed to get to both my classes this week- another post or two) but wanted to FIRST do the post about our visitors-

If you look very closely you can see the Sunshine Skyway bridge out in the distance-

there is a new Snooty book and so we had to get one to support our favorite 66 year old guy!

on Thursday we met Ron & Mary for lunch near the airport and said our goodbyes- had a great time during their visit and we hope they did too... next- What's on Second? second up - this week's classes!