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!

world's cutest 65 year old guy!!!!

so Angela and Lee came to visit and Larry came up from Miami... the number one choice of attractions on Angela's list was to visit Snooty... he lives at the Parker Aquarium in the South Florida Museum. We did stop to take in the Star Talk at the all new planetarium (which was great) now we know not to miss the solar eclipse August 21, 2017 in Murfreesboro TN! but on to Snooty- the main event!

he is 65 and incredibly slobbery cute (we are the ones slobbering over him- he is quite neat and very much the ladies man...)

a painting of a manatee- so you know what to be looking for- see his sawed off trunk (their closest living relative is the elephant) and the whiskers which act like tiny fingers and his nostrils for breathing when he comes up out of the water they open up and take in air--- he can stay submerged for 20 minutes or so. Their eyesight is bad but they have good hearing. they have nails on their flippers that resemble elephant toe nails... amazingly cute! look for his belly button on the photos of him rolled over on his back...

he eats romaine lettuce as his main food source which from a nutrition standpoint is pretty much the same as the manatee food source in the wild...

his belly button is to the left of the lettuce leaf he left floating for a snack later- LOL - he is munching a carrot which is his cue to roll over for inspection- it isn't a trick it is so his keepers can examine him daily as he is by far the oldest living manatee.  they only live about 15 years in the wild so the museum had a big celebration for his 21st birthday (LOL 44 years ago!!!)

OMG look at that face! how cute is that???

 this is a 66% life size statue of Snooty himself...

there is a great time line of Snooty's life posted near his tank...

although the museum is small, it has other collections as well- including a current exhibit about Florida tourism in the earliest days of its development focusing on the "healthy climate" - there were some pretty amusing items in that exhibit....

another exhibit focuses on Bradenton area business in the early days -

Wow - this looks dangerous - riding right on the gas tank!

one exhibit explores medicine in Manatee county-

a tourism sign on permanent display -

other areas of the museum focus on natural habitat for sea/forest/river wildlife-

a quick tour of the gift shop revealed many manatee items for sale (no surprise here!)

we pretty much closed the museum somehow managing to spend three hours there- so we headed west for the sunset at the beach house-

then because we had dawdled our time away had to rush to dinner- LOL  then the following day it was off to spring training for a game between the cardinals and the tigers at Joker Marchant stadium in Lakeland...

the local strawberry festival in Plant City is going on right now so strawberry short cake was sold off trays by people walking through the stands just like the beer hawkers (now this is the was to enjoy a ball game!)

the cardinals lost but the day was beautiful and Angela & Lee got to enjoy some sunshine and warm weather.  their flight left shortly after the game so we said goodbye at the airport and headed home to prepare for our next round of house guests...LOL