Not Done Eatin' Either

We are so happy to have Claire and Brenden join us for a few days. We picked them up at the Tampa airport Friday night and took them to dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants Aqua Prime. It just opened in April, and is less than a mile from our rental house, so Bill and I have walked there a few times. Besides being very tastefully decorated, it has an outside eating area and really, really good food. Everything we have had was delicious, from the Berkshire pork shortribs, to the pasta with shrimp and mussels. I also highly recommend the gulf grouper sandwich and the burgers.

Saturday's excursion was to Dunedin, Florida, which has, in my opinion, the best quilt shop in the country. It's called Rainbow's End Quilt Shoppe, and it has over 20,000 bolts of fabric! Claire, I'm thrilled to report, is learning how to quilt, so she and I had a great time choosing fabric to buy. Don't feel sorry for the guys, though...we found them at the local brewery having a fine time. When Claire and I joined them at the bar, they were chatting with a guy from Churchville (small world!). On the way to Dunedin, we wondered how to pronounce the name of the town. Well, we will never forget how to say "Dunedin" now, because when I asked the bartender what the correct pronunciation was, he quipped, "It's Dunedin, like, I'm done eatin, but I'm not done drinkin'!" Too funny.

Sunday started with a bargain breakfast at JD's Restaurant. For $6.50, I had two eggs, three slices of bacon, home fries, and two pancakes! JD's is another restaurant we can walk to...love the location of our house! We ended the night back in Dunedin (alas, the quilt shop was closed) to have dinner at Bon Appetit, which has first class service and gorgeous water views. Bill really enjoyed the Pasta Jambalaya. One of the nice things about this restaurant is you can choose between the small or large portion of most entrees.

Another restaurant I have to mention is Marlin Darlin in Belleair Bluffs. Mom treated us to dinner there the other night. The lobster bisque is to die for, and my entree was perfect. I had "Sea bass, pan seared with wilted arugala, blistered tomatoes, and a pine nut Nueske bacon crunch with red skin mash". OMG was it yummy! My grapefruit cosmo wasn't bad either:)

Although we have been enjoying the local restaurants, we've also cooked meals at the house. My sister Lisa made us an excellent dinner when she was here. Lee grilled NY strip steaks, and Lisa made Caesar salad and smashed small potatoes. It certainly tasted like we were at a first-class restaurant! And as I write this, my son-in-law is cooking up some eggs and bacon for today's breakfast. As you can see...we're not done eatin!

Fun with Family

We are definitely not missing the frigid temperatures and snow Maryland has been experiencing. In fact, we are cozy as can be in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house on the gulf in Indian Shores, Florida. Although the house is small, the many windows afford extraordinary views!

Our bedroom is upstairs and the full width of the house. Here's the view we have from our bedroom:

 

 



My mother, my stepfather, John, my sister, Lisa, and her husband, Lee, flew down to stay with us for awhile. It's been great having them here to enjoy the warm weather and beautiful scenery with us. Mom and John used to spend winters in this area, so we were familiar with Indian Shores from our visits with them. We were not familiar with this particular house, though, and took a chance and rented it. It is very tastefully decorated and, although not perfect, the views make up for anything that we don't like. There are many restaurants and pubs we can walk to, which is nice.

Lisa and Lee had to fly home this morning, but tomorrow night we pick up Claire and Brenden from the Tampa airport, and they will spend the weekend with us. Fun with family will continue!

Fun with Friends

Our friends from Nashville, Micki and Michelle, are spending a long weekend at the Hilton on Longboat Key, Florida to celebrate Michelle’s birthday, and we decided to join them for a couple of days. Hanging with them always means good food, fine wine, and lots of laughs.

On Saturday, we went into Sarasota and toured Ca’ d’Zan, a Venetian mansion which was the winter home of the American circus owner, developer and art collector John Ringling and his wife Mable. It was quite amazing.

Also on the grounds, is the Ringling Circus Museum. I’m not really a fan of the circus, but I did find the artifacts and history of the circus in America to be fascinating.  We didn’t have time to visit the art museum, in which the most celebrated items are 16th-20th-century European paintings, including a world-renowned collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings. We will have to return next year.

Last night the four of us drove a short distance to Siesta Key to visit Micki’s cousin and his wife. We had a fabulous dinner with them at Miguel's Restaurant . The waiter made the Caesar salad tableside, and it was to die for! To celebrate Michele’s birthday, we shared a giant…and I mean giant…snifter of Licor 43. What fun!

As our friends are getting ready to go back to Nashville, we are lucky enough to continue our Florida trip in Indian Rocks Beach, where we will spend time in a beachfront home we’ve rented. Let the merriment continue!

Cape Canaveral/Orlando

A few nights ago we camped onthe water at Jetty Park, which is in Cape Canaveral. I loved watching the fishing boats and cruise ships pass by. The next day we decided to visit the Kennedy Space Center, since neither of us had been there before.

Included in the price of admission was a bus tour of the area, which was enhanced by the very knowledgeable bus driver. The bus paralleled the path an immense ATV used to transport the various spacecrafts such as the Apollo rockets and the space shuttles to the launch pad. The vehicle would straddle the median and, when loaded, would travel one mile an hour.

 

After the bus tour, there were quite a few buildings to explore. We were awed by the many artifacts of the space program and enjoyed the various films and displays. My dad worked for Martin Marietta (now Lockeed Martin), one of the general contractors for NASA. He worked on designing various spacecraft, in particular the Mercury Project. In fact, we lived in Orlando from 1957 to 1961, in a section called Pine Hills. My sisters Beth and Lisa were born in Orlando, and I attended first and second grades there. This was before Disney World was built.

Since I’m actively working on my family history, I wanted a picture of my childhood home. I knew it would look smaller than I remembered, but I was not prepared to see that it is now in a rundown, “sketchy” neighborhood. I found this history of the area online:

"The area that would become Pine Hills began in 1953 with the first subdivisions constructed along the newly completed Pine Hills Road north of Colonial Drive. It was one of the first suburbs of Orlando and grew as a bedroom community for the workers of Martin Marietta . At the time, it was an upper-middle class suburb with a country club named "Silver Pines".

Into the late 1980s and during the 1990s, Pine Hills fell into a state of decline. Silver Pines Country Club was closed, and apartment complexes were built on the property in the mid 1990s. The "Pine Hills Shopping Center" lost its long-time tenants and was eventually converted in the late 1990s into a strip mall with discount stores. Much of the housing became low rent and government subsidized. As of 2013, Pine Hills is perceived to be a high-crime area despite community-wide initiatives to solve the problem.”

This is how my childhood home looks now. Oh, well, at least I have some photos of it when it was a lovely place to live.

Go Seminoles!

Today we left St. Augustine, Florida, after spending three days with our friends, Bob and Shirley Carpenter. Bob and Bill have been friends since high school and after retiring, Bob moved to Florida.

Friday night we had dinner at an authentic Spanish restaurant, The Columbia Restaurant ,  but Shirley is an excellent cook, so we enjoyed her meals the other nights. It was fun catching up with each other, and I even got Shirley interested in quilting as she took me to a couple of local quilt shops.

After leaving St. Augustine, we headed south, driving along Highway A1A, which hugs the coast. Our first stop was lunch at Captain’s Barbecue where we had delicious brisket and ribs. I highly recommend this restaurant, but don’t get there too late, as they only make so much each day, and when they run out, that’s it!

I had read in USA Today that Florida state parks are temporarily slashing admission fees to celebrate two college sports triumphs. For January only, fans wearing FSU and UCF hats or shirts will get into state parks for half price. My mistake was telling Bill. He was determined to get this deal throughout our trip, but, of course, he would never spend the money to buy a t-shirt with a logo! Sooooo, he bought a bumper sticker for the Florida State University Seminoles ($1.06). OK, I am going to try to tell this story, but I am having a hard time because I keep laughing.

We wanted to tour Washington Oaks Gardens State Park , and Bill wanted to get the half price deal. So he taped the bumper sticker onto his ubiquitous white t-shirt. ( I will try to get a picture the next time…I’m sure there’ll be a next time…) And, yes, the lady gave us the deal…$2.50 instead of $5.00. Well, at least the bumper sticker has been paid for!

The park was lovely, and if you’re ever in the Palm Coast area, be sure to visit. It was the winter home of  Owen D. Young, who was the Chairman of the Board of General Electric in the 30’s and founder and Chairman of RCA. His wife, who was a self-made millionaire at the age of 19, designed beautiful gardens on their Florida estate. It’s like a mini Longwood Gardens. We walked the hiking trails, where we spotted a Great Horned Owl and a pileated woodpecker. Try to see the owl in this picture:

 

Then we walked on the Atlantic Ocean end of the park, where there are rock formations made by shells, which are called coquina rocks.

We ended up at a deluxe camping spot at Ormond Beach, where we will sleep by the relaxing sounds of the waves and the smell of the Atlantic ocean air. We have the comforts of home, including TV and wireless Internet. There are ocean views from every window of our Winnebago; here’s the view from the front.

 

 And there’s a quilt shop two miles away…that will be our hike tomorrow:)

Road Trip!

Bill and I have finally departed Street, Maryland, and will enter the Sunshine State later today. Woohoo! Although the polar vortex affected most of the East Coast, we enjoyed temps in the 60's yesterday as we strolled through Savannah, Georgia.

One of the nicest parts about traveling the way we do...with no reservations or etched-in-stone destinations...is that we base our journey on what we feel like doing or seeing each day. We had never been to Savannah, and since it's not far off of I-95, we decided to spend some time there.

Using a great app, Hotel Tonight, we scored a nice room in the Hilton Garden in the historic district of Savannah. It's the second time we've used the app; I highly recommend it! The rooms (only in major cities) become available after 9 AM each day. After checking with the front desk and finding out they could not match the app's price, I just booked a room right there from my phone!

Walking around Savannah was a real treat because of its historic architecture and 22 park-like squares lined by huge trees laden with Spanish moss. The streets are mostly cobblestone, and though I was wearing "sensible" shoes, in true Barbara fashion, I took a tumble. Nothing broken, but I have a swollen knee and bruised ego to show for it.

If ever in Savannah be sure to go to the Crystal Beer Parlor, where we enjoyed some brews and pork barbecue nachos http://crystalbeerparlor.com/, and buy some pralines at River Street Sweets http://www.riverstreetsweets.com/.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's a photo that shows evidence of the previous day's deep freeze in the Forsyth Park fountain.

Right now we are just north of the Florida-Georgia border, camping at Crooked River State Park, where it rained all night and is continuing to rain now. The temperature, though, is 67 degrees at 10:30 AM! I'll take it!

Stay warm, friends!