Bike to Beach

Trying to work off the mass quantities of food from Xmas feasting required some calorie burning. I hopped on my bike this morning while Mark still snored.

What a wonderful morning with the mist of dawn shading all but the most vivid colors to grey. The birds were finding breakfast. The fishermen were finding solace, but not fish. Walkers were finding energy in their morning stretch. And I found a special morning.

Here are some photos from my bike ride down the Causeway to Honeymoon Island. Notice the Rackominiums and Dockominiums at the marina! and the dogwash located next to the carwash as you leave the beach. and see the birds in the river on the bike trail to the causeway.

Preparing for Christmas

First, it is important to note that I hate to shop. I dont like malls, I dont like cutsy shoppes, I detest sales people. I get physically ill when shopping for over 1 hour. So, any gifts that I purchase are well thought out and purchased over the internet or on a specific expedition to the appropriate store for the item desired.

As a result, Christmas is extra stressful for me. No sympathy is requested. I purchase gifts for my parents, Mark's daughters, and that's about it. Mark and I havent exchanged Xmas gifts in years... if ever when I think about it.

This year has been extra busy with the house rehab, settling in, and trying to locate anything we are looking for - from the right color paint to couscous. We've not baked anything holiday-related, not gone to any Christmas concerts, not gone to any xmas parties. havent played any of my Xmas cd's, and have done minimal shopping as described.

But we did decorate the house, somewhat. And, to augment the leaning, plastic Christmas tree from mom and dad, I purchased an expensive pine-scented candle from William Sonoma at the Stanford Mall - where you walk outside between stores - one of the few malls where I can spend a pleasant hour. So I make pretend we have a live /dead tree.

What do I miss? Visiting friends, though we did get to do some of that while in California a couple weeks ago. Hoping to get some Florida friend visits in before New Years, though it seems that we will do the visiting. Others dont seem to venture out.

I'll miss spending Christmas with my sister and her family in southern California. Miss spending time with Mark's girls. Miss the Christmas tree at Union Square and driving up Roosevelt to the excessively decorated neighborhoods in Redwood City.

But I am enjoying riding my bike to the beach in the morning - meeting other more vigorous bike riders while waiting for the drawbridge to come down. Enjoying the trips to Lakeland for mom's home cooking and Sean's latest tales. Meeting new people at George's workout and yoga classes at the Y. Having a personal shopper with Arif at Home Depot - where, frankly, we spend most of our shopping time. Eating grilled grouper sandwiches at the Sandbar, down the street.

FREEZING in Frisco

We are in Silicon Valley this week - me working, Mark shopping. Its cold here! Funny how quickly we aclimated to the warm weather. We've been busy visiting friends, eating, shopping at Trader Joe's, eating, shopping at Whole Foods, eating, shopping at middle eastern grocery stores, and eating. No, there is no food in florida. Funny that we hadnt heard that in the news!






Christmas tree photos explanation: Please note that Mark did not want our own tree, real or otherwise. Too much work he said! But I got him to take in the broken-down fake tree my parents were disposing as it was easy and free.
Now, in California this week, we've been involved in several tree projects, helping to straighten the tree, rearrange the tree, and to select and cut down the tree! Tree hunting pictures are included.

The Floor! The Floor!

You can see from the photo that Mark has created a new wardrobe for home maintenance - his underwear - as he tears down a piece of nonessential wall (more on this room divider project later). And, he is then celebrating the laying of the final flooring (still some thresholds coming, but that is minor compared with the rest). You can see his handywork with the re-walled, windowed, and painted room.

He's looking forward to a quiet weekend while I'm looking forward to moving the rest of our furniture into the house from the garage.

Then, the adventure with the tankless waterheater will begin. Will include installation of LP tank, tankless heater, electrical and plumbing, our new stove installation, and...hopefully at the end of all this... a gas cooktop and 'instant' hot water.

Never a dull moment!

Lots of Thanking....and Eating

Thanksgiving 2007 proved to be quite a gathering, complete with family, friends and enough food to feed Dunedin! We gathered at Sean's house on Thanksgiving to prep for the main dinner, to happen apres Thanksgiving.

There were turkeys everywhere..some on short legs, some on long hairy legs, one with 2 necks and one that spoke Turkey! Can you imagine coming from a country named for a goofy bird?

We ate, we laughed, we drank, and we were thankful for each other and our blessings.

Space...the Final Frontier

Well, space is our final frontier. Mark has been busy on the office, and now all we need, can you guess? A floor!! The wood...er, grass...is now here from China and we are bribing the floor guys to put it in. I may even stoop to... baking. Mark is thinking more along the lines of beer. Anyway, one of these angles should work.

Meanwhile, mom and dad joined us for the BIG event in Dunedin (keep your perspective here..we are talking about Dunedin!). Wine and Blues. It is a street festival, at night, with pretty good bands ranging from Janis Joplin blues to Frank Sinatra blues. And, a selection of wines that wasnt too bad...tho we realized soon enough that each glass of wine cost more than Dad regularly pays for a bottle! We had a great time wandering, drinking, eating, and listening. Then, walked over to the Dunedin Brewery for a taste of brew to finish off the evening. Nice that its only a mile away.

Mark Takes on a Whole Room

As mentioned earlier, Mark decided to rebuild the office. The reason? The exterior wall was 3" thick while the exterior door we needed to install was 4" thick. He's been getting very sweaty and dusty every day while there seems to be new layers of wall being added. Methinks he has something to do with this.

Today he got to mudding the sheetrock! He poured cement to the new height of the floor, no longer at ground level. Now the aligators have to jump a bit AND knock on the door to enter. No more just sauntering in.

What have I been doing? Besides supervising of course... unpacking boxes, cleaning the floors (thankful that we have them), and arranging the furniture. Mark's Home Depot Turkish friend Arif (who I call Ataturk - look it up)kindly showed up this week to help move the furniture into the house from the garage. Of course, I have been rearranging it since.

Mark Tackles the Office

Excited to work on the one part of the house that is made of wood - my office - Mark lept (leeped?) to the opportunity to thicken the walls to hold a real door. Note earlier entry about aligators coming through the door.
He's torn out old drywall to discover the aluminum supported walls from the original screened porch, insulated with styrofoam. Industrious Mark has used 2x4s (which are no longer 2"x4" in case you didnt know) on the inside walls to add depth. He has replace 4 of the 5 windows with smaller, 140 mph wind resistant windows (we will fear no stinkin' winds!) and a real exterior door (aligator proof). He boarded up one window as this was was too many for the space. The back door now sits 6" up from the ground unlike the aligator door that was level with the dirt so those critters could just wander in...along with snakes...and zebras.
Insulation is coming along, and...before you know it...drywall!

Moved in - sort of

Growling with the floor guys about living out of a garage seemed to have finally worked. Of course, after enough time passes, anything can be credited. Hard grass (bamboo) now covers all but my office - more on that later. So, Mark and I orchestrated the big MOVE. This has included much help and patience from dad and Sean, but we are finally sleeping in our bedroom (freshly painted I might add), with all but our ski clothes put in drawers.


As for the Floriday room/office - when looking for a replacement for the flimsy back door to the office, Mark noticed that real doors were 4" thick while our wall was only 3" thick. So, he will be initiating the grand construction of...thicker exterior walls for the office. Tear down has started, showing metal wall studs and Styrofoam insulation.


Meanwhile, I'll be working out of the quietest part of the house...the bathroom. Good internet connection, phone acoustics and a seat. What more could I ask for!


We are legitimate Florida drivers now. We had to give up the California licenses. Somehow, this made it all real, and official.

Why Can't We Just Have Dirt Floors!

We've begun the process of modified rehab on the Dunedin house. The bubbling Pergo - gone. The baseboards - gone. The black and white checkerboard floor tile - gone. The dog hair from probably 1000 dogs that lived in the house - gone. The patience to wait another week for the rest of the new bamboo flooring - gone.

The good parts?
In Dunedin: Short hop to the beach for sunset. Nice breeze on the back porch.
In Lakeland: Family running in and out of parental units' house. Crazy Brit visitors who order 'Bood' for beer. Mom's Sharffenberger Chocolate Cake and meatloaf!

See the small progress in photos. Photo at bottom shows Pergo floors and kitchen bar - now all gone. The floor guys, when they show up, want their photos taken by Mark. Not sure if they need proof they are working, or are just hams!

And the Winner Is.....................

Time to announce the winner of the mileage contest!

There were 9 official guesses...lots more that didnt get entered. But only those that were communicated electronically via email or blog were counted. The high guess was mom at 7000 miles, the low guess was 4223 miles by Micki. The actual mileage was..... 6222.5 miles. Georgie won at 5617 miles. Congratulations, Georgie!!!

I will start entries about the house rehab and our new life in Dunedin. Currently, we are spending time between Dunedin and Lakeland (parents' house) depending on the work being done. Quite a mess right now... us AND the house! Look for upcoming entries.

Florida, At Last!

The official trip ends in Lakeland. But our new home is in Dunedin. We have a bit of work to do on the house to move in and may end up making a bigger mess then we started with. But that is our way. (perhaps this process will become blog worthy)

The trip took almost a full month: 27 days. We saw unbelievable diversity in landscapes, cities, people, food and language. And to think – all the same country! I did realize that the more I saw, the more I realize I had yet to see. There are huge regions we didn’t even touch: Midwest, Northeast, East Coast, Southwest. We just scratched the surface.

Favorite spots: Mark’s most surprising experience was Carlsbad Caverns. He found the caves to be a completely different and unexpected experience. He also loved the wild animals found in the west and the bayous of Louisiana.

For me, each place had a remarkable quality that I found interesting or even surprising. I think the most impactful location was along the gulf coast, still recovering from Katrina. One of the most beautiful was the Grand Teton area…close tie with Crater Lake. Historically, Mesa Verde was very interesting and fun.

Favorite foods: Mark’s favorites were the bison steaks in Jackson Hole and the BBQ ribs in Austin. I was surprised by the great flavor of the shrimp and corn soup I ate in Houma. And the cheese grits at Emerile’s restaurant in Gulfport.

Favorite drives: Mark’s was the million-dollar road in Colorado where we drove through multiple hairpins at a time, and saw old mining equipment and the leaves changing colors for fall. My favorite drive was along the Columbia Gorge with scenic overlooks and beautiful waterfalls.

Favorite hikes: Mark’s favorite ‘stroll’ was the hike down and back from Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park. He didn’t even mind the cold wind blowing through? our ears. My favorite hike was around Jenny Lake at Teton National Park, and up to the waterfall. This is what the National Park Service calls an easy hike – but it kicked my butt by the end of the day.

Favorite grocery store: My fave is the Dekalb Farmer’s Market, perhaps for sentimental reasons, or maybe because of the cinnamon chocolate cookies they still sell. Mark’s favorite is City Market (competition to Whole Foods) that we visited in Ft. Worth area.

Favorite hotel: Mark’s favorite was the log cabin in Jackson Hole for $90. We slept like logs, so to speak. I think this is my favorite as well.

Favorite restaurant: Mark has 2 favorites. Lucy’s Mexican Restaurant in Carlsbad and Gun Barrel In Jackson Hole. My favorite was Rudy’s BBQ in Austin.

Biggest surprises: The elk bugling that we finally heard in Mesa Verde. The number of women controlling with traffic (flag ‘men’) in all the northwest road construction we ran into. The number of deserted towns and areas. The expanding girth of the locals as we traveled east. The amount of destruction still untouched along the gulf coast from the hurricanes. The number of Russian waiters we had in the western states, and their inability to do their jobs well. The number of Harley Davidson stores, seemingly in every town, and often with a Hooters nearby. The number of massage billboard ads in south Georgia on I-75.

Contest Update: Remember, guess the number of miles we covered from September 4, Redwood City, CA to September 30, Lakeland, FL and win a $25 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble. Guess by October 15. Look for the answer and winner, hopefully by October 16!!!

Florida – Within Spitting Distance

Driving from Atlanta to Florida isn’t too long of a drive, but it seems like a lot of changes along the way. Drivers started getting a little crazier and billboards became the main attraction. Near Tifton, GA, we started to see advertising for truckers…’Thumbs Up’ massages, Happy Spas, …hmmm. Then came the pecan (pee-can) billboards. Of course we had to go shopping for nuts and nut related paraphernalia. (notice that we skipped the massages) Mark practiced saying 'pee-can' for at least 60 miles. He’s almost got it down.

Note: no siting of the Jingle Jugs truck we saw in Texas, though according to their schedule, they are headed for Disney - go figure.

Next were the amusement park billboards alongside the retirement community billboards. Finally, we got off I-75 and the billboard jungle to relax to the scenery of mobile home parks, stately farms with cows and horses, and run-down gas stations. Ah, welcome to the old Florida.

The South Will Rise Again

Our uneventful drive through Alabama to Atlanta brought us to my old stomping grounds. But, a lot has changed since 1994! Besides the Olympics related buildings, whole neighborhoods have transformed from working class, industrial areas to high-end condos and shopping. So many more highrises have popped up that I don’t recognize the skyline. And, while the traffic has always been notoriously bad, it is even worse on the surface streets. But we came to Atlanta to visit friends and we had a great time.

We stayed with Judy, Dave, Maddy and Nestle (a walking, furry, chocolate bar) where feasting with good food and drink was the standard. Highlights: Turkish dinner of kofta and couscous by Mark, and mushroom omelets and a fried turkey with dirty rice by Dave, homemade tiramisu by Judy (I set the table). From this home base, we saw Kati and her furry Max (or snowball as Mark called him), and my nephew Patrick who is resembling his dad’s looks more and more – but not his actions, thank goodness! James was harassed appropriately via phone, but wisely stayed in Columbia that day.

Since we were in the heart of the south, Mark needed to learn something about Atlanta, confederacy, and the Civil War. After all, he’s now going to live in the South. So we marched to Grant Park to see the Cyclorama. This was a mandatory stop on a trip up the east coast when I was a child. We walked around the circular diorama back then, before it was restored. Now, you can see scenes from the Battle of Atlanta on July 1864 while sitting, as the seats turn to follow the story narration. The Civil War, with a total of around 3 million soldiers (both north and south) was our bloodiest war, but also the most personal. Soldiers who grew up as friends and even as family, fought one another. The death count was high with 2/3 of this number dying from disease and not battle wounds. The Battle of Atlanta proved to be a turning point in the war, shifting to the North’s advantage.

The Cyclorama painting – largest canvas painting in the world – was done 2 years after the Civil War ended. So the battle stories were still fresh. The painting traveled around for many years as was common for these paintings in the 1800’s. In the 1920’s, it came home to Atlanta to stay. Refurbished in the 1970’s, the painting and diorama are impressive in story and design. Mark found this all interesting and has a bit of understanding now. Civil Wars even happen outside of the Sunni/Shia Iraq situation. Next on his southern orientation is the southern accent!

The steam train ‘Texas’ is in the building also. This train is famous for the Great Chase in April 1862 when Union spies seized another train called the General. It was chased by the Texas – driving backwards – until the General was abandoned. The spies were hanged and the Texas is in Grant Park.

We checked out the Dekalb Farmers Market – my favorite food shopping location when I lived in Decatur. Mark was like a kid in a candy shop with foods from around the world. He was especially excited to see the assortment of breads and a whole section of nuts and dried fruits from Turkey. Needless to say, Turkish pistachios are coming back with us.

Decatur has also transformed into quite a destination town – with lots of upscale and funky shops, restaurants and bars. I knew this would happen one day when I purchased my house down the road from downtown. But it happened after I left!! I’m sure my presence influenced this change :’)

Contest Update: We are coming to the end of our trip. We’ve spent over $700 so far just on gas. Prices ranged, so far, from $2.729 to $3.099 per gallon. Send your mileage guesses. Our trip calculation will end in Lakeland, FL at the parental units’ house. Guesses can be submitted until October 15, 2007. If multi guesses, the latest guess is the one that counts.

Food and Drink: This is a hard one. The home cooking, wine and beer selections were outstanding. We also ate out several times at great spots. The restaurants were: the 5 Seasons Brewery – a brewery with excellent foods and beers. The 2 way duck and the venison were delicious: tender meats cooked medium rare and excellent sauces that highlighted the flavors without overpowering them. The Brick Store Pub in Decatur is a brewery with an assortment of beers requiring a catalogue to list them all. Whew! My Dogfish Head Punkin Ale and Mark’s local Sweetwater beer were both great. The Flying Biscuit in midtown had really good food and amazing biscuits and cheese grits. But after an hour between ordering and eating, I could have eaten the napkins and thought them delicious. So, we’ll have to discount that review a bit.

Ok Mother Nature – You Win

From Louisiana bayous to the Mississippi gulf coast was a sobering trip. First we passed through New Orleans (since we’ve been here multiple times, we’ll come back on a New Orleans destination visit) on I-10. Canal Street and the Dome looked great, as did our glimpse at the French Quarter. The east side of the city was different. We saw apartment complex after complex that was destroyed by flooding, sitting empty. I can’t imagine the volumes of displaced families just from apartments. Then we saw the neighborhoods of homes, looking like middle and upper middle class from the construction and size of homes, that were still largely destroyed. A beautiful brick home that had been reconstructed sat next to two with boarded windows and tarp covered roofs.

From Louisiana we took highway 90 along the coastline. We heard a lot about Katrina’s impact to New Orleans, but much less about the impact to the Mississippi coast line. This area was known for its stately antebellum mansions along the beachfront, and wide, white sandy beaches. What we saw made me think of an archeological dig, where a past civilization was being discovered, with little debris left to personalize the site.

Instead of old, stately mansions, we saw grand front steps leading to a foundation. We saw swimming pools and patios without a home around them. Some families put wooden signs on their property with their name and address. We saw people are living on their lots, in mobile homes or campers. But most of these lots are now for sale, with the debris removed and just the surviving grand oaks remaining. There are large parking lots for what were probably shopping centers. There are bones of gas stations and churches. (double click on the images to expand to full screen)

Amid this sanitized destruction, there is a lot of rebuilding. The casinos are repaired and running. Got that tax base up and running quickly! There are new condo complexes open for sale, and new homes being built atop 1 story stilts. A couple of mansions are being repaired, but almost all are gone. I’m guessing the single family homes will be replaced with multifamily condos and the look and feel of the area will change significantly. I hope not, but the reality of the cost of living in an area wiped out by Camille, then Katrina is likely to prevent single family homes from coming back along the beachfront.

We stayed at the Island View casino in Gulfport where Mark made his non tax-deductible contribution to the local economy. Our dinner was at Emerile’s new restaurant at the casino that specialized in seafood dishes with a nod to the local taste.

Food and Drink: Our dinner at Emerile’s restaurant, the Gulf Coast Fish House had a couple of standout dishes. Mark is picky about his cream-based fish chowder (usually called New England clam chowder). He tried Emerile’s seafood chowder and was really happy with it. Different chunks of seafood were cooked in a nicely seasoned cream base. No potatoes, and the light cream helped highlight the fish. Just the way he likes it.
My dinner was delish: Paw Paw Shrimp. (What's a 'paw paw'!!??) Shrimp was grilled, and drizzled with a sweetened, yet slightly spicy tomato sauce. This was atop cheese grits. But these were tasty cheese grits that even Mark – I hate grits – liked.

Humidity and Fried Foods – Welcome to the South

Texas BBQ and cow pastures turned to oil refineries and shipping as we passed through Houston. Then we got to bayous and sugarcane fields, Cajun crawdads and southern cracklin’ – yep, we are in Louisiana.

Our welcome was a blinding rainstorm that reminded us we aren’t in the west any longer. Instead of elk or cow crossing signs, we are seeing bear crossing signs (not really sure about that one). While oil is important to western states like Texas, we saw a growing volume of oil related businesses from Houston into Louisiana.

Our Louisiana adventure was going on a swamp tour with Ron Guidry and his Cajun Man Swamp Cruise. They need four customers to break even, and since Katrina, the tour is often cancelled. Our tour ended up with 12, a big group these days. So, Mr. Guidry took us to some spots he’s not visited in a while.

Bayous are the rivers that run through swampy land. Here in Houma, the oil companies have added canals to these in order to get their oil barges to the refineries that seem to pop up everywhere. The equipment we were seeing was mostly from the 1940’s, but much of it was still working. I was surprised to see so many pumps and pipelines amidst this seemingly pristine environment. Beautiful cypress with hanging Spanish moss, blue heron, egrets, alligators and even bald eagles came to greet us. Cajun Man (CM) called to one bald eagle who responded immediately by squawking at him and then swooping down for some chicken skin he threw. The eagles come in to the area for the winter and this one returned just this week. CM seems pleased to see her (he called her MommaBird). He’s also named and somewhat trained a couple of alligators to come to the boat and jump for chicken. They obliged and then eyed Mark’s teasing hand when he hung it off the side of the boat. At one point, CM stopped the tour to share some local music, which he played and sang with either accordion or guitar.

Cajun Man is quite a celebrity in that he’s been featured on TV, has toured outside the US to promote Louisiana, and is starring in a series of upcoming KIA commercials. He’s done the swamp tour for the past 20 years. Before that, he was in law enforcement, with other careers in between. When I asked him which is his favorite, he said he’s the happiest now. So look for him!

There’s water, bridges, boats and seafood everywhere. Many of the wooden houses have metal roofs and big porches. While waiting for our swamp tour, we sat on a porch with big swings where I decided the best porch swings hang from very tall ceilings so the rocking is long and slow. Mark can’t understand the Cajun accents and keeps asking me what they are saying. I don’t always know.

Food and Drink: Big Al’s in Houma, LA is the place to go. Not a fancy place – Big Al appears to be an alligator – we found the menu requires digging in and working for your meal. We ordered gumbo, shrimp and corn soup, and sweet potato fries to start. Then dug into 6 crabs. Mark wasn’t happen with the amount of work required to get the small amount of crab (he’s used to the larger Dungeness crabs in San Francisco). But I enjoyed it. The soups were really authentic with great flavors you get only from homemade versions. And, how can you mess up a boiled crab – they were messy, but good.

From BBQ to Danish Dinners in Austin

You know you are in Texas when half the radio stations are playing religious rock music and there are trucks driving down the highway boasting ‘Jingle Jugs – the Trophy Rack You’ve Always Wanted’.

We visited our friend Elva and Blake and the contingent of Groves including: Nolan, Valerie, Christine and Bryan, and their furry friends Shiner and Dixie (as in beer). BBQ has always been a thing with Blake and Mark, so much investigation intoBBQ was required while we were in Austin. We managed to include BBQ brisket, chicken, ribs in our breakfast, lunch and dinner this weekend.

It is still really warm in Austin, so we decided to cool down at the river. This river goes through Austin, so we actually went into the city to reach it. We parked at an office park, then hiked the trailhead down to the water. It was cool and clear, complete with little waterfalls and rocks to climb. A real Texas waterhole! We didn’t have long to play though. With four kids, you can imagine the schedules of soccer and baseball games, along with scouts (girl and boy), birthday parties, etc. So, we got to participate in all of these. Mark’s favorite was soccer. He had fun kicking the ball around with the kids.

Another highlight was watching the bats come out at sunset from under an overpass bridge. It seems Austin has a huge urban bat population, in the millions. We brought our blankets and beer to watch them emerge from the overpass on their evening excursions for insects. The bats fly en masse, looking like smoke pouring out of various spots of the bridge. Though it was getting dark, we could see endless clouds of these small creatures (Mark calls them ‘night birds’), all flying together for their evening hunt. They return at dawn to hang upside down until the next evening. This happens in the summer and early fall – then they fly to Mexico for the winter (I think they have a beach place down in Cabo). Very cool to see!

Austin is a hub of high tech, so it isn’t surprising that we know other folks in this area. We caught up with our friend Michael at his new home, and were joined by another former colleague who I haven’t seen in about 10 years, Lief and his family. Michael’s parents were visiting from Denmark, so his mom made us all a delicious Danish meal of potatoes, peas and a type of hamburger with grilled onions and gravy. All of these Danes love Austin which I find curious. Maybe Austin will start to take on a Danish flavor!

Food and Drink: Rudy’s BBQ is famous, rightly so. But I have to admit, the creamed corn made an impact on me. Think about the last time you ate creamed corn. Maybe it was when you were 10, when cream did not carry any negative images. Rudy’s creamed corn is just as delicious, maybe even better, than then. Their creamed corn has slightly crunchy corn kernels with just enough cream sauce to keep them moist. Delicious and, since I was now 10 again, emotionally soothing!