Girls and Manatees

Sara and Tulin each took trips to visit us in February. After all the bragging I've done about Florida's great winter weather, it was a bit embarrassing to welcome them with layers of wool sweaters, hats and mittens.  While Sara visited first, we tried to put the blame on Tulin for the cold. After all, she flew in from Missoula MT (checking out University Montana) and the temperature was only 6 degrees different!!!

Undaunted, we still managed a hike on Honeymoon Island to visit the nests of the ospreys and bald eagles. One thing about cold weather in this area is that you know where you'll find the manatees.  So we headed down to the Tampa Electric power plant in Apollo Beach which is, apparently, a winter manatee resort!

 

 

Not very exciting pictures, but you have to understand that the manatees are at the SPA!  They are relaxing in the 80 degree waters along with their spotted ray friends who kept jumping out of the water and flopping onto their bellies with a loud SPLAT.  And the warm weather attracted some snook who also jumped out of the water spinning and wriggling their tails - quite a site!

You can imagine how the Turkish fisherman was pacing the dock trying to figure out how to catch one.  There is a fishing ban on snook right now because so many died in the cold waters which resulted from the continuous freezes we had.  There were also a bunch of manatees who didn't make it.  The sea turtles were struggling as well and volunteers were at the beach picking the cold-stunned turtles up to go to various shelters.

Fantasy of Flight

There was a convergence of visitors to Polk City on December 28 - Joanne and Greg from the east, Kathy and Mark from the west. The draw? Fantasy of Flight...well, actually a particular tour guide at FoF - dad. We were greeted by 'the dad' in his leather flight jacket and by Smilin' Jack wearing some sort of knicker ensemble complete with a beret and trailing scarf. Characters out of central casting.

We were all amazed, as perhaps most people are, of the volume of aircraft at this place. And it seems they are mostly significant aircraft that meet the collection requirements of Kermit Weeks, the man behind the plan. Kermit inherited his fortune from oil discoveries by his grandfather, and decided to follow his passion of rebuilding vintage aircraft to exact specifications, including flying specs. To share his passion, he opened his hangars in Polk City to the public (after moving there from Miami when Hurricane Andrew made its impact on his collection). Kermit's planes have been used in many movies since they actually fly, and most if not all have a unique story behind them.

Lots to see, lots to learn and experience. Dad was a superb tour guide in his sharing volumes of information, but making it relateable to the visitors with mentions of recognizable names and events. Joanne now knows more about airplane engines than she had ever planned. My favorite plane - the african bush plane painted like a giraffe, complete with giraffe needlepoint pillows inside. A highlight - Kermit flying his P-51 Mustang, strafing the field at 250 mph.  Wow!

The renovation hangers were remarkable. Airplane frames of all kinds and decades are everywhere, wings and propellers are hanging or stuffed in any spare space, engines and pieces parts sitting in corners and on tables in the midst of their renewals. But all activity seemed to be in very slow motion. Planes take years to renovate... more than 10 years is not considered too long.

Xmas Candids

Christmas was great fun - eating, drinking, laughing, hugging and kissing. I didn't get pics of everyone, but here are a few candid shots. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Looks Like Christmas...in Florida!

Either a well tanned or black Santa Christmas Crabs Golfcart Santa Noel Flamingo Flamingos and Candy Canes Well Decorated Palm Tree Palm Tree with Xmas Earrings Florida Key Deer grazing near Xmas palm

I hadn't thought about Christmas decorations in Florida being different from the rest of the country until someone asked me about it.  Then I started looking around and realized that maybe crabs with bows, black Santas, and decorated palm trees might be a localized statement to the holiday.

A Weekend at the Races

Rugged Men

Mark was invited to join 'the guys' for a weekend camp out at the Sebring race track, to watch the Sebring Historic Fall Classic race. This is an annual event where over 300 historic sports cars from North America and Europe, 1950's to now, can race and show off in various day and night races.

I do believe the weekend included much eating, imbibing in adult beverages, ooo'ing and aahh'ing over various types of cars, and occasional sleeping at night. Despite the cold temperatures and pouring rains, the rugged men survived.

2002 BMW CSi 1968 Mustang Porsche 356

1970's Chevron Caymun for Miller High Life Lotus 7

Rain Barrel Art

I attended the Pinellas County rain barrel training program and am now a certified rain barrel specialist. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration! But I did learn how to set up the barrel - which I immediately decided was Mark's job... and how to paint the barrel - which I thought was more within my skill set. I came home with a 59 gallon plastic barrel, after a struggle to wrestle it into the BMW.

Mark primed the barrel, while I figured out what to paint on it. I finally decided to use one of his old t-shirts as my inspiration. It's from Hawaii and features the ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs. I thought they'd be within my painting capabilities. As you can see, these ancients were surfer dudes!

Crabmania

 

Mark has diversified his fishing to include crabs. These crabs must be walking under his feet so he can just bend down and pick them up. The likelihood of this happening is slim, so we've been collecting crabs for a couple of months with the goal of a crab feast when we accumulate enough wayward crabs.

The number of captured (and then frozen) wandering crabs finally hit 10 which was the magic number required for the feast. They were quite delicious and we made quite a mess!!