{crazyjen}

Philly, DC, Virginia, and Delaware

I came across these images that I took awhile back when I was in Philly for business a couple years ago. I traveled around with my Dad a couple days because he was in Maryland at the time and it was New Years so he had a couple days off.

Just thought I'd post a link 'cause I like 'em.

http://jennifermartinovici.typepad.com/photography_by_jen/travel/page/2/

Here's a couple

One of my favorite images. "Love rules the world whether you admit it or not."

 

Geez, what a He-Man holding up the Washington Monument and all.

Vietnam Memorial to the Washington Monument.

Washington Monument from the Jefferson Monument, I believe.

Our beloved Capitol Building. Isn't that some beautiful architecture. I think so.

Flowers at the Reading Terminal. Did you know I'm a sucker for Roses?

Fargo, ND

I went to Fargo, ND this weekend. Yeppers. That's right. Went there for a wedding of one of my relatives. Nothing too exciting went on. A couple funny stories though. :)

So, here goes. Friday we drove up to Fargo and when I say we I really mean I. Mom sat there in the passenger seat loaded up on dramamine 'cause she gets car sick. Which is apparently because of having all of us kids or that's what she says. I think she's just playing the blame game. Anyway, Kimmie's in the backseat sleeping like a rock. What a bum. So I'm driving the whole 4.5 hours which actually turned into about 5.75 hours because of stopping for dinner and a bathroom break for Mom. Let me tell you how fun that is. Oh yeah baby. Super fun, as in along the lines of watching grass grow. Yeah, you got me, something you've been dieing to do since birth. Yeah, I'm laying on the sarcasm with a palatte knife. :)

So we wake up Saturday morning and decide to eat breakfast and hit the pool which was really and oversized bathtub. Pretty friggin' small and it was like ice water so we tried the hot tub which was a bath tub with luke warm water. Gracie liked it a lot but Jack was being insubordinate. Not sure why. He loved water and the pool as a kid. What a brat.

Here's proof of the freezing water.

Here she is on Auntie Kimmie's lap.

More craziness from Gracie. She's actually splashing her hands and arms in the water.

So next we decided to go to the Red River Zoo in Fargo, ND. A very small zoo, nothing too exciting but enough for a little 2.5 year old and small enough for us to complete in a limited amount of time.

I'm loving this lizard picture I took. Pretty wicked looking. Actually I think this is a chameleon. Michelle was looking at the tank, reading the sign and said, "So who's got good eyes?" I take one look up in the upper corner and see this beauty. Apparently it wasn't so hard to find. :)

They had peacocks walking freely all over the place and I happened to get this one with his fan out. They are very beautiful animals. That bright blue is spectacular. It really is and the feathers appear iridescent at times. It's awesome. They make this annoyingly loud call...I can't really describe it except to say it sounds lke a MacCaw yelling "help help" crossed with some kind of ribbiting frog. It's weird.

This is  Meerkat, like the tv show. They just stand up and look around all the time. Nothing much else happening there. So needless to say we didn't stay long to observe them.

Mitchelley, Kimmie, Gracie, Jackster and Guy standing next to a Bison with tiger painting. Not sure why we chose this spot for a semi-family picture. Mom and I are taking pictures, hence we aren't in there.

Guy and the Squeaker walking ahead, Michelle with the stroller, Grandma bringing up the rear, Kimmie with Gracie but obviously not in this picture.

Jack actually walked up and petted this wolf cub. I didn't think he'd do it because he is afraid of dogs and this looks like a dog, but I was wrong. He walked right up there and did it, twice in fact. I was so proud.

Okay, so now you've seen enough pictures of the zoo, time for some wedding stuff.

Kimmie waiting for the ceremony to start. Giving me one of her looks....

Gracie giving me one of her looks too. As in, get me out of here, I'm bored. This Catholic long marriage mass is making me crazy. Wait, she didn't say that but I know I did. I'm Lutheran and our marriage ceremonies are 20-30 minutes depending on how long-winded the pastor's speech is so sitting through a Catholic mass was like the end of the world (yes I'm being a whiner) but on the bright side the next 3 weddings I have to attend are Lutheran. ha ha!

Gracie was very good during the ceremony. She squalked a couple of times but it was a happy screech. People around us looked back to see her and probably thought she was upset but she wasn't. The bride and groom didn't even notice nor did they care so that was a bonus.

Ah, the lovely couple. Jason and Karen (Carr) Meixner. Her dress was so beautiful. It really was. Not too much bling, just enough to make it elegant but not gaudy. Same with her tiara. Oh and the train was small, simple and slightly bustled, beautiful. Sorry, no picture of it though. Maybe I can check Mom's film and see if she had one.

Gracie, happy as a clam, at our table at the reception. She just looked around, chewed on the table cloth and one of her favorite toys (a JD dump truck) and looked happy. It was kind of nice considering Jack was such a hellion. Ughh...Guy had to take him to run around a couple of times 'cause he was getting restless. I can hardly blame him.

Okay, so here's a funny story. We are sitting around our table waiting for cake and Jack sees the lady with a tray full of cake plates. She stops at our table, proceeds to pass them around to the adults, so he sees this , throws his arms out in front of them and screams "please, please, please, please!" indicating that he wants cake. God it was hilarious. I laughed so hard. :)

Oh, that reminds me of another story. During the dinner Michelle, Kimmie and I constantly and I mean constantly banged on our glasses, you know klink klink, trying to get the Bride and Groom to kiss. We were relentless. Okay, I shouldn't make it sound like we always started it but maybe half the time. It was hilarious. Relentless takes on a whole new meaning when you get us three together at a wedding. The table next to us had a bunch of older folks that, according to Kimmie, were glaring at us for doing it. What a bunch of poops.

The best part was that it reminded Kim of Michelle's wedding. You see Michelle had little bells on all the tables so people could ring those bells instead of klinking the glasses. At one point during the dinner Michelle grabs her bell, looks at Guy with that gleam in her eye (you know the one fellas) and starts ringing her own bell. I swear I couldn't stop laughing when Kimmie said that because I had forgotten all about it. It was seriously hilarious. Hilarious because most brides don't do that, they just get annoyed at the "relentless" people klinking/chinking/clanging/banging/whatever their glasses. Not my sister.

Later on the mother of the groom came over, we know her, and we were telling her all about it. We were telling her how we enjoyed torturing them and proceeded to indicate that all of us don't mind/won't mind smooching our men during in front of everyone at a wedding and dont' mind torturing others.

I said, "Do you know who's going to be making all the racquet at Kimmie's wedding?" then I pointed to Michelle and I. Then I said, "Do you know who'll be making all the racquet at Jimmy's wedding." and pointed at Me, Michelle and Kimmie. Oh baby I can't wait. I love weddings. :) She laughed. Kimmie's going to be smooching Thomas so much that at one point I'm going to scream, "Hey, why don't you two get a room!" :)

Okay, so this picture is probably a little hard to understand without a story attached to it. Okay, here goes. After dinner and before the dance we had a little over an hour to kill so they tossed out these volleyball-sized beach wedding balls for the kids to play with. Well, the funny thing is that the adults had more fun wacking them around than the kids. Um...yeah, seriously. I got in it a couple times too. It was basically the Meixner side having all the fun. It was a riot. They played "keep the ball from hitting the ground."  It was more fun than I describe it. People got hit in the back of the head (um...that was me :) Glasses were knocked over, heads were shaved, kids got in the line of fire. Pretty much chaos and fun had by people who should act their age. Granted, I'm not saying I believe that adults should act their age because what fun is that? I'm just saying. :)

The Walburn clan before they went back to the motel.

Here's a shadow of my crossed legs with my hot sexy 4" black pointy-toed heels that I wore. Oh yeah, they make my legs look that much longer. I should have worn a skirt but they drive me crazy so I wore black pants instead. Just thought I'd add this random shot in. Eat your heart out boys. :) jk

Me and little Kimmie. "Do we look alike?" Maybe the chins.

Here's a picture of me and Kimmie trying to Polka. We aren't very good at it but we give it a shot which is what really counts oh and we're havnig fun and quite frankly I don't really give a crap if I'm horrible. Nope, not really 'cause it's fun. :)

Anyways, dancing like a nut created a problem for me. Um...well, anyway see my shirt there. Yeah, I'm the one in the black pants, Kimmie's got the white pants on. My shirt was a v-neck and it kept slidding downward so I'd go from oh 1 inch worth of decent cleavage to about 10 pounds of it. Not very attractive really, kind of slutty when you get to that point so the whole evening I'm hiking my shirt up trying to cover up god's gift that tortures me constantly and gets oogles from old men, perverts, the occassional cute guy not to mention little boys who like to cop a feel (yeah, you know who you are. :) So I start dancing with Kimmie and I see Mom and she points to my chest and I look down. Do I even need to say what happened? My shirt had shifted and you could see my bra now in addition to my cleavage. Nope, God's gifts weren't hanging out but pretty darn close. Sheesh...how embarassing. Apparently I need to tape the twins down before I attempt to have fun dancing.

Just in case you were wondering Kimmie has white socks on with pink tips and I'm barefoot. My preferred way of living, barefoot and carefree. Plus those stick-thin, needle-point, leg-enhancing, black pointy-toed, male mouth-watering, I'm-a-good-time, shoes start to hurt my feet after awhile.

Okay, that's it for now. This is a pretty long post so I hope you made it to the end.

Edit: Another story Michelle wanted me to tell.

So me, Kimmie and Mom slept in one hotel room and right next door were Michelle, Guy, Jack and Gracie. Sat. morning Kimmie and I are getting ready and all of a sudden I hear Michelle yell, "Jack! Shit!" then I hear a door open and the patter of feet and Michelle scream and pound on our door "Help! Somebody! Help!" So I jump up, run to the door (yes I ran, I didn't walk quickly, I ran, I heard the note of panic in the voice.) throw it open and see Michelle racing down the hall after Jack. I yell, "Hey, what!?" She turns around and "says Jack opened the door and escaped and I ran out to get him, forgot my key and Gracie is locked in the room sitting on the bed!" Okay, so honestly my first response was to chuckle 'cause it was humurous. At that point Kimmie gets the story and goes in our room and gets the spare key for their room. And what do you think we find? Gracie, sitting there, happy as a clam, smiling at us. So the story was pretty funny. :) We laughed about it.

Best Beach in the Continental U.S.

Yahoo has this article out today about the best beaches in the U.S. and my favorite beach is on it. Siesta Key, in Florida off the Gulf Coast (Sarasota) so I thought I'd do a quick post with some pictures. Here's the article Best Beaches.

View from the Life Guard Station.

The beautiful waters.

A postcard from me to you.

A parting shot of me and my lovely legs. Well, my knees don't look attractive but do knees really look attractive ever? Oh and those are my new favorite shorts. They are a linen finish so they breathe well and aren't heavy. Gotta love that. :)

Here's a link to a post I did about how much I love the ocean. It's a beautiful masterpiece of poetic genius. Well...maybe that's not entirely true but it's a Friday I'm aloud to exaggerate a little right? :) The ocean

Arizona Photo Album

I've been working on getting some images loaded from my trip to Arizona in February with my cousin Traci. Here are two days of images that I had finished. I'll do more later but I figured I might as well get up what I have. The first day was basically traveling and going to the Scottsdale Arabian Show in Scottsdale, AZ (right outside of Phoenix). The second day Traci and I traveled to the Grand Canyon. It was an awesome day. It really was. A beautiful clear sky, around the low 40's which was chilly but I wore a t-shirt, sweatshirt and a stocking hat and was fine. Most people have winter coats on including Traci because it was cold. There was some lingering snow on the grounds. It was a perfect day for sightseeing the Canyon.

So click on this link. Arizona 02.08

Here's an image of the Colorado River I thought Traci would like. Her favorite pictures are ones where you can see the river and made it all. :)

TGIF

I'm glad it's Friday today. Well, I'm glad it's Friday every Friday because I love the weekends. Work is all well and good but you can't discount the need for downtime.

I don't know what to wax poetic about today. I've been feeling a bit icky, I'm not sure why but I have been. So this weekend is a welcome one. Although I'll be watching my niece and nephew on Saturday morning so that's not much of a vacation. :) Although I had hoped to be able to take them to the park to play. You know, wear them out some but it's supposed to be cold, wet and nasty so that's out. Dang it. Jack LOVES the park too.

Well, maybe I'll write a limerick. Okay, here goes.

Today is so cold and dreary,

it makes me sad and weary.

i sit at my desk,

feeling so grotesque,

trying to make myself cheery.

Here's a hello from me on the beach.

Nokomis Beach, Florida (on the Gulf of Mexico) south of Sarasota and Tampa.

My favorite Florida Pictures

After I quickly perused the 600+ pictures I took last night these popped out for me. They were my favorite. I'll post more later as I get through them after this intial pass.

My reflection in Uncle Al's glasses during sunset at Nokomis Beach.

I call this Ecstasy because the trainer was rubbing this parrot's head and it just laid back and opened it's mouth like it was truly enjoying a good scratching. It was neat to see. This was at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.

Sarasota Bay. I just thought this one was cool because of the dark blue sky, teal water and I liked how I had the big boat in the foreground with the smaller boats along the horizon line.

I loved this one because all these couples went down to the edge of the beach to watch the sun go down, kind of romantic (Nokomis Beach).

 

Al screeched to a halt so I could get a shot of the sunset by this Disney shapped power-line.

A water lily in the Koi pond at the Marie Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota, Florida.

Reading a romance novel on Nokomis Beach. I thought it was cute that a pair of lovers was walking along as I looked up.

View from my airplane seat coming home. This was probably 15 minutes from Minneapolis, MN. The pilot came on after I took this picture to say, "We are being pushed back to our outer marker because of a storm in the Twin Cities area."

A grouping of fruit and vegetables at the local Farmer's Market which was a couple blocks from Aunt Kathy's place.

Sarasota Bay near the Tiki Hut Restaurant.

A palm tree near Venice Beach in Venice, Florida.

Florida: Day 5

Day 5...nothing eventful. It was a packing day, a realization I am pretty burnt day and I'd like to go to a Sam's Club or alternative warehouse store and by gallons of aloe and then dump it in a bathtub and soak in it for a half a day, day, a sad I'm going home day, a wish I could stay another day,day....need I go on?

I did have Uncle Al drop me off at the downtown Venice area which is ladden with cute little shops, boutiques, stores...I found some good stuff down there including a birthday cake ice cream cone (cake batter ice cream with sprinkles). The downtown of Venice is beautiful; lined with palm trees for blocks, full of quaint little shops and peaceful. Stores range from the typical souvenier gift shop ladden with sea shells, magnets, t-shirts and the like to upper-crust shops with fancy clothes, designer bags, yadayadayada. It's a nice little spot. So after I did my shopping.

Oh I have to tell you how I was dressed. You have to have this visual image in your head. Okay, picture me walking down a small sidewalk, lined with palm trees twice the size or better of the buildings, mercedes, mustangs, cadillacs, etc. to my left. All the shops to my right, each with an overhang with their sign. Here I am with tan khaki shorts on, legs a bright lobster-boiled red in black flip flops and teal short-sleeved t-neck shirt. My camera bag strapped across my body, my black knitted purse strapped across my body, my camera hanging around my neck, my sunglasses over my burnt face-raccoon eyes. I was like a 50 foot-wide Vegas blinking neon sign saying "Tourist" I laughed to myself because I thought it was funny. :)

So after my shopping I walked down to Venice Beach. The walk down was awesome. There are some beautiful homes along that street and tons of old trees making a canopy on the side-walk so I didn't have to walk in the hot sun. That was nice.

Venice Beach is a lovely spot. Turquoise-green waters, a slight breeze, 80 degrees. Ahh...beautiful. I took some pictures and walked down to stand in the Gulf one last time. It always makes me sad when I know I'm going to have to leave. I love the Gulf and the Ocean. I truly love the ocean and I only get there, if I'm lucky, once a year. This year I was even more lucky because Aunt Kathy actually wanted to lay out on the beach so we stayed at Nokomis Beach for a couple hours which meant...I got to actually swim in the Gulf. I love that. Even when I occassionally swallow some sweet-flavored throat scratching sea water. Ick. I can taste it even as I'm writing this. Gross. So I was a bit sad because I was leaving and not going to be able to walk the gulf waters again for awhile. I wanted to bottle the water so I could occassionally open up my bottle and get a whiff of the sea air. I don't think that would work after awhile, it would probably get icky or something.

So that's about it. We left for the airport and I went home. Sad...

I'll post some pictures tonight and tomorrow. It'll take awhile to get through them. I'll probably pick out my favorites and post them and I'll have to work on doing the other ones for a Florida album.

Florida: Day 4

So Day 4 started with me sleeping in. A vacation doesn't get better than that. When you can say you slept in on a vacation it's a good thing.

I got up and ate breakfast and then read some while I waited for Kathy and Al got back from church. Then I decided to trot on over, well I didn't trot, I walked brisquely, to Big Lots and the Grocery store.

You'd think it would be a peaceful walk over there but being that it's me something didn't work out to my wishes. Maybe I should clarify my wishes. Okay, I wanted to get over there, grab a certain feminine thing which I won't name, grab some snacks and get back home so we could leave for the beach. Instead of an in-an-out I got sidetracked by a nice old man who wanted to chat. He was sitting on a bench in front of Big Lots, John from NY, brooklyn accent. He started the conversation like this, "Hi, you've got a nice long stride. I watched you walking over here. At first I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman (I thought to myself, you missed my jumbo watermelon-sized gazonga's. sheesh, you need thicker glasses.) but then you got closer. You look good."

Interesting choice of words huh? He just wanted to give me his views on the world and the bowels. He told me he worked at a nursing home and keeping in shape was the best thing you could do especially around the mid-section because once you get older your bowels go to pot and you die sooner and more painfully. Then he told me that the world was going to pot because of all the drug-dealers, drinkers and corruption. He applauded me for not drinking or smoking and he had 9 kids only one of which went bad and did drugs. He was a nice old man but I always find it hard to get away. I enjoy talking with people but when I have an agenda I like to see it through without distractions. Still, he was friendly and interesting. I didn't have the camera (shocking I know) so no picture.

So I finally get back home and we head out to the beach, stopping for a Sub at Subway. Yummy. The people there were a bunch of idiots. I can't seem to escape them. The checker looked confused when I told her I wanted a meal and didn't give Al the correct change. Apparently our schools need to have a section on counting change without the calculators (hey Ryan, no offense or anything).

The Nokomis beach was awesome. 80 degree weather, a bit of a breeze to keep it cool and beautiful turqoise-green water with a little wave-action. We dragged up our gear including a huge umbrella, cooler, 3 chairs, my pack-pack, our beach bag and my camera. We looked like we were going to move on the beach and sell braided necklaces from seaweed and shells.

I finished putting my sunblock on and sat down to read a bit. I had put on sunblock everywhere but my back before we left the house so I had to get Kathy to do my back which meant I had to wait a half an hour before I could go in the Gulf. So I sat and read and when my time was up I bounded down to the water, let the water splash my feet and then slowly waded in. The water seemed chilly but once I got in it was fine. That usually means walking out slowly, letting the waves crash into me as I get further out and finally I cave in and take the big plunge and dip in headfirst. My first taste of saltwater. Ick. It scrapes down my throat like nails on a chalkboard. Yuck. Makes me want some real water real bad.

Anyways, I like to sit there and float and let the waves pull me into shore then when I get close enough I ride the waves into shore. That means I put my back to the ocean, dangerous I know, and wait for a good one. Once it crests I jump up and belly-ride it into shore. Today that meant scrapping my knees and hands a bit because there were a ton of broken seashells at a little trough right where the wave landed me. It didn't feel good but it sure was fun. I did it a bunch of times and waved at Al and got him to take pictures for me. I probably looked like beached whale but I bet I have a big smile on my face or water in my face. :)

So then I trotted up to our campsite and dried off and read some more. I noticed that I had a ton of broken seasheels in my swimsuit. Lovely. Little pieces the size of oh a quarter of a fingernail or so. all over, imbeded in my skin. Later on when I took a shower I realized how many there were and everywhere, on my thighs, calves, feet, hamstrings, buttocks, waist, hips, yes, my breasts too...I think I'll be picking out broken shell from my a$$ for the next 3 months. Dang it!

So the day went on with me alternating swimming, wave-riding and reading with some beach walking and shell searching. All in all a good day except I did get a little burnt. I never seem to put on enough sunscreen. I do it, regularly but apparently not enough. Now I feel like I'm bathing in Aloe Vera. Lovely.

So after the beach we got some pizza and a piece of pie and ate dinner. Afterwards a game of cards. I hate to admit this but Al beat us twice. I almost had him in the first game but he got me on the last round, lucky friggin' card shark. I'll get him for that later. Maybe I'll send him a dead minnow in the mail or something equally gross like that. :) (jk Kathy).

So that's about it. A fairly relaxing day on the beach, my favorite spot to be. Cool breezes, warm sun, an ocean of waves lulling and crashing. It doesn't get much better than that. Well, if I would have had a boogie board and a bucket for the making of a sand turtle I would have been set for life. :)

p.s. I need to include that Aunt Kathy hurt her knee so she's been an invalid cripple this whole trip. :) She says she would have done the parasailing with me if she weren't injured. Okay I've covered myself.

Florida: Day 3

Today we started out early. Yep, 6:30 a.m. That's pretty early for me. A little breakfast and a quick trip a couple miles down the road to the Venice Beach. Kathy and I went to a beginner's yoga class right on the beach and it was free. Yeah, free and that wasn't the best part. It was awesome; relaxing, calming and strengthening. It felt good to stretch, work my muscles and practice balance. I liked it although I think I brought the age curve down about 40 years. :) We did the traditional downward facing dog and following the canine trend we did the fire hydrant. Wanna guess what that involved? I'll let your imagination take that one.

After the class Kathy and I walked the beach for awhile. It was a nice cool morning, sun shining, waves rolling in and retreating back, gulls chirping above and the sandy swuish of my feet. Ahh....can you see it? More important, can you feel it?

Okay, so then we went up to Sarasota for our boat cruise. We went to the Marina in Sarasota Bay and rode on the LeBarge Dolphin Cruise. Basically we tried and I do mean tried to look for dolphins but they were shy and came no where near us. I saw the remnants of a tail and that was about it. I wasn't disappointed though because it was nice to be strolling along in the Bay enjoying the truly fine weather. We went around the entire Bay an oogled the way too expensive houses that never look like they get use. They were beautiful but way out of my price range unless I win the $200 million powerball or if Bill Gates remembers me in his will. Oh wait, he doesn't know me I guess I'll have to buy a powerball ticket (lottery for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about. I forget sometimes that not everyone has this.)

You know, I always wonder if the people that own those houses really appreciate them? Why own sometime you never spend any time in? Seriously I think out of all the hundreds of houses I maybe say a half a dozen that actually had people outside of them that didn't look like the landscaper. Tragic.

So after that we ate at the Tiki Hut in the Bay. I had fresh shrimpies. They were good and we literally sat right at the edge of the Bay under a tiki hut. There were little row boats parked no more than 10 feet from me. It was cool. Although this one row boat that came up little like the one from the Old Man and the Sea. It was beat up, the guy might have even been living in it for all I know. Picture that parked next to some $100,000+ yacht. That's opposites if you ever saw one. The Prince and the Pauper.

So we walked around the little jetty and then left because we had a schedule to keep. I'm talking a scheduled appointment. For me. Yes, I bit the bullet and decided that I did really want to go parasailing and what better time. The weather was gorgeous. The boat would tool around my favorite beach, Siesta Key and I had the time and money. So I did it and you know what it was awesome!! Yeah, super duper F'in awesome!

Kathy and Al didn't want to do it so I had to go by myself but that's okay. I'm used to having to do things on my own. So what happened was we met at the Marina by the draw bridge. They took us out on a little itty bitty boat. There were 7 of us including the Cap'n. We drove through the bay to the Gulf of Mexico and hooked up with the actual parasailing boat. I mean hooked up, like we were in the middle of the Gulf and they pretended each other was a dock and we jumped from one to the other.

So then we tore out to sea. It was fun, we came upon a lot of wake so the boat was bouncing, no crashing up and down. It was fun even though I was occassionally sprayed with salt water. Not tasty at all. I did feel a little queasy but that might have been a mixture of just being nervous and not used to rough waters. I didn't really care though.

Oh, before I get into it the other people on the boat was a group of 3 ladies. They were cute, just hanging out completing their bucket list. They were super nice and took some pictures for me while I was in the air. They had a hat on that said 1, 2 or 3; like the 3 Musketeers or something. I enjoyed chatting it up with them. They other group was a lady and her step-son. She was pretty nice and she told us about how her ex-father-in-law owned one of the biggest houses on Lido Key. Not that I really wanted to know that but there you go.

Oh, time out, I found out that Arnold Swarzenegger owns a house on the Bay and the CEO of Bank of America. I told the group if I would have known about the CEO I would have brought a sign that said "shame on you." That's all I'm going to say about that. Oh and Michael Jordan owns a house too and he actually has a lifesize statue of himself in his yard. We saw it earlier and suspected a basketball player lived there. Don't you think it's a little narcissistic to put a statue of yourself at your house? Makes me sick.

Okay, back to the good stuff. I went parasailing. It was...thrilling, crazy, scary, nerve-wracking, awesome, wicked, like flying, um...what other adjectives could I add on? Or adverbs I suppose.? Let's just say I'm so glad I did it. I'm glad I could get past the cost and just do it (honey it wasn't that bad but you would have never done it.)

I had them dip me on the way down. Dipping, like dipping a strawberry into chocolate, it's just an anology so don't get any ideas. First they dipped my toes, then they brought me back up in the air (that was like, it felt like when you are flying a kite and all of a sudden a gush of air picks it up and away like a bullet out of a gun, yeah, like that.) Then they dipped me down one last time and my butt got all wet. I got back on the boat and they asked me how it was. I said, "Well, I was so excited...(looking down shyly) that I wet myself." laughter emits wildly from the Cap'n, Crew and passengers.

The Cap'n and mate were hysterical. They kept telling, well bad jokes, but they were cute and funny so I didn't care. They were very professional and kept us in the know right away and from falling out of the boat when crashing into huge wakes.

Here are some things that were running through my mind during the 12 minute flight.

• God this is awesome.
• I think I see a shark or it could be a seaweed, but it looked like a shark. I don't see anything else so it had to be some kind of fish.
• What if I tip back too far? Will I fall out. I can't, I'm strapped in. Stop worrying and concentrate on how you can see all of Sarasota and your favorite beach.
• This is like sitting in a swing.
• Wow, look at this. This is f'in awesome. YEAH!!
• Wooohoooo!!!!
• I hope I don't get sick and throw up on this life jacket.
• Hi everybody!
• I hope that lady gets some good pictures of me.
• Oh my god I'm 450 feet in the air! This is sweet.
• Okay, if the parachute would break I need to try and stay calm, keep my body vertical to the water and point my toes when I fall in. Then swim my butt back to the surface. Okay, no problem.
• Um, I really wish I had my camera up here.
• I want to do this again.
• Jen, stop holding onto the straps and just let go. Okay, see, it's not so scary. You aren't going to tip over or anything even though you are a bit top heavy.
• The ride is really smooth up here. Like a hot knife flowing through butter. Cool.
• Can I have another 10 minutes.

Okay, after that we went home for dinner. Leftover night. Then we left for Nokomis Beach and the drums. That was wicked cool and everybody came out with their chairs, dogs, toys, kids, drums, buckets, butt-cracks and cameras. It was awesome. Seriously, we had to park across the street it was so bad. There were a ton of people there, a ton. I was amazed. I got past the amazement and parked myself down to watch the sunset. Of course, that didn't last because I had to go take some pictures of the drummers.

There were old, young, thin, fat, women, men, hippies, sporties, possible druggies, geriatrics, you name it, it was there. I kept thinking how amazing it is for people to get together like this to just play the drums and some maracas and tamborines and dance like gypsies. It was cool. There were kids trying to dance in the middle but they were just being goofy. I enjoyed it and wished I had a drum to play. Ah well, I can't do everything at once. :) I took a ton of pictures. I hope they turn out. The little kidlets kept getting in my way so I had to wait patiently to get what I wanted.

Afterwards I walked the beach, letting the cool water rush over my feet. Well, sometimes I get splashed because the tide gets away from me and I get out too far. Whoops. A well, win some you lose some. Then I sat with Kathy and Al and watched the sun go down. There was some haze in the air so no green flash but it still was nice.

I have one complaint, yeah I know I should just shut up and concentrate on the good things. Well in this case it was hard to concentrate on the good things when you've got some old lady with her a$$ in your face. Yeah, as Al says, "the sun goes down and the full moon comes out." These ladies were gathering shells in their buckets and they had to do it right in front of us. Butts bent right in our faces. They could have gone down the beach about 20 yards and found a spot to collect shells where they wouldn't be in anyone's way, but could they do that. Nope. They had to be rude and stand in front of us when obviously we were watching the sunset. Idiots.

Anywho I think I got some good pictures anyways.

After that we stopped for ice cream at this homemade ice cream joint. It was lipsmacking good. I got a chocolate chip sundae. Tasty, let me tell you. It hit the spot and then some.

So then we decided to watch Wild Hogs. It was pretty good. I laughed a lot. William H. Macy stole the show. God he was a dork and he does it so well. :)

That's about it. I had a good day and got burnt eventhough I slathered on the sunscreen constantly. I can't win. At least it'll turn into tan but I'll pay for it later when I get skin cancer. :)

Florida: Day 2

Day two was fairly low-key. Yep, just relaxing and tooling around town. It was a beautiful day around 80-85 degrees and breezy so you never felt hot.

We started off by walking to the Farmer's Market just a couple of blocks from Kathy's apt. It was a quaint little market with excellent produce. Not much but good stuff. We ended up buying some fresh ears of sweet corn for dinner, some tomatoes, a Fiji apple, some carrots and some yellow squash and zucchini. I bought a bag of Georgia Pecans. Oh my god, those were tasty. I had then as a snack later on.

I found out that the check out lady who owns it was 1 of 9 and lived on a farm as a kid. So Kathy and I chatted with her about being a farm kid. All the work we did and how it made us better people. :) I enjoyed having a chat with a local. Makes it seem less like I'm surrounded my wealthy people and more, I don't know, normal.

So then we went to the Fruit Market which was a bit further away so we drove. A nice place with fresh varieties of oranges and grapefruits and some miscellaneous other items like pepper jelly and some jams. The best part about that joint was I was chatting with the check-out ladies because I felt weird taking pictures of the place. I always do, you'd think I'd be used to it now but anyways they didn't care at all. In fact, they told me to take pictures of the big juicing machine. That was sweet. They had fresh oj and grapefruit juice there too. I forgot to mention that. So then they told me about the taste-testing stand. They had cut up a Valencia Orange, a Temple Orange and a Star Ruby Red Grapefruit. My favorite was the Temple because it was small but tasty and sweet like somebody sweetened it with sugar a little bit with no sharp tang. The grapefruit was good too, very sweet and dark pink. I ended up getting a tray sent to me of the Valencia and the grapefruit. They weren't sending any of the Temple (more's the pity).

We had lunch at the Cockpit Cafe. It's owned by a Czech and he makes wonderful food. He even cooked the bacon in my BLT chewy instead of crispy. He's awesome! That little restaurant is quaint and has excellent food. It's a nice spot to watch the little planes go in and out because it's right on the edge of the airport strip. Pretty cool all in all.

So then we had to run some errands around Sarasota. I did stop at a local chain Surf shop and found a plush fish that Michelle wanted. It was a lucky find. Jack loved that fish but lost it somewhere so I guess now he'll have a new one.

Then I convinced, well more like insisted, guilted or whatever them into taking me to Siesta Key. It's my favorite beach, hands down. Why, well the sand is the softest, whitest most delicate I've ever seen. It's like powdered sugar. No shells in it to hurt your feet, it doesn't smell like dead fish and it's clean. The only downfall, it tends to get into everything easily. So I walked the beach taking pictures, picking up sea-shells and generally enjoying my time by the Gulf for about an hour. It actually wasn't enough but we had to get home. Kathy's knee was hurting her.

I love the ocean/gulf. I do. I walk along the water's edge sloshing my way up and down the coastline, probably looking awkward with a huge camera hanging off one hip and a camera in my hand but feeling at peace. I like to stop in water up to my shins and just stare out at the gulf, breathing in the harmoneous air, wishing I didn't have to leave. It's very tranquil and peaceful you see and not something I take lightly. Sometimes I wonder if I'd take it for granted if I lived closeby? Not likely.

The beach was pretty crowded today, which is unusual because usually we are there when it isn't crowded so I tried to walk away from it all and get down to the less crowded areas. I'd rather enjoy the view without the people in my way.

There was some parasailing happening which I really want to do but it's $75. I have a coupon for $10 off so I might do it. It looks like fun. Lots of fun actually. I want to do it. Really bad. Maybe I should....why am I being indecisive? I know because I'm crazy. Yep, that's it. I should just make a decision and go with it.

After all that we went home and made supper which consisted of fresh veggies and sweet corn with some white fish caught in the Gulf. Not by us of course. I ended up not eating it because there were too many bones in it. Ick! I didn't want to spend my time picking bones out of my teeth or heaven-forbid swallowing one.

Kathy, Al and I ended up playing Dominoes (mexican train version). It was a crazy game. Al ended up winning but there were arguments along the way mostly involving what the rules were and were not. Although I suspect Al thought Aunt Kathy was making them up along the way. I really don't know because I've never played the way she was playing and I think next time we'll set out the rules ahead of time so I don't feel like I've been had. :)

So that's about it for today. Just a lot of enjoying the fine weather, walking the beach, eating fresh produce and hanging out. It felt good.