Time to leave

Hate it when it's time to say good by. :(
Steph left first, then Doug and family--all home safe and sound.
  Will and I, on the other hand, are still at the Tampa airport. Our flight thru Atlanta was cancelled due to weather there. Put us on a later flight thru Mpls.
  So. . .we had a couple of hours to explore the Savior Dali museum in St Petersburg. Really marvelous small museum.  Lots I did not know about him, his work, his amazing technical abilities.  Uch more than dripping clocks.

Trip to the Florida Aquarium

Finally a day at the beach

It hasn't been the warmest weather in Florida.  In fact some record lows--however still warmer than Indiana and New Jersey. (But Arizona is warm and sunny, too bad for us.)  didn't keep us from having a good time.  Just wasn't beach weather until now.  Actually today was perfect.  Had sea fog at the beach which kept hot sun away from baby skin and grandma skin.  Plus made the beach a surreal, beautiful place.  Sand castles anyone!!

Enjoying Florida

Tampa Lowry Zoo

Pirates all over Treasure Island

Our condo. Top floor, right.

Celebrating Will's (soon to be) 70th birthday at a great local restaurant called, The Middle Ground. Cake and all.

Treasure Island, Florida with the DeBoer clan

Sunrise on the Gulf

Our condo is on Treasure Island over looking the intercoastal waterways on Treasure Island, west of St Petersburg.  This is our morning view

  Steph came in today so we are all here now.

Aeri and Lia are the big attraction.

Sanibel Island with the Millers

We caught up with Loren and Rosella at thier winter home in Fort Meyers and spent a wonderful day renewing a precious, long time friendship.  We went out for a grest Florida breakfast at a new classy place named, "Hookers," and then drove out to spend the day on Sanibel Island.  It is famous for sea shells and I was pretty amazed how it lives up to its reputation.

We parked the car at Bowman Beach and then just walked the beach.  Beautiful spot, perfect Florida weather.  Not many people in the picture but it was a very popular place.  We decided to head home about 3pm and got caught in a traffic jam of momentous porportions--took us two hours of going from 0 miles per hour all the way up to 5 mph to get off the island!  Oh well, we had plenty of time to visit.

Florida

We are enjoying  a few days in Florida.  The rest of the family will  be coming in on Wednesday but for now Will and I are spending a couple of days in Fort Meyers.  Today we found our way to a preserve called Six Mile Slough to do a little birding and experience a Cyprus Swamp the way it was before Florida drained the water and cut all the trees down.  We took a guided hike through the 2 mile board walk and learned a lot about the ecosystem and got a glimpse of a lot of fun east coast birds.

Then we made it over to Manatee Park and got a close up look at a group of Manatees.  They are drawn to this water way because the nearby power plant pours warm water back into the river.  They are apparently very temperature sensative and seek the warm water even though there is nothing for them to eat here.  They come here for thier "spa" and then go back out in bay to feed.  We managed to see several cavorting right in front of the viewing stand.

They never come out of the water, just lift thier noses above the water to catch a breath of air and hang out just below the surface.

 Next stop was the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates.  The two men were fast friends and had winter homes adjoining properties.  Nice grounds, interesting museum, learned a lot about especially Thomas Edison that I did not know.

Beautiful warm sunny day in Florida.

Aeri and the strawberry

Aeri is attacking a strawberry quite successfully. Almost 7 months.

Tess and Gerry and the giant cactus

Tess and Gerry Vandervoorst were in town for the day.  We just hung out and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them.
  Had to try to find this humongous cactus that is actually in Marana to impress them.  I am throughly impressed myself. So many arms I couldn't keep track enough to count them.

Cowboy Poets Gathering

We spend all day Saturday in Sierra Vista with friends at the annual Cochise Cowboy Poet and Music Gathering. Great music, great story-telling, and meter-and-rhyme. We go every year we are in town, it's a no miss for us, and this year we thought it was one of the best.
  Will got caught when Sam DeLeeuw, a show icon, was selling kisses to raise money for the organization. Although appropriately embarraced, he was a good sport.
Old favorites, Arizonan, Sue Harris with her tremelo voice along with new groups like the Saddle Strings from Northern Utah were highlights.

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Its Gem Show time.  Always love going to the Gem Show!  Its a great time. Always first two weeks in February when Tucson really buzzes. Something like 4000 vendors from all over the world come here to buy and sell, wholesale and retail, everything you can imagine--and some you can't imagine--that has to do with gems, rocks, fossils, jewelry, minerals. Absolutely something for everyone.  We love to just look, and don't usually come home empty handed.

Vendors scattered all over town in hotels, tents, event centers, convention halls.  Judy and I went on Tuesday to one that was mostly jewlery and gem stones.

Will went with me yesterday afternoon and again today to various locations mostly showcasing rocks, fossils and gemstones.  This guy had a huge selection of raw stones from particular mines. A lot of turquoise   from unique mines. I want to go again.