Memorial Day

Monday, May 30 - Today we took a road trip about 75 miles north to Crystal River and Homosassa Springs State Park.  John had heard/read about someplace we could swim with the manatees, so that was the incentive.   We all just enjoy driving around anyhow, so it was a good trip.  Entertainment along the way was Joe pronouncing the Florida city names that came up on the GPS (Chassahowitzka gave him a little trouble).  We got to Crystal River and found the beach, but so had everybody else!

I walked along the edge of the water, but our two biologists thought there was way too much bacteria in this water!  So we left there and headed to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.  We couldn't swim with the manatees here either, but there was a place just down the road where we supposedly could (we did not go there).  This was a mini-zoo, and it had a large natural habitat bird area (yes, Bridgette's sandhill cranes were here, along with a couple whooping cranes), and also gators, a reptile house and a mammal area.  Here's a few pictures from this wildlife trail.

There was a black bear here too, but he was far away and sleeping, so Joe didn't take a picture of him.  They also had red wolf, Florida panther, Key deer and river otters, to name a few. Then we watched the manatees.  They fed them cabbage, and we got to see them underwater as well as from the top.  There were a lot of fish here too, several different kinds which our marine biologists identified for us (like we could ever remember those names).  The brochure says 34 varieties of fish have been identified in the spring, from which millions of gallons of fresh water "bubble" every hour.  There were several manatees and they swam right under the floating observatory we stood on, so we got to see them very well.

Just past this area was a public boating/swimming area.  It was too crowded to actually drive a boat through, but there were lots of them anchored and people swimming around in the water.  I would have had a hard time forgetting about those alligators not very far away!

Of course, the tour is never complete until after you go through the gift shop.  But I did find a manatee to add to our traveling zoo.  And it's probably pretty close proportionately!

We headed home, with a stop at Pizza Hut so we didn't have to cook and clean up.  Bridgette and Tyler were eager to get back to their boxing, and since Bridgette doesn't run on Mondays, Tyler got out of that part of the boot camp.  So far, she's left Joe and I pretty much alone, but we know any day now we are going to be expected to report in.  Not that we don't need it, but we're on vacation, remember!

Sunday at JB's - University of Tampa tour

 Sunday, May 29 - Today we did a little sightseeing.  Bridgette showed off the beautiful campus of the University of Tampa, where she has been working part-time the past year, and where she starts her full time job as a biology instructor.  It's a beautiful, old campus, and the main building, Plant Hall, the main academic and administrative building for the University, already had an extraordinary history. 

Bridgette taught microbiology and intro biology classes to pre-nurse students in this building this spring.  Formerly the Tampa Bay Hotel, the building represented, and still remains, a symbol of the city and its history.  Built between 1888 and 1891, the hotel was designed to surpass all other grand winter resorts. At a cost of $3 million, the 511-room giant rose to a flamboyant height of five stories, surrounded by ornate Victorian gingerbread and topped by Moorish minarets (defined as "tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns, domes and cupolas).  The campus adds a distinctive view to Tampa's skyline.

 
The position that Bridgette has here was created for her, after she proved herself invaluable to the university, with her capability of teaching microbiology and statistics and biology, as well as setting up and coordinating the biology labs. Her diverse background was both recognized and appreciated.  Her office is currently being set up for her in this building.

She begins her full-time job on June 1, so we'll have to go back in to visit her new digs once she gets situated in her new office. 

The campus is right in downtown Tampa, and is very beautiful. It is a private, comprehensive university accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.  6,500 students attend here from all 50 states and over 100 foreign countries.  90% of the full-time professors have doctorates or the terminal degree in their field, and average class size is 21.  Amazing!  Tyler is definitely interested in going to college here in a few years (he's a high school sophomore).

We passed the Lightning Bolts Hockey Stadium as we headed toward Tampa Bay, which is only a few blocks from the school.  We drove through an old, stately, million-dollar subdivision right on the bay, where Bridgette intends to live one day.

Our last sightseeing stop was for lunch, at Hooter's.  That's all I'll say about that.  But we saw a few of her sandhill cranes scattered throughout our drive.  They are very stately-looking birds, always in pairs, like they were out for a Sunday stroll. 

After a (very) brief rest for us old folks, John barbequed steak for dinner.  Doug and Barbara came over, Bridgette fixed desserts and prepped the rest of the meal for the barbeque (corn on the cob and roasted potatoes).  Then we watched the NASCAR race, but Bridgette wasn't done for the day.  She got in a little more boxing.

Then she decided she had too much adrenaline going, so she took Tyler out for a 30-minute run, followed by Wii bowling again (I let them win the first game, but I smoked them all the second game).  Another restful day at JB's bed and breakfast. As soon as the race was over, we all headed to bed.

Monday morning as we are discussing our options for the day, John mentioned something about an interactive alligator tour!  Not sure what he has in mind, but I'm thinking it involves feeding us to the gators.

Saturday at JB's (John & Bridgette)

Saturday, May 28 - Bridgette finally gave us a break today so we didn't have to keep up with her Warp speed and endless energy.  First thing this morning, Bridgette and I walked down to a neighborhood garage sale and we found two of her sandhill cranes just down the street from the sale.  Of course, we didn't have any cameras.  We called John, but he didn't answer, so we called Joe (who was still in bed), but he wasn't interested in bringing us a camera, so we gave up on that.  But when we got back to the house, and everyone got up and most of us had breakfast, we got ready to go to the grocery store, and we found the two sandhill cranes still in the neighborhood.  They allowed us get amazingly close to them with our cameras, but we never could get these two to fly.

 Joe, John and Tyler left just before us, to stop at McDonalds and then head into Tampa to pick up our Explorer, which they had finished fixing (painfully expensive, but necessary).  Bridgette and I stopped by the Naces to get a few things out of the RV, then went to Sam's Club and the grocery store.  On our way home, we went past a church where Bridgette sometimes sees her sand cranes, and sure enough, there were two wandering around the church grounds.  So she made a u-turn, and we got some more pictures.  We harassed these two enough (I'm sure that was illegal) to get them to take off in flight which also caused them to fuss at us loudly.  They make a very different sound when they chatter.

Back at the house, we rejoined the guys and had lunch.  John and Bridgette watched some motocross races on the computer in the afternoon, then we watched the Nationwide race.  But finally Bridgette could not sit any longer, so they got out the Wii and started bowling.  After I beat them soundly, they quit that game and switched to boxing.  Now Bridgette really got into this, and I'm not sure she'll be able to move tomorrow.  I didn't get the camera out until later, but I'll have to capture her the next time because she was quite intense.  John and Tyler got in a few punches, and I even did it a couple times.

They even wore Annie out.

John made his spaghetti casserole for dinner, and I made a batch of no-bake cookies (John's favorite).  We kicked around the idea of going to the dog races, but we never put forth the effort to leave the house, and then the boxing took over.  So we had a restful day and will be ready for a new adventure tomorrow.  It's pretty warm here, and the mornings are humid but that gets better as the day goes on.  So far we haven't had any of the afternoon rains, but June usually starts the rainy season so those rains will probably start before too long.  We've settled in very comfortably here, and they are feeding us extremely well, so who knows when we'll leave.  We just need to get our grandkids down here with us.

Beach Day

Friday.  Bridgette says no one is going hungry on her watch, so after another wonderful breakfast, we packed up the BBQ grill, towels and cooler, and headed to the beach!  We went to Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island, in Sarasota, which is famous for its beautiful beaches.  This one not only had beautiful water and sand, but it also has a shady area with picnic tables so you can get a break from the sun.  There wasn't much surf, and it was shallow a long way out.  It was a wonderful day, John grilled some delicious hamburgers, and we spent the whole day at the beach.  I don't think I've ever had a beach barbeque before, and this one was great.  We kept spreading on the sunscreen, but I think we all have a few red spots.  Tyler is almost 16, and has lived in California most of his life, moving to Phoenix last year, so this beach was quite an experience for him.  The water was about 85 degrees, so it was easy to get right in. 

Bridgette has fell in love with sand cranes, and we even saw one of them on the rocks, then fly out over the beach.  After we left the beach, we stopped for ice cream at a neat little shop right down the street, then got Joe a soda, then stopped at a fruit stand for watermelon, cantaloupes and tomatoes.   It seemed to take forever to get back home.  And I was wiped out!  (This was just before Annie gave me a full-mouth lick on the nose, which rudely awakened me.)

We finally all got showers, Bridgette did a little yard work, and now it's time for dinner and the hockey game.  Go Lightning!

Arriving at the Doctors Squared (a/k/a John and Bridgette)

Wednesday.  We had a few chores to take care of this morning since we planned to arrive at John and Bridgette's today.  I got the laundry caught up again, and then Joe dumped our tanks so we could go in empty.  At this point, we are not sure what we are doing with the RV while we are at the Doctors Froeschke.  We cut over to I-75 through Chiefland, and this is some beautiful horse country -- huge horse farms, with lots of barns, round pens, training stables, etc.  Beautiful horses dotting the pastures.

We got information from John about a Ford dealership in Tampa, so we made arrangements to take our Explorer in there for service, since we had had issues with it in Corpus.  We got there about 2:00, and Joe gave the service guy a whole laundry list of things that needed fixed (he finally started writing stuff down).  Then we grabbed some lunch and headed on to Ruskin.  We got to John and Bridgette's about 4:00, and John was on his way home so we found a place to park just down the street, and waited for him to arrive.  He had stepped off the driveway at Bridgette's parents house and they all thought our RV would fit there, so after Bridgette and her cousin Tyler (from Phoenix) got home from her work, and we had dinner, we drove over to the Nace's houses.  Everyone agreed that would work, so we went back to John and Bridgette's and started carrying stuff in so we could stay with them.  That's about as much work as loading in the first place.  We decided to wait until in the morning to drive it over, so when I went to bed I kept making lists in my mind of all the stuff we still needed to get out of it.  How I'm going to keep track of our stuff is a little uncertain, but we got comfortably settled into their house.  We watched the Tampa Bay hockey team (Lightning) beat the Bruins, but it got to be a late night.  We were glad to hit the bed when the game ended, although Bridgette was probably too excited to sleep.  She's looking forward to Friday night's game.

The next morning, after Bridgette fixed us a full-course breakfast (John had already gone to work), we got it backed in over at the Nace's, then Bridgette decided to take us to the Hillsborough State Park, a park they had discovered and just loved.  So we headed up the road to the park, which is just a few miles north of Tampa.  She was right, it was beautiful. 

We did the River Walk (Hillsborough River runs through it), about 1.2 miles.  (Tyler got here Monday night and is staying for 3 weeks, so we will be bonding with him.)   The river it was very pretty, and we saw turtles, fish (including alligator gars, but no alligators), squirrels, lizards, and spiders.  And beautiful cypress trees, palm trees, lots of Spanish moss.

Tyler, and often Bridgette too, walked down by the river's edge.  Here's Tyler checking out a cypress tree.

Bridgette is trying out a new camera and she took lots of pictures of lizards, and even spiders.  We got a picture of the spider too (we see enough lizards at home so we didn't get too excited about them).

We finally ended the trail and made our way through the picnic area to the road.  Bridgette and Tyler went back to get the car, and Joe and I moseyed on to the camp store (seeking air conditioning).  There was a great old tree just waiting for me here.

We left here, had some lunch, then Bridgette drove Tyler (and us) through the campus of the University of South Florida (he thought it was big and that he would get lost).  Finally, she took us home to get some rest (Joe immediately took a nap).  Bridgette's mom and dad came over for her famous tacos, and when they left around 7:00, they decided we should go to the dog park!  Joe and I were really ready to be done for the day. 

The dogs were having a good time, but (fortunately) we forgot to take bug spray with us, so we didn't stay very long.  They really think they have to wear us out, and they are succeeding!  And tomorrow, we are going to the beach!