Back to Reality

Somehow nearly a month has gone by since I last blogged, and I'm not exactly sure how that happened.  It's been a busy month and I kept thinking, I have to remember to blog about this!  Now we'll see how many of those things I remembered...


So I told you about the day to day stuff in Florida, but there were a few highlights that I should probably mention!


The first weekend I was in Sarasota, Ron went golfing with some friends so Jan and the golfers' wives were kind enough to let me tag along for a day of shopping in Punta Gorda.  Fishermen's Village is this adorable little string of shops and restaurants that sits on the waterfront.  All of the shops were unique--a glass shop, a shoe store, a game store...no chain stores anywhere to be found!  We did find a place for photo, though...

Me: Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: What?

Me: Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: Oh.  Um.  Neither?

Me: Wrong.  Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: *sigh* Mermaid?

After the men had golfed and the women had shopped we all met up for dinner, where Ron and Jan enjoyed some fresh crab legs:

During the week it was pretty much business as usual.  Jan was working, Ron was golfing, and I was bird-watching job-hunting.


One night we tried to go to Yoder's, which is a favorite of Ron's for their chicken and which I had seen featured on the Travel Channel's Man vs. Food,

but the line was down the block already at 4:30, so we ended up going to Sugar and Spice--another Mennonite restaurant--instead.  (Yoder's was also number 68 on The Travel Channel's 101 Best Places to Chow Down!)  The chicken at Sugar and Spice was delicious, and I was excited to see that they had Shoofly Pie on the menu.  I promptly asked what Shoofly Pie was.

Apparently it's a molasses pie.  As if that clarifies anything.


I did see the beach once while I was there.

If you can't tell, it was really cold, but the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.

On my last day in Sarasota, two exciting things happened.  First, Ron took his friends Glenn and Jan (pictured above) and me to Historic Spanish Point, in Osprey, FL.  Spanish Point is a chunk of land that was purchased by Bertha Palmer (wife of Potter Palmer, who bought The Palmer House in Chicago as a wedding gift for Bertha) and which also happens to be home to a huge archaic midden.  The grounds were beautiful, and the "Window to the Past" allowed a fascinating up-close look at the 15-foot-high prehistoric midden.

Second, my gator friend came down to our end of the pond to say goodbye!  We went out to breakfast that morning and when we came home he was floating around right in front of the house!

It was hard to leave Jan and Ron (and thanks to a snowstorm in Atlanta I got a few extra hours with them), but it was great to spend some quality time with them.  And, of course, it's always good to be Home!