"C" is for Chocolate!

My Grandpop, my brother and his partner all showed up in Florida this May. It's always good to see family and we had a bit of fun touring Florida neighborhoods in the car, sharing a Mother's Day brunch with my daughter, a momma-to-be, and sampling some incredible chocolates at William Dean Chocolates in Largo. I saw the chocolates featured in the online magazine, 83 Degrees, and could NOT resist. After the chocolate we decided to join it with some coffee. Pictured above is the Pop Rocks Candy Bar I purchased. If you let each piece melt slowly in your mouth the pop rocks in the middle start crackling!

Deep Fried Blues

Rich and I attended the Cotee River Seafood and Blues Festival in New Port Richey in early May. One of our favorite musicians, Lee Pons, was playing and it was a gorgeous, sunny day.

But oh my the food was something to smell. There was nary a food item that wasn't fried. And then some. Deep fried pickles were out-done by deep fried snickers and oreos!

Sitting around with nothing but music to listen to the nose does go trying to persuade the stomach it's hungry when there's frying about, but thankfully I reminded my stomach of the uncomfortable consequences and managed to steer clear.

There were plenty of other vendors there too and we snatched up some extraordinary dip mix from Sherry's Gourmet Dips in anticipation of the arrival of some guests from Indianapolis.

Next year we're bringing chairs and a cooler. The park is delightfully appointed with trees lining the perimeter. Lots of good shade for a sunny Florida afternoon.

Florida Fleas

Flea markets are popular in our part of Florida, but last weekend Rich treated me to an old fashioned flea market in Clearwater. The kind where people are trying to get rid of unwanted and used items as well as selling antiques and quasi-antiques. It was a rambling place with the usual indoor jumble and nice rows of outdoor wooden stalls.

You guessed it - there's The Man walking away with an incredible bargain!

Kickin' Karaoke

Karaoke took on a whole new meaning at the Talent Quest Sunshine State when Marie took the stage! It's always fun to know someone so talented and even better when it's someone like Marie who is such a great person to be around.

Sitting in front of us in the audience was a well-dressed couple. She stayed in the audience while her husband got up on stage for his turn. They were both very well preserved!

Tampa Bay Downs - lip smackin' good!

My cousin and his wife came to visit and we spent the afternoon at the Tampa Bay Downs horse racing track. None of us were much interested in betting - we had enough fun choosing our favorite horse ahead of time based on various criteria such as the cool horse name factor. And then we had the pleasure and privilege of witnessing the ladies of the Red Hat Society. It was double the fun to see that I had snapped a picture when the jockey was licking his lips! Tee hee.

Don't these ladies look like a contented bunch?

A road trip smile

I attended a conference in Baltimore, Maryland and we decided it would be a fun road trip so we drove. What should we spy on the road going home? A smiling caravan. We passed it and discovered that the smile was not necessarily intentional given the overall design, but it was still quite pleasing!

Yellow Crested Night Heron

Today we were witness to the nesting habits of the yellow-crested night heron! It was late afternoon and we had just been talking with Tom the sax-man in the coffee shop after visiting the beach for some sun. He made a fabulous cuppa joe for Rich and I had some fresh-squeezed orange juice. Turns out his wife, Tammy, is a watercolor artist and she was exhibiting at an outdoor fair just one town up on the beach. She is really quite the amazing artist! She combines ink with watercolor to create lovely paintings - we saw mostly birds. The ink gives it a sharpness and texture that is very attractive. And who should be making their nest in a tree in middle of this fair? A pair of yellow-crested night herons!! The male would bring her some twigs and she would take them and work them into the nest. Then he would leave to find some more. Quite the sight on such a fine and sunny afternoon. We were tickled!