Time Flies

when you're having fun.  Wendy came to visit, we had fun, time flew by, Wendy left.  ;o(  It was so nice to have my daughter visit for a long weekend; she didn't come down at all last year and I missed her.  She arrived on Saturday around 2, actually landed a few minutes early.  By the time she reached Bill and me, we were both crying (me and Wendy...not me and Bill).

We wanted to fit in as much as possible during her short stay; where we live, where we spend our time, why we love it here, without spending a lot of time in the car.  We don't really do much except walk the dog, have coffee, sit by the river...blah, blah, blah.  She was up for anything; just wanted to relax.  Yeah, we do that a lot, too. 

Since it was only 15 minutes from the airport, we stopped at the Manatee Park to see the manatees, or not.  We read in the paper that the manatees don't like the cold water in the gulf (colder than 68*) and they hang out in the park, near a warm water discharge from the Florida Power & Light company.  It's the best place to see them between November and March, but NOT when the air temperature has been in the 80's for the past couple of days and the gulf water has warmed to more than 68*.  We looked and looked, moved from one spot to another to get a really good look and looked some more.  Not.A.Single.Manatee.In.The.Park! Luckily there was a nice volunteer that informed us not to hurt ourselves looking because there was Not.A.Single (or married for that matter) Manatee.In.The.Park.  The gulf waters were too warm and they weren't traveling down the Orange River to the park.  Apparently they didn't get the memo that Wendy was here and we wanted to see manatees.

Can you tell it was windy?

Manatee Park on the Orange River

No manatees  ;o(   No alligators  ;o)

Two chicks and  a "sea cow"

Too bad we didn't know about this park last year when the gulf was in the 50's and so was the air temp.

On Sunday,Wendy and I went to the farmer's market at History Park.  We did a little sightseeing and saw some amazing things...my condo at Maria Manor, the Animal Welfare League and Ponce de Leon Park.  I know, very exciting!  After picking up Mr. Bill and Sir Titan, we went for a walk along the river, then lunch at Arby's.  We took another short road trip to show Wendy the Tampa Bay Rays spring training stadium and Charlotte Harbor Beach Park. You can determine from our attire and very little detective work that it wasn't the warmest day on record; overcast and breezy.

Fishing Pier along our walk on the Peace River

 

Pier at Charlotte Harbor Beach Park

Monday started out quite foggy but the wind was nice enough to blow it all away and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We left the house early (for us) and walked Sir Titan, then returned home to give him some alone time in his crate.  We had lunch at Cubby's, a little sandwich/ice cream shop, then proceeded to Fishermen's Village where we enjoyed a coffee on the swing by the river.  We even collaborated on a haiku...
     Pelicans diving
     Fish jump in the air briefly
     Geckos in the tree
Wendy and I left Mr. Bill to enjoy some alone time in the sun with a good cigar while we did some shopping, after which we returned to Cubby's for some of their awesome, homemade ice cream.  Yum!

We picked up pizza for dinner as Mr. Bill wasn't feeling very well.

After an early walk with Sir Titan along Tamiami Trail, we tried some coffee from the Hava Java Coffee Shop and learned a valuable lesson. If you are going to sit outside in the sun and enjoy your coffee, look before you sit...

We had a pretty good rain the night before and one of the chairs wasn't quite dry.  Thank you Mr. Bill for being such a good sport.  We returned home for a change of clothes, picked up Wendy's luggage and headed to Ft. Myers and the airport so Wendy could catch her flight home.

As I watched her walk away, I realized that she is no longer my little girl.  She has grown into a beautiful, responsible, compassionate young woman and I couldn't be more proud to call her my daughter.  I was sad to see her leave so quickly but thoroughly enjoyed her visit; she is easy company and her visit made me very happy.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)