alexandriacardinals

by Tommy Obert, 5th Grade

[Yeah, I do ART!]

At oh-dark-thirty this morning, thunder and lightning shattered our blissful reverie.  Our last minutes in Sarasota were spent watching nature’s light show and hoping the thunder claps weren’t going to shatter the windows.  After six days of 80+ degree cloudless weather, Florida was bidding a wet and noisy adieu – our departure was delayed by an hour and a half as we waited for an opportunity to break for the car without getting soaked.  Twelve hours later we’re regrouping in a Days Inn on the North Carolina-Virginia border – though it was 72 when we left Sarasota, it was in the 40’s by the time we hit South Carolina.  We may have snow flurries in D.C. this week.

Many thanks again to our Florida hosts:  Mary and Dave and Rosie and Dick (not to be confused with the kinky 60’s movie of a similar title).  They treated us to the [Miller] high life we have come to expect and appreciate.

[Our last day.  In line an hour early for the Sarasota Art Show aboard the monster yacht, Seafair.  I do not like 80+ degree, cloudless, humid days in mid-summer – in March, I was getting nauseous.  Ruthie, unconcerned, regaled a couple from Peoria with tales from Alexandria.]

[Line to Seafair.]

[Sarasota harbor.]

[Once aboard, Rosie, the supervisor, and I made a beeline for the elevator to the Seafair’s top deck and medicinal refreshment.]

[Views from the “top.”]

[The girls admire bling.]

[Rosie admires Susan Swartz (each piece about $50,000).]

[Can you name him?]

[Can you name her?]

[Can you name her?]

[Can you name them?}

[Rosie unexpectedly meets her Sarasota fan club.]

The sequence (I thought the following to be elegantly Hollywoody beachy – the protagonists will think otherwise, and will so advise me):

Apres the art show:

[Lunch at the Salty Dog.]

[St. Armands Circle.]

[I could not get out of the car, which should answer any “looking up the skirt” questions.]

[Yeah, I like ART!]

[Editor’s note:  We defied the laws of nature and various “travel agent” advisors on our trip south.  We threw caution to wind and drove right through the heart of downtown Atlanta.  Not a problem – zipped right along at 70 mph.  Our logic was that everyone is advised to avoid Atlanta – accordingly, there would be nobody driving there.  We were right!  🙂  We similarly took on the dreaded I-4 through Orlando  – busy, but we made it.  There is not really a good option to I-4.]

by Tommy Obert, 5th Grade

[Groucho, Dick, and the supervisor enjoy Sarasota’s farmers’ market.]

Dateline: Sarasota, March 27, 2011:

Rosie volunteers to help older people do their taxes.  Yes, there are older people in Florida.  So, it was a good time for the supervisor and I to head off to the Sarasota Folk Festival at Oscar Scherer State Park.  We jokingly said six months ago the folk festival was the reason for this trip.  After their last performance at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale in Alex, Patchouli, i.e., Julie Patchouli and Bruce Hecksel, told us they planned to perform at the Sarasota Folk Festival at the end of March – so we, not really knowing at the time, said we’d see them there.  Yesterday was . . . “Surprise!”

Patchouli was the last of four performances we enjoyed – all acts doing a 40-minute set.  They had a full tent (the main stage) and received a standing ovation when they finished.  Their introducer noted that Julie is responsible for global warming because of the brightness and warmth of her perpetual smile.  And we’ll see them again before we know it – they’ll be back at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale on April 14!  (As native Midwesterners themselves (on the St. Croix, just north of LaCrosse), they said Florida was already getting too hot for them.)

[First act.  Chuck Brodsky, funny singer-songwriter from Asheville, NC.  Baseball fan.  Did a song about Dock Ellis pitching a no-hitter while high on LSD (true story!).]

[Second act.  Juniper, nostalgic to see hippies again – floor length granny (peasant?) dresses with hair length past their whatzits.]

[Third act.  Larry Mangum, singer-songwriter from Florida.  We liked his music – looks like Burke Kiger.]

[Ruthie strolls the site; purchases another Patchouli CD.]

[Before we went “home,” we went back to Nokomis for more orange ice cream.]

The panic of the morning is sunblock stain.  We washed the supervisor’s white shorts this morning – they came out with the bottom half orange!  She read the sunblock tube, which in the smallest of print read, “May stain some materials.”  They’re soaking in bleach before we head out this morning.

Tomorrow morning we’re off to D.C. – we hope to arrive there Tuesday evening.  Until then . . .

By Tommy Obert, 5th Grade

Dateline: Sarasota, Florida, March 26, 2011:

We reached the three-day dead fish threshold at the Owen’s. So, we moved about four miles north, still in Sarasota, where we inflicted ourselves upon Rose and Dick McMullen. Fortunately, because of their generous government pension plans, they have plenty of room for us aboard their yacht – Seafair!

There is probably no more obnoxious class of citizen, taken end for end, than the returning vacationist. ~ Robert Benchley [We generally leave home for a couple of weeks at this time of year with the understanding that when we get home, the snow will be gone and the lakes will be open. Since we left, there has been a 10” snowstorm and, according to the Echo this morning, it is 16 degrees in Alex!]

[Dick, Rose, and Groucho.]

If some people didn’t tell you, you’d never know they’d been away on a vacation. ~ Kin Hubbard

Those that say you can’t take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip” ~ Author Unknown

We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings. ~ Erma Bombeck

[After lunch at the Old Salty Dog, we stopped at the supervisor’s favorite place.]

by Tommy Obert, 5th Grade

We have been gone from Vacationland USA for eight days now. Yesterday morning, next door neighbor, Dangerous Dan, called us in Sarasota to say Alex was “enjoying” another blizzard – the on-line Echo said it was another 10″ of snow. Meanwhile, here in the South, the supervisor was making sure we achieved the principal purpose of our visit – a stop at the orange ice cream stand!

[Day 1 after the girls’ state basketball tournament.  With the supervisor’s sister in Nashville, Indiana.  Here The Biddies enjoy the sunshine along side Rita’s 75-year old log home.]

[Nashville, Indiana is a small artists community.  Here we visit the “studio” barn of friends Cindy and David Dale.]

[Nashville, Tennessee, as opposed to Nashville, Indiana.]

[The Biddies and I arrive in Lake City, Florida.]

[Day 2, the supervisor at hosts Mary and Crazy Dave Owen’s in Sarasota.]

[The Owen’s pet “dog.”]

[On the road in the Sebring convertible to Siesta Key.]

It is almost impossible to find parking at Siesta Key.  Crazy dropped the three of us off so we could amble the beach.  It is not clear what Crazy did during that time:

[Beautiful place -remember you can double click on the photos to see them full size.]

Then it was off for a quick nosh at Spanish Pointe:

Then off to the orange ice cream stand:

Then off to the “club” for dinner:

Pool party tonight!  More anon as time and resources permit!

p.s.  Did I mention:  Mary and Crazy Dave have a granddaughter named Alexandria?  That we drove through the University of Florida campus in Gainesville on the way?  That is where Ruthie got her Masters degree in “foreign military sales.”  We looked for a photo op for Ruthie at her alma mater, though she advised us it wasn’t an attractive campus.  She was right.  That Mary and Crazy Dave hosted a neighborhood pool party last night?  Apparently Crazy is tolerated by the locals despite his penchant for Ohio State paraphernalia.  There was a large contingent of Canadians at the party – as well as sand hill cranes.  It is not clear whether the Canadians – or the cranes – are here legally or not.

[A hint of old Alexandria?]

[Sand hill crane family at the pool party.]

[Crazy Dave in full blossom.]