The Most Beautiful Park in Sarasota

Sarasota, FL      High:  70     Low:  51

The most beautiful park in Sarasota is debatable by anyone who loves this area, Sparky is sure. But she will say, that a botanical garden beats a county/city park any day, more than likely. Sarasota is lucky to have a GORGEOUS botanical garden, the Marie Selby Gardens....WOW! More orchids than you can imagine......All kinds of amazing plants, like hanging pitcher plants, top row, last photo....

A conservatory that you walk through on your way out to the gardens....The conservatory is a lush rainforest full of orchids, bromeliads (like pineapple plants) and other epiphytes (plants that grow in trees, "air" plants). There were many, many wonderful, exotic plants to see there that were so beautiful, and the gardens had plant enthusiasts who were very helpful and knowledgeable. One elderly gentleman pointed out a banana tree with an exotic purple blossom shooting way out, and teeny tiny little bananas starting to grow. It reminded Sparky of that musical "Little Shop of Horrors", that comedy musical/horror movie where the Venus fly trap like plant feasts on human blood and people.

There is a cool bonsai exhibit and a bamboo grove. Sparky loved hearing the clatter of the bamboo trees chattering against each other in the gentle wind. Past the bamboo grove was a koi pond with a statue of Buddha (?) in the water.....The koi fish were HUGE! Aren't they usually?

There is a boardwalk with some steps that lead you into a canopy of trees that looked like Jack in the Beanstalk plants climbing skyward.....And a banyan grove...Here is some kind of ficus tree with AMAZING roots.

There are a variety of gardens--hibiscus, a succulent (cactus) garden, a mangrove walk, a green roof demonstration area, a Carriage House for tea tastings, a tidal lagoon with benches to sit out and admire the ocean views with sailing vessels galore in the harbor. Sparky loved the Wishing Tree on the grounds.....The Wishing Tree was in front of benches that overlooked the bay/harbor of Sarasota and the skyline...

Oh! And there's a butterfly garden, Sparky just loves those but didn't see it today, she was running out of time to explore the gardens...They are only open till five....They are having a Christmas display of lights at night from now through Christmas and a couple days after. Sparky might talk the family into going at night. The light displays set up for the evening were very artsy and wonderful.....

Sparky likes to see the gumbo limbo trees when she is in Florida. You kno, the ones they call the "tourist tree"? Because of its reddish, peeling bark....

Sparky calls this tree the "green bean" tree...Don't know what kind it is, but it sure looked like it was covered with Green Giant green beans!

Can you tell Sparky LOVED the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens? And she didn't even see it all today....17.00 for adults, children 12 and under are free.....What a beautiful place! Don't miss it when you are in Sarasota.....

Spring Cleaning in the Winter?

Sarasota, FL      High:   65   Low:  45

Well, Sparky is just all turned around...She's now spring cleaning the rig in the winter (!) in preparation of the kids coming. Why not? It feels like a spring day with temps in the low sixties....Although busy cleaning, it was a quiet day today.....While Sparky was cleaning, she had Eldo investigating a new RV tip for the week. He came across the importance of keeping the kick plate and condensor coils clean on a residential fridge. We knew the coils were on the outside compartment of the rig, so first we checked the kick plate. The kick plate wasn't bad at all. We took the cover off to check the under space and it was very clean. You have to open the freezer compartment to access the screws to the kick plate to take the whole kick plate cover off. We thought it would be a good idea to check the area behind the kick plate just to make sure everything was ok. We don't have pets, so no pet hair to clog the openings, just Eldy's chest hair. :-)  You'd be amazed at how hair flies around in the rig and lands in the darndest places! OK, T.M.I....too much information, sorry! (Geesh, woman! Do you have to share EVERYTHING?) Uh, sometimes....There are just two little Phillips screws holding the kickplate on, one on each side. Here the cover is off. There's really nothing to be seen in the way of parts to the fridge underneath the kick plate cover.

But the outside coils? Yup, dirty as could be. You can't use one of those traditional "under the refrigerator" brushes to clean them. You have to have a long handled skinny paintbrush to do the job. You are going to have to unscrew the cardboard cover to access the condenser coils which makes more sense than trying to poke a paintbrush through the cardboard slats. But the condenser coils are so skinny and narrow, you'll still need a skinny paintbrush to clean them.

We're going to have to go get one. We couldn't get in the slots with a craft paintbrush that Sparky had. Good excuse to go visit Michael's and get another one! Heh, heh, heh.....  :-)

Sparky made some more Christmas mini ornaments....Went to spin/cycle class, and this afternoon, went to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, that's a really fantastic place...all about that tomorrow! We're heading over the pool for karaoke with Danno this evening. There is a guy that looks and sounds just like Willie Nelson who usually sings usually. There is some GREAT vocal talent here at Sun 'n' Fun. If you feel like checking him out, here's the link to a short YouTube video I took on my little point and shoot camera.
Willie Nelson Lookalike

We met up with some new friends, Edie and Gary, from Chattanooga, TN, at the bar and enjoyed the karaoke that OTHERS did. It's amazing how great the singers are here at Sun 'n' Fun. Hardly ANYBODY sang off key...(That would be me, I can't carry a tune, says E.) Not only that, but he has no clue when he's NOT in key which is 90% of the time nor can he tell when anybody else is not in key. Sparky can carry a tune pretty well, and belts out tunes all the time in the car when by herself, but put her in front of a mike, and all of a sudden, she forgets parts of songs, gets flustered, and doesn't do so hot. So for now, Sparky will remain an appreciative listener until 1) she has about four glasses of wine, 2) there's ten minutes left of karaoke, 3) or hardly anybody is in the bar. If all three of those conditions are met, you MIGHT see Sparky up at the mike! Sparky needs to pick a few songs, download some tunes and rehearse.....

Time to go practice....See ya later......

Weather Woes?

Sarasota, FL       High:  65    Low:   45

Eldo and Sparky are watching the weather very closely..The weather woes are everywhere ELSE but here in Sarasota..We're getting a cool down for a few days, but that's the worst of it....Sparky's daughter, Kelly, heads out Friday from Virginia for the long drive here.. She'll stop part way down as it's too far to drive in one day. Eldy's son heads out tomorrow from northern Indiana where the weather is looking MUCH more nasty. Eldy's daughter flies out Sunday from Indiana to Tampa, and we're hoping that the flight cancellations have smoothed themselves out by Sunday so there aren't any delays there. So we wait to hear the progress of the kids as they make their way south......

Today, Sparky polished rocks down at the rock shop and got a gift from the gentleman, Reg, who runs the rock shop on Thursdays. Sparky admired a navy blue rock and Reg said, "Oh, that's a sodalite....It polishes up really pretty. Here, you can have this piece." He gave me quite a generous sized stone to make into whatever Sparky wanted to!

Here is an example of sodalite polished and made into a pair of earrings.(photo is courtesy of the internet)..The stone is so beautiful and it's in Sparky's favorite color--blue. Sparky is probably going to do a wire wrapped pendant after the stone gets polished and buffed.

Sparky had her swim exercise class this morning, and then polished rocks for awhile down at the rock shop. While she was doing that, Eldo rode his bike for 30 minutes. Then Eldo took Sparky over to Maximus Park, that beautiful park in St. Pete's Beach where the cool disc golf course is, to get more long needles for her baskets. We didn't play disc golf today, we had some other errands to do.

So, we came home, headed over to bingo at Sun 'n' Fun Bar and Grill, and we WON!  A tin of cookies, no money...phooey! Boy, did they have huge jackpots...Two coverall bingo games of 150.00 and 206.00, and the average prize for a variety of winning cards was 40-50.00. Sparky got within TWO squares of covering the entire card on the 206 dollar jackpot. RATS!

Because she didn't win, Sparky had to attack the tin of cookies to make herself feel better....They were half gone by the time the bingo ended.

Eldo thinks he'll be back for bar bingo next week...heh, heh, heh.....It's cheap entertainment, four cards for 10.00 and the odds of winning are a lot better than playing the lottery, that's for sure!

Tomorrow Sparky thinks she is going to check out the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens..Maybe.....We'll see what's blooming this time of year in Sarasota....

Getting Ready....

Sarasota, FL      High:   79     Low:   57

Everybody is getting ready in the park, either heading home to see families or getting ready for their families coming here.....Won't be long till Santa gets here! Sparky is making some little Santas to hang on the cupboard door knobs.

Won't be long till the grandkids get here! Won't be long before Sparky's first daughter, Kelly, gets here! She arrives Saturday.

Sparky and Eldo went to Venice today to the Sea Treasures and Pleasures store to get some shells for Sparky to use in her baskets. It's your typical Florida touristy seashell/beach shop, but the shells were pretty and Sparky thought pretty reasonable--from a dime to a quarter for smaller shells....

Then time to shop at Beall's outlet store today for some workout wear for Eldy. Success! He now has one pair of workout shorts and a tee shirt. That store which is all over Florida, has some great prices on merchandise of all kinds at their outlet stores, and they have some recognizable name brands. Eldy's workout shorts were 8.00 and the shirt was 8.00. It's a start!

Then we did some Christmas shopping today...That took almost 3/4 of the day trying to find very specific items for Eldy's grandkids. But it was fun looking at all the toys for kids. The electronics for kids are built into everything these days...Even for babies! The music and voices are so realistic inside the baby toys. But the selection was so bewildering, Sparky came away from Target today not knowing what kind of toy to buy for her little grandson. He already is getting some cute clothes and a board book so hopefully we're good. Barron likes listening to books that Kerry reads to him. Sparky tried to read to Kerry when she was six months old, but she wasn't interested in the slightest. Barron loves books! (Hope Kerry is not reading the blog today, worries E. She'll know what the baby is getting!)

Nah...she's too busy chasing after little Barron when she's not reading to him. He crawls around the house now like a Nascar driver she says! Six months old, standing up in the crib, walking backwards in the walker down the hall, this little guy is going to keep his mama BUSY!

Eldy worked out for the second day in a row on the treadmill, another mile under his belt. Sparky is impressed! He's really getting into the fitness center here, which is terrific for him. Eldy worked for many many years (42) in a factory six and seven days a week and never had time to exercise in a different way. This is something very new and different for him, and  Sparky thinks he is really going to feel better in a lot of ways if he keeps going with it. He has a LOT of trouble with flexibility and back problems. Nothing like a hot tub soak to relax those sore muscles....

We love our location here at Sun 'n' Fun....it's really convenient to hop on I-75 to head to Bradenton, Tampa, shopping, lots of things to do, lots of places to go...We met a new couple last night at the poolside bar, Edie and Gary, and they were telling us about some fun places to go where there are steel drums and tiki huts. Sparky wants to check that out soon! We'll see you later.......

A Christmas "Miracle"!

Sarasota, FL       High:  77     Low:  53

Can't ask for  more perfect weather! Almost every day, someone in the park says, "Another day in Paradise!"  Yep, it sure is...We are hoping fervently the weather stays warm for the family visit. Everybody is arriving December 23. Wouldn't you know, the weather temperatures are going to drop like a rock, two days after Christmas. Like from the high seventies down to the mid sixties...phooey!  At least that's what the Accuweather app says. Sparky wants to get her little grandson into the pool, but Mama Kerry says, not if the air temp is that cool!  Maybe it will change and the cold front will hold off......But the Weather Channel app differs from the Accuweather app. Sparky likes the Weather Channel app better. It says high of 75 two days after Christmas. YEAH! Baby pool, here we come. And yes, Sun 'n' Fun has a kiddy pool section with a cascading water fountain. And they also have a cool "jumping pad"...but that's for older children for sure!

Sparky just about has her little tree decorations finished. Each cottage that the kids are going to stay in is going to have a little tree decorated with mostly hand made ornaments. Today, Sparky made little crocheted gingerbread men for the trees. And here are the little trees so far....

Sparky is trying to take advantage of all the health benefits here at Sun 'n' Fun with the exercise classes and the swim exercise class. Eldy says he's even thinking about checking out the workout room with all the weights and machines. Be still my beating heart! He rode his 30 minutes on his bike this morning before Sparky was even out of bed! Way to go, Eldo!  The fitness center is a state of the art facility, someone in the park said about five million. The workout studio where Sparky does the spin/cycle class is absolutely beautiful! What a facility!

We have NO excuses for not getting in better shape while we are here, that's for sure!

Sparky worked some more today in the rock shop, polishing some stones for making into necklaces once we leave here and no longer have all the rock polishing/lapidary equipment at our disposal...You know, there's even a stained glass workshop here...Will have to check that out....

It was a VERY humid day...ugh! We spent time at the pool, enjoyed the breezy, sunny afternoon, AND---Eldy decided to check out the workout room today. ELDO GOT ON THE TREADMILL FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE!  It's a Christmas miracle! You can tell it's his first time because he's not wearing workout clothes...He doesn't have any!  Eldo proudly sent a photo to his granddaughter of him on the treadmill, and she says, "What's with the old man wearing jean shorts to work out in?" And Eldo says, "Because that's all I own!" and she replies, "Oh, dear me, no!"

He did a mile! Sparky was REALLY impressed....He did the treadmill today after doing TWO 30 minute bike rides earlier in the day! Holy cow! What has gotten into this man? Just when you think you know your better half, they surprise you! Looks like Sparky might have to get Eldo some workout clothes for Christmas! Or we'll head to Goodwill and see what we can find until Sparky determines whether this is going to be a maintained goal or not......  :-)

We like Sun 'n' Fun so much, we've decided to stay another month. It really kills our campground budget, as prices are very high in January, February and March at Sun 'n' Fun, but we will be ultra conservative in February and March and use our Thousand Trails parks to make up for it. We really love this place, and things REALLY start hoppin' in January with more classes and activities.

OK, time to get goin' today...lots to do....Kids come in three days...can't wait!

Drum Circle Deja Vue?

Sarasota, FL      High:  78    Low:  62

Another drum roll, er, beat, please! Time to head back to Siesta Key Beach Drum circle near sunset every Sunday. "They" say, the drumming circle takes place rain or shine....There's actually a newsletter that publishes the location of known drumming circles in central Florida, in case you are down here and want to check one out....Here's the link:
http://www.primalconnection.org/NewsLetrV1I1/DrumCircles.html

So Sparky and Eldo headed back to see if the same folks were there as before.....The jester was there...

Different dancers and "butterfly ladies.....

A slightly different crew of drummers, but we recognized some of the same guys...Boy, are they great!

When they get that primal beat going, it's hard not to get up and dance....Sparky was boppin' all over the place in her standing spot. The hoops were in full force again.....And this little guy was AMAZING! He kept that hoop twirling for a LONG time....

There was a young lady here who was extremely skilled at twirling the hoop....She effortlessly moved that hoop all over her body....Sparky talked to her briefly and found out that her performance name is "Odd Tree". Her real name is Audrey Scherer...She has been performing with hoops for over three years....She's 21 and has YouTube videos that thousands have viewed.  She's that good! It's sort of a modern take on Lakota hoop dancing, only with one hoop. Audrey was amazing and it was just great to get to watch her perform....She never dropped the hoop! This isn't just twirling the hoop by gyrating your hips, it's moving the hoop up and down all over your body, your neck, your shoulders with little twists and very slight body movements coupled with dancing at the same time. It's quite intricate......

There was a different conch blower to announce the sunset tonight.....

After the sun went down, and during a break in the drumming, the jester (former teacher of 28 years) pulled the young children into a "healing circle" and had their parents stand behind them and any others who wanted to participate. He proceeded to take a few moments to recite a rhyme about our lives and our children at this moment, and a brief mention was made to reflect and remember the victims of Newtown, CT by having a moment of silence and then chanting  "OM" briefly in unison.  It was a moving experience.

The kids there had a wonderful time...Little ones even had drums and were drumming along to the beat of the congo drums.

They even formed their own conga line.....

A drum community circle is a wonderful place to "lose" yourself in the beat.....

You can do whatever the spirit moves you in the center of the circle.....Kids play, adults dance.....

And the beat goes on and on......The drummers play for long periods of time without breaks. Kids keep on playing, adults keep on dancing.....

The sun set......

Night fell.......and the hoop dancers brought out their lighted hoops which cost a fortune! One hundred twenty-five dollars and up. The hoops are not mass produced. An individual has to solder connections, insert material to keep connections from rattling around and loosening, and get the colored sections of lights to work AND balance the hoop with all the electronics having been inserted. The lighted hoops weigh more than a standard hula hoop, so this is fantastic exercise according to one of the hoop dancers Sparky spoke to. It works your core, it gets rid of toxins in the lymph glands because of all the rotational movement and gyrating, and it's a great weight loss tool.  She has lost 75 pounds since she started hoop dancing two years ago! Both gals Sparky talked to were very slender ladies. Hm-m-m-m...maybe Sparky should get a hula hoop! (This I gotta see! says E.) Nope, I'd go off in the woods and practice before letting anybody see me try this. Haven't done it since I was a kid!

Eldo says he was a pretty good hula hooper when he was a kid. Maybe Sparky will get Eldo a hula hoop! HA! 

We had a wonderful time today at Siesta Key Beach...We hope to take our families there next Sunday while they are here visiting next week....We'll see what the younger generation thinks about drumming!

Sparky is Spinning Her Wheels

Sarasota, FL       High:  77     Low:  60

Sorry if I offended anyone with yesterday's blog. We lost a follower and I'm assuming it was because of the negativity of the blog and my personal reminiscence of events that happened when I was a teacher. Yesterday affected us all in different ways, and sorry we had to lose a follower over me remembering some stuff that wasn't the most positive!

Sparky decided to try a "Cycle Spin" class this morning. It's offered Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays for 45 minutes each session..WOW! What a workout! (Eldo says she can barely walk after doing it.) HA!  Sparky is ok....just whupped. Interesting class...never done one of those before. The instructor was very motivating.....she had great music to keep us going. You dial the tension on the bike up and down to mimic climbing hills and inclines, and you dial the resistance WAY back to practically nothing and pedal like crazy when she says, "Now SPIN!"  What Sparky didn't realize was you had to turn the dial a LOT to get tension increased on the stationery bike. The instructor would say, "Gimme some HEAT!" which meant add resistance to your pedaling, turn the dial. Sparky turned the dial and couldn't tell any difference. She'd look at the dials on the bikes of her neighboring exercise riders and put her dial in the same position. What she didn't realize was that they had turned the dial at least two rotations to get more resistance. For the first ten minutes of the workout, Sparky thought, hey, this is a piece of cake! She figured all that bike riding this summer had really paid off, and she was in shape! HA! Little did she know!

After class and still able to smile!

Finally, she thought she wasn't seeing any difference in pedaling, something wasn't right and the gal next to her said, "You might want to turn the dial a LOT more and see if that helps." Oh, yeah! Now Sparky was starting to sweat up a storm and breathing HARD. You change positions a lot during the spin/cycle class. You stand up and pedal with strong resistance, you sit down and pedal, you lean way forward like on a racing bike, you work your core and side waist muscles, you bend, you stretch and ride without holding on the handlebars (Sparky decided to hold on with one hand or maybe she would have fallen off!) You do figure eights with your body. The music was funky and fun and Sparky really enjoyed it...She's going back in a few days when it's offered again....After soaking a few days in the hot tub! Eldo could tell Sparky had a good workout because her face was beet red!

An uneventful day the rest of the day today.....errands.. listening to acoustical guitar music down by the pool this afternoon for a couple of hours...knitting ornaments like crazy for little trees for when the family comes next week....She found 4 little trees on clearance at Michaels for 3.50 each and thought this would make it a little more festive to have a little decorated tree in each of their rental places.

Sparky is going to have a little mini tree decorated with all hand made knitted ornaments for each family. Sparky LOVES to make stuff! (As the full cupboards in the rig testify to that! laughs Eldo.)