Wine a Little, You'll Feel Better!

Sparky could easily be a wino….Well, not really…But she does enjoy a glass of wine now and then…Off to Reston, VA today for the Great Grapes Wine & Food Festival at the Reston Town Center….Lots of Virginia wines to taste, over 200 wines to choose from 20 participating wineries, plus food and crafts. Courtesy of some VIP tickets Sparky Jr.  bought for us today, the VIP tickets enabled us to have some free hors d'oeuvres--fruit, cheese and crackers, yum! AND we got a free wine glass and a tee shirt! Sparky is such a lightweight when it comes to wine drinking that consuming FOOD is important here.

It was the perfect day for such an event….

We each got little lanyards to hold our glasses, as they were GLASS and breakable…Here's Kelly, with hers….

And Sparky with hers, already feeling fine…..

Lots of great spirits here today, heheheh…Don't you just love a grown up who can still be a little silly? This guy just radiates silliness, which this world needs more of, Sparky thinks!

Here's a free spirit….Didn't catch her name, but aren't these wonderful? She was kind enough to let Sparky take her photo….

Sparky was a little bit disappointed that there really wasn't much food offered or much in the way of crafts, but the purpose of the festival was to promote wines from Virginia, and that they did.

We had a great time, and headed home…Tomorrow is Sparky's last day in Virginia….She is going to miss Kelly and all the wonderful, tall tall trees and nature that are here…and the fantastic temps which have been in the high sixties during the day…NO HUMIDITY! Nice! Stay tuned for some kayaking fun on the Potomac next time…...

A Solemn Occasion and Some Other Not so Solemn Stuff

Off we went on the Metro to visit Arlington's finest. Sparky had no idea how hilly the national cemetery was….nor how beautiful it was…The cherry trees were HUGE!

We went to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Changing of the Guard and John F. Kennedy's grave….

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier…So many people have written about the rituals and ceremonies of the changing of the guard, we hope we won't bore you with the details that are commonly known, but Sparky will share what SHE didn't know about it, in case it's something new to you…There is a bunch of stuff out on the internet that is totally not true, like the guards can't talk to anybody their first two months of duty so they can study who's buried in Arlington Cemetery and know where they are located, and that they can't drink alcohol or swear the rest of their lives or they have to give up their "wreath pin". That's a bunch of hooey! So here's some TRUE blue :-) stuff about the guards and what we saw the day we visited….We were TWO FEET AWAY from the guard's shift change ceremony.

An impeccably uniformed relief commander appears on the plaza to announce the Changing of the Guard. Soon the new sentinel leaves the Quarters and unlocks the bolt of his or her M-14 rifle to signal to the relief commander to start the ceremony. The relief commander walks out to the Tomb and salutes, then faces the spectators and asks them to stand and stay silent during the ceremony.

The relief commander conducts a detailed white-glove inspection of the weapon, checking each part of the rifle once. 

This was quite the ceremony. As the relief commander inspected the gun, it was with great precision and orchestrated movements. He didn't just look at it, check the chamber, etc. He was like one of those traffic cops who orchestrate traffic with elaborately fine tuned, smoothest of silk hand movements that could be put to music. Ever see one of those? It was amazing to watch the commander coordinate the inspection with such fine movements of his hands. The gun moved just in increments. His hands moved in precise increments. You could see that he does this with the same precision each and every guard change just as the guards measure and time their steps. As the new guard comes in and gets his weapon inspected, then turns around and prepares to start walking his guard duty, we saw the commander reach behind and give a gentle tug at the coat pleat of the soldier in front of him, which to our eyes appeared to be perfect already, but apparently it wasn't laying just right. Everything has to be just PERFECT and perfectly timed. This was unusual to see, to say the least.

Then, the relief commander and the relieving sentinel meet the retiring sentinel at the center of the matted path in front of the Tomb. All three salute the Unknowns who have been symbolically given the Medal of Honor. Then the relief commander orders the relieved sentinel, "Pass on your orders." The current sentinel commands, "Post and orders, remain as directed." The newly posted sentinel replies, "Orders acknowledged," and steps into position on the black mat. When the relief commander passes by, the new sentinel begins walking at a cadence of 90 steps per minute.

The Tomb Guard marches 21 steps down the black mat behind the Tomb, turns, faces east for 21 seconds, turns and faces north for 21 seconds, then takes 21 steps down the mat and repeats the process. After the turn, the sentinel executes a sharp "shoulder-arms" movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the sentinel stands between the Tomb and any possible threat. Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed -- the 21-gun salute.

Of course this was VERY moving…

Arlington is a BEAUTIFUL cemetery with much to see and explore. It's quite the hike and elevation from the bottom of the hill to the top where the Changing of the Guard takes place. Sparky got a good workout today from climbing to the top. It was well worth it!  There is a trolley you can take if you are not up to the walk. The buildings'architecture is just beautiful….

And there are many famous grave sites to visit…John F. Kennedy's grave is not to be missed…..

And now for the disclaimer…Sparky means NO disrespect on coupling of the Changing of the Guard ceremony with the following DC Metro report. She just decided to make this one blog post instead of two little short posts.

On the way back, we took the D.C. Metro, a terrific subway system from an out of towner's viewpoint. Sparky is sure the locals probably don't agree….Now you need to know there is D.C. Metro etiquette to be followed on the escalators up and down from street level to the subway level. You stay on the far right side steps of the escalator going up or down if you are simply going to stand and let the escalator move you. The left lane of the escalator steps are for people in a HURRY!--They will be taking the steps as fast as they can, hurrying to get wherever they are going--and you'd better stay out of the way. Nothing makes a local madder than to have gawking tourists blocking the escalator so they can't zoom downstairs or upstairs to get where they are going. Sparky made the mistake of standing in the middle of the escalator steps when she first started using the Metro's escalators, and Sparky, JR. quickly pointed out how this works. 

You also need to know that Washington, D.C. is not a city full of stuffy lobbyists and lawmakers with no sense of humor. No, siree…There might be a lot wrong with Washington's politics, but DC Metro riders know how to have fun! Once a year, subway riders sport and support "NO PANTS SUBWAY RIDE DAY". Yep, you heard that right. If you really want to blend in, you don't wear pants riding the metro that day. And a LOT of people participate!

courtesy of the internet, Sparky did NOT take this photo!

You bring pants just in case any authority figure asks you to put them on, but for the most part, everybody knows that it's No Pants Day and you dress the top of you normally, and hopefully, put on your best skivvies or boxers or prettiest undies and act nonchalantly, like you do this on a regular basis. And by the way, there are party stops along the way…..Sparky is not making this up. This year's No Pants Day was in January! Here's a link just in case you think she is! 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/01/09/no-pants-day-coming-to-metro-on-sunday/ And here's a little more on the subject….

The idea of the ride, according to Facebook, “is to appear as if you had no idea that you were missing pants or that you knew but didn’t think it was a big deal.”

Organizers advise participants to keep pants on your person but hidden in a bag or backpack.

“If any figure of authority tells you to put your pants back on, do as they say,” the event page says. “Unfortunately indecency laws are entirely subjective and while we haven’t had any major problems in the past, we’d like to keep on DC Metro’s good side so the event can continue for years to come.”

Way to go, D.C.! What a great town! Sparky thoroughly enjoyed her visit there, and hopes to be back some time for No Pants Day. And NO, Eldo, Sparky is NOT going to participate! (WHEW! says a relieved E.) Bye for now…….

Sparky Gets Out of Town!

Sparky went to visit her daughter in Washington, DC. Actually, Kelly lives outside of DC, so Sparky learned how to get around on the Metro with her daughter to visit some great locations in D.C. We had lots of fun, and did a lot of stuff in four days….Ate a lot, walked a LOT, and it was just absolutely wonderful! The cherry blossoms are still blooming. Sparky even lost two pounds walking up and down the hills of Arlington and D.C..The architecture of the Capitol is AMAZING! It's so cool to walk around knowing you are in the heart of the nation's government, gazing up at these buildings and thinking about what is going on (or NOT!) as laws are being made, judicial decisions coming down the pike affecting and shaping our future, lobbyists pressing for their causes.

First, we went to the national botanical gardens. Being that real estate is at a premium in DC, the botanical gardens are small in comparison to many other botanical gardens Sparky has visited. As a matter of fact, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, FL, blows away the national gardens as far as size and attractiveness. But the national gardens were still beautiful, if compact. The central foyer was decorated with a "symphony" of orchids… There were many varieties of orchids displayed everywhere in the main atrium.

Some varieties of flowering plants in the main atrium were designed in the shapes of musical instruments--a violin and a harp, and a French horn.

 Beautiful symphony music was playing orchestrated with a water fountain of changing multi colors….The orchids were just gorgeous!

Sparky saw an orchid with her name on it! But it wasn't her favorite….Nice name, eh? :-)

Sparky took a photo of Kelly at the gardens that has since become one of her favorites of her daughter.

There are other wonderful parts to the gardens, too, besides the entry atrium. There was a medicinal gardens portion that was quite interesting to read about. Sparky also enjoyed the endangered/rare plants species section of the gardens. She learned that the Florida yew  is one of the rarest trees in the world. You can only find it along a 15 mile section on one side of the Apalachicola River in the Liberty and Gadsden counties of Florida in forested bluffs and ravines. A lot of the yews are on private land and not protected because endangered species laws are not applicable to private landowners.  The bark of the yew has taxol, a cancer fighting compound that is used in fighting breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and kidney diseases. (Taxol is also found in the Pacific yew.)

The plants and their lines of symmetry are always fascinating to Sparky.

A type of fuchsia

Sparky loves ferns

And sometimes, there are just very unusual plants that command the photographer's lens….Sparky has no idea what kind of plant this is, but it was cool!

We spent a couple of hours wandering around, enjoying the beauty and the music of the garden--Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart….

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the gardens today…..Next time, it's Arlington Cemetery!

Back to Normal, Sort of…..

The wave of visitors have come and gone…..Family came and went, more family came and went, and just recently, Eldy's nephew came for one day and a night, and then it was back to normal, just Sparky and Eldo. No more wonderful pickle ball with friends over at Sun 'n' Fun. Our friends have left for cooler temperatures. Sparky is still subbing right up until she leaves for Washington, D.C. next week, to see her oldest daughter, who is being deployed overseas in June. But she sure misses pickle ball! She will have to try harder to find some outdoor places to play in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. There are some indoor facilities, but indoor pickle ball is not as much fun as outdoor, Sparky just likes outdoor better. But as it gets hotter, Sparky will start playing now and then indoors. Those hotter temps are coming, it's been in the mid eighties this week!

We're back to investigating garage sales and estate sales, now that most of the snowbirds have left town, we're looking for things we can't live without, or some yard tools that of course we sold when we left Indiana, thinking we wouldn't be needing anything like that! You never know what you'll see…Sparky really loved this lemonade stand, she was such a cutie, and look how professional the parents made her lemonade stand!












You never know what you might see at an estate sale/garage sale in this area. How about this Old Town antique canoe? It was very cool!

We are true Floridians now….complaining at the height of the season that parking is at a premium, fussing at having to stake a seat out for Happy Hour way before happy hour begins anywhere. We should just have our own happy hour, right? Quit complaining, Sparky!  Even the estate sales have cleared out as far as having to get a number to wait in line to get in the door. We don't do waiting in a line for 45 minutes or more in the heat in the peak of the season. We like going in the off season, it's fun to look to see what's out there. Even though we've pretty much got the house the way we want it decorated for now, there's always SOMETHING that we can find to add to it. (She's managing to add all kinds of things, folks, we're running out of room already, fusses E. And we haven't even picked up our storage shed stuff back up north yet!) Now it's the big projects that will have to wait down the road-- like replacing bathroom cabinets and sinks, and something different in the kitchen in the way of lighting, and maybe carpeting in a couple of rooms, and…..Good thing Sparky is working! We've got all kinds of stuff coming up…a family reunion this summer in Traverse City, a visit seeing Sparky's oldest daughter, and who knows what else?

So….weekends come and go….Farmer's Market in downtown Sarasota….This is Siesta John and his woodie…..heh heh heh…..Notice he's playing in his bare feet! Always great music at the Sarasota Saturday morning Farmer's Market.

And always, fabulous organic fruits and veggies, and wonderful things to sample and eat...

We visit the beach sometimes, usually Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island and the city's island pier…Sparky saw this really cool sea grape (?) leaf. She swears that's an imprint of a regular oak leaf on it, a double imprint at that. You sure don't see very many regular oak trees around, especially at the beach! As a matter of fact, Sparky hasn't seen a single oak tree at the beach.

We always like to visit the Anna Maria Island Pier. There's always LOTS going on…We've seen a dolphin lazily swim very close to shore, chasing the fish in just yards from the swimmers, we've seen a whole bunch, herd, whatever, of brown cow nosed rays---over 60 of them swim back and forth for over a half hour alongside the pier, dolphins stealing fishermen's bait, an angler accidentally hooking a ray, another hooked a pelican and today, it was another ray just swimming along by himself.

Sparky couldn't resist taking a photo of these two cute young anglers…Usually the fishermen or women are lots older and more grizzly looking, skin baked by the sun.

We like to go get pizza at the Main Street Trattoria in Lakewood Ranch and eat it outside….

There are so many places to sit outside at cafes in Sarasota and Bradenton, it would take you a year to sample them all.

Sparky rides her bike at least a couple times a week. Sparky likes these birds of paradise blooming shrubs.

She's always looking for gators, or the elusive bobcat which residents have seen quite a few times in the nature preserve on the back nine and whom we saw cross the road in our subdivision one day…Today we saw a red fox moseying around the golf course just outside our backyard!

And the days fly by…...

An Awesome Adventure!

Last year Sparky and Eldo went on a wonderful dolphin hunting adventure….It was called Dolphin Racer Speedboat Adventure Tour.  The boat tour leaves out of St. Petersburg. We got a Groupon coupon last year and went for 12.00 a person. This year was early for us to be going, too early for Groupon coupons and since Kristi and Connor were here visiting, even though we didn't have a Groupon coupon, we wanted them to experience the cool tour. So we booked--24.95 for each adult, and 14.95 for kids, kids under 2 are free.  The very young kids didn't seem to enjoy it as much. Maybe because it is too windy, and the boat engine is very loud if you are at the back of the boat. This little gal spent almost the whole time hanging dearly onto her hat!

We went on a weekday, and even though it was a week day, it was spring break. We had to contend with a LOT of boat traffic that slowed our speed down several times.

The trip did NOT disappoint! Even though you can see dolphins out in the waters of the Gulf on a regular basis around here, it's tough to spot them with a camera, and the sightings are not as often as they would be if we were at the ocean's shores more. And they are usually farther out, making a nice photo tough to get. The boat tour gives you a chance to get some wonderful shots close up of the dolphins playing in the boat's wake. And, the captain gives informational stuff about famous people who live in the area, and tidbits about the history of the islands and waterways. We are two out of two times seeing dolphins up close and personal playing in the waves of the speedboat on this same speedboat tour. The dolphin action started almost immediately.....

Sparky started fiddling around with her camera….Decisions, decisions…Use the iPhone burst setting? By the way, holding down the photo click button shoots an incredible number of multiple photos just like the burst setting on a regular camera. Don't hold down the "home" white button on the phone, or you will get a puzzled Siri. (Ask Sparky how she knows that.) Should she use her little Canon Powershot? After missing a couple of fantastic shots by fiddling with devices, Sparky said, aw, the heck with this! Just watch the "show"! But she did get a couple of shots….Here comes the first wave of dolphins…..

There was one dolphin careening through the boat's wake on his back…He'd come up for a bit, and slice back through the waves on his back…The captain said we had to make a TON of noise, cheering, clapping and whistling. He said the more noise you make, the more the dolphins will play. We weren't sure if that was really true, but it made sense. However, we did not have a full boat or even half full, so the captain said we were "wimpy" on the noise making. The dolphins came to play twice, but they didn't hang around long. Maybe because we didn't make enough noise? Eldo is wisely keeping quiet on that last statement. (Sparky has been known to be quite vocal on lots of occasions, and that's all I'm gonna say about that! says E.)

Man, can these dolphins swim FAST! Here comes another one slicing through the water…..

But it was tough to get to the back of the boat where all the action was. Three young women, who evidently worked for the tour boat company or a related tourist attraction in the area got on the boat for free and positioned themselves at the back of the boat where the best sightings are and best photo opportunities were and never moved.

We were annoyed that they were allowed to take the places of paying tourists, and that they didn't take turns letting others have a chance to see what was going on in the wake.

The biggest event of the hour and a half cruise was a 60 pound tarpon got in the action with the dolphins and jumped clear out of the water at the back of the boat. The captain saw it and exclaimed he'd never ever seen anything like that in all his time out on the water. He was VERY excited! Did Sparky see it? No-o-o-o… too busy fooling around with her electronic devices trying to get photos along the side of the boat. Did Eldo, Kristi or Connor see it? Nope…All looking in a different direction….But others saw it happen and marveled at it along with the captain…..

Kristi got a couple of terrific shots--thanks for sharing these with us, Kristi!

Here's the best for last….

It was a beautiful day but for some reason, the boat was lightly loaded. The day before, it had rained and was very very windy. The boat was full that day, go figure that one! On our beautiful day, guess everybody decided to hit the beach as spring break week was winding down. That made for a terrific trip out on the water today with plenty of room on the boat to move around. Connor loved seeing the dolphins, Kristi did, too, and there was LOTS of action. And of course, Sparky LOVED it! She'd go again in a heartbeat!

We highly recommend this dolphin tour!

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Sparky loves riding over to Jiggs Landing in Bradenton, just about a half mile from her house to see what birds are there…This past two months, it was a great horned owl family that flew the coop recently (an osprey nest they overtook from the ospreys who built it) and the ospreys came and claimed it back….It looks like the ospreys might be incubating some eggs up in the tall pine tree. Sparky captured one of the parent ospreys feeding on a fish it recently caught. The tail was still flopping around when Sparky started taking photos.  Ew-w-w-w-w! But that's nature. Sparky had another photo where the osprey had taken an internal part of the fish and had it in its mouth. Double EW-W-W-W-W! So she decided it was too gross to publish.

At Jiggs Landing, there is a boardwalk, and out at the end of the boardwalk is a nice little viewing platform. There were some pretty little marsh plants blooming today…

Sparky sat down to watch some least terns, the smallest members of the tern family, who were congregating on the boardwalk.

They sat in a row on the boardwalk fence…..

They took turns getting ready to fly one by one in search of a meal. And pooping….

When they got something, back they came, chattering with the fish in their mouths, like "Look guys, I'm telling you, there's food out there, you just gotta look for it!"

And off one would fly again to catch another skinny little fish…..

"I'm not impressed," says the buddy.

It's a beautiful little park with a kayak launch. Sparky went out kayaking once so far on the Braden River from Jiggs Landing, but it's time to get back out again, she thinks!

Sparky has been watching all over town for baby sandhill cranes. They've been very elusive…They seem to be born about March, so they've already hatched and are growing. FINALLY--a pair spotted while we were out garage sale shopping….and with only an iPhone to capture the moment….sigh…Gotta start carrying the little Canon Powershot everywhere!

Bye-bye little birds…..