Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

After Carrie leaves

Wednesday-Saturday December 26-29, 2012
Site 6, Oscar Scherer State Park
Osprey, Florida

 

Things come to a SCREACHING HALT the day after Carrie leaves.

 

 

WEDNESDAY

We have been going going going and having fun fun fun and we are both exhausted. 

I do go out running on Wednesday morning.  But beyond that, I hardly move.  I write blogs about our fun times while she was here, finish the last of the 3 Barb Thacker RV travels books and begin my new Barbara Kingsolver novel Flight Behavior.  (thank you Carrie)

David is reading The Yearling on his laptop.  He liked our reading of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Cross Creek so well that he downloaded The Yearling version with Andrew Wyeth’s illustrations.  Free!

We hardly have to cook we have so many leftovers.   It’s a lazy day.  I don’t take one photograph.

 

THURSDAY

On Thursday morning, David goes over to Venice to a Lab Corps for his twice monthly blood draws.  In the afternoon it warms up a bit and we decide to go down to Venice Beach.  We’ve been to Siesta Key, Caspersen and Nokomis Beaches but not to Venice.  Time to see it.

Our verdict:  Too urban and today too windy, too cold.

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So we go back to Venice and walk along the main street, Venice Avenue, enjoying the artistically decorated dolphin and sea turtle statues.  They remind me of the decorated buffalo all over in Custer, S.D.  Here are some of my favorites.
(click on any of them to enlarge, they really are beautiful)

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Pedicure and make up anyone?Venice and Venice Beach 087

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The mosaic work is just amazing.  The pictures do not do it justice.Venice and Venice Beach 043

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What painstaking attention to detail.

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All of the sculptures had a “sponsor” whose plaque was on the base. This one just made me laugh.  Do you see the “ears”

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Wish I’d gotten a close up of his moustache.

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These are just a few of the sculptures lining 4 or 5 blocks of  “downtown” Venice.

 

Next, we stop in for a delicious Peanut butter MALT (I’m in heaven) and a great pizza.  David has a cherry coke at this old fashioned soda fountain.  It’s a great place with metal stools in front of the wooden counter and old fashioned soda machines.  There are too few places like this left anymore.   Way to go Venice!   A real soda fountain!!

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After lunch, we cross over the boulevard strip and finish walking down the other side of the street window shopping.

 

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The orchid trees are still in bloom.

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Even the trash cans are decorated in this darling city by the sea.

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FRIDAY

Friday I’m running again in the morning.  There is no rain predicted and we have tickets to visit Historic Spanish Point.  We pack up our lunch and head out to make a day of it.

This is a very interesting 30 acre historic site and it is decorated with lights for what they call “holy days” and have extended hours until 8pm.  We arrive thinking we will see the outside during the daylight, have lunch and enjoy the buildings, exhibits and then the lights after dark.   We have just finished watching the movie inside the Visitor Center, which is located in the original Osprey Elementary School now on the National Register of Historic Places, when all of a sudden the sky opens up and it POURS rain.

I check weather.com on my phone.  They are still saying zero chance of rain.  HA!  It’s pouring outside. 

We wait for a while hoping it is just a quick shower feeling grateful we are not out walking around when the drenching began.  We hang around and chat with the cheerful volunteers for nearly an hour but it becomes apparent that it isn’t going to let up.  They give us a “rain check”.   We head out with plans to come back tomorrow or on Sunday when there is again zero chance of rain.  IF you can believe the weathermen.

Instead David runs some errands.  He is part of the holiday returns crowd.  His rope lights have 2’ that don’t light so he exchanges it.  He finds his FM walking radio doesn’t work well for his purpose and gets a set of FM headphones instead.  I get to do the kind of shopping that I love.  I wait in the car and read.  Perfect!!

 

SATURDAY

It rains continuously all night long and into Saturday.   They’ve changed the forecast and today more rain is predicted so we decide not to return to Historic Spanish Point.  But of course the rain never comes.  By the time we realize this, it’s too late to go to Spanish Point.

Instead David does a half hour of his stretching exercises with the new video he got as a holiday gift and then goes on a brisk walk.   He says he’s turning over a new leaf to up his exercise quotient now that he can.  Probably no running but perhaps some weight lifting in addition to the stretching and walking.  We’ll see how this pans out.

I do an hour’s worth of yoga and then we putter around the coach cleaning the upholstery,  cleaning off the roof and slide toppers, taking off Winnona’s old rear BRAVE decal so we can replace it with a new one curling one that Santa brought to me.  

In the late afternoon, we take a walk over to see the Eagle’s nest.   

 

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The nest is located on a section of Oscar Scherer’s Green trail and is blocked off at  a long distance.  The tree is visible as is the huge nest but binoculars or a spotting scope is really necessary.  The sun is dropping in the sky making quite a glare.  The nest tree is at the far end of the “road” you can see behind the blockade.

 

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Click the photo to read.

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I’m zoomed in quite a bit here.  The nest is in the crook of the tree almost in the center of the picture below.

 

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We set out for home as the sun sets.  Sunset from the scrub on the way home from our Eagle visit.DSCF4963

 

In the past 4 days we haven’t done much of note but the days have been easy and that has been great. 

With this post I am finally caught up just in time to get behind again no doubt.

J

19 comments:

  1. Always nice to have some down time. Looks like you did some neat stuff with your down time;o)) We will have to check out Venice...how cool are those scupltures!!!

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  2. jeeez you two are so active. Gorgeous mosiacs. I'm really getting antsy again... I guess because of the weather here and this M6 ... I need to be at that soda fountain .. peanut butter malt? ewww

    hahaaaa.... forecast says no rain and it's pouring .... been there

    antsy ... Kim hitting the road and your pictures ... aw man

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  3. So sorry we were not able to meet you guys up at Flagler Beach. looks like you are making the rounds as well. Great statues. The remind me a bit of Queen Califia's Magic Circle in California.

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  4. They had painted pandas in DC one year; and elephants and donkeys another year ... I've also seen bears painted similarly in a small town outside Munich, Germany ... I can't resist photographing these colorful statues, not matter what the animal or subject matter is.

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  5. Oh I love those dolphin and turtle statues. I will have to plan a trip down there one day!

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  6. Love the sculptures, especially the turtles! They have such personality :)

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  7. thats not much down time..wow you two stay busy...all the very best of the very best in 2013..!!! Hope we can meet up while we're in fl..

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  8. Those sea turtles in Venice show that Darwin was right, they have evolved to fit in with their environment. ;c)

    Hopefully you get a chance to slow down now that Carrie has left...Ha! Like that's going to happen.

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  9. I respect the down time but you do stay very busy. Sure glad cause I get to go along. Like the decorated sea life. Saw similar with bears in Grants Pass, Oregon where there is also an old fashion soda fountain that makes phosphates. I saw the eagle.

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  10. Have you heard about the razorbills up near the Anna Maria City Pier. Story in the St. Pete paper recently. It's unusual to see them in Floria, much less on the Gulf coast.

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  11. Peanut butter malt -- YUMMY!!

    I love it when towns dress up their downtown area with artwork. Those turtles and dolphins are great!

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  12. We never got down to Venice, we will have to get that done.

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  13. our Katie leaves this Wednesday and we too expect hings will slow down quite a bit...

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  14. Oh, I really want one of those turtle sculptures!!! Seriously :)

    Happy New Year to you both!

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  15. I love the sidewalk sculptures, and think I might enjoy Venice even though I don't care much for the sea towns and beaches. I have resolved to get back to stretching and walking during 2013, but already I'm dreading it as it will require such a change iin my morning routine. Never thought I'd get that set in my ways! I wish you and David the best for the coming year.

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  16. Thank You for sharing all the wonderful pictures
    Happy New Year

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  17. We are exhausted after a week with family...down time here we come! Great shots of the turtles and dolphins...loved visiting Venice, it's such a pretty town and the beaches are so cool...We felt the same way about Venice Beach.

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  18. Downtown Venice looks like fun--love the turtle art. We looked for shark's teeth last year at Englewood beach. I learned I am more interested in hunting for shells. Enjoy your down time and especially the new Kingsolver book.

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  19. Sounds like a relaxing few days - neat idea to go see Venice and the Eagles Nest - you definitely make the most of your situation. Sorry I missed out on the milkshake!! I especially like the sunset picture from Oscar Scherer.

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