Fort Myers, FL (Part 4) - Beautiful Music

When we went downtown for the First Fridays Art Walk in Fort Myers we had a chance to meet some of Alice's friends, enjoy some delicious food, browse a few galleries and hear some great music!

These are a few of the friends that Alice meets up with to enjoy First Fridays and other night life around town.  They are a sweet bunch of folks.

While we were there we heard the legendary John Mooney play blues (slide) guitar for free at the Indigo Room! He's a pretty amazing musician. (There's a photo of him playing with Bonnie Rait among other things). Apparently he has family in Fort Myers, so he comes to see them and drops in at some of the local places to play.  Sorry that the photo is blurry. I was using our table as a tripod and it kept getting bumped, but you get the idea.

After that we wandered down to have dinner at the French Connection Cafe.  The food was excellent and very reasonably priced.  Even though we had a pretty big storm earlier in the evening, the weather was perfect for eating outside.

Check out Alice's Steak Salad.  Mmmm!

Later we stopped in at this Arts for ACT Gallery and Boutique set up to raise funds for (Abuse Counseling and Treatment) in the Fort Myers area. See the beautiful blue scarf hanging over the partition? That's where I found MY beautiful GREEN hand-dyed silk scarf by Sara Long that I promptly purchased to bring home.  It was VERY reasonably priced too. I loved all the quilted art and textiles here. 

 

Alice has a friend, Kat Epple that was playing music at another gallery - Space 39 (also free to listen) so we headed over there to hear her music and meet more of Alice's friends.  We learned that Kat's music has won 8 Emmys for film scores and has been nominated for Grammys!  Pretty awesome, huh?  Unfortunately, I don't know the names of the other 2 musicians, but they all played beautifully!  The guy on the right is playing a theramin.  You can go here if you want to hear what one sounds like.  It has something to do with radio waves...

 

Well we're headed out to Naples today, so that's all I have time for. We had a really fun time at the Art Walk, thanks to our host and tour guide, Alice.

Fort Myers, Florida (Part 3) - Sunsets and Manatees

This is all I have time for tonight.  First thing this morning we decided to take some pictures in our hotel lobby because the colors are so much fun!  This is me and my mom (of course).  See how my new scarf matches the bench?

This is our view from the window of the restaurant where we had dinner tonight at Fort Myers Beach.  Isn't it gorgeous!

We also saw Manatees today, or should I say little bitty glimpses of parts of Manatees.  I'll post a picture later, but you won't be impressed. I need to go thru and figure out which shot actually shows enough of it that you can recognize something. The water wasn't clear, like it appears to be in the photo below (courtesy of SeaPics.com).  It was kind of exciting to see them though. Did you know they're called the "Cows of the Sea"?

Tomorrow we'll be cruising to Cabbage Key. Hoping to see dolphins along the way.  

More pics to come...  Have a great Sunday!

Fort Myers, Florida (Part 2) First Day

Here are a few more highlights from our first day or so...be sure to scroll down to see the first post if you missed it.

When we landed, Mom's sister Alice picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel.  When we walked in the room, she had left a huge bouquet of gladiolas!  Did you know that Fort Myers used to be the Gladiola Capitol of the US (maybe the world, I don't remember).

Alice also had created a huge basket full of local treats with fresh shrimp, gorgeous fruits and veggies, tourist brochures, wine, etc.  She even brought a book from a local author and checked out some books about the area from the library.  The shrimp and other food were great snacks to have as we settled in for the night.

What a fun surprise!  I'm sure it took a lot of driving around (and money) to pull all those things together.

Check out those scrumptious Norman Love Chocolates!  We told her we want to go visit that store.  They are works of art!  Mmmmm...

Alice has lived in this area for a long time, so she's the perfect host and tour guide.  We're so excited about our time here, but we know it's going to be too short already.

Next post - Beautiful music in Fort Myers...

Fort Myers, Florida (Part 1) We're Here!

For those of you who don't already know, I'm in Fort Myers with my mom and my sister, Diane on a short vacation to visit my mom's sister, Alice. Unfortunately, it's after midnight here and we have a busy day planned tomorrow (and most every day that we're here), so this has to be short and sweet.

I just couldn't wait to post a couple of pictures of some of the things that we saw tonight when we went downtown to their First Friday Art Walk. Yes, they have one too. We'll talk more about that later.

Right now you can admire this awesome art installation with words shining all over the sidewalk, building, pedestrians and ...

...even on the trees!

I just LOVE it!  Alice didn't really know the story behind the choice of the various words.  Some of them are definitely real words, but others look to be either made up or another language.  I haven't had time to research it.  Let me know if you know anything about it.

Anyway, this is at the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers.

Here's a close up of the words below as well.

Later we went into this gallery that had some gorgeous textiles!

I found this beautiful hand-dyed silk green scarf for only $15!  What a fun souvenir to bring home as a reminder of the wonderful time that we've already had...and it's only the first day here!







We also enjoyed some amazing music tonight, but that will have to be a post for another time.  In the meantime, do any of you know what a theremin is?  I can give you a hint.  It's a musical instrument and we got to hear one tonight!  More on that to come so stay tuned...

Flagstaff Snow Day!

Sometimes my heart just aches to experience the changing of the seasons. After growing up on Ohio, with the full range of sights, sounds, and smells of the season, I just miss it so much that I need to get somewhere out of town. I especially feel the tug in the Fall and Winter. We get our own share of Summer and enough of a feel of Spring that I don't miss that too much.

The last few weeks there have been so many reminders of snowy winter, especially last week with all the snow that they got in northern Arizona. I started thinking about a road trip to Flagstaff probably on Thursday, but the storm continued thru Saturday which made it dangerous to drive up there before last Sunday. So that morning we got up and decided to hit the road.

It was a perfect day! The roads were totally clear, the traffic was light and the sun was shining as we headed up the mountain toward Flagstaff. This was our first glimpse of the snow in the distance.

We drove thru Starbucks in Cottonwood on the way up and Terry picked up an apple fritter with his coffee. He didn't want me to take a picture of him eating it (he's supposed to be watching his carbs, you know.) But I think this is incriminating enough.

Next we started to see snow on the ground by the road...then we really got into snow country! Look how heavily it was covering the trees.

Look at this gorgeous shot (below) of the mountains coming up from the south of Flagstaff.

Not sure if you can tell (below), but we're actually parked in the road. The off and on ramps were plowed, but not the road that they lead to. There was a 6 foot pile of snow in front of the car from the plow blocking the road, so if there was anyone living down there, they wouldn't have any way to get out unless they had a snowmobile or something.

This is the sign that goes across the road. I'm not thinking that anyone's going to get anywhere in that direction on something with wheels.

Here's Terry starting up the hill. You can see that it was thigh high in most places.  Fortunately it was pretty good packing snow and there were a few paths that were packed down enough that we could walk on them without sinking down too deeply. There were a couple of times that I "fell in" and Terry had to pull me out so that my camera wouldn't get in the snow (which happened once). It's so funny because there's just no leverage to push yourself up, since your hands sink down in it too.

It had been so long since we'd been in the snow that we forgot to bring extra pairs of pants.  Fortunately, we didn't get too wet and we did have dry socks, so we were o.k.

It was so sweet to hear the crunch of the snow under our feet!  I love the SOUND of Winter.

And look how amazing the trees were!

We watched showers of snow coming down from the branches very regularly.  Fortunately we weren't beneath any of them.

Isn't it cool that there were icicles hanging from the tree's needles?

When we first got there, the only people around were a couple with their little boy.  I'd guess him to be around 5 and he was having a blast...so were his folks.

Then just before we left we were joined by a young family from Phoenix with 3 boys who had NEVER seen snow!  What an exciting day that must have been for them.  And the littlest one couldn't have been more than 3 years old.  As they were trying to climb the hill he kept sitting down in the snow and his mom kept telling him to stand up.  Then the dad suggested that maybe he couldn't stand up with all the clothes bundling him up.  He was SO adorable!  That's him coming down the hill on the sled all by himself.

It brought back some great memories of our snowy adventures with the kids in years past.

After playing in the snow there for a bit, we started driving toward town then decided to head toward Lake Mary to see if we could get there. Our prospects didn't look good...

Herbs Gardening Class at the Desert Botanical Garden

I just signed up for this class at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and I'm so excited!  I've heard that it's relatively easy to grow herbs here in the desert climate, but they surely don't last on my window sill in the kitchen.  I'm looking forward to finding out the secrets of planting them (and keeping them alive) outside.  I will mostly plant in pots to start with, if that's workable.  When I'm finished with the class and my herbs are thriving it will be exciting to use them for cooking.  Fresh herbs are SO much better than dried ones!


Herbs from Garden to Kitchen

Take your herbal knowledge to new heights–from growing herbs in your garden to dazzling your senses in the kitchen. In three sessions you will learn herb gardening for success in the desert, herb varieties and their uses, and delicious herb-inspired recipes and menus for healthy cooking. Open your senses to the bounty of herbs that grow in the desert. Also included is a wonderful informational and instructional manual prepared especially for this series by your instructor Catherine The Herb Lady. Limit 20.

Session 1: Edibles in the Desert - Learn to garden for success in this introductory session designed to get you growing.  From planning to planting, ‘The Herb Lady' will teach you about our ‘flip- flop' planting times, give you the scoop on soil, and why "location, location, location" is as important in growing herbs as in buying real estate. You will also learn about one of  most important tools for desert gardening, bugs both good and bad, and more.

Session 2: Herbs - Anise to Zahtar - Discover the incredible variety of herbs that can be grown right here in our desert. While some are used to beautify, others are aromatic and flavorful, and many are "multitaskers", fulfilling many roles. Learn about gardening with themes, plants that play well with others and some that do not. This session includes an interpretive guided tour of the Herb Garden.

Session 3: Beauty on the Table, Delicious on the Dish - Treat your taste buds in this savory session by sampling some herb inspired recipes prepared by ‘The Herb Lady.' This interactive session will lead you, step-by-step, through a wide range of healthy, mouth-watering menu ideas. All are tasty, some unique, and all guaranteed to put more real food with real flavor on your plate, while minimizing fat and salt.

20th Annual Forever Friends Gathering

January 16th was our chance to get together with some of our dear friends, all of which we've known for 30 years or more. I'm not sure if it's really our 20th year of doing this, but it's been a long time.  It started when we lived in Southern California for 18 years and nearly every winter we'd come back to Phoenix between Christmas and New Year's to visit family and friends.  We always tried to reserve one day to gather with a few of our dear friends that we've known since the late 70's when we lived here in AZ the first time.  Most of these friends were married around the same time as us and had children at around the same time.  Our kids have known each other since birth and hopefully our grandkids will be the same.

This year the Mozingos graciously hosted the gathering.  It's really one of our favorite places to go, because it's like going out of town, even though they're still in the metro Phoenix area.  You'll see why from the photos.

This first pic is the inside of their front door.  They built this adobe home themselves and it has so many gorgeous touches that make it unique.  I just love the character of it.  The sidelight is made from the bottom of wine bottles.  I love the way the light shines thru it.

Most of us arrived by mid-afternoon so we could watch the Cardinals playoff game against New Orleans.  We had high hopes, but if you know anything about football, you'll know that they lost miserably, so the attention soon turned to the delicious food, wonderful fellowship and beautiful weather outside.

We each brought something to contribute to the meal.  Appetizers, drinks, desserts, soups, etc.  I won't go into a lot of detail because I forgot to take pictures of the food before it was picked over, but as always, we had so much more than we could eat and EVERYTHING was amazing!  If you don't want to come to these gatherings for any other reason, you will come for the food.  We are all very good at putting on a good spread.

During half time, many of us wandered outside to get our minds off the game and to see the latest developments in the Mozingo compound.  Some of us were fortunate to get a tour of Rand and Michelle's winter garden.  Brimming with gorgeous greens, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli and more.  It was fun to see and sample so many delicious healthy treats.  Thanks Rand!  You're a gardening inspiration.

After the tour we all just hung out in the back yard for a while.  I decided this year that I wanted to try to take a group photo at these annual gatherings so that we can look back at the growth and changes that have happened.  Sadly we haven't done it all along, but we still have lots of photos of these times together each year.  And now that I have a tripod and a remote control for my camera, it makes it that much easier.

The Thompson clan was out in force, but the rest of the families were a bit light on kids.  I think our kids would have loved to be there, if they weren't living in other states. We need to figure out a way to do this when they're in town sometimes.  And Emolyn was the only grandchild here, so needless to say she was quite the center of attention.  I look forward to the day when there are scads of little ones running around, experiencing what true friendship looks like and the love, grace and joy that fills these times together.

Shawn, Nicole and Emolyn

This is Jenna and her friend Sarah.  They've been friends since they were born too!

I love this shot of these old friends sharing stories.

Can you guess who they're all looking at?

 You guessed it!  Emolyn!  

Can you tell that her Uncle Tyler adores her?

She's at that perfect age when she'll do all kinds of "tricks" with the prompting of

adults around her. We saw many animal impersonations, ad-lib songs, dancing and so much more.

What a fun age she is!

 

Emolyn's parents, Nicole and Shawn, of course.

 

And here's Aunt Miranda singing with Em.

There was a threat of rain, but fortunately it held off for our get-together.

 Enjoy the rest of these photos.  They are self-explanatory.  I hope you get a picture of this wonderful place, group of people and time together.  It's one of our favorite gatherings of the year.  We wouldn't miss it for the world. 

We decided that next year we want to bring marshmallows, chocolate and Ginger Snaps and make a new kind of s'mores.  Doesn't that sound delicious?  But what should we call them?