Tampa, Naples and Florida West Coast Jan. 26--31

After the Lazarus family left on Jan. 26, Linda and I had dinner at Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, an extremely large, very upscale steakhouse, which claims to have the largest wine collection in the United States. We had great steaks, then they took us on a tour of the wine cellar and the kitchen, and then we moved on to the desert room, where we shared a baked Alaska desert(or at least I let Linda have a bite or two.) Baked Alaska is a cake with ice cream on top, that is covered in meringue, baked quickly, and then flambe'd at the table. They serve them at Antoine's in New Orleans, where I think they were invented.

The next day, we took a Segway tour of downtown Tampa. It was the first time Linda and I had ridden Segways and we really enjoyed it. It's easy to catch on how to ride it, although Linda caught on more quickly than I did. At one point in the tour, we were passing some pedestrians, and I almost ran over Pat Summerall, who is a retired television sportscaster. He was apparently there for the Super Bowl, as were lots of other folks.

We left town on Thursday before the Super Bowl, but the town was really starting to have a lot of activity. We went to a public tailgate party on the way out of town, but it was early and not much was going on there other than a bunch of ethnic food vendors.


We drove along the gulf coast, through St. Petersburg,Bradenton and Sarasota. We stopped to watch the sunset on Captiva Island, then spent the night in Naples.

On Friday, we went to the beach at Marcos Island. It was very windy, so we didn't stay long, but it's supposed to be one of the best beaches anywhere for shells, so we picked up a few. Went shopping briefly at the mall.

On Saturday, we drove to Jupiter, and got there just in time to go to church with the Lararus family, then dinner from CR Chicks.

Busch Gardens, Tampa--Jan. 26 and 27

We met Allyson, Brian and the girls in Tampa and spent a couple of days at Busch Gardens. Smaller than DisneyWorld, but nice and uncrowded, due to the time of year. There were a lot of groups of kids from South America there. The weather was cool, but not too cool.


Great pic of the Lazarus family on the train at Busch Gardens.






We took a safari trip in a large SUV type of vehicle. Lots of zebras, hippopottami, gnus, and giraffes.


We went to a show where the performers sang, danced and interacted with the animals. They invited the girls down at some point in the show, and this is Kylie and Ellie with the star of the show. Taylor was there, too, but didn't make it into the picture.


I took a lot of shots of the girls riding various rides, but apparently lost them somewhere. This is the only one that I found of them riding the log ride. At least I think it's them.

Key Largo to Tampa--Jan. 25

We drove through the Everglades to Tampa. Lots of birds; lots of water; lots of palmetto. Had lunch at an Indian reservation lodge, which reminded Linda and me of roadside stops that we made as children.

Key Largo--Jan. 24

After wandering around a craft show in Key West (Linda bought a print from an artist from Austria)we left Key West and drove North to Key Largo. We stayed at Amy Slate's Amoray Lodge, an older lodge that specializes in scuba diving and snorkeling, but it was too cold for snorkeling. We watched the birds, the fishermen and the sunset, then walked to a restaurant down the street and had a great dinner.

South Florida Jan. 23

We took a tour on the touristy Conch Train. It's actually a pretty good way to get a feel for the city. Watched another sunset at Sunset Pier, watched the buskers (street performers) then wandered up and down Duval Street.

Key West--Jan. 22

We wandered around Key West all day. Duval Street, the main tourist hangout reminds me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, except more open and cleaner. At the end of the day, we joined in the local custom of watching the sunset from Sunset Pier at the waterfront. I'm still trying to figure out how to operate the camera, so Linda's kind of blurry.

South Florida January 20--February 3, 2009

On January 20, 2009, we flew to West Palm Beach, Florida. Allyson and her girls picked us up and we had dinner with them and Brian. The next morning we took the TriRail train to Miami and picked up a rent car, then drove down to Key West, where we stayed at the Chelsea Guest House. We took a lot of sunset pictures over the next couple of weeks. These were the first couple we took on the drive to Key West.