The Holidays In Paradise...Oh Yeah !!

Just before Christmas I visited a place called Spanish Point and got to walk in the warm sunshine through a 19th century estate that had also been the home territory of a native American culture that dated back at least 4,000 years...even before the Native Americans that we know as the American Indian...Archaeologists had documented thousands of years of use of a shell mound used by the inhabitants over that length of time....in plain terms it was their "dump" for all that time and everything from thousands of everyday shellfish to pottery and tools were documented...Spanish Point was the home for one of the Sarasota area's founding families and was a retreat for them and many of their friends for many years.

Needless to say that it was a beautiful location along the bay and was a great way to spend the day .... and of course..what is a mansion without a sunken garden..volunteers have done a fantastic job preserving and restoring all of the grounds...we followed a path from site to site that was more beautiful at every turn... I didn't realize how bad I look in those shorts...I look like a guy who needs a makeover in a very bad way.......


Last Sunday was a great day for a breakfast outside at the Dearborn Diner...especially when you can be with some of your nearest and dearest friends...Shirley, Lisa, Ronnie and Richard along with Ronnie's beautiful daughter Cathleen joined me for great food and even better conversation...








Cathleen certainly gets her beauty from her Mom...she is a major player in the world of IT...Lisa who was also in that very challenging field got a conversation going with Cathleen that absolutely no one else at the table understood... one word of....








Kyle had a visit from his friend Galen...we took him down to the fishing pier...guess who was the only one to catch any Pompano...not just one but Two....of course this was the first time he had ever fished salt water....beginners luck is alive and well...good going Galen....Kyle got a ride back to Rochester for the holidays and Galen got a great vacation...






Of course Travis and family enjoyed a first Christmas with baby Callie Jean and Dakota's second...at two she can definitely have a fun time and be old enough to really get into it....



They had eight inches of snow in the dessert...it was the first time in decades that Edwards had any accumulation...A Christmas miracle for all the kids who haven't seen any snow...they even got to make a snowman for the kids....













Callie is getting cuter by the minute and Dakota has excepted her role as the Big Sister...a little jealous but still very much the protector...


Dakota had to make sure the carrots and cookies left for Santa and the reindeer were OK to eat....










New Years Eve we watched the sun set at the beach...we watched the perfect sunset....had a little wine...and after dark had the only fire allowed on the beach...a candle in a hole in the sand (see a future blog for pics of candle)...surprisingly the candle gave off more light than we expected and we had a great time for an hour or so after dark visiting with a local family and their three girls...the girls serenaded us and we all had a few laughs...by the way...never accept potato chips from kids at the beach....I was spitting out sand for an hour...fortunately I had Captain Morgan to thank for finally rinsing it from my mouth....after two-thirds of a bottle it was also completely wiped from my memory.....


That's It For Now...

Happy New Year...

Semper Fi...

Live, Love, Laugh, Fish

Monk