Anna Maria Island, Sam's BD, and BIG FISH!

 

For one glorious week in October, we celebrated Sam's significant birthday at this wonderful spot. We walked along the beach, we lounged and admired the beach, we caught seafood. We barbecued seafood. We strolled through Sarasota's magnificent Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

On Birthday Eve, we took a chartered party van into downtown Tampa to dine at Bern's Steak House. This restaurant takes dining to a whole different level. The wine cellar alone has achieved world-wide recognition.

Selfie panoramic in the van (I tried)

 

Bernie's Steak House?           

Bern's has a separate and expansive dessert room.

It was an early rise for the fisherpeople on B Day. The five of us drove to the pier of Sarasota Offshore Fishing Charters.

Fish Tales is a 40 foot luxury sport fishing boat. With an enclosed, air conditioned cabin powered by 900 HP of marine diesel engines. It is delightful on calm waters. The waters were calm - initially.

We went out two or three miles and the lines went out. Immediately, there were bites. We were catching them two at a time.

These fish were for bait! Now it was time to go out and catch the big ones!! Although there was little wind, things got a bit rough. They called it chop. We were hanging on for dear life. Only Aunt Erica and I did not get seasick. But we caught fish!

It was a wonderful day of fishing. That said, we were all happy to return to Terra Ferma. We made fine feathered friends while our wonderful crew cleaned and filleted our upcoming barbecue dinner.

Erica looks on as Rodney attempts to

walk to the sunset.

Hendersonville, North Carolina

 The road trip south toward Anna Maria Island continues. Jessica, Erica and I visited and stayed with our dear friends, Meg and Irwin. Meg and Irwin recently moved from Cleveland to be closer to family. Here are the five of us (with Erica behind the camera):

We enjoyed each other's company and took long walks. On one of our excursions, we passed a neighbor's Heritage Turkey farm (note: this is October. The turkeys are plump.) When we approached, the turkeys were scattered over a large area.

But within moments they responded to our presence and quickly gathered by the fence where we were standing.

They were so interested in us, looking for something to eat I suppose, or just curious?

The five of us visited the Biltmore House and Estate in Asheville, NC.

This most remarkable example of opulence was the creation of George Vanderbilt, beginning in 1889. The house spans 175,000 square feet on an estate of 8,000 acres. Inside, there are hundreds of rooms with endless displays of remarkable art including a Tapestry Gallery. The vast 19th century kitchens and state of the art plumbing and even 19th century refrigeration systems are accessible to visitors.

    Outside, the gardens and the views are seemingly endless.

Panoramic view looking west

                                      Jessica                                         Erica       Meg

 Luray Virginia and the Skyline Drive

This is what we hoped for

But that is not what we actually got. Actually, the Fall foliage was quite nice, and we caught it near the peak. However, it was a grey day and my photos failed to capture what we actually saw. We drove much of the Skyline Drive during our stay, and on our subsequent trip south. Here is a typical appearance of our travels and hikes (from the web site).

A trip to Luray, Virginia is incomplete without a visit to Luray Caverns. Luray Caverns is a calcite-limestone cave that has been 400 million years in the making, discovered by Euro-Americans in 1878, but was known to Native Americans earlier. Today, it is open to the public, well lit with walkways, hardly making it a speleological endeavor. Nevertheless, it is awesome and well worth a visit.

We stayed two nights at a Bed and Breakfast, the Piney Hill B&B which I recommend.

Onward! Next stop is Charlottesville, Virginia.

Road Trip and Florida Birthday Bash

 This blog was begun in 2014 shortly before we moved to Paris for a year, and traveled around Europe. Most of the blog is dedicated to that adventure. Since then, I have occasionally made additional entries. I decided that this trip was worthy of a re-visit to the blog.

    When members of the family reach milestone birthdays, we do our best to celebrate in style. And so it is with our son's 40th. After much discussion, the family settled on Anna Maria Island on the gulf coast of Florida. We decided to make it a road trip, and Jessica's sister Erica decided to join us. The three of us are together again!

    The plan was to take nine days to get to Anna Maria Island, stopping along the way to visit friends, do some hiking, and visit landmarks. We started on Saturday October 15, 2022 driving from Cleveland to Fairfax Virginia, home of Deedee and Tom. This was also the maiden voyage of our new electric car, a Tesla we have named Sapphire.

    The trip was uneventful. The charging process was remarkably rapid with chargers capable of delivering up to 250,000 watts of power which is equivalent to more than 100 wall sockets each delivering full power. Deedee is my sister from another mother, and it was great to see them. We had a lovely evening and moved on with our planned excursion.

 The next leg of the journey would be to Luray, Virginia. But first, we spent a few hours at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the mall in Washington, DC.

 

It was Erica's first encounter with the museum. This was our third visit, and we still have not taken it all in. We recommend it as an educational, and a totally enlightening experience.

On to Luray, Virginia!