March 31, 2013

Happy Easter everyone.  I mentioned yesterday a docent named Aroine Irby.

Aroine  was 19 years old when the march to Montgomery took place.  Today, he does 4 tours of the Capitol building on Saturdays.  The building is now mostly a museum, except for the Office of the Governor Robert Bentley and his primary staff. 

As we walked around the building listening to the history of the building, interspersed with his take on the events, it became apparent that he believes that he is living in the best time in history.  For Aroine, who grew up in Alabama during the difficult 50’s and 60’s, today is like a cakewalk. He truly believes that living nowadays are the best days of his life.

Among the things that happened were his listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak

He was present on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday

He marched from Selma to Montgomery

He later was educated at University of Alabama

He was an educated  in Aeronautical engineering at Tuskegee Institute. He would use this education to join the United States Air Force in which he served for over 20 years.

His service included time flying F4's in Vietnam.

He ended up working for Gov. George Wallace who as many remember was about "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"

Upon Aroine's retirement he went back to college to obtain his PhD in History.  

He now works for the Alabama Historical Commission, Capitol Division.

It was truly a privilege and honor to meet someone who took part in the civil rights movement.

Today we took off for Selma Alabama where the historic events of March 7, 9 and 21 to 25 started.

The Brown Church where the March 21st to 25th, 1965 began.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge...site of Bloody Sunday.

Rosa Parks famous bus stop location

And not to forget, Alabama is rich in Civil War history.

A late afternoon meal at Wintzell's Oyster House led to a couple of pics of humorous sayings.

Finally got a pic of Grammie and her Easter Bonnet

March 30, 2013

First of all, the car key fob did work.

Second of all, Grammie is in Montgomery AL, enjoying a bowl of butter pecan ice cream while watching her all time favorite movie.

Because of the Holiday weekend, many places in Montgomery were closed. Thinking it was going to be a busy place, we were pleasantly surprised as the streets were quite empty.

For those back home who have been discouraged by the bad weather...there is still hope.  The trees continue to bud.

The flowers are out though and really beautiful.

While the rest of the city seemingly slept, we took a narrated tour of the State Capitol building that, except for the executive branch officers, serves as a museum.

 While the building itself looks typical, looking around it is more unique.  The Loblolly Pine pictured, planted in 1976, came from seeds that took a trip on Apollo 14 in 1971.

Once inside, we learned thing about the history of the building.  Below is the chamber where Jefferson Davis was elected 1st President of the Confederate States on Feb 9, 1861.

A plate was placed on the place where Davis stood on the front steps during his inauguration on Feb 18, 1861.

The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King was Pastor from 1954 to 1960.

Later we visited the Civil Rights Memorial inspired by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Memorial.

Montgomery, for the music lovers out there, has a statue commemorating Hank Williams whose career was cut short.  The statue is outside Chris's Hot Dog stand on Dexter Avenue where Hank was inspired to write many of his songs.  The stand opened in 1917 and is run by 2nd and 3rd generation owners, and features "All the Way" hot dogs.

The best surprise of the day was the tour guide at the State House Museum.  We learned about many of the events that took place in 1961.  Tom got to shake hands with the tour guide who walked from Selma to Montgomery in March of that year.  More about Aroine Irby tomorrow.

And last of all, this will be the 1st Easter that we haven't been home to watch the grandchildren hunt for Easter Eggs. Grammie did find some eggs, but Tom thinks that there is only one left.  Happy Easter everyone

March 29, 2013

OK inquiring minds, will a car key fob that has been through the washer continue to work?

If you are looking for a quiet place to lay in the sun, this is not the place.  The mosquitoes here are large, and they sure make a lot of noise. 

We went to Mexico Beach FL today and took this picture looking south.  If you really imagine hard, you can see Aruba.  Can you see it?  Try harder.

I have 2 sons-in-law, and several grandchildren who would like to take this boat fishing, but when I stopped, there were buyers standing in line.  Sorry guys.  It was well equipped.

Key Lime Pie anyone?

March 28, 2013

Hi all.  Today was a moving day.  We left Tampa at 7 a.m. and easily made it out of the city before the traffic...and accidents started to pile up.  If you want to move around in this city, you catch the morning traffic news before heading into the driving battle.  We did catch a great sunrise heading east on 275 this morning.
It doesn't take long for one to get caught up in the 75+ mph traffic. After a while we decided to take a slower drive up the western coastal route before we got to Tyndall AFB.

For those caught up in the NCAA basketball sweet 16 teams, we drove by a sign at a school that has caught a lot of national attention.  Wish them good luck when Florida Gulf Coast takes on Florida on Friday night.

This next picture shows a lot of shallow water but what it doesn't show below the edge are a lot of stumps right on the edge of the ocean.  These towns have lost a lot of beach front due to recent storms that have hit the gulf coast. 

March 27, 2013

We had a lazy day today.  Tom played 18 holes starting at 46 degrees and and was done at 59 degrees, 2 1/2 hours later while Alice worked on secret projects.  We went out for a late breakfast at a restaurant by the beach.  Nice fine white sand but still not warm enough for swimming.

Afterwards we took our lives in our hands and traveled through Tampa up to the Museum of Science and Technology.  Lots of school kids there who are on vacation.  We saw the IMAX movie on Butterflies.
See Monarch butterflies.


There were also many other wonderful exhibits including an opportunity to go an a zipline.
 To see more, click on  MOSI. 

While taking our evening stroll we got a picture of a really good fisherman.

Tomorrow the Red Sox will wind down another Spring Training season and head back to Boston to begin their long season of breaking the hearts of many New England Baseball fans.  As we approach Easter Sunday, please say a prayer for the Sox.

March 26, 2013

Today we left our friends in Lake Wales...Wayne and Carol from Newport, Linda and Tommy, and Arlene and Bob, snowbirds in exile. 

When we arrived in the Tampa area we first stopped in to see Herb and Betty, snowbirds from Corinna, and Eldon and Yvonne who now live in Tampa.

But before leaving Lake Wales Tom got a pic of Alice having breakfast.  Coffee, check....? what's that in the bowl?  Sophie would have been proud.  Bread group...check,   dairy group...check,   fruits and vegetable group...check  Ok grandchildren, be sure to tell mom and dad.

Tonight we are staying at MacDill AFB in Tampa.  As usual, wonderful shorefront property and not 1, but 2 golf courses.

A view of Tampa skyline from across the bay.

March 24, 2013

Today we left Orlando and made a short drive back down to Lake Wales.  On the way we were tempted to stop, smell the roses and possibly enjoy a fresh orange or 2.

See if you can find Tom with his Orange shirt hiding in the Orange grove.

This is also a good location to pick your own strawberries.  The strawberries right now are going for about 3 boxes for $3.00  Yeah, that's right...a buck a box.

The citrus travels from grove to plant by the truckload.

One thing we seem to notice is that the poor Floridians can't seen to get good scales anywhere.  Every one that we have seen here is either broken or not accurate at all. 

Just so our grandchildren don't forget us, here is a recent picture.  Tom cropped the picture because the scales don't work.  Just saying!

March 23, 2013

Today we left Vero Beach and headed to Orlando to visit Kathy, Tom's younger sister and brother-in-law Steve.   We were treated to a  home cooked meal, not often seen while on vacation, but certainly much appreciated..  After supper we took a nice walk around a pond near where Steve works. The distance was 2 1/2 miles and a nice flat walk...what part of Florida isn't.

Steve and Kathi sure look good for a couple of youngsters.

March 22, 2013

It's been a very relaxing week at Heron Cay in Vero Beach.  We were treated very well in our very first Bocce (fools game) experience and then the tide turned.  We got skunked on the 2nd game and lost the third.  We would like to thank Gail and Dave for the great company...and yes Dave, today is your day.  For you Dave, just a blog reminder of our new friend.

Dave, click here after viewing the picture below.

Dave, a song for you!

We are about as far south as we are going to go and Saturday will make the turn around on the trip home. Going to see my sister in Orlando and see their new digs. Oh and yes kids, we will be sending you the rest of the itinerary.

March 21, 2013

Hi all.  I see that page views have dropped off a bit...probably because we haven't been updating our blog activity.  Sorry about that but it is kind of hard getting around with all the sunshine we have been getting.

Tom thought about going down to the beach and burying his legs up to his knees to try to be a little understanding about home folks dealing with the snowstorm  Alice said...probably not a good idea.

Yesterday we we went out to eat at a BBQ Rib restaurant.  It was on a stretch of road known as the Old Dixie Highway.   It was probably the best BBQ rib place that we have ever found.  Not only were they great but full of meat...and delicious.  It was Called Norris's and the Authentic ribs were the best.

The website is at Norris's Ribs

Today we went to a unique restaurant centered around an old gas station theme. When we got inside, the walls were covered with license plates from all 50 states and even a few countries.  How a license plate from Australia got there...we don't know.  The table (vinyl) cloths were checker board pattens.  The (linen) napkins were for real authentic grease rags used by stations from yesteryear.  The menus were uniquely written and covered with actual license plates held together by binder rings.  "Beamer" was out waitress dressed in the garb of old gas station attendants, and first asked what we would like for fuel.  Well wouldn't you know that one of the other waitresses was named GTO?  The room was filled with all sorts of "automobilia".

More information and their pictures can be seen at Mrs Macs Fillin Station

This evening we drove up to Fellsmere FL to the Marsh Landing Restaurant for dinner and to listen to some local talent.  A featured attraction was a guest appearance by "Tina Turner"on the right. "Tina" gave a great performance on his Bedpandolin. Although the real Tina didn't appear, Isaac Taylor, seen on the left, a 21 year old banjo player from Vero Beach displayed great talent. 

March 17, 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day for those who feel well enough to enjoy it.  We started off the morning by having a facetime session with the kids and grandkids.  They were getting ready to do a little ice fishing.  When you don't see the little ones for several days they seem so much older when you do.  We were starting to think about places to go on the return home, but after seeing the weather predictions back home we want to be a little cautious that we don't get back there too early.  We surely don't want to see anyone running in snow during the Boston Marathon. 

March 16, 2013

Hi all, no we haven't dropped off the face of the Earth.
Last night we went to see the movie Quartet and really enjoyed it.  Reminded us of some of the wonderful musical talent from yesteryear that is still around.

We finished our packing for our next stop but before we did, we will have to admit that the time change really hit us as this was the first sunrise that we have seen in quite a while.  7:30

Loading up the van and heading south to Vero Beach, the weather got much warmer along the way.  When we arrived we learned from Gail that there was an antique auto show across the river.   Not having been in town more than 10 minutes we headed out to the show.  The following pics are just a few of the many nice cars there.

65 Mustang

57 Chevy

 

38  Chrysler Town and Country

 

Now here are a couple of muscle cars for you.

Another 60's favorite.

Camaro anyone?

Alice and Gail admiring a 56 Corvette.

83 De Lorean

After a nice afternoon stroll and evening meal, we headed to the "Age Restricted" hall for an evening of dancing.  What fun!  We danced more in the last 2 hours that all the last 2 years.  You could say that these people were definitely NOT "Age restricted".   Wonderful people and a lot of fun.

March 13, 2013

Testing the video feature on the blog.  A view of the roaring Atlantic from our own slice of heaven.

We decided to take our morning walk down the sidewalk instead of the beach and came across the local sign.  Do you think Maine's Governor could take a hint from this sign?

Walking back up the beach gave an indication of today's weather.

We went to the Atlantic Ocean Grille out on the Cocoa Beach pier.  Alice had the Crab cakes while Tom worked for his meal....Crab legs.