Florida in January

Live jazz, a few brewskies, a good burger, and friends ...what a great way to spend an evening in early January.  Lincoln has much to offer.

Friday night jazz at Vega.

We spent a lovely evening with the Fishers in KC.  The boys get to be more fun every time we see them.  Chad made THE MOST AWESOME ribs!  Never mind all that hype you hear about rib joints in KC--go directly to Chad's house.  They are the best!  Many thanks to the Fishers for sharing their home with us on the front and back end of our flights.

Our Florida vacation began with a trip from KC to Charlotte, which was fine, but the Charlotte to Orlando leg was the worst ever.  We spent over 1.5 hours sitting on the tarmac waiting for the weather to subside in northern Florida.  We even got to taxi back to the gate to have the authorities escort a belligerent passenger off the plane.  When we finally reached Orlando, we had to circle for 45 minutes before we were allowed to land.  During that time I decided I needed to use the bathroom, but it was no longer available because someone had puked back there.  Five and a half hours later, we finally landed.  Jeff and Karen, thankfully,  picked us up and had to drive for an hour in the dark and pouring rain.   It was not the best of starts to our trip.

Bad starts aside, we were delighted to be with our hosts in their new home in Mount Dora, Florida.

Jeff and Karen, our lovely and gracious hosts.

Rusty's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Karen are two of the most personable and charming people you'd ever want to meet.  The best part of our Florida trip was just getting to spend time with them!

Mount Dora is a cute small town with lots of charm.

Each day we walked along the water's edge on our way to town.

We walked under beautiful live oaks.

We passed long-legged birds.

We saw blue herons in flight.

...and when we got to town there were fun shops and tasty restaurants.

This is only half of a one-serving bowl of peel-and-eat, fresh shrimp.  Yummy!

We took a nice walk on the boardwalk over the lake.

Baby gater just hangin' out and catchin' some rays.

Jeff's and Karen's home is in the Chautauqua neighborhood.  Yes, the Chautauqua groups of New York used to come to this area of Florida in the colder months, hence the name.

Karen's understanding of color and style has transformed their new home into a place that is both exciting and welcoming.  It made me want to rush home and start painting the walls.

These are just a few of the lovely trees in their yard.  We had fresh grapefruit, oranges and kumquats.

We drove lakeside drive to the nearby city of Tavares, home to many seaplanes.

Boys checking out the plane.

We watched planes enter the water, crank up the wheels, taxi out, and take off.

Jeff, the ultimate sailor, keeps his boat docked at Tavares.

Jeff shares the finer points with Rusty while Karen and Lolita (the dog) enjoy the view.

Rusty adds his contribution to the Gas Pipeline.

Most days we walked past this hotel, Lakeside Inn, the oldest hotel in Florida.  Est. 1883.

The hotel had a patio with a fireplace and benches.  It was a great place to sit and relax.

I purchased a Metronome sculpture which Jeff volunteered to deliver to us this summer.

Like most two-year-olds, Rusty enjoyed the wrappings!

The Piatigorsky Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to make live classical music part of the fabric of everyday life for communities throughout the United States.  We had the privilege of hearing violinist Linda Rosenthal and pianist Richard Dowling perform pieces from Tartini, Grieg, Bartok and Massenet.  The finale was J. Bock's "Fantasy on Fiddler on The Roof. " Delightful!

Thank you, Jeff and Karen for a lovely vacation!



Monday we had temps in the 60s, so I hopped on my bike for the first ride after wrist surgery.

My wrists were pretty sore, but I was pretty happy!

Monday night Rusty made eggplant parmesean, one of his favorite dishes.

Who says you can't cook for two?