Easter morning dawned bright and beautiful at our house. Forgoing our usual after-breakfast bicycle ride in the neighborhood, we got ourselves out the door very early to attend the first worship service at church. The thought was to avoid traffic if we opted for the earliest of the services offered and that worked well for us. This particular service also followed a more traditional music format, which we prefer. It was just right.
There's been a lot of talk on our neighborhood Facebook page about coyotes roaming through the yards; but I'm happy to report the Easter Bunny came and went without incident, leaving his gifts of chocolate.
After church, we changed into more casual clothes and drove to my niece's home with our offering of potato salad for the big meal.
Upon our arrival we were greeted by Desi the Macaw, who rules the roost from a large cage in the kitchen great room area of the home. He had been enjoying some freedom in the dining area but was tucked back into his cage when we arrived. His yellow chest feathers are so beautiful and looked soft to the touch, but before venturing any closer, I asked if I could pet him. My niece said he's not that people-friendly with strangers, so I just spoke to him with polite respect and kept my distance.
My niece and nephew-in-law are wonderful hosts who take a lot of enjoyment in filling their home with animals and people, and feeding us all with great generosity.
We were thrilled to be invited (yet again) to their family gathering. In years past I've done a lot of entertaining. Now it's so pleasant to be invited as a guest.
It's been a full week for us as we transitioned from the Easter holiday to preparing for out-of-town guests. Gary's son and wife, one of Gary's grandsons and his wife, and their toddler daughter came to town for a few days from way up north. They stayed in a local hotel since our house is not big enough to over-night many people. They rented a vehicle at the airport that was big enough to carry around all 7 of us, which was a big help as we took them sight-seeing.
She even agreed to sit on his lap, still with a snack-incentive. She is Gary's third great-grandchild, but the first one for him to meet. The twin boys were born first (to another of Gary's grandchildren) but due to his surgeries last year, we could not travel up north to meet them in person.
I enjoyed seeing Gary with a child this young. In the three+ years we have been together, I have seen him interact with members of my family who are as young as 6 years, but not any who are younger than that until this weekend. He held his own very well.
I won't give you a detailed description of all we did to entertain our guests, but will hit a few of the high points. North of us, in Gainesville, we took them to a particular location where the gators are known to hang out, the La Chua Trailhead, which is inside the bounds of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.
We unexpectedly found this attraction last year when we were riding our bicycles on the trail from Gainesville to Hawthorne. On that day, the park rangers said we were seeing about 150 gators. Not as many as that were out on this day with our family, but there were still many more than I could hope to count.
This one was one of two who had adorned himself with foliage for our visit. I guess that even within the animal kingdom, some are more inclined to show off!
The next day we visited the mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. Yes, REAL mermaids swimming underwater for a show that lasted about 20 minutes, viewed from an under-ground theater through a huge glass window! Very impressive. We heard that the girls have to train for a full year before they can be in the show.
I don't know how many people can fill the theater, but my guess is a couple hundred. We got there early enough to sit in the very middle on the second row, so we could see the show perfectly. I was impressed with how they expelled a curtain of bubbles whenever it was time for a change of scenes during the show (instead of drawing a curtain back and forth).
The price of admission also included a twenty-minute boat ride, lazy river style, where the guide pointed out interesting flora and fauna along the way.
This yellow-bellied slider turtle was sunning himself on a log as we floated by. There were also a couple of soft-shelled turtles but they were in the shade among leaves and not easily photographed.
As we waited our turn to board this cruise, a fellow traveler snapped this picture of all of us. There are 4 generations represented here -- pretty special!
After the mermaid adventure, we drove about 20 minutes to Crumps' Landing, a well-known outdoor, "very Florida" restaurant. With lots of seating under grass-thatched roofs or canvas umbrellas right beside the Homosassa River and a lot of boat traffic, the menu is wide with everything from American burgers to calamari, and gator bites, etc.
There are pirates (statues) stationed throughout, a playground for little people, sand, restrooms, and a gift shop. All is very casual and so pleasant. It was our second time to dine there and we consider it a favorite, in spite of the distance from our house (55 minutes).
My regular readers may remember that a month or so ago we were assembling this wood foot bridge for our back yard. Then with the visit of our great-granddaughter, it provided a fun prop for photography this weekend.
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"before" |
I took snapshots of our yard as it is now, one of which is this one above. Tomorrow the scraping begins and we hope that by week's end, the entire renovation will be done. You know I'll post pictures of that because that makes for good "blog fodder."