Long days night

You’re gonna love this one, especially when you get to the picture..Don’t look!

Where to start? I’ll save you the run up to this deal, but a couple of days ago Sara attended a concert in downtown Tampa. This was not just a concert mind you. For all of you music people out there, picture your most prized music moment. The chance to go see that single most favorite artist, IN CONCERT! What comes to mind? Beatles? Rolling Stones? Clapton? Ratt? This was it. Sara’s chance to live the dream. She actually had tears in her eyes when she realized that she was going to go to this concert. Now…picture how the typical relationship is portrayed between the music that kids love and how their parents view that music. Got that pictured in your head? Amplify it by a factor of 100 and this is how it works out in our house. I couldn’t wait to hear from Jen how this concert went and if she avoided listening to any of the earthy warbles of this artist. In fact, here, take a listen.

Fate has a strange ability, especially in our house. Since I was the one who could not stand this music the most, fate determined that I was the one to take her to the concert. I’ll try to make a long story short. The harpist / composer shown above is apparently well renowned and has played Carnegie hall and the Sydney Opera house. I really can’t imagine how that happened, but oh well. Sara spent a few hours listening to her favorite artist in life, had her picture taken with her (OMG! OMG!) and carries around various items that this girl autographed for her. Sara has listed this night as one of the “greatest nights of my life”. I think fate was also trying to tell me something here also. I didn’t complain once that night about the music or the endless hours of standing (some of the time in the rain), waiting for the concert to be over. I figured it was a rare chance for her to experience something that she loved. I found myself smiling and enjoying her experience along side of her. I think I would listen to this crazy harp music every day if I got to see my Sara that happy all the time.

Here is the final “fate” moment. Something stepped in and erased any evidence of this concert from the marquee. The fat guy on the bench seems to notice something funny is going on also.

Oh…here’s the after concert, hang around the back of an old dilapidated building hoping to meet the great Jo New picture. 

I saw 3 ships come sailing in…

Ok, so I only saw them sitting there like lumps in the water, but I saw them nonetheless.

This past weekend a group of ships labeled as “Tall ships” visited the Port of Tampa for the first time. “The Eagle” – the Coast Guard training ship, the “Capitan Miranda” – from Uruguay, and the “Gloria” from Columbia. We stood in a couple of decent lines to be able to wander the decks of two of the ships. The third ship fell victim to child indifference and hot humid weather.

The cool observation of the day occurred as I was watching an older gentleman make his way up the gangplank of the Gloria. As he hit the top step to board the ship, both officers that were there to greet everyone snapped to attention and saluted him. He was wearing some sailor related garb and I was inspired by these two guys who had no idea who this man might be, but if by chance he was one of them they were damn sure going to pay him respect. It took the old man a while to return the salute, but these guys were not about to drop their hands until he did. I’m sure it made his day.

Anyhow…here are a couple of pictures.

Ok…I only had one on my computer. The other is the gang jacking around in front of the “”Home of the Tampa Bay Lightning”

Here’s a stock photo of “The Eagle”

Not a Renaissance man

So it’s not like I have been doing absolutely nothing while I’ve been sick, but writing about it here has obviously been a challenge. I have cleared the desk of Kleenex, downed a bottle of Claritin, and I’m good to go. Here is a note from last weekends jaunt to the Renaissance festival here in Tampa.

 

So for the last month or probably more all I have been hearing about from Sara is “Can we go to the “Ren fest” At first I thought it was some sort of bird watching club and once I actually went I found that it IS basically a bird watching club. If the bird in question is the cuckoo bird. If you aren’t exactly sure what a Renaissance festival is, then here it is in a nutshell. A Renaissance festival is a big group of people playing dress up games and pretending that they live in the time of King Arthur. There are 3 levels of Ren festers, the first is the curious observer. This is the category me and Sam fell into while visiting. We were there just to partake in the Turkey leg eating and to see some fake sword fights. Second is the “Just goofing around” people. These people dress up in costume, have fun with it and go home to their normal lives. The last group is the more troublesome collection. This group is the “I’m batshit crazy and likely on leave from a mental institution” These people have full regalia costumes, talk like they are from the era and likely also live this way at home. They refer to themselves as knaves, and wenches and I’m glad I didn’t send my Norwegian friends to this event last year. Luckily it started to rain after a couple of hours of wandering in this weird world and I was able to convince Sara and her friend that we had to leave. Some photos for your perusal.

Hey boo boo!

Almost forgot to post something today…

In keeping with our adventure seeking spirit we trekked to another event listed in the same list that gave us the underwhelming Strawberry Festival. This time, however, we had some better luck. I think it was probably the weather that made this event more fun, but who cares why, we had a good time. Some mysterious group, (mysterious = I didn’t bother to find out) was sponsoring a “Picnic in the park” at the University of Tampa on Sunday. I was skeptical because anything named “Picnic in the Park” at the University I attended would involve a lot of things I don’t think I would be bringing my children along for…but off we went. 75 and sunny we found a parking place that didn’t mean trading a can of Miller Lite and a lap dance for, good start. We entered the park and immediately spied FREE ice cream. Now this is where the Strawberry Festival could have learned a thing or two. FREE? To test their ice creamy good will I sent Sam in for seconds. They didn’t even bat an eye. FREE! We sat in the sun, watched some strolling barbershop quartetters and some ladies in period costume. At the picnic in the park “period costume” was parasols and Victorian dresses, not sweat pants and a purse full of Midol. The kids wandered around, took in the nice weather, and generally had a good time. I spent zero money, had some “Blue Bunny” ice cream (this is why it was free…shameless plugs on a world renowned blog) and spent some time with the family that didn’t require a vaccination after the event. Here are some of the quality cell phone pictures I took.

The “Team”

After delicately balancing the camera on the TV and failing to get the timer to work about 10 times. I finally captured the entire collection of the “2009 Orion to Tampa Dog sled” competition.

Hooked on Fenix

Ok, I know I haven’t even gotten to the “We’re on the ground in Tampa” stories. Sorry. After my movie fiasco I had two hours to kill, so I actually wrote down some things I noticed. For the better part of the last two hours I watched the “Your journey” screen on the in flight television system. If you’re not familiar with this system it basically scrolls through a bunch of screens telling you how far you are from your destination, how fast you are going and gives you a picture of a little plane making its way to Tampa. I won’t get into it too much but here is what happens when you stare at this screen for almost 2 hours.

• The math is wrong. Flying at the speed we were flying at and the miles it said we were from our destination, well it was just wrong. Trust me, I did the math about 50 times.
• Why is the map in Spanish when the flight originated from London and is arriving in Tampa?
• Is the Spanish word for Phoenix really Fenix?
• Why would you put Godthab on any map? (Look it up – I had to)

There ya go…I have 5 more things written down but they will only make sense in my head now.