More Happy Hour Fun

We have had some really nice Happy Hours this winter, even without the Happy Hour queen Diane around.  We have noticed that each year the food and the crowd both get larger in quantity.  This week's Happy Hour was no exception to that.  This one was hosted by Travis and Baxter and I'm guessing at least 40 people showed up.

Travis made two hams that were delicious.  He provided mashed potatoes and Woody and Pat made gravy and the rest of the feast was provided by all of us who came as guests.  There were three picnic tables full of food and lots of great company.

Once again, I was camera lazy so I'm borrowing Donna's pictures.

Living the life in wonderful Florida!

Finally~The Lions, Tigers and Bear

Finally, some pictures of the stars of the show-the lions, tigers and bear.  Oh, and panthers.  Words can't really ever truly give these majestic animals due justice.  So I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The lions.  A male and female.

 

The tigers.  There are four here.   Two of them, Samson and Delilah, are siblings and are 20 month old toddlers.

Beautiful.  Just beautiful!  Well worth the wait, right?  If you are in the area, go and visit them.  They are even better in person.

Sarasota Expo Pickleball Tournament

 Due to my work schedule and being sick schedule, I have not been able to play in any pickleball tournaments yet this winter.  Karen asked if I'd partner with her for one that happened to be on my day off and I was thrilled to do so.  I had not been out on the courts for weeks so I went out a few days before to get some practice in.

Tuesday, March 6th, we headed out with Art, Hedy and Donna to Port Charlotte for an expo that ELS hosted.  There were four communities playing in the expo, Peace River, Harbor Lakes,  Terra Ceia and Bay Indies.

Sadly, Karen and I did not end up getting to play as partners because the women played Round Robin games.  We really enjoyed the group of women that we did play with and we had a fun day.  I forgot my camera, so the pictures here are ones that Donna took that day.

  Our community did very well in the tournament with Rene and John taking first place in the men's games.

 We really cleaned up in the ladies games, with Karla taking first, me taking second, Donna taking third and Karen taking sixth.

 The park did a great job with the entire event, even providing us with a wonderful lunch.

 

This is one tournament that I'd show up for next year if they repeat it again!

Animals at Lions, Tigers & Bears

Like their name implies, there are in fact lions, tigers and bears...well, actually *a* bear at this neat place.  There are many other animals there too.  Some of the first ones you see are the emus.

You can get very up close and personal with them, but they do not recommend doing so because they bite.  While I was trying to get better pictures of the emus, the donkeys decided I was there to see them and wandered over.

Without meaning to, I did get up close and personal with them.  Hello, there!

Same thing happened with the deer.  They must be paparazzi friendly creatures.  "This is my better side!"

I did not get up close and personal with this hybrid wolf/dog breed.

Or this hybrid cat.  Although it does look nice and cuddly, they assured us that is not usually the case.

And who could resist this sweet face?  Apparently not it's former owner that spoiled it rotten until it got to be too much to handle.

I could resist these not so exotic creatures because I still have flash backs to being sent out to collect the eggs and having to fight with the feisty animals to get them.

I know, you want to see the lions, tigers and bear.  They will have to wait for another day though because I still have to edit their pictures!  In the meantime, can't you just picture a place where chickens and tigers share space together?  Ok, I couldn't either before this visit!

Living the life in warm Florida!

A Special Concert at Peace River!

I have had an exceptionally busy week this past week.  Actually the past two weeks have been unusually hectic for us.  So I have tons of things to blog about, but I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to blog about them.  Hopefully I will get caught up over the next several days or during my next few days off.

This was one of my favorite did but didn't blog about it things: a concert given to the park performed by pickleball friends.  Not just any pickleball friends though.  Super talented and musically gifted friends.  I met Todd Hallawell and Garth Matthews both this year.

 I heard about Todd long before I knew him though because Austin is a huge fan of Todd's musical talent and has shared numerous YouTube videos of him with me.  He is an incredible musician.  What I did not know was that his wife is also. 

We were so impressed with Garth's playing also.  They played beautifully together!  Such a treat to hear all three of them play together and judging by the crowd's response, we were not the only ones that felt honored to hear them play.


Just a few short clips of them to give you some idea of their talent.