So I was headed to Tampa to do training for work. I had one meeting early in the morning and one later that night. So knowing how I hate to drive in heavy traffic my wonderful husband offered to drive me. He figured he would get some fishing done and then just hang out at the hotel or what ever till my meetings were over. The meeting took place at the Best Western Bay Harbor Hotel on Rocky Point in the conference room. He packed his lunch and then the plan was we would meet up between meetings for dinner.
Traffic heading into Tampa
The conference part of the hotel was right next to Hogan's Beach restaurant which just happened to be owned by Hulk Hogan himself and my husband and his fishing buddy just happen to be long time fans of wrestling so they had a good time looking around at all the belts and Hogan memorabilia in the lobby part between the conference room and restaurant/bar. After they dropped me off they went fishing as planned but didn't have much luck. I had a great lunch at Hogan's Beach the food was large portions and very tasty lot's to choose from.
One of the many belts from the legendary Hulk Hogan's collection of stuff at Hogan's beach.
When my meeting was over and it was time to go get dinner we all met up again. That's when they learned Jimmy Hart was staying at the hotel, we ran into him in the parking lot.
Jimmy Hart and his crazed fans. ha ha!
We went to dinner at Whiskey Joes right across the way from Hogans Beech. It was really nice. Right on the water. Good food, good service. Lot's of fun and then we came back for the other meeting I had to attend. They were suppose to go fish some more. Or maybe catch a movie or something while they wait for me.
View from our table at Whiskey Joe's. Right on the water.
All of a sudden in the middle of my really important meeting I hear really loud singing coming from Hogans Beach. I just knew. I thought someone is going to come and get me and kick us all out any time now. But no. Those guys had hooked back up with Jimmy and the owner of the hotel, Ben. They were having the time of their life. Needless to say I drove home.
We decided to go to the Leesburg Saturday morning market in down town Leesburg. They have the best local honey and fresh produce. Plus you never know what you might find. They have fresh baked bread from the Yalaha Bakery and goat cheese products, home made soap. Most everything is organic and local and fresh.
Today when we got there we noticed they had blocked off the street. Not unusual they are always doing some thing in Leesburg. We didn't see a lot of people gathered around so we thought we would go check out if the market was shut down or not. We got there and it was not. We had a good time picking out some really nice green beans and a big jar of honey, some free range organic eggs and a big ol' cabbage. Pretty soon more people started gathering and before we new it. Bam! there was a MLK day parade.
So we decided to stay and watch some of it. It was a very nice parade. We noticed there weren't very many black people at the parade. I don't know if they didn't support it or they did a bad job of advertising it this year. It was still a nice parade.
Vegetables sold here!
Husband with a mouthful of pretzel roll enjoying the parade.
Some of the marchers in the parade.
This guy wasn't marching but he was supporting differences.
It's taken me a while to post about New Years Eve. I put all the pictures on face book before writing this, so most of you have already seen them.But first... I did have a birthday this year. I don't know why so many people like to keep track of birthdays every year. Right around my birthday I have finally forgotten my actual age and most of the time spend at least half the year thinking I'm younger than I am. Well, this year my mother in law unintentionally did the math and found out my little trick. So... of course my husband wouldn't let me live it down. He had to bake me a cake and everything. And keep reminding me of how OLD I really am. Now it's going to take a whole nother year to forget.
Me eating the giant doughnut shaped cake.
Well, back to New Years. We did our usual and went out to our good friend in Geneva Florida's house. He has some property and really knows how to throw the best party ever. He used to get crowds of people. A lot would camp for the night that way they didn't have to risk a long drive home after drinking. But this year for some reason it was really quiet. I think a lot of people just got old. But hey, I aged a whole extra year and I still showed up. Maybe some were worried about that Mayan prophecy coming true a little late. Or maybe they had that flu that was going around. I don't know but it made for a very relaxing night. If you count blowing up a Christmas tree with gasoline and lighting of a whole arsenal of fireworks relaxing.
We arrived pretty early so we were able to get some pictures of everything before it was all set up.
Fire pit before it was piled up with everything.
You can see all the wood that was piled up.
Some of the fireworks being made ready for the big show.
Next year I will have to take some pictures of the food because it was truly amazing. There was the pulled pork that our buddy makes every year. And then Red always makes chili which is yummy and our buddy also has his black eyed peas ready, so there is those, and last couple of years he has make really tasty hot German potato salad.
The fire started off with a bang. Each year the pit is carefully loaded with old dead Christmas trees and boxes that beer came in. Some times old bra's are thrown in the pit. I should say placed on the Christmas tree to make it look like a girl. I think next year they better put some boxer shorts in that fire. Then gasoline is poured over the whole thing and then lit on fire with a roman candle. It's quite a site and something everyone should experience. I don't know why everyone isn't doing this every year. Way more fun than getting all dressed up and trying not to turn into a pumpkin at midnight.
Then we sit around and catch up. Talk about what we did the year before and what we plan to do next year and have a good time by the fire and light fire works and have so much fun. Then at the stroke of mid night... BAM! firework display to be proud of. Photography lacks something to be desired. Ha.
I hope that 2013 is a great year for everyone! After all... we have a new start. We can have a new out look on things and we have an opportunity to do things different this year. We can be better. We can do better and we can make 2013 the best year yet!
