Monica's Visit

An old school friend of BB's came up for a visit. Monica lives in NY and came up by train; really much more convenient and comfortable than flying. We picked her up and had a lovely visit playing tourist and hosts. Friday we went up to Ogunquit Maine for lobster.

On the way back we made the obligatory ice cream stop at Kimbels, yum!

Sunday we went to the MFA and Harvard Museums. All in all we had a nice visit.

Seth at Nashoba

BB and I met with Seth and his girl friend at Nashoba for a wine and food event. A good time was had by all.

Zac and Jess Wedding

I was cleaning off my desk and found this great photo of Marc, Me, and Barbara at Zac and Jess's wedding.

0706 Zac and Jess Wedding

Maxwell's 4th brithday

BB and I went out to visit Heather and Allen for Max's 4th birthday. The day was lovely and we had a great time. Herewith some photos. Some are actually video. Just click on the link to see them.

We drove back on RT 9 just out of curiosity. It was interesting and only 30 or 40 minutes longer. Good day.

Great Loop - Boat Stuff

So there'll be a need for boat stuff.

• Boat
• Inside and outside helm
• Diesel/gas
• Twin or some sort of reasonable auxilary
• Redundant navigation systems
• 500+ mile range

• Laptop PC
• Able to take image cards
• DVD writer
• WiFi
• Software
• Skype (for phone service where wifi is available)

Great Loop

I've been reading a number of the Looper blogs and notices the various places (marinas, anchorages, restaurants, etc.) that they mention as good. Since it's likely that I'll only go that way once I thought I'd start a list of such places in this blog for future reference. Marinas

• Dog River Marina, Mobile Bay ship channel, wifi, West Marine, courtesy car
• Demopolis, Alabama, courtesy car, Wally World
• Fort Walton Beach, Fl, free dock
• Sarasota, FL, Marina Jack
• Marathon, FL, Boot Key Harbor
• Key West, FL, City Marina

Anchorages

• Ingrams Bayou, Alabama, seems to be ok but nothing special
• Ezell's Fish Camp, Alabama,
• Three Rivers Lake, Alabama,
• Cape Haze, FL
• Fort Myers Beach, FL
• Indian Key, FL
• Shark RIver, FL

Restaurants

• Dick Russell's, Mobile Bay Ship channel, BBQ
• Ezell's Fish Camp, Alabama,
• Staff's Restaurant, Fort Walton Beach
• Panama City, FL, Bayou Joe’s, home of the Trashburger
• Key West, FL
• Mallory Square – many entertainers, including jugglers, musicians, and our favorite, The Cat Man
• Shore Cinema for Thursday night movies
• All you can eat grouper fingers at Harvey’s Run-a-ground
• All you can eat crab legs at the Half Shell Raw Bar
• Walked up and down Duval Street to see the shops and people watch – we did spot Elvis several times
• Ate at New York Pizza – giant calzones, and all you can eat breakfast for $1.99
• Ate all you can eat seafood at Capt. Mario’s
• Great Cuban restaurants – Sandy’s and El Siboney
• Yummy Cobb salad at Fogarty’s
• Ate breakfast at our favorite restaurant in Key West, Blue Heaven
• Supper at Kelly’s – owned by Kelly McGillis, and the old Pan Am Airlines building
• Breakfast at Two Friends (great omlets)
• lunch at Chango Loco (crazy monkey, great Mexican place)
• Fat Tuesday’s for the obligatory frozen drinks
• And finally, a trip to KW would not be complete without going to Margaritaville and getting a Cheeseburger in Paradise!!!!!!

Sites

• xxx

Cities

• Demapolis, Al
• Fort Walton Beach, FL
• Panama City, FL
• Apalachicola, FL
• Carabelle, FL, depart to cross Gulf
• Tarpon Springs, FL, Sponge Capital of the World
• Sarasota, FL, Ringling circus site
• Marathon, FL

The Great Loop

Something I've always wanted to do is the Great Loop. It seems like a grand adventure. My recent trip on Moore Gooder has given me the bug again and I've begun to make somewhat more serious plans. It's simple really:

1. Sell the house (the house is MUCH to large for Barbara and I) and move to something smaller and paid for.
2. Find and buy a boat.
3. Learn how to operate it properly.
4. Go.

So let see if I can make it happen.

Sunday at Fruitlands

Ms Bell and I took some time Sunday to go to Fruitlands Museum, http://www.fruitlands.org/. The view from the top of their drive is really stunning. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home. I took some pictures with my phone but have not been able to get them loaded onto the computer. Don't you just LOVE technology. Sigh.

Next weekend is Maxwell's birthday. So that is something to look forward to.

Addenda 7/10/208

Well, after a bit of fuss and bother I uploaded the picture via email. I think it's $0.25 per but at least I've got the picture. I still need to work out the data cable thing. At any event, here's the picture. It is BB standing in front of an unusual sculpture made of an inverted tree shaped to look like a man. Those are the tree's roots at the top.

From July 2008 Fru...

Just a quiet day

Not much happened yesterday.

• Did some work on a technology experiment I'm playing with. Mostly it involved learning about Apache things.
• Talked to Mom. She's doing well but is, sadly, increasingly forgetful.
• Smoked a marinated fish and some ribs for dinner.

After the previous weeks adventures it was actually rather pleasant. Dave seems to be doing well with his foot after the surgery. Still playing the silver spoon. Hopefully, he'll return to school soon.