The family made another trek to Florida for a long weekend of fun.
The plan was to fly into Tampa Thursday night, get a hotel, and hit Busch Gardens Africa all day Friday. Instead, it was heavy rain that hit BG all day Friday, not us. We had already paid for the hotel so we stayed there Thursday night. We had booked “blind” via hotwire.com, and ended up at a Hyatt, not bad. It was a nice little suite room with an HDTV.
Dan and Bailey came to pick us up Friday morning, and I talked everyone into a lunch adventure. The iPhone is great when it comes to exploring new places, and I had dialed up an interesting-sounding “raw and vegan” restaurant for us to try that was only 4 miles away. It was called the Grass Root. The menu was overwhelming, and I was feeling like having some fun, so we ordered a little bit of everything. We chose the “Peace za Pi” as our raw-food adventure, and it was a great call. The cheese-like base of blended cashews was delicious under a bed of garlic, avacado, red peppers, and some very yummy green goodness. We also ordered a BBQ unsteak sandwich, sprout subs and rollups, a garlic noodle dish, and guac and tortilla. Dan loved the dried vegetables and ordered extra to go. All in all, delish!
After eating we headed down to Fort Myers, where Val was having trouble with some plumbing. She had installed a new faucet in the kitchen, and it was leaking all over. She couldn’t get to the shutoff valve in the garage without stepping away from the faucet – it wasn’t a one-man job. We helped her tighten things up, and headed to Ma and Pa’s, where (as usual) Ma was waiting with food for us. Some yummy lentil burgers, to be exact.
Over the weekend, we managed to get in…

• shopping for Ma for some small rugs for her high-traffic areas
• an excellent 75th birthday party for Ma hosted by Tammy and Di – Ma and Pa, Phyllis Schultz, the Behrns-Millers, the Millers, Niki, Bobby, Corey and his girlfriend Aleea, Tam & Di, Roger and Toni… Maui, Di’s adorable dog, provided entertainment, swimming, doing laps around the house, and showing off commands like “left”, “right”, “through” (she weaved between Di’s legs while Di walked), “peek”, etc. etc… ONE SMART DOG! :>
• Pie Theft II – The Second Generation – imported into iMovie, edited, muted, titles added, background music added, sound effects added, exported to DVD and YouTube – Wren Bailey and Reiley did all the heavy lifting, nice job girls!
• Installed Ma’s less-old washing machine, replacing her leaking old washing machine, but couldn’t convince her to throw the old one out, *sigh*
• Dinner at Ma’s of a delicious Thai soup that she and Val spent hours prepping; and her famous apple pie, too!
• Saw “Percy Jackson – The Lightning Thief” (which we all agreed was a letdown)
• At various points, picked up Moe’s and groceries for spaghetti for the gang – man Fort Myers is congested this time of year!
• Dan drove us by our old house, honking to annoy and embarrass me
• Wren and I had a (quick!) swim in the 60-degree pool

Most excellent!