May 31st, 2021

How was your Memorial Day weekend?  Hope however you spent it, the weather behaved, the food was great, the company was even better and that you got a little "down" time too.  Important to have the occasional day of nothing at all.

We had a great weekend!  Went to THREE different restaurants!  I suppose it was the weekend of no cooking?   If nothing else, we are helping to re-charge the restaurant industry!   Two of the places we went to were small local places.  One was a delightful repeat, the other was our first visit ever, which is ridiculous because we drive past it frequently.  It's called Pelican Alley.  It's a small place, right next to (and I mean RIGHT next to) a marina and almost under a drawbridge.   It absolutely makes the case for, "Do Not Judge A Book By It's Cover" because it's a little rough around the edges and a little shabby maybe  but both the food and the service were terrific.

What else did we do?  Hmmm.  Well we spent some time at the beach.  Of course we did.  It's right there.   There were times when the beach was massively crowded and actually so was the water. So Many Boats!  But we saw dolphins and manatees and so many birds!  And of course pretty sunsets.  (and of course I didn't get any dolphin photos, sorry)
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Another day we just blobbed around the house watching movies on TV.  Saw several Harry Potters and some Ryan Reynolds film we had never seen before...The Hitman's Body guard I think was the name.  We ate too much and napped a lot and totally zoned out.  Sometimes we just need to totally relax and recharge.  That was the day for it for us.

We did do a few useful things throughout the weekend though. We ran some errands, did some housey chores, things of that nature. Well not on  Blob day of course.  That is completely against all of the rules.  On Blob day one must wear very comfy clothes, do nothing useful, nap a lot, read, watch TV, and eat things that are very bad for you.  I'm pretty sure it's a law.

But Monday, the last day, we headed up to  Parrish Florida.  Why?  Well, because we had never been there before.  So we jumped in the car and pointed it toward the North East and ended up in cow country.  Or perhaps Horse Country.  There were a lot of farms and farm animals, tractors, pastures, trees, open spaces and creeks.  An inordinate number of creeks.  The only ones I can remember are Gamblers Creek, Cross Creek and Canoe Creek.  And there was a lake.  We never actually saw the lake because it was behind a giant berm.  But we know it was there.   The town of Parrish, once we found it,  was cute, small, and like a step back in time.   But there was a whole lot of building going on.  Great Big House Developments.  So sadly, the town of Parrish will change and instead of cute old-timey shops and stores and restaurants it will be strip malls filled with chain stores in no time at all.  Those things are very convenient but not nearly as adorable.  

Bear in  mind that these photos were taken from a moving vehicle.  I managed to miss every single horse photo I tried to get. Also the windmill, the tractor and countless other things.  Dang.  Oh well, it is what it is. And what it is, is here:

On the way home we stopped at two different water front parks that we like.  One is in a residential neighborhood near the Ringling Museum.  The other is downtown Sarasota.  Both are beautiful.  

And since it was Memorial Day weekend after all, we went to visit my dad at the National Cemetery.  The volunteers had little American flags everywhere, making sure each veteran was honoured.  We added the flowers that we brought along to the mix. Have to think My dad would have been pleased.

Oh I nearly forgot to show you one of my favourite random moments this weekend.  There we were, walking along, enjoying the day and I spied out of the corner of my eye, something pink where it should be browns and greens.   So I got closer and closer and then realized what it was a burst out laughing. It was awesome!  Whimsical and wonderful!  I love little moments like that.​

So there you have it, an entire weekend compacted into one blog post!  Hope your weekend was even better!