First Sunset

Saturday night after my first week of working was a time of relaxation at the beach. Made it in time for sunset and shrimp and crab cakes for supper. This is on Anna Maria Island.

Working Hard

Unpacking boxes my first weekend? No, at the beach of course. ;-) I had my first seafood at the beach. Scallops which were very yummy. I found after much driving around the famous Cortez Kitchen. It's a fish market and they also serve food with outdoor seating. Fresh catch of course right off the boats. I'm sure once I get my kitchen unpacked and in order, I'll be doing a shrimp boil or two. Alton Brown on Food Network always says get to know your Fish Monger, so that I will. : )

Alligators?

Be very careful where you dip your toes when you come to visit me. I watched 4 lovely alligators bask in the sun on my outer lake banks. They seem to enjoy basking in the sun and I can watch them from my office window while I am working. I have named him George. 4 of them that I saw one day were battling over George's basking spot and made quite the noise and waves in the lake. They are very fast in the water. As long as they are not in my back yard walking in my patio door, they are cute from afar and keep the riff raff out. There are a lot of birds and turtles and other new animals for me to watch and learn about here.

Welcome to my home.

Where I live I wasn't able to bring in my long moving truck so I had to hire a moving company to load all my neatly organized stuff into their truck. It was a costly expense, but nice to kick back and watch them do the sweaty hard labor. ;-) This is the view from the back of my fenced in back yard. In the front is a pond with a fountain. I plan to decorate the tropical trees with Christmas lights and watch my tomato plant I bought grow outdoors in the "winter snow". ;-) I've found myself more willing to go to the beach and drive around town than I have been to unpack boxes, so indoor pictures will have to come much later. ;-)

Welcome to Florida The Sunshine State

After 3 days of driving by myself I was happy to see the "Welcome to Florida The Sunshine State". I was finally in my home state. I always considered myself a Floridian at heart, now I can be one. A transplanted one from SD at least. ;-) They happily served me Florida Orange Juice at the welcome center.

Mark Schultz Concert in SD

Before I could leave South Dakota I had to go out with a highlight. I stayed in town long enough to go to the Mark Schultz concert. Mark Rocks! He was nice enough to personalize my photo I brought for the autograph line. I'm already making road trip plans to see Mark in the South.

Moving to Florida... Tampa Bay is a long ways away from SD. I needed a big truck. I have made the Uhaul trip before and decided I would let the driving of my stuff be left to the professionals. I had plenty of space left in the truck and it even had my hot tub and scooter taking a bunch of space. It's amazing how much you can lift over your head to fill in every space when it's over 100 bucks a foot for the truck. This picture is me fending off my ABF truck with my scooter and car. It took me 3 days to load it in the rain and cold. Prior to loading the truck I had a lot of good going away parties with a lot of great friends. I will miss you all much.