Mother's Day at the Vinoy in St Petersburg

Mom and I stayed at the historic Vinoy on St Petersburg waterfront last night, had a gourmet dinner, and spa services this morning before returning home. The old hotel is beautiful and very well run. Here's a few shots - more to follow:

The veranda where we waited until our room was ready

The view from the veranda of St Pete's waterfront.

 Mom enjoying her coffee and scone on the veranda.

The coffee shop had interesting donut combinations

Our double queen room

The room was huge!

Nice sitting area which we did use.

Bathroom had separate WC area and double sinks. We also had huge closest with all the ammentiies but didn't photo well.

Last Mother's Day (2016)

Looking back I can now see why I devoted little time to this blog in 2016 - I was busy traveling!. I hope to make up for it by sharing some travel videos from 2016. I'll start with a mother's day cruise that my mama and I took last April (yup, I know that mother's day is in May but so is hubby's birthday so we separated them).

Happy Mother's Day - Sunday

We went to bed pretty early last night so I was up by 6am. I walked on the beach a bit and collected a few more shells although I have to admit that without the sun it was much harder to see into the water and recognize shells. As I was walking back to the room I saw a rabbit on our "lawn"! I have a new camera and haven't figure out the zoom yet so, can you find the rabbit?

After chasing the rabbit around I changed into my swimsuit, poured myself a soda, grabbed a towel, and camera and headed to an empty pool. It was nice and warm so I grabbed a noodle ad enjoyed the pool from 7am - 8m at which time I noticed the pool rules - no swimming until 9am, no food or drink in the pool area, and no use of floaties. Whoopsie.

Mom and I had a nice breakfast then headed over the bridge to catch our boat for the nature cruise.

Pretty boats at the marina.

While waiting on the boat to arrive - we were early because we had to check out of our room an hour and a half before the cruise - Manatees came into the Marina!

 

We headed home two tired puppies ;)

Happy Mother's Day - Saturday

I hope you all are able to be with your mommas this Mother's day and if not that you think of her often today. Never having been a mom, it looks like an awesome but tiring job.

My mom and I are in Sanibel Island this weekend. We drove up yesterday, had seafood for lunch near the lighthouse, saw the lighthouse, checked in our beachfront room, went shelling, napped under the umbrella, went to dinner at a seafood restaurant, and sat on the screened lanai listening to the gulf breeze before retiring for the night.

Two chicks about ready to roll

My cold seafood salad at the Lighthouse café.

Historic Sanibel Island Lighthouse

There's a huge birdnest...thinking Osprey.

Arrived at our room with mini kitchen and all the needed amenities - the Seaside Inn

Mom on screen lanai looking at the view

Mom is sleeping in this morning but I was on the beach about 6:15 to walk and look for shells, which are everywhere, then I went for a dip in the pool at 7am. Now I'm back on the screen porch drying and hopefully sanding off. We have to check out in a couple of hours then it's off to Ft Meyers for a wildlife adventures cruise (to see dolphins, manatees, whatever decides to say Happy Mother's Day!)

Happy Mother's Day 2011

We had a lovely mother's day gathering today. The weather was absolutely perfect - warm enough to enjoy the pool but not too hot to sit outside.

Cousin Lea, first-cousin-once-removed Erica, and first-cousin-twice-removed Sarah, my mom, my mother-in-law, and of course Jerry and I spent the afternoon together.

Sarah and Jerry were the only ones in the pool. It was about 83 degrees. Another couple degres and I will be in there too ;)

Jerry had hamburger, hot dog, and polish dog duty. Sadly, I got a photo of my mom, Marge, and Lea but it must have been accidentally erased because it wasn't on my camera when I downloaded the photos.

Eddie was conscripted to deliver a mother's day card, lol.

I made my first maccaroni salad and it was good. I also made BBQ beans, and an orange cake. We have watermelon and the best salsa from Publix - it was roasted corn and black bean salsa. Basically a simple meal so we could all spend time together.

Mother's Day

I know I am a little late but a lot has happened the last couple weeks including problems with my laptop that I usually use for photos. Because we go out to dinner with the moms every Saturday night, we tend to stay home and do something quiet on Mother's day. I like to say we let the "amatuers" go out, LOL. The reality is that on Mohter's Day the restaurants are way too crowded so let the people who only go out once or twice a year enjoy their day without us adding to the wait time.

This year my mom decided she wanted to cook. Yes, on Mother's Day. Jerry & I had both been sick with a stomach virus around that time otherwise we probably would have cooked out at our house. No cooking in without a working stove :( Mom said to bring both the dogs so here is Eddie saying thank you to my mom.

And Daisey claiming my MIL Marge. They are much calmer aorund her lately. Thank goodness because they used to paw at her for a rub down and it would rip the skin on her arms.

Eddie getting a ear scratch from Marge. He looks to be falling asleep standing upright.

" Hey Grandma Marge I can help you get the goodies out of that package!"

Mom opening her card.

Ed & Miss D got to chew the leftovers off the pork chop bones. Don't worry, they didn't actually get to chew the bone. No way, cooked bones splinter.

And finally, scraps!!!! Gee, now that i look at it, seems more like Rat Terrier day than mother's day, LOL.

Unconditional Love

Happy Mother's Day and what kinda Buterfly is that in the garden?

We took the moms to Mother's Day dinner last night since the restaurants are almost impossible on Mother's Day. In past years they've come over for a cookout but not this year due to me stayin off feet, sorta. Anyway, we went to Kobe's Japanese Steak House for tepenyaki (spell?) cooking. It was fabulous! Everyone loved their meal and our chef was quite entertianing. Mom came over today for a little while and we went for Frappachinos at Starbucks and then to Robert's Christmas Wonderland. If you are ever in Clearwater, you gotta see this place. It is amaizing.

There's this butterfly we see every year at this time and I watched it this mroning. It is a giant yellow butterfly and I borrowed this photo off the internet (sorry, lost the URL) because it is the cloest I see to it. Does anyone know what sort of giant yellow butterfly is in Pinellas county this time of year? It doesn't sit still long enough to get a good look and it doesn't glide - seems to always be flapping the wings. This one is a Tiger Swallowtail and some of the research I did on it states it came get big in southern climates.

Gave the dogs a bath tonight. Chloe the evil chihuahua gave me dirty looks and wasn't very hepful in me scrubing her in different angles/places. Daisey was a model - stood there and let me turn and rinse with no problems. Ed was another story. It was hard getting big boy in the tub and hard keeping him in there. He was shaking while the other two got theirs because he knew his was coming. Hung that head down and looked like an abused puppy. Wish I would have had my camera because he could have won an academy award for that performance! vickie