We were lucky enough to travel to Thailand and Singapore in the winter of 2009. Due to jet lag we were up before dawn most days in Bangkok – which led us to discover the wonderful activities, movement, and colors of Bangkok in the early morning. I promise, more photos to come.
Click on the photos to make them larger to view all the info.
Hope to see you in Springfield!
This year for Mother’s Day Tom brought the camera out on our walk and took some photos of me and D hanging on the beach. Normally I am not into posting photos of myself, but I was out voted by the kid and the husband.
Food in Florida is good. Jonathan gave us some soft shell crab (they molted yesterday) and we are cooking it up for dinner tonight. Delicious. 
As much as I love living on the quiet relaxed part of the beach, it is nice to head into “town” and be a part of the vibe that a public beach offers.
One of our great finds here in Florida is the restaurant El Ambia in Melbourne. Located on Crane Creek it is the coziest, most friendly restaurant. The owners – Alfredo and Mary are awesome. The food is fantastic and they make you feel like family. Plus Alfredo is a musician and if you are lucky you he will play some of beautiful music for you.
A few weeks ago, the International Guitar Festival took place in Melbourne at the Henegar Center for the Arts and after the Saturday performance we all met up at El Ambia for a night of music, food and friends.
On Saturday we had the pleasure of seeing Marcelo Coronel from Argentina and Ruben Gonzalez of Cuba play at the festival. Then Alfredo Muro of Peru and the Mayes Guitar Duo of the USA joined them for a couple of songs written by Marcelo to close the festival out.
A couple of hours later we all met up at El Ambia. We danced, sang, ate, and laughed. We met new friends and the entire restaurant became a family.
Finally shooting some photos of the food we have been making down here. With all the fresh avocados, tomatoes and peppers we make some sort of salsa or guacomole every couple of days.
Well – we meaning, I go to the farmer’s market and buy all the ingredients, and then say “Doesn’t another batch of salsa sound good?” Which Tom understands translates into, “Hey, would you mind chopping all these ingredients up and making the salsa?”
I am aware that there are alligators all over Florida – however it wasn’t until Tom took a hike in the preserve just a few steps from our house and ran into a 10 foot gator that it really hit home. Tom was on the trail and as he came around the bend, the alligator was sitting in the middle of the trail sunning himself. So being a good Ohio boy – what did he do? Turn around and run? Of course not. He threw some small rocks at him. The alligator (now named Gena – from the Russian cartoons) didn’t budge. Luckily Tom could just turn around and walk home rather than waiting out Gena.
We thought that alligators were dormant in the winter (they are not). We also didn’t realize that they could run really fast in short bursts – so luckily Mr. Gator wasn’t hungry. One of the local guys who works in the preserve said we should carry a stick. My mom suggested we bring a chicken.
Some other gator facts: They cannot make sharp turns – so if you are running for your life from a gator make a sharp right or left. (of course if you are in the preserve it will put you in the swamp…so then I guess you are out of luck) They are not dormant in the winter. They are opportunist eaters. They mate in March- April – which means stay away.
Since the first alligator sighting we have run across quite a few. Merritt Island and the Kennedy Space Center is filled with them. I think we saw a good 10 or more on our visit. And of course, our local preserve and Honest John’s. It really is quite cool to see an alligator in the wild…from a safe distance of course.
Tom did get a photo of a different, smaller alligator on his last hike. We haven’t named him yet. Any suggestions?
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