Needless to say, it was culture shock for sure.

I’ve relaxed a bit – and most nights we eat on paper plates because i dispise the dishwasher more than i relish tradition…but holidays are NOT eaten on paper in my house…even when we had 18+ around the table.

This Easter finds us alone – just the four of us.  My parents are just divorced and doing their own thing, and Todd’s parents have been done from us for a few years.

I’m not complaining – i like laid back days when i just need to cook and not worry about entertaining and making sure the bathrooms have toilet paper and the 8-yo didnt destroy them.

The moral of this tale is this – I’m still standing here cooking for an army, although there’s only 4 of us.  Why?  Tradition.  We always had a big ham, potatoes, veggies, and the wierd easter jello thing every easter – and I’m not ready to give that up.

I’ll take some to the neighbors, Janet just had surgery and wont feel like cooking – and we’ll have ham and cabbage tomorrow – hubby’s favorite….so its not like the food will go to waste.

I just found it ironic that i’m cooking for 18 again…old habits die hard.

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#thatisall

Yesterday was great, more on that later, also

Its the start of our 3rd full day on Anna Maria Island.  Yesterday was good in a mellow sort of way.  After a morning playing in the surf and walking the beach, Todd & I had lunch at the condo (leftover spaghetti,mmmmm) and tried another mall in Bradenton.  For those of you who ask why we shop while on vacation, Todd and I love shopping- and shopping where we live sucks, so its nice to try new places while we’re traveling.  Generally we find some good buys.  Unfortunately the DeSoto Square Mall in Bradenton was a bust.  I think this is where the bluehairs go before the early bird special at Dennys.  Wasn’t supremely eventful but did find a cute pair of Capri’s in Sears and a few tshirts for Maddie at Aeropostale.

We headed back to the condo and I took a nap, one of MY favorite vacation passtimes.  Then we headed out to meet my friend, Larry for dinner.  We toured the island in the convertible a bit and went to Rod & Reel Pier for dinner.  This place is what Larry called “old Florida” and I think back home we call them ‘greasy spoons.’  Todd is pretty sure he saw a dolphin break the water (a dolphin that looked like a shark) and i stuck to my chair, but other than that it was a pretty good meal.  Grilled Grouper for me again, could have used a bit less oil/butter in the grill “sauce” but other than that was a good meal.  Great french fries!

We drove around the island a bit more with Larry then parted ways.  I have known Larry over the phone and online for about4 years, was nice to put a face to the name.  We no sooner dropped Larry off and put the top up on the convertible and it started raining.  I’m not talking sprinkling, I’m talking torrential downpour.  We stopped at Publix and bought some Talenti Gelato from the freezer section (ZOMG heaven in a cup) and headed back to the condo for a lazy rest of the evening.

Today is more of the same, beach, shopping, dinner maybe a movie.  Pretty mellow here, we like that slow pace.

AOne thing about the water here, the surf is a bit bigger than it was in Treasure Island/Clearwater last year.  It’s not unbearable, just not as calm as it was there.  I just think the wind blows a bit more here.

For lunch we headed to the northern tip of the island to a great little place called the Waterfr0nt Restaurant.  Its right across the street from the City Pier and the food was phenomenal!  I had a grilled grouper sandwich on a fresh roll that was the best Id ever had.  Todd had pork carnitas, and you could tell everything was super fresh and made right when you ordered.  Well the carnitas were slow cooked, but you could tell from the meat it was made on-site and not brought in in a box.

After lunch we went in search of shopping. On the island you’re limited to tourist kitsch, so we headed south to Sarasota.  Driving with the top down on the convertible was comfortable and sunny (just a tiny bit of sunburn) and the road through Longboat Key was beautiful.  Huge houses that make you dream of winning the lotto or blackmailing Bill Gates.

Our misfortune was the Sarasota Powerboat races, downtown Sarasota was PACKED!  We walked around a bit and strolled through the Wyland gallery.  I love his marine life paintings, but none of them would go in my house…well that and a lithograph is over $900 – pretty to look at, not to buy.

I dug out the GPS and found a mall a few miles away, an indoor mall!  We strolled around until they closed at 5:30 and it was nice to be in out of the heat.  The mall had great high end stores like Macys, Coach, William & Sonoma.  Todd bought me the awesomest Coach bag – looks like this one:

Super cute - I’m a lucky girl.  We had dinner in the condo last night, then walked on the beach past sunset and swam in the pool here at the condo fora bit.  We talked about plans for the week.  Looks like kayaking through the mangrove tunnels (dolphins & manatee on that one), parasailing, and Epcot one day.

We’re having dinner with my friend Larry at Island Real Estate tonight (I told you about them yesterday) and a tour of the island.  That will be fun!  Not sure where we’re eating, I’ll keep you posted.  I think the battery on my camera is finally charged so I can begin trying to figure out how to get pics from it to the computer without the cord, because I forgot the damn thing!

Getting here was pretty painless if you discount he 3 1/2 hr flight in the last row of a packed plane – and the kid that yacked all over the door to the bathroom behind my seat.  All I can say is good thing Todd wasn’t on the aisle or it would have been all over.  Hopefully they’re staying in Tampa less or more time than we are and don’t share the return flight.  I felt bad for him but – HELLO – that’s what the little bags are for, people!

We’re in a really nice condo on the beach on Anna Maria Island.  It took us about an hour of really easy driving from Tampa airport to get here.  I really like this place, nicer than Treasure Island was last year, altho I do miss the free breakfast at the Marriott Residence Inn there (highly recommended if you have to visit Treasure Island, it was nice).

So back to Anna Maria – we rented our cute and convenient little condo from Island Real Estate.  Its in the Anna Maria Island Club and is unit #40.  It was remodeled this year with new carpet, tile,paint, furniture & kitchen.  Very nice granite & stainless appliances.  It looks like the previous tenant ripped the doors off of the utility closet, but that’s not a huge deal.  I called the office to let them know we would be out and about and to let us know if they wanted in to fix them.  The kitchen was stocked with all the dishes you’ll need and even had coffee & filters.  Of course, it was half-caf Folgers so I had to hit up Publix for some Dunkin Donuts coffee.  I cant handle half-caf – what’s the point in drinking coffee?

I “borrowed” this picture from the Island real Estate website.  This is the view of the pool & ocean from our balcony.  It looks like the water is far away but once we’re past the pool, its about 100 steps to the ocean during high tide.  There’s a sea turtle nest right in front of the pool along the beach, just past the vegetation.

Again this image is borrowed, but as you all know how much I like cooking, a kitchen like this is enough to make me happy!  Very nice granite and appliances.

The other really nice thing about Anna Maria is the Pink Flamingo wireless service.  I can pick it up at the condo and its only $15 for 7 days – that’s a bargain!  You’d  pay that much a night in a hotel.

So we dont have a lot of plans for the week, probably a bit of kayaking through the mangrove tunnels, Todd wants to parasail, and we might head to orlando to visit Epcot again.  last year when we were there it was the last day of our vacation and EVEYRONE was on each others nerves, we didnt get to enjoy it much.  Plus the fireworks this week at Epcot should be amazing!  Too bad we missed them last night

I’ll keep you all posted and try to figure out how to get images off my camera and onto my Dell Mini, if I cant I’ll share a slideshow when I get home! 

Right now its 8:15 and humid, I want to go swimming  lets see if I can get Todd out of bed, he’s participating in his favorite vacation passtime, sleeping in!

Ask Chicken – the cat – I know it’s all very confusing but I think Chicken LIKES his pink wig – very Diva!

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