Time with family....

Denny was born and raised in Ohio. He still has cousins and other family there that we visited last July. One cousin and his wife also have a home on the east coast of FL and came over for a weekend visit...Floyd and Marilyn....we were really looking forward to the visit and we had a great time.

They arrived on Fri about 3p, the weather wasn't too good so we stayed home and enjoyed visiting and grilling dinner...was yummy...but the next day, though the weather wasn't a lot better, was time to venture out. We headed downtown to the Saturday market...we gals shopped and the guys stood and talked a lot...

I thought this puppeteer was amazing...

The we found our way to C'est la Vie for brunch. Thanks Marilyn for brunch, was lovely. Then we headed out to Mote Marine. This is both an aquarium and a rescue/rehab/release for sea life and sea birds. We enjoyed all the tanks of beautiful fish.....and I enjoyed the touch tanks. Mote is in 2 buildings...so we made our way over to the research building to see the turtles and manatees that are getting help....this turtle skeleton was fascinating..

Then we watched these guys for several minutes...they were very active, but we were warned...THEY DO BITE..

This one reminded me of Crush...

Was time to visit the manatees now...

These guys are like gentle giants

Wow never knew this is what they looked like.

They had a "baby" exhibit going on, seems they were studying the reproduction of lots of marine life..

Never seen fish so purple before.

Most things in these research tanks were too small for photos, but was really interesting. Some pencil fish that had been born just this morning were not much longer than your fingernail and about as big as a thread, really fascinating.

Now it was time to visit St. Armand's Circle....a little ice cream and a little shopping. Then my favorite Mojito at the Columbia....YUM-O. We headed back downtown in hopes of walking in the park but rain and weather scared us off so we headed to Barnacle Bill's for dinner....thanks Floyd for dinner, very delish. We checked out a street party for just a bit and headed home...had been a full but fun day. We're so glad you guys came to visit, hope you enjoyed it...we certainly did, and perhaps next time the weather will be better!!

Florida Museum Railroad....a Saturday outing

It was time for a train ride....we'd heard about this train in Parish but had never been, today was the day. The day started out a little cool but ended up to be perfect. We decided to sit in the open car...it was perfect. The ride was 1.5hrs roundtrip...6 miles one way from Parrish to Willow, and back

The conductor was wonderful.....all the train workers are volunteers. The only paid employees they have work Mon-Fri keeping the tracks in good shape and replacing cross-ties.

Pulling away from the station....All Aboard...

Looking down both sides of the engine...

 This was much of the scenery  along the way...brush, streams and vegetation....

The RR tracks are owned by FL power and light...the museum train is allowed to use the tracks for free if they keep them up....not too bad a deal. At the end of the line we saw some old trains and lots of old cross-ties.

Some of these are being restored for use, some are being used for parts.

These cross-ties will still be 100yrs from now....LOL

Some of the train rides have themes...like....Hobo Night...Murder Mystery and North Pole during the holidays. When these special rides happen they stop at this depot..get out, have dinner or lunch and then ride back...we were only doing a roundtrip, so we didn't stop..

The tents are used for special events....hummm...maybe next time

There were mile markers and some small lakes along the way..

This gentleman...Nichols was a huge supporter of the RR and his ashes are buried here

The conductor told us all about it....

A field of potatos...

These folks had this little area set up on the side of the tracks just for fun....cute

Pulling back into Parrish..

We had to walk through this car to get off...nice seating and a few concessions...

Another fun adventure........

The caboose wasn't red...bummer, but you could rent it out for special events, someone was having a birthday party in it today. So, I had to get pics after we all got off...

Very rustic inside, ut had this neat high seat you get in to see out....kinda cool

We decided we were glad we'd picked the open-air car...was a great ride and the weather was perfect. 

The train took 1 couple for a ride after we all got off..they had paid to ride in the engine....sorry  I turned the camera...but the sounds are cool...

After the ride we went to see the museum part...these were old trains from 1940's and 50's....really neat.

Cool sleeping quarters...

  Sit by day, and sleep by night....I really want to sleep overnight on a train one day...something for retirement I suppose...

Long narrow hallways....the restoration has been done very well...

After our train adventure, we made our way to Woody's on the water for lunch...a favorite place of ours, so relaxing

We headed home but decided to go down Main St first and there just happened to be an exotic car show going on....Bentley's...Ferrari's...Lamborghini's

Fun to look at, but not our style

Then we made our way to the park and walked around the marina a bit...thought these gulls on the dolphins was a hoot.....

Was finally time to head home...had been another fun Saturday outing....