Feb
7
Family Sites
- Photos Our photo site, hosted on Picasa.
- That's the Way Andy’s personal site.
Pictures
- Photos Our photo site, hosted on Picasa.
No, I’m not talking about the Widespread Panic song that we play in our band, Hard Livin’, I’m talking about coconuts, from Sanibel! The kids wanted to collect coconuts before we left Grandma’s house, so we broke out the pole-mounted saw thingamabob (I believe that is the marketing term for it anyway) and cut down about 15 or so coconuts to haul back to Atlanta. Upon our arrival back home, I put the coconuts in a plastic bin in the garage to chill — it’s been around 35F at night, so the ‘nuts were plenty cold this morning. Out in the bush, I would use a machete to open the coconuts, but since I’m not the bushwhacking type I used power tools!
The first attempt at using a saws-all to open the coconut ended up in a mangled coconut, but it was drinkable.
For the second attempt, I used the saws-all to cut a flat bottom on the coconut, and then used my Joyce Chen kitchen cleaver, circa 1970s(?), to cleave the husk from around the nut. This method was much better, cleaner, and made it easy to pop the lid off of the exposed coconut. I had to hurry because I had some vultures waiting to drink up all the milk. 
Once I cut the top off of the coconut, I dropped in a couple of straws, and the nut was snatched from my grasp with all haste as my offspring/vultures descended onto the coconut with the vigor of lions eating a zebra. Wow, I don’t know why I went off on the Creatures On Safari tangent there, but anyway, enjoy the rest of these pictures. As usual, click on the pix to view larger versions.
Feb
3
We’ve had the good fortune to spend the last few days in Sanibel with Mom on her birthday, and (great) Grandma on her 90th birthday. In addition, we were able to meet up with our old Ft. Myers/Cape Coral friends too! It was a great, short visit. We’ll be back soon. Click the picture below to review the photo album!
Sanibel 2010
PS. Any folks with additional pictures to share, send them my way please!
Sep
26
Sunset yesterday on my way back from the grocery.
There’s Sanibel. After Charlie there’s not much tall flora.
Devin and Maya examining the details of small shells at the Bailey-Smith Shell Museum.
Those specks in the distance are dolphins. We saw a pod of 5 zipping up and down the beach.
Sep
26
Sep
22
We left the house at 6:15am and arrived in Sanibel at 5:15pm. Not bad for 3 gas/potty breaks and one 45 minute lunch stop.
Dec
2
Devin and Maya appear to be summoning up a leviathan from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, but really they’re just tossing shells into the water. Or are they?
Jul
5
We’re back home now, but I thought I’d round up the vacation with some parting shots from Sanibel. I may have a few more as I’m working on some panoramas of the beach. More on that when I get some free time, which should be in the next few months.
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| Maya does a headstand on the beach. | Devin watches the fire trucks in the parade. |
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| Maya watches the police cars in the parade. | Posing with the neighbors on Sunset Circle. |
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| Sand monkeys at the beach. | Comparing tonsils, or tongue-scraping prowess, or just being silly. |
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Swinging at the park with Uncle Chris. |
Jul
1
I have some new joys in life thanks to our vacation here in Sanibel.
- Plocky’s Three-Grain Corn Chips – yeah, you’d better believe it. I’m a huge fan of chips & salsa, and these are, by far, the best chips evar! Low in fat (no saturated fats!), no cholesterol, low sodium (90mg/serving) and 1g of fiber. Ingredients: all-natural corn, cracked whole wheat, brown rice, non-hydrogenated corn oil, natural turbinado sugar, sea salt. I’m ordering some from
Amazon[ed. Amazon was out of stock of my favorite flavor] SnackAisle right now so they are at home when we get there. Note: in Sanibel, you can get these from Bailey’s. - Bailey’s Salsa Grande – it’s a trip to Trinidad in a jar! I’ve been searching high and low for a high-heat/high-flavor salsa. Hot sauces aren’t the way to go, because heat ain’t where it’s at – it’s heat and taste. I found some “pepar” sauce while in Trinidad, but as luck would have it I haven’t found nearly the same complimentary flavors and white heat in anything this side of the Caribbean. I managed to bring back a few bottles, but it’s not the same as that stuff you get in the local Trini eateries – you know, the kind that’s made by hand by some old lady in the back who has a dozen kids running around her ankles and she’s using local peppers grown out back of the shed next to the highway using a recipe that was passed down from her mother’s mother’s mother’s mother from back-a-de-i’land. Yeah, that stuff. Anyway, I was traipsing through Bailey’s, trying to find a sauce to compliment the fantastic Plocky’s tortillas and I found Salsa Grande. It’s made with tomatoes, habanero peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, salt, vinegar, garlic, cilantro and “spices”. Humph – “spices”.
- Added via Stephanie: Publix Premium Cool Mint Cookie Low-fat Frozen Yogurt. Apparently, it’s like heaven on a spoon. Or in a large bowl – a very large bowl (isn’t there any way to fit more into the “large bowl”). This stuff is so good, you have to restrain yourself from downing the entire quart in one sitting. We were sitting around the table playing Uno last night and the game had to go on “mint ball delay” while Mom and Steph savored their ribbons of chocolate and minty goodness. Steph informs me that she has yet to find a comparable balance of flavor, mintyness and chocolatization, and creamy heaventasticity in any freezer, anywhere.
- The Hungry Heron / Island Cow. These are two of my favorite restaurants here in Sanibel. If you know Steph, you know she doesn’t eat anything that comes out of water (except maybe an olive), so my chances of getting to eat really good, fresh fish are few and far between (hello, work lunches!). These two restaurants specialize in local fresh fish, and have a super-large menu with everything from pasta to burgers to, well, fish. So it’s good for the whole family! Plus, they are locally owned and operated so that’s great too.
Jul
1
A Florida Ivory Millipede (Chicobolus spinigerus) and what I’m guessing is a fiddler crab (I didn’t see his claws to be certain). Both from Bowman’s beach on Sanibel.
Jul
1
You probably knew that Maya takes care of herself pretty well. What you likely did not know is that Maya quite literally can take care of herself and any ne’er-do-wells that may seek to do harm.
Jul
1
We’ve done a few bike trips now around Sanibel, both with kids and without. Suffice it to say that the rental bicycles are not up to par with our home bikes. I miss my FCR! That plus riding into headwinds trailing the Chariot doesn’t make for an all-too pleasant ride: there are almost no downhill runs at all. Anyway, the biking has been pretty fun. We’ve even done a few night rides – which can be a bit weird, especially down Tarpon Bay Road. You can hear the alligators bellowing in the swamps on either side of the ride (not the least bit disconcerting).
If you’re interested, you can see the map of the various cycle trips we’ve done. I doubt we’ll add too much more to this – perhaps a ride over the causeway.
Jun
26
Upon arrival last night, I walked into the bathroom and found this little guy just hanging out. Nola said that she found him in the toilet about 3 weeks ago and hadn’t been in that bathroom since. I suppose he was ready to leave, as I scooped him up and deposited him on a nearby vine growing on the outdoor shower. He looked very thankful to be out of the can.
The eyeball close-up looks like some sort of detonating planet (a la ILM) or a naked singularity formation.
Apr
29
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| Sanibel April 08 |
As promised: click on the link above for pix from our latest trip to Sanibel.
Apr
26
As the sun sets on Sanibel, so we end another trip down to Florida to visit with Steph’s family. It was a great trip – I’ll be posting some follow-up pictures soon.
