Breakfast

So, sometimes, breakfast elsewhere is voted acceptable...

This place is nearby, and is under the radar for most visitors. Since it's really close by, we gave it a try.

Each one of us thought our order was the best. Unfortunately, the menu was thin and we're not likely to return.

This is just a picture of the shade awning underside, hope you enjoy!

Bonita Springs / Naples Florida

Yesterday, Saturday, Peter and I drove to Naples to see what there was to see.

It was the annual chalk painting event and we enjoyed ourselves. Artists are sponsored by businesses, the public paid .50 per vote [ strips of voting tickets at .50 ea are sold by volunteers] and everyone has a good time. Here's our first view of this annual event.

Here's the Hooters sponsored drawing in progress.

I can't remember the street name but both sides were lined with gorgeous 'old Florida' architecture like this: the home of Fifth Ave Design.

Even alleyways were interesting.

This was the kids competition area; what fun!

Then we found something quite new to me: an olive-oil tasting bar. Peter and I tasted a few wicked [but sumptuous] combinations of spiced olive oils that were so difficult to choose from that we left empty-handed. Great tasting bar though...

As you probably know by now, I do appreciate cars, the finer the better. On the way home we stopped at a Porsche dealer to have a peek, then we walked to the next dealership where they had many Aston Martins, Jaguars, Range Rovers, Maseratis, Bentleys and Rolls Royces. The new car inventory was mind-blowing!

The next pictures has four cars: two Bentleys at $280+K and two Rolls Royces at an average of $300K , that's a total of well over $1 Million dollars! Thought you might be interested to see what over a million dollars of inventory looks like...

For the more limited budget, they also had a three year old used black Ferrari for a paltry $89,000 or so. Less than 10,000 miles I might add. Call me if you're interested, I'll buy it for you... or at least show you a picture.

For those who know, they had over a million dollars worth of new Aston Martins [James Bond fame], both coupes and convertibles, new and slightly used available for immediate purchase in the $180+ range.

The new Jaguars were stunning and a real steal at less than $80K. Just let me know, I could use the points on my credit card.

Sorry I haven't been more diligent with my postings. My bad. I'll try hard to do better.

Huston Tx Crestview Fl

Sorry, I've been lazy on the blog front, especially in the photo department. Things should improve soon.

We're on the road again, this time from Houston to Bonita Springs Florida. Tonight we're overnighting in Crestview Fl after a fairly long cloudy day. We avoided any rain but had strong winds from the south all along Louisiana and Mississippi. We had a great audio book for the trip that lasted all the way from Houston: what a great way to make time pass quickly.

At one point along the route, we saw literally dozens of horse trailers with lots of horses milling around. We offed at the next exit and found our way back to a barrel racing competition. There had to be close to 100 horse trailers and we saw as many horses. Unfortunately, we also saw one young girl yanking on her horses mouth with way too much vigour, which turned us both off getting out and looking for more, so we drove on. What a shame that some spoilt brats just don't get it and blame a poor performance on the horse, instead of beating, spurring or yanking their own head into a brick wall. I hope her face breaks out in zits!

On a cheerier note, our audio book was Strategic Moves by Stuart Woods [a Stone Barrington Novel] The isn't a heavy duty thought provoking treatise on the whys and wherefores of human behaviour, just an entertaining, well read story of our hero, an x-detective now very high end lawyer, with adventures with the rich, the fraudulent, some international intrigue, a little spying, a few unlikely love affairs, some bad guys and some good guys, the occasional shooting, good food and good wines, and not a single obscene word. There were also a few placement adds for some high-end planes and Mercedes.

I hope I haven't given the plot away: you should either read [or listen to the audio book yourself] and enjoy.

Hopefully, an early start tomorrow and we should be in Bonita Springs before supper.

Houston, The Home of Carrabba's

Today's drive was mostly without any sound: not enough people to warrant a radio station, let alone a decent one. We passed through the wind farms a couple of days ago, we finished the 5 disc Jan Evanovitch book, the speed limit went back to 70 MPH from 80, and the scenery went from repetitious to rather boring six foot high scrub that hid any animals or crops that might have lived there. We looked forward to seeing Jan, and started looking for a great meal. There had been no great eateries since San Diego...

We reached Houston shortly after 3:40 and the usual girly squeals happened when Jan was in sight. What a wonderful reunion! After getting suitable parking, we went to Jan's temporary apartment where we were welcomed by Jan's good friend, Joanne who is visiting from Minnesota.

Jan's a very good planner and had found out the local Carrabba's whereabouts so we had a few drinks and wings to tide us over, before heading out to Carrabba's at 6pm.

We were whisked to a table immediately, probably because we might have been the only foursome in jeans in the Lobby area. At the table, we asked if they still had wine splits, a demi-carafe that is more than a glass but less than a carafe [which is just a little less than bottle]. The waiter told us that the Carrabba's restaurants that are part of the Franchised chain offer this but this was the first Carrabba's, and it is still owned by the original family, so their menus and offerings might be slightly different. Our expectations may have risen a few notches...

Joan and I had glasses of red wine, Joanne and Jan had something else and the warm bread arrived as our very pleasant waiter prepared the spiced olive oil for dipping. The dip was quite spicy but I was saving myself for the Pasta Weesie that I had been looking forward to for a few days.

Maybe I set the bar too high, maybe my memory had created a greater tasting experience than I had right to expect, but my meal was a big let down, in my humble opinion. The Pasta Weesy of Carrabba's in Port St Lucie was something very special, it had flavours and aromas that told you so in a very clear voice. In Houston, it was a good meal, but nothing special. Worse than that, the shrimp was overcooked and quite chewy. As I said, for me it was a major disappointment. Jan had the same meal and thought it was good but nothing special, and her shrimp was somewhat over cooked also.

Joan had the Splendino di Mare; it also was a good meal but nothing special. The batter was far from crisp and you just didn't walk away wanting to order that again next time.

Unless things have changed dramatically in Port St Lucie, that group of chefs certainly trumped the ones in the Houston original Carrabba's. I'm not so sure we'll return to this restaurant in Houston and I sure wish I was closer to Port St Lucie...

Wilcox AZ to Sonora TX

Sorry. no pixels to show this entry...

We left Phillip and Kathleen's at a reasonable time, but went to Trader Joe's for a few items... It was tempting to buy some Cymbidium orchids which were absolutely stunning, but the head prevailed, this time...

As I may have mentioned earlier, parking was at a premium when we left San Diego. We managed to squeeze into a minuscule spot for packing the car and ended up leaving after sunrise, that's all you need to know for now...

We had bouts of rain and a few close encounters with fog. By and by, we kept going and eventually passed the mountain range we had to conquer. The traffic through the pass was reasonably busy but with no stops. We went from sea level to 4000 ft, more than once. Ears popped quite a few times, and we survived easily.

Our next night was in Wilcox Arizona where the Email service was as faulty as it was last time [late Dec.]. The front desk had a wired access available and their cable worked well with my iMac, so I managed to get an email off at the front desk... But I digress...

All that to say, no news yesterday.

Today, the speed limit was 80 mph all day! How good is that? And gas prices in Texas were as low as $3.259, cheaper than 'home' by a long shot, and cheaper than California gas too.

So after Wilcox, we moved on toward Houston. Great day, not much traffic, if any, pretty well no scenery to look at other than mountains in the distance, rolling hills around us, very thin soil, and basically nothing to look at... We did run through many areas of wind-farms, where all the every mesa was covered with windmills, working 24/7. There were thousands of them, on both side of the Interstate, a very hopeful sight.

Most of the scenery was pretty boring but we had a CD book, Jan Evanovich Explosive 18 or something similar. Five cds that looked after much of the mileage we had to deal with. Good thing they invented Cracker Barrel who rent CD/books at full purchase price minus full refund price minus $3.49/wk. Now we only have to find another Crackle Barrel to return the 'book'. It was a great 'light' [non girl flick] intrigue story, what a fun way to spend hours on the highway.

Unfortunately, Joan and I were just hoping for a great supper, hopefully at Carrabba's a great chain of restaurants started in Texas. So far, no luck, so it's mixed peanuts and the rest of our single malt Scotch here in Sonora Tx ... The Geeks are on TV, the Scotch is gone, Joan's fallen asleep, and it's almost time for me to punch 'Publish post'

Tomorrow's another day; we should end up with a Great friend, Jan, in Houston.

Laughter will prevail and the good time will roll. We'll probably even find a Carrabba's or a good steak house... How much better can it get?

San Diego Zoo's Wildlife Animal Park

We drove out to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, an 1800 Acre reserve for wild animals. Here they do major breeding research that has been most successful with hundreds of animals being returned to the wild, or exchange with other zoos. What a great success story.

This bird tried to join us for lunch, note no fences here.

Here's an overview of about half the 1800 acres. What a wonderful place to house wild animals.

The whitish area at the upper left consists of a group of tents for those who want to spend a night under the 'Roar and Snore' option.

What fun that would be, except we don't do tents anymore...

Near the entrance you walk by these parrots who seem wild, but they were removed before we left. Mind you, if you were a parrot, why would you want to go elsewhere?

Same for this blue dude...

This Rainbow Lory was in a walk-in enclosed area where you could bring in a bit of food for them. This one was just sitting around just waiting for a friendly patron. Sorry, not us.

Cute little fellow though.

Here's a challenge for the grandkids, or bigger kids: Can you find the lions? One is a lot less obvious, so finding one would be great. There are giraffes to be found also...

Other than that,what a great place, right?

A few years ago I made a photo of this leader on top of a Land Rover. This looks a little more natural.

During our walks we found this monkey who shared two small islands with another monkey. Part of their breeding program maybe?

What a great place to live, surrounded by ducks and other waterfowl who are no threat at all.

One of the very large enclosures had this stunning bird with a bad hair day...

One of the shows-du-jour available was the Cheetah Run. Cheetahs can run at 70 miles per hour for 100 yards or so. The viewing area was narrow and filled with gawkers and wannabe sport photographers like yours truly. Now 70 MPH is damn fast. That's my excuse, and you have to live with it. All this to say, I have a poor picture of a cheetah streaking across my limited field of view, and it's so bad that I won't share it.

The net result is I have this last picture to share with you.

The Cheetah has run the 100 yard dash, has spent about 5 minutes recovering, and is now walking back to the truck with the lady on the other end of the leash.

This Cheetah's companion is a type of dog that protects farmed animals against cheetahs. What a switch, here it's a cheetah's best friend while in the wild, the same dog would keep the cheetah away from the herd, thus saving the cheetahs from the farmers. Neat!

Zoo Visit, additions

When we visited the Zoo yesterday, there were a few things of note other than the playful polar bear.

Everyone knows about Joan's legendary 'Parking Karma'. It's been a reliable source of very handy parking spots everywhere we go, even at such facilities as the San Diego Zoo where the thousands of parking spots are often not enough. Here's a pretty demonstrative example of how the Karma works. We drove in at the far end of the B strip when we originally drove into the parking lot. Past a hundred cars or more, this spot became available. How cool is that? ...even though we still had the road to cross, there couldn't have been a closer parking spot that this one.

We went to the Polar Bear Exhibit where we saw lots of activity, but not much to be seen from this big one.

Here's another dangerous type just floating at the surface. Unfortunately, many pictures have serious reflections off the glass in the viewing areas, and this makes some pictures quite confusing. Other view areas have fences or netting that also play havoc with focussing. Please forgive the lousy editing that allows such less than good-enough pictures to make the blog; the ones not worth the full 1000 words...

This is a different viewing area of the same enclosure where monkeys, and crocodiles share space with fish, with loads of room for all.

The San Diego Zoo does seem to manage to keep plants, animals, and visitors very happy, healthy and content with their allocation of space.

Maybe the Zoo administrators should run for office, I'd vote for them, you?

Polar Bear at Play

Yesterday we had a quick visit to the Zoo where we saw the Polar Bears at their active best.

This one was playing with a eucalyptus branch Here's a two minute video, pretty well right out of the camera.

Walk in the Park and the Shade House

A few days ago, we took Maverick for a walk in Mission Hill Park where there were many interesting things to experience. As you might have noticed, I enjoy arches a lot. Here are Kathleen and Maverick taking a breather after a fairly long trail walk.

A closer look at our hosts and their attack dog [not!] Maverick.

Joan joins them for a walk on the Terrace with more beautiful arches.

I also like benches with a view...

Eucalyptus trees were brought to California from Australia as a fast growing source of wood. It's taken well to its new country and has prospered to the point of almost taking over. They are interesting trees that shed their bark to reveal interesting patterns that often have serious colour. The bigger Eucalyptus trees are very majestic and often line both sides of major avenues.

This is one of the bigger ones in the park.

Here's a hedge of blooming succulents that is over six foot tall. At home, these succulents are grown in pots and rarely grow more than a foot or so before they become straggly enough to get rid of...

The next day we revisited Balboa Park, this time to go to the large shade house. I'm pretty sure this shade house was built for the world fair almost a century ago. What a wonderful old building, where they have areas for temporary displays as well as permanent larger plants.

This is looking Westward.

And this is looking at the East side. The lady at the back was sketching a blooming begonia with its intricate branches and smallish flowers. Looking over her shoulder, I saw that the result would be a very decent, detailed rendition of an otherwise un-noticed plant. Well done!

The lack of crowds in these pictures does not accurately reflect reality: at times, private groups hovered over the interesting plants, cameras and cell phones casting shadows on their subjects. At other times, classes of children or teens were marshalled through in chaos, wishing they were elsewhere.

Here's a small Orchid display. [Remember that you can click on picture to enlarge]

Here's Joan grabbing a few San Diego rays, with a decent guitarist playing nearby. Note the interior plants escaping about half way up the shade house.

A better overview of half the shade house.

You might have noticed that every day is sunny in San Diego. That, friends, has been a very accurate description of what we have had to face every day, so far.

Wish we could share...

A Day at the Zoo

We went to the Zoo again, just for a short time, but ended staying about 5 hours...

As usual, the zoo was entertaining and we had a great day in spite of our legs telling us to sit down.

This is a Golden Chested Monkey.

Here's another monkey, meditating or posing.

A few Oryx

and a miscellany of African beasties.

Today we arrived at the Polar Bear exhibit when everyone was just sleeping in the sun. How very Californian...

This is an Andean Condor, surveying his kingdom.

These next two pictures are of a Harpy Eagle, the first in profile, the second face-on. Note the usual bad hair day...

The next three are taken of the same little otter. Here he is crying for food...

They are very fast moving on land or in the water...

with eyes full of mischief at all times.

Next is a Lion-Tailed Macaque, not showing the tail of course...

Note the healthy looking coat, typical of all the animals in the Zoo.

Even big cats yawn a lot; this one is a Siberian Lynx.

This is a pair of Giraffes waiting patiently to be hand-fed by tourists who opted for the back-scene tour.

The taller one is the male, a good three to four feet taller than anyone else! He was the biggest, tallest, and decidedly the most majestic of the ten or so giraffes in this area.

We noted that all the giraffes were very graceful in their slow and deliberate movements.

The zoo grounds are just packed with exotic plants from many areas of the world. Mist or rain is provided in some areas making a rain forest environment for the plants and animals that prefer the moisture. In other areas you'll find bamboo fences, cactus, sand, or tropical ferns, like this one. It's just starting to grow in the San Diego Spring, January no less.

If we lived in San Diego, Joan would like to work at the Zoo, and I would like to be there more often than not.

If you are ever this way, plan to spend a lot of time ambling through the zoo like we do, after all, someone has to do it!

Finally, the Zoo

Finally, we made it to the 'World Famous' San Diego Zoo. We renewed our membership so now we can go when we have a little time available or the whim suits us. This way you can see what you want, without being rushed and without deadlines. So civilized.

As members, we can take the chairlift from near the zoo entrance up to the top of the zoo. This saves you a lot of up-hill walking and makes the zoo experience much more fun.

The San Diego zoo is huge and has large quarters for the animals. From above, all you really see is the top of the administration buildings, the equipment yard and trees, everywhere, trees.

Here's a view from the chairlift. Keep in mind, this zoo is surrounded by San Diego. Note also the parking lot in the background, near the horizon; that's less than a quarter of it!

Now here's a question for the grandkids, or anyone else for that matter; What kind of animal is this? The answer will follow, later.

Koala bears sleep most of the time so seeing one move is quite an experience...

Here's a Mandarin duck, probably designed by a committee...

Camels stink, I mean really stink! These two made a few hundred yards almost unbearable.

Here's a raptor in a huge aviary; it's quite a sight to see these majestic birds fly.

The Elephants have a huge piece of real estate. They are very large animals and deserve a lot of space. This space was built in the last few years and has been a huge success with the elephants as well as the visitors and staff. They now have a very secure area where they can get their manicures and everything else a healthy elephant needs. Quite the undertaking.

And here's the answer to my question: a diving polar bear!

During our visit, the three bears kept diving into the water, cavorting around, then getting out just to start all over again. They put on quite a show.

Here's a sopping wet polar bear and you can see that they are a black-skinned, with white fur.

Going back to the Zoo was like revisiting old friends. We'll be doing that again, and then some.