Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum

Well it is no surprise to anyone who has seen my back yard that I have an obsession with tropical decor.  Which includes Palm Trees. So when Ray and I discovered there is a Palm Arboretum located in St Petersburg.  I just knew I had to go.  So we picked a beautiful day and went to see all the Palm Trees.

Boy, I wish I could have these palm trees in my yard!!!

Ray and Cinnamin in front of some of the many kinds of trees.

I never realized how many different types of palm trees there are.

Happy 21st Birthday Brad

Happy 21st Birthday Brad!!!

2-28-1991

Wanted to wish our son Brad a very Happy Birthday!!!  
We love you.
Hope you have a wonderful day!!!

                                   

Gasparilla Night Parade 2012

One of our favorite annual events in Tampa is "The Gasparilla night Parade".  It is held in Ybor city, which is known for it's wild night life.  The parade consists of the different pirate krewe's,  who throw beads to all patrons  along the parade route.  It gets pretty crazy,  with everyone screaming and trying to get the attention of the pirates so they throw the beads.  This year Ray and I decided to "dress up" for the festivities. 

Ray and I - -The Gasparilla 2012 night parade.

One of the floats -Gasparilla-2012

baby sitting

Well there is nothing I like better then baby sitting those adorable grand babies of mine.  So when Tiffany and Rich went on a "date night" while in Florida...of course I volunteered to baby sit!!!
I took some silly pictures of me and the baby's.   We had fun at the hotel where they were staying.  And they were so good...as always.

Mimi and Jacob.  

What an adorable little man.

Makayla and Mimi...girls just wanna have fun!

Makayla has the cutest little chubby cheeks!!

A view from their hotel.

Another beautiful day!

Feeding the birds/playing at the park.

We decided to take the kids to one of our favorite places.  There is a pond which is home to a lot of birds, turtles and fish.  There is a path that takes you around the pond. We like to stop along the way to watch the wildlife.  Since the kids/Grand kids were here, we decided to bring some bread so we could feed the birds.  

There is also a nice kids park with slides, swings just perfect for little Jacob to play at.

It was a beautiful day and we all had so much fun!!!

Jacob enjoyed feeding the ducks with his daddy's help.

Jacob checking out the ducks swimming in the pond.

Grampster had to get in on feeding the birds too!!!

Jacob is big enough this year to really have fun playing at the park.  Here Jacob is going down the twirly slide with mommy.

Mimi is a big kid at heart... Jacob and Mimi had to check out this cool truck.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Jacob going down the slide all by himself.  What a big boy!!!

Family visit

Grampster and I were very excited to have some visitors last week.  Tiffany, Rich, Jacob and Makayla  decided to spend a week  in Florida.  We picked them up at the airport and headed to the pool/beach.

Mimi, Makayla and Jacob at the pool.

Makayla's first time at the beach.  She had to put her little feet in the sand.  

The Dworianyn Family at the beach.

Jacob had fun playing in the sand.

Gulf Port

Today Ray and I took a ride to Gulfport FL, which is located southwest of St. Petersburg on Boca Ciega Bay. There is a cute waterfront District with a few shop's, restaurant's and a nice view of the bay.

Cinnamin and I in Gulfport.

Ray and I decided to stop at one of the local restaurants, "Tangelo's"  for some lunch.  We ordered a bowl of black beans and rice. Yummy!!!

and some conch chowder, hush puppies and a shrimp po boy.

Ray relaxing at"Tangelo's" restaurant.

After lunch Cinnamin decided to join us for a quick picture.  It was truly a wonderful day!

                           

Fort De Soto-Doggie Beach

There are a few dog beaches in the area.  Fort De Soto is one that we like.  It's nice to be able to walk Cinnamin on the beach.  Some Dog's enjoy running around in the water.

Cinnamin would much rather hang out on the beach...and leave that great big ocean to the other dog's.

Largo Botanical Gardens & Heritage Village

We decided to spend the day at the Florida Botanical Gardens which is located in Largo.  The Gardens were very pretty, although I'm sure they are even prettier during the summer months.   Doggie's are welcome at the Garden's...so of course Cinnamin had to come with.

One of the Gardens with a water feature.

In addition to the Gardens, there is also an historic village. We were so amazed at the  many things to see and do. Some of the buildings like this school house are from the 19th century.

Look at this old fashion store... it was neat walking around  and looking at all the old time products... and check out that cash register.

There was an old  garage full of car parts, tires and even this car.  I wonder if Ray would give up his vette for this one.(hahaha)

 

The races have gone to the dogs...

Well last week I posted about the horse races...this week it's dog races.  Here in Florida they have greyhound racing.  It is really cool to watch....but it is really hard to bet on. We pretty much guessed...and didn't do well at all.  So we ended up just relaxing and watched the races.  The greyhounds are truly  beautiful dogs and they are so fast.

Here they are at the start of the race.

As you can see..they are coming around the curve heading for the finish.

This is another view of them racing around the track.

Yes, they really are chasing a stuffed white rabbit which is on a metal bar that goes around the track.  Too weird!

Since we didn't do very well at picking the winning dog .. we just enjoyed the day.

We have been busy again this week.  It always seems there is something to do here in Florida.  It could be that Ray and I have more time to check out the sights. Or maybe it's because we are only here for a few months so we try to cram everything in during that time.  The weather here has been so nice.                       Warm & sunny...just perfect.

My husband pretending to be a fisherman!!

Now this is something you won't see in Chicago this time of year!!!  

This little guy surprised me when I was walking into the back yard of our rental!! Pretty cute .

Gasparilla Pirate Invasion-2012

Another Tampa activity that Ray and I enjoy is Gasparilla.  Gasparilla is a huge Tampa tradition.  It consist's of the "Pirate Invasion", which involves a huge pirate ship with hundred's of pirates aboard.  The ship sail's into the south end of Hillsborough Bay and dock's at the Tampa Convention Center.

After the pirate ship dock's, the pirates head into town for the Parade.  During the parade the pirates toss bead's to all the people waiting  along Tampa's waterfront.  There is also a Pirate Fest which includes bands, food and lots of fun.

and their off...

Tampa has a neat little race track.  Ray and I try to go at least once or twice while we are here. This year the weather was  just perfect!!  We didn't win big but we did have a great time.

Our Florida Rental-Jan.2012 (inside pictures)

Well, we have been busy...but I promised I would post a few pictures of the inside of our rental.  Our rental this year is a 1950's  typical Florida beach house.

The living room area where we can sit and watch TV.

As you can see from the pictures, it's nothing fancy.. But what is nice about it is, it's all on one level.  This is such a nice feature and makes it so much easier when bringing in the grocery's, going outside for a walk,  taking Cinnamin to go potty. Parking is great too as we just pull in the driveway, instead of having to find a spot as we did in the large condo building's we have rented and  last year the condo we rented had a lot of stairs to go up and down...and after awhile it really was a pain. 

Another nice feature is the location..it is not on the main road which makes it pretty quiet and not too much traffic.  

The kitchen area is small, but has what we need. Stove, fridge, micro...however the two thing's I really miss in the kitchen are a dishwasher and a garbage disposal.

Nope...no dishwasher

This is the the back door which leads out to the back patio and dock which overlooks the bay.  We spend a lot of time outside in the back yard or down at the beach.

Our place...outside pictures

We have been in Florida for over a week, and I figured I better post some pictures of our place this year.  We decided to rent a house.  Well it's actually a duplex, we have the  unit which is in the back of the house, which is nice because we can look out onto the bay. In the front end of the house a couple and their teenage son rent the unit...they live here all year long.

This is the view from our patio as we look out onto the bay.

This is the view from the deck, looking at the little house we rented this year.

We see a lot of wildlife on the bay.  Here we have two pelican's that  stopped by to see if we were going to feed them.