How to fill time in retirement

I drove over to St Petersburg this past Friday for a visit to my good friend Teresa Short.  I arrived in mid-afternoon and the plan was to meet up with Teresa's ex-husband Tim. My first new restaurant of the weekend was within walking distance of Tim's place in downtown St Petersburg. I took this photo as we approached the place located on Central Avenue. Entrance to the Iberian Rooster It is called the Iberian Rooster and it is a "Portuguese Fusion restaurant and speakeasy where the complexity of colonial street food meets the simplicity of tapas, interlocking in unexpectedly seamless ways to create innovative, dynamic flavors worthy of the harmony that exists between the culinary cultures of Mozambique, Macau, Brazil, and Goa." Our plans were to have some wine and share three plates, one from the small plate menu and two from the large plate menu... Large Plate Menu at Iberian Rooster Small Plate Menu at Iberian Rooster  It was actually the day be...

As I was driving through Cocoa Beach on this beautiful day headed to the Port, I saw there was a street closed off. The flashing cop lights made it more obvious, but I could not tell what was going on. I went and had some lunch to the North and decided to stop to see what was going on. To my surprise, it was a VW car and van show. Lot of classic cars and a band was playing and they had booths and food trucks. My first VW connection was playing punch buggy as a kid...If you do not know what that is, too bad for you... My second connection was the VW camper that my parents purchased. It had the pop-up tent and I spent some nights all over the East coast sleeping in that tent. Lots of great times. The third connection was the red VW Beetle owned by my high school classmate Doug Losordo. I spilled...I mean spent a lot of time in that little car. I am not going to write much more...enjoy the photos I took.... Looks like the old red VW Doug owned.... ...

On Saturday, April 29, I was asked to attend the Orlando City SC game in Orlando with my cousins. Jim and Janis Provoncha, were celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary and wanted me to come along. Their son Jason was going and they needed a fourth. They have season tickets and have had them since the inaugural season. This year they have moved to their new Stadium in downtown Orlando, near the Amway Center on Church Street. The first game was played on March 5. The Orlando City stadium as seen from Church Street The stadium juts right against the street, an unusual design but kind of convenient for the fans.  The part of Orlando is called Parramore, and historically has been home to people of African descent. There is much history and this area and one hope was that the new stadium was help the area. That remains to be seen but as you walk to the game, many people have set up parking areas and others are cooking fresh barbecue and other food. The aromas were amazing. Ji...