Sunday, February 1st
Today we were at Hope Lutheran Church again.
The theme of Pastor Browning’s message was about who we
choose to follow. He began by talking about the Super Bowl which a lot of the
congregation had indicated they would be watching. There was some interactive
discussion about which teams we all cheered for throughout the year. At one
point, he asked us to all shout out our team names. Since there are a lot of
snowbirds attending this church now, I heard several different team names.
The Pittsburg Steeler fans seemed to be the most vocal. I did not hear our
Redskins name from anyone but us. And I never heard the Baltimore Ravens name.
The the Pastor showed some slides of some of the fans and
then he showed one that he said was a young Tom Brady and another one that was
the Patriots equipment manager.
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After lunch, we finally made our first trip to the community
swimming pool.
After dinner, we watched the Super Bowl while still wishing
our Redskins were playing in it. All in all, it was a very restful day for us.
Monday, February 2nd
Ground Hog Day!! We heard that Punxsutawney Phil saw his
shadow so six more weeks of winter can be expected.
We much prefer the forecast
result here in Florida:
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We spent most of this day on Pine Island with our local
geobuddy, Brian. He needed to drop his van off for repair at a shop on the
island so it gave the three of us a legitimate excuse to look for geocaches
there. I liked the message on the sign at the front door of the shop.
The shop also has some very interesting items on display and
Brian suggested that I spend some time checking them out.
It has been very nice to spend time with Brian because not
only do we learn additional geocaching techniques from him, but he also shares
educational information with us.
I find that physically being at a location impacts my
understanding much more than just reading about something or watching a video.
This was especially true when we were searching for a geocache located in an
area where Australian Pines were dominate. While walking around these invasive
trees, there was hardly any other vegetation to be seen. The ground was so thickly
carpeted with pine needles that it felt like walking on carpet. Sounds were
muffled, including our footsteps and voices.
One geocache was especially hard for us to find. The tracks
on Brian’s GPS device show that he circled the area many, many times. I think
it resembles a plate of spaghetti.
It began to rain while we were at the site so we decided to
abort our search. In the meantime, I sent an e-mail message to the last finder
who responded while we were eating our lunch. We returned to the site and finally
found the container which was made from a huge plastic bee.
Brian also takes us to places we might have otherwise have missed.
One of those today was the Low Key Tiki bar where we ate our lunch while a rain
shower passed. We learned that this is a popular place during the evenings and
especially on the nights when there is live entertainment.
I thought it was ingenuous that the staff placed the bill in
a mousetrap. It is a great idea to keep the papers from blowing away since a
breeze could blow through this outside setting.
One section on Pine Island contains lots of quaint shops
that are painted in bright colors and like many other places here in Southwest
Florida, they have murals on their outside walls. I got a good laugh when I saw
the way this establishment was decorated. I’m not sure I would have ventured
inside had we not been riding past in our car.
When we took Brian back to his house, he showed us his new
kayak that he built this past winter. He ordered the supplies from a company
based in Annapolis and made this kayak completely by hand. It truly is an
object of beauty.
Brian’s late wife, Linda, was a gifted artist. There are
several pieces of her work inside the house that I saw last year. But this was
the first time I saw the mural that she painted on the outside wall.
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