Little Visitor 15 Gallery - Spring Festivities and Summer Blast

[IdlersDesign]

Well, honestly I think we probably also have more muddy potatoe fields than flower fields (that will be muddy as well after May), but the latter are more interesting for pictures 

[Smeddley]

It's been a belly-dancing-licious weekend, with a trip to the Czar Bar and a student show.  Charlie got a little... rowdy at the Czar Bar.  First, I caught him trying to sneak cigarettes:



Then, he had a little too much to drink...



(don't worry, we wiped out the glass so he doesn't have booze all over his fur!  ~.^ ).

[dewshinesdopp]

Eh, no worries!  If he comes home smelling like a lush, I'll know he had a GREAT time

[phoenixfiredesigns]

Sunday, we braved the rain and a late start and headed over to downtown St. Pete. There was an art show going on and we decided we wanted to get out a bit.

First, we had to drive across Tampa Bay:



Of course, we had to check out the Banyan Trees (see a BUNCH more photos in my blog HERE) They are so cool. They grow "down" dropping aerial roots which eventually turn into new trunks.)



And the Museum of Fine Art had a Crochet Coral Reef display that was too cute not to get a photo of:



Downtown St. Pete is right on the water and here's a shot looking across the water over to the St. Pete Pier.


As always, click any picture for a larger version.

We got rained on a little but was able to wait it out in the museum's gift shop (which is how I saw the crochet reef!) for about 15 minutes until it stopped. We also wandered around the festival itself but we were so distracted by all the art, ceramics, glass, wood and such that we forgot to really take pics. LOL

A lovely afternoon in a lovely spot!

[IdlersDesign]

That banyan tree looks fantastic! You must have really beautiful nature over there.

I'd also be belly dancing after a few of these coctails 

[phoenixfiredesigns]

That banyan tree looks fantastic! You must have really beautiful nature over there.

It's really cool. I put some pics in my blog of it from yesterday here: http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/2012/04/downtown-st-petersburg/ Well worth a peek to see more of the tree!

[dewshinesdopp]

Only two pictures to upload from our hiking trip.  I have to get other parent's consent before I post pictures of their children.  We volunteered to go on a "hike" from my son's elementary school over to the park nearby- Crews Lake Park. 

It was a hike with approximately 75 children, and 5 teachers, myself and one other volunteer, as well as Dee.  (Yes, I must have been going slightly bonkers to have agreed to this...)

The park is roughly half mile from the school, and is the same park/nature preserve that backs up to my house.  So...similar pictures.  We had a short "class" with the park ranger, who told us all about the area that we were in- which is built like an outdoor classroom...inside a sinkhole.  What I did not know prior to this class was that a) it was a sinkhole, and b) that there was an additional row of benches, that were underneath the ground, from where the sinkhole started to fill in.  Pretty interesting!

But, here is Dee checking out the rattlesnake rattle that the park ranger showed the kids. 


Here is Dee helping a student put together a "shape puzzle" of a spider.  It was really hard!


And... As I mentioned, we had some mechanical trouble and couldn't go to the zoo today, so Dee played Kinect Disneyland Adventures with my son.  It's pretty blurry, because they were helping Tigger, Christopher Robin and Pooh collect honey pots, which involves a good deal of hopping. 

[Mountains and Clouds]

We finally got down to Waikiki a few days ago....



Didn't realize it was jellyfish day, so Aurora didn't want to go swimming....

Anyway, more pictures, as always, can be found here:http://www.mountainsandclouds.com/auroras-adventures-craftster-lv-round-15.html

[Naantje]

I've been lurking around this topic for quite a while, this is a simply amazing swap! I'll definitely want to participate in the next round!

I wanted to say 2 things:
- wow, those banyan trees are amazing! I've only ever seen these things on lost, it's strange to suddenly see them in a park-setting
- IdlersDesign, where in the Netherlands do you live? I've seen you post that you live below sea level, so are you somewhere in Flevoland? I moved from Belgium to Almere a year ago, we're 2-5m below sea level! I recognized some pictures, and I was wondering if you're originally Dutch because I saw the post about speculoos, while I've noticed Dutch people normally say speculaas. (But you're right, it should be speculoos ) If you'd like to take Trevor to one of the very few tourist attractions in Almere, you're always welcome for a cup of tea. Lilibet can vouch that I'm not a homocidal maniac trying to lure people into my lair

[Annchen]

Nice and sunny today... And my day off We'll see if I can take Riki out to do something fun or if I just have to stick to doing the boring things I haven't had time to do before...