Key West Street Parade Day

Like I said, we arrived safely last night. This morning we got up to check out the resurfacing we'd had done in the pool and found the new Porter Court Fantasy Fest mascot floating around in the pool! He's got his beads and a Bud Light. He's ready to party!

When we got up on Friday morning, we decided to go for a bike ride. The brakes on my bike weren't working right so we had to do a little bike repair first!

We had some new palms planted a little while back and now we have our own little compound going here.

On Friday, they have a street fair and a costume parade. It's really great. Duval is packed with people in some really great costumes.

This guy was dressed as a chicken. He's actually walking on his own legs.

This pooch came as a pink poodle!

Down at the 801 end of town, this drag queen was tossing beads from the window to the crowd below.

And the skeleton was blowing bubbles. I think this guy must like bubble baths?

Of course you could get a cocktail anywhere on Duval.

This wasn't even a costume! It's the real thing!

A lot of the buildings were dressed up, too. This is the top of Sloppy Joe's in the day.

This building was named "Fangoria". It's really the small bar next to Aqua.

They were tossing beads from windows at Fast Buck's.That's me in the front with the red cap catching some beads.

After a long, hard Duval day, we came home and relaxed on the deck!

We lit some candles and placed them around outside - it looked great!

And because it was Friday night, Chef Neal made me a wonderful dinner!

We had salad, steak with a fresh mushroom sauce, mashed red potatoes, and nice bottle of red wine from Grand Vin!

After dinner, we went for a walk and saw some more really great costumes. Check out the next post!

Key West - We're Back.....

We arrived safely in Key West last night. Although our flight from Boston to Miami was about an hour late, we had a long layover. Our flight from Miami arrived in KW at 9:10 pm which was about 15 minutes early. And down here, every minute counts! Coming off the small plane in the KW airport, these guys on the roof were there to great us all!

We grabbed a cab and headed to Porter Court. Even though is was about 10:00 pm by then, we decided to take a walk up to Duval Street to see what was happening. The city was packed! I don't remember ever seeing so many people (and so much of them......). This year's Fantasy Fest theme is "Villains, Vixens & Vampires".

Sloppy Joe's was all decked out!

And so was Rick's.

Duval and most of the intersecting streets were closed to cars. Good thing because they were packed with people all having fun.

The Bagatelle  restaurant (across Duval from Hog's Breath) looked great. They were hosting an "Ever White Party". Everyone was dressed in white from head to toe. We stopped by to say hi to Clayton but didn't stay.

It was late for us old folks by then so we headed home. Stay tuned for more KW 2009 Fantesy Fest adventures! (PS - Weather is wonderful. Sunny and 86 degrees.)

Nice Fall Weather!

Despite the heavy rain yesterday, overall the weather this Fall has been very nice. The colors this season have been really bright and vivid. These past weekends have started out like many - I try to work from home each Friday, which I really enjoy. Makes for a really great commute!

I usually have a lot of conference calls on Fridays.

Over the past few weekends, we've been getting the house and yard ready for the winter.

They came and closed up the pool.

Neal finished up his painting. It looks great - he did a wonderful job!

We did some window washing, too.

We spend time organizing the shed this weekend - summer furniture in and winter equipment out!

Hopefully we won't be needing this for a while.....

Or these either.

But they are now all in the garage and ready to go when we need them. After all, our first snow fall came early!

At least the mum's we planted did eventually flower! We weren't too sure for a while.

We've had some really great French night dinners lately. Last Friday, Chef Neal made a great flaming steak au poivre.

He carefully plated it.

And served it with a smoked salman salad with homemade horseradish sauce and capers.

Of course then it was Saturday night. And you all know about 'date night'.

Then we came home and stayed up until midnight watching Moonstruck in HD. We never get tired of Moonstruck. Remember the breakfast scene when they were frying the eggs in the slices of bread? You guessed it, on Sunday morning....

I'm sorry to report that we've been having a lot of computer problems lately. It totally died last weekend and Neal tried to fix the expansion slots.

"The Day The Earth Stood Still"

I'm sure you all know that a sure sign of winter (did I really say that?) is when the hard top goes on the Porche before it gets put into storage for the winter.

It's been a while since I posted. I hope you all are enjoying the Fall! (PS - We turned the heat on in mid-October. I'm really sorry about that nasty November 1 "turn-on-the-heater-rule". I tried to influence that early on but lost the battle....). We're off to Key West shortly. Watch for some Fantasy Fest postings!

God Bless Chris

Last weekend, God called one of his most special, precious angels back home. Christopher Nicholas Barnes went to heaven on Friday, October 16, 2009 at the young age of only 20 years old. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jay, Linda and Lauren and his grandparents, Theresa and Ernie. Chris was such a happy person. He was Santa's favorite - he always came to Santa's lap well prepared and knowing exactly what he wanted for Christmas. And he wasn't shy to tell Santa that he'd been very good all year! God Bless Chris and his family. He'll be missed by all who knew him.

Chris with Santa.

Chris having fun with some of his cousins.

La Lecon du Francais

Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs! Nous etudions le francais le jeudi a' Boston. Susan Husserl-Kapit est notre professeur. Elle est gentille et tres intelligente. Ed est le mari de Susan. Il joue de piano et nous chantons en francais. Susan et Ed habitent au carrefour de la Rue Marlborough est de la Rue Clarendon. Le jeudi, je conduis a' Boston. Neal attend patiemment sur la banquette au jardin de la Rue Commonweath pres de la maison de Susan.

Good day, ladies and gentleman. We study French each Thursday. Susan Husserl-Katit is our teacher. She is kind and very intelligent. Ed is Susan's husband. He plays the piano and we sing in French. Susan and Ed live in Boston at the intersection of Marlborough and Clarendon Streets. Each Thursday, I drive to Boston. Neal waits patiently on the bench at the Commonwealth Ave park near Susan's home.

Voici une photo de Susan.

(Here is a photo of Susan.)

Neal attend patiemment sur la banquette.

(Neal waits patiently on the bench.)

Nous ne cuisinons par le jeudi.

(We do not cook on Thursday!)

Nous aimons notre lecon du francais.  (We enjoy our French lessons.)

Au revoir! (Good bye!)

Anniversary Weekend! (XOXO)

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. This past week was a tough one.......Last weekend we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. Can you believe it? Where does all the time go??  Wow!!! We were married in 1986. Before the wedding, Bernice hosted a surprise shower for us where we received a lot of very nice gifts.

We had a very small wedding with only our immediate family. Even so, the bride did feed the groom.

For our honeymoon, we drove to Maine for a few days. This is where we discovered our love of sailing.

To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to spend the weekend in the city. We had been saving the gift certificate to Abe & Louie's that Matt and Amy gave us for Christmas for a special  night. Our wedding anniversary was the perfect event! Despite the really heavy rain on Saturday, we had a wonderful weekend!

We made hotel reservations to stay in the Back Bay. Our room was on the 32nd floor. It overlooked Boston Harbor

and the South End

and the Blue Hills

At night, the city looked wonderful from the 32nd floor!

We could see the lights of Fenway Park helping Big Papi, Yuk, Mike Lowell and all the boys beat Cleveland.

On this particular weekend, there was a lot of movie filming being done around the city. Cameron Diaz, Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise were all rumored to be filming in town. On Friday night, we had dinner at Legal Seafood at Park Square. We sat at the bar and enjoyed oysters, chowders and then we shared a fish and chips dinner. On the walk back from dinner, they were doing a scene in front of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. We stopped to watch for a while. But, we didn't see any movie stars.

On Saturday, it just poured and poured all day long - buckets and buckets - it was definately time for an ark. Since our hotel was part of Copley Place, we were able to spend all day inside. Starbuck's for lattes in the morning, a little damage at Lord&Tayor, and a stop at L'Occitane. And of course William Sonoma to get a little something for the kitchen - because after the wine, it's all about the food.

After all that shopping it was time for an anniversay lunch at Sel de la Terre where they make the best pomme frittes we've found - except the one's that Chez Neal makes on Friday's for French Night.

After a day of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Neal gave me a really sweet card and a wonderful box of chocolat. The card came home with us....

but we ate thechocolat.....

.

We had an 8:00 pm dinner reservation at Abe & Louie's.

So we went back to the hotel, put on our fancy clothes, and headed out for our anniversary dinner!

It was the first time we'd been to Abe & Louie's and we were not disappointed. Dinner was spectacular and it was a wonderful evening

When we left the restaurant after dinner, it had stopped raining and it was a nice evening. So we took a long walk down Newbury Street before we headed back to the hotel.

When we go up on Sunday, we got our Starbuck's and walked around the Back Bay. It was a nice morning and all the people were out just enjoying the city.

After a morning walk around the city, we checked out of the hotel and headed back to Lynnfield. We got back home a little after noon.

While we were at William Sonoma, Neal bought a Le Creuset casserole/dutch oven. Of course he couldn't wait to try it out when we got home.

So he made a Coq au Vin for dinner.

I decided to bake a cake for us to have for dessert.

Of course, it was Nana's orange cake that I made!

The weather was really nice on Sunday so while the cake was cooling and the Coq au Vin was simmering, we went on a bike ride.

When we got home, it had started to get dark. So we put our bikes away and our dinner was all ready!

Our kitchen has been a real workhorse for us all summer long - starting back in June when the Italians arrived. It's kept going strong all summer and into the Fall. So, after dinner on Sunday we cleaned it all up, tucked it in and turned the lights off. It always serves us well and deserved a good night's sleep!

As you can see, we had a great anniversay weekend. We hope that whatever you did that you stayed dry and enjoyed the weekend.