Thursday on

So Dad and I left late on Thursday morning to go pick up Patrick and his girlfriend Maureen at the Fort Lauderdale airport.  He was able to save nearly 50% off his fare flying there instead of the Fort Myers airport.  I didn’t mind doing the drive to go get him.

On the drive over Dad and I got to shoot the breeze about a number of topics.  Many of them revolved around the state of the world and just how exquisitely f’d up it all is.  Even though my dad’s financial situation would make most people assume he would be cast in the conservative, me first mold, he actually has a lot of similar thoughts about what is actually going on as I do.

Despite despising freeloading scum that waste countless taxpayer dollars due to nothing more then unabashed laziness, he too does not see throwing out the baby with the bathwater as an intelligent solution or just praying to something/someone that it gets better.

We arrived around 45 minutes early at the airport so instead of sitting in the car at the cell phone lot dad suggested we just go inside and wait.  We went to a Chile’s where dad had a beer while I sucked down a Diet Coke, anticipating I would be doing the driving back across the alley.

Pat and Maureen’s flight arrived on time and we greeted them as they exited the security screening area. They both traveled extremely light. Maureen had a small rolling piece of luggage and Pat only had something that looked like a slightly oversized gym bag.

After getting Maureen’s bag we headed back up to Chile’s to eat lunch since everyone had varying degrees of hunger.  After the meal I followed up with a cup of DD coffee to help me stay alert for the trek back across the state.

On the ride back I asked if anyone was interested in seeing Catholic Town (Ave Maria) since we were literally driving right past it.  I got lukewarm response from Pat and Maureen but dad was interested in seeing this monstrous ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

As we navigated the long 2 mile winding entrance to the town I gave some background on this (to this point) failed attempt to create a town around old school religious values.  At this point the founders of the town expected to have roughly 5100 residences occupied, instead they have 374.

We drove by the monster church in the middle of the town and then parked so dad could grab coffee at the only coffee shop in town.  I was surprised there were actually a decent amount of bodies in the shop, maybe 15 or so.  As dad enjoyed his coffee out outside in the nice sitting area he engaged a young girl that walked by carrying her laptop, he was curious about how many students were actually enrolled at Ave Maria.

The girl, who we found out was a freshman, was happy to engage us and told us they have around 700 students right now but they only had 200 last year.  The 500 student bump in one year, tripling the enrollment, seems a bit odd/unbelievable.

We noticed this girl’s friend was playing an instrument which we found was a dulcimer. The friend came over and told us a little bit about it which was interesting.  Dad found the whole Ave Maria thing intriguing and I think he may stop there to show my step mom on their way back across the state this afternoon.

Thursday evening was laid back.  We caught up on stuff with Pat and Maureen and enjoyed warming up some of the food that was left over from the meal my step mom made the night before.  We enjoyed it out on the lanai.  Ali was away at a meeting.

Later that night I flipped on Netflix looking for a movie we could watch.  Maureen suggested a documentary called Buck.  She had actually seen it before but liked it enough that she didn’t mind seeing it again.  To be honest I was a bit skeptical if I would find the movie interesting since it is about a guy that trains horses.  Buck is the name of the trainer.

Well I found the movie actually to be quite good.  The methods he utilizes to train horses have applications beyond the world of equines.  On top of that he is just an interesting person with a background that you would think would preclude him from being what he is today.  If you like animals I am confident you will like this film, add it to your queue. I’d give it an A.

So we were trying to loosely formulate a game plan for my family’s visit.  Quite often when you have visitors you wind up in that no man’s land where no one is quite sure what they do and don’t want to do. As the host you always feel the need to steer the group out of that quagmire. We came up with several action items, a visit to the beach, going to the swamp with the dogs, going to the Naples Art Festival, and maybe a visit to the water park.

Initially we were thinking about doing the swamp on Friday and the beach on Saturday but after viewing the weather forecast it seemed clear that Friday would be a better beach day.

Friday morning Patrick, who is very fit and a great athlete,  indicated he would be into trying this month’s Bar-barian 5150 challenge.   Pat had a few form issues but still put together a very solid effort, especially considering this isn’t the type of work out he focuses on normally.  He was well spent by the end of the 5 minutes. I did an attempt after him but didn’t best last week’s effort so I didn’t bother to post it.

Ali got up and did her early AM swim and then picked up groceries on the way home.  By the time we got out the door it was around 11AM which I didn’t really give much consideration to.  Even though we are in the midst of snowbird season I thought a a mid-day Friday trip to the beach wouldn’t be too horribly crowded.  Wow, was I wrong.

As we swung into the Lowdermilk Park parking lot we became the caboose on a several person train of vehicles that were mongering for a parking spot, a practice I simply refuse to participate in.  After our first loop I headed back out on Gulfshore heading south and north, hoping to spot a spare space relatively nearby.  Well it seemed any space I had in mind was already being patrolled by other eager parking space seekers.

I was in no mood to keep circling, it drives me insane to have to be a parking spot lemming.  I told the crew I would simply drop them and the beach gear off.  I would then park farther away and walk back.  Well farther away turned out to be a mile and a half away back up at route 41.  Oh well , I would wind up with 3 miles of extra cardio time although I wish I wasn’t doing it in my flip flops, my left knee was aching by the time I got back to the beach.

Before I walked to the beach I had to piss like crazy thanks to the cup of coffee I slammed on the way there.  I was desperately looking for a place to relieve myself.  The bright daylight and vehicles motoring by from all directions made a hedge or bush an unwise option.

Luckily I discovered that the Office Depot in the shopping center had public restrooms.  I was about ready to explode by the time I made it to the urinal.

The beach was packed with people.  It was wall to wall tourists and snowbirds.  By the time I got back the gang had the chairs, towels and umbrellas set up, including the brand new one I bought on the way there.  Both my step mom and I needed to not sit in the sun any more directly than necessary.

We ate lunch at the snack shack in the pavilion at the beach.  I found it odd that this stand is manned by one person considering the amount of people this food window could potentially service.  At first I thought he just happened to be short handed that day.  It turns out this is the way he likes to roll.  I am sure it helps his bottom line but having one guy take orders and do all the cooking on the grill is obviously not all that efficient.  We were lucky the line wasn’t very long when we got to it.

The gulf water was still “chilly” by Florida standards, clicking in at 71 or 72 degrees.  This was no obstacle of course to Patrick, who braved water temps in the 50’s over in Ireland to all of our disbelief.  Maureen had no issue going in either.

I later decided to join them even though I don’t believe I have ever submerged myself in the gulf in February.  The water felt a bit severe for the first minute or so but I quickly adjusted.  All I had to do was remind myself of the Chernobyl Jacuzzi obstacle at the Tough Mudder to convince myself that hitting 72 degree water was chicken shit in comparison.

Something incredible happened, Ali actually went into the water and dove in.  If you know Ali’s background with water temp you would know why this is incredible.  This is the same person that used to tell me our pool at 84 degrees was just too cold.

I would attribute the change to Ali’s experiences with swimming through the winter months where some of the mornings included air temps in the 40’s when she was jumping in the pool.  Ali stayed out there with me for a little while and even did a little test swim in the gulf.

We hung out at the beach for maybe two and a half hours before I made the long walk back to retrieve the van. Dad, who doesn’t “believe” in sunblock, was red as a lobster from lying in the sun just for a couple hours.  He said he wanted to make sure he returned to gray and gloomy western PA with proof he had been vacationing in Florida.

Friday evening we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, a place nobody else had been to before.  I was worried that on a Friday evening it would be just mobbed.  It was indeed quite busy but we were able to find a table to accommodate the six of us easily.

Evidently I wasn’t clear explaining to my dad that Sweet Tomatoes was more than a salad bar, he thought that was all the food they had.  As a result he created a MASSIVE salad, unaware there was a large selection of other food items as well.

Dining at Sweet Tomatoes has some pluses and minuses.  On the plus side, as long as you can find an empty table, them being busy does not really affect you since you are serving yourself.  The food as well is always good, everyone at our table seemed to enjoy what they picked out.

On the downside, it doesn’t have much of a restaurant atmosphere, it is more of a feeding trough feel as you shuffle around the other bodies all with plates in their hands.  Because of the good prices at ST there are also a lot of families that choose to dine there.  Families often equal lots of loud kids.  At times it was borderline impossible to hear what anyone was saying at our table.

I guess the best comparison would be it is a cafeteria-like atmosphere.  It gets the job done and the food is good but don’t expect much beyond that.  By the time we got home we were all pretty damn tired from stuffing ourselves and our day of activities, everyone retreated to bed relatively early.

Pat and his girlfriend indicated they would be interested in going with Ali and I to the 6AM GCR training run Saturday morning.  As I have documented here before, Pat is a great runner, turning in an unbelievable time of 3:08 in last year’s Pittsburgh Marathon. When we arrived I introduced him to a few of the club members.

Ali had plans to run with Christy, who was running late, so Pat, Maureen and I took off together.  We were running at a fast pace for me, 8 minute something miles, it was probably just coasting for Pat.  Before long we were joined by my sometime run pacer, Matt who did the majority of the 7 mile run with us.

I was surprised Maureen kept up with us as she doesn’t do much running during the Pittsburgh winters. Hell when she saw we were approaching the end of the run she said she wanted to finish strong and sped up, requiring me to really stretch things out to stay ahead of her.

It was a good run.  I was sort of using it as a litmus test to see how my left knee felt which was bothering me after the 8.5 mile run from hell the week before.  It felt ok during the run although once again afterward I had some pain.  I think at this point I am just going to throw caution to the wind and run the half marathon, despite my several concerns.  The bottom line is if I don’t do it I will feel like a pussy.

So we had a busy day planned for Saturday.  The overcast sky meant a swamp walk with the dogs would work out better.  We headed over there mid-morning.  Our visit got off to a cool start when we spotted a bunch of deer to the right of the parking lot when we arrived, our first swamp deer sighting ever.

As expected the dogs were all very excited for their adventure. I am sure our group of 6 humans and 4 canines looked funny to the other people we ran into during our hike.  I had Sadie’s leash for the walk out and of course that meant we had to be in the lead the majority of the time, she just hates when other dogs are in front.

We had a decent amount of wildlife sightings during the picnic table and back walk including three or four snakes and about the same amount of gators, a couple of which were only a foot off the path.  Luckily they were smaller sized gators, the longest of which may have been 5 or 6 feet.

I think my family enjoyed the hike but we didn’t go real deep.  Dad was hobbling along on his two aching knees so it didn’t make much sense to go nuts since we had more walking scheduled down at the Naples Art Festival.

Ali and I were really, REALLY tired since we got up at 4:30 for the run.  Heading right back down to Naples did not sound like a good idea.  So after lunch we all agreed that we would lay down for a quick hour long power nap before heading to the festival.

The nap helped clear the cob webs a bit but I was still quite pooped when I hopped behind the wheel to resume my tour bus driver duties.  As was the case repeatedly during the visit, Dunkin Donuts was called into action to supplement my energy level.

We arrived mid-afternoon, a time I thought maybe the crowd for the show would have died down a bit since it only ran until 5PM.  Once again my hopes were dashed as I slowly climbed a nearby parking garage and was rewarded with nothing except idiotic drivers/mongers.  Luckily I didn’t have to park a mile and a half away this time, finding a spot in a nearby school parking lot.

I had been to this art thing once before a few years back when Ali’s ballet group was doing a performance there.  Generally speaking, my interest in such an event is pretty minimal however I knew my dad, Teresa and Ali were into it.   I think Maureen, who has a lot of interest in fashion was pretty into it as well.

There were a few exhibits that caught my eye. Even though I find looking at art generally boring I still appreciate the talent that goes into creating the objects.  The patience, creativity and detail in some of what we saw was very impressive.

My dad has this weird thing where he like to buy cd’s he hears when he is out at these sort of things.  My step mom said often these cd’s just join the collection but are never really listened to.  The funniest addition on Saturday was from some guy that sung exclusively in french.  Why dad would buy it I have no idea.

Ali and I saw one piece that we were seriously considering for our house.  It was a combination of painting/woodwork where the artist uses a router to create the image and then paints it.  The piece was a sea turtle utilizing colors that would match in with our decor.

I told Ali I was fine with getting it and left the decision up to her.  In the end she balked at the purchase, saying she liked it but didn’t like it enough to be on a wall of the house she looks at every single day.  Oh well, if she wasn’t sold then I had no problem walking away.

Dad then got the idea in his head that he wanted to have a beer at the Irish themed restaurant in the downtown area.  Well this wasn’t the place where you just grabbed a beer, you had to sit at a table which none of us were all that into.

We were lead to a table outside and sat down.  The predicted cold front had started to roll in and everyone was cold.  So after sitting there for maybe 60 seconds we all got up and walked off.  Dad still had this idea in his head about just enjoying a beer but didn’t know where he wanted to do it.

I suggested that we stop at South Street, the place we had our GCR Xmas party at.  I knew they had a very large beer selection that should satisfy his desire.  We got there right around 5 and decided it made sense to just have dinner while we were there.  I had a grouper sandwich that was quite good and we all had a decent time there.

I forgot that during the day Saturday Patrick had a big accomplishment, getting his first ever muscle up. He had tried a few times before and just missed, getting stuck at the transition point.  I told him he should try moving his hands closer together on the bar to force his elbows to be more in front of his body.  That small tip did the trick, he got up and over pretty easily, even stringing a couple reps together.  I was proud of him.

Saturday night we watched Moneyball, my latest Netflix mail dvd.  It was a good flick, I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite being drop dead tired, I’d give it an A-.  I am not sure if there has ever been a Brad Pitt movie that I didn’t enjoy.

Sunday I originally had pegged as the day we could go hang at the water park.  I thought it would be a fun way to spend some time.  Imagine going back to PA in February and telling people you were just on water slides a couple days ago.  Well for some reason there wasn’t much interest in going there from my step mom, Pat or Maureen.  Part of the reason was because despite a predicted high in the low 80’s, early in the morning it was still somewhat chilly, overcast with high winds.

I didn’t have a Plan B immediately available so we were stuck in one of those indecision snafus where no one is sure what we wanted to do.  Ali had taken her bike out to go ride so that left me alone to be the rudder.  Eventually we came up with a plan of action, we went to Pet Supermarket so dad could grab some dog food for his girls.  The pet store was nearby a miniature golf course, something Patrick had talked about doing earlier in the visit, ok great.

So after grabbing the dog supplies we pulled up to the miniature golf place which wasn’t super busy.  I hadn’t played mini-golf in a while, I wasn’t sure what the going rate was.  I got a bit of sticker shock when I saw $10.50 a head, obviously their snowbird price gouging rate.  I bet it costs half that or less during the summer.  Oh well, we all swallowed hard and forked over the money.

The course for the most part was too easy with many of the holes being far too simple.  The very nicely done landscaping that was embedded into the course helped to make up for the less than challenging play.  I wound up being the mini-golf champion by 3 or 4 strokes.  Patrick, who is not found of losing, wound up tied for last but took it well.

Ali met up with us at the course just as we were finishing up so she could join us for lunch which we had at the near by Mel’s Diner.  Once again the snowbird scourge reared it’s ugly head when we were told there would be a 15 minute wait for LUNCH, sigh.

Oh well this is the reality if you try to go out in public during this time of year, complaining about it does little.  We at least got to enjoy a good meal, everybody’s food was quite good and the prices were very reasonable.  Everybody was STUFFED.

I wanted to offset the gluttony a bit so shortly after I got home I asked Pat if he wanted to try a another challenge, this time the February 20 by 12 variety.  He was game and Maureen said she would come out as well and do a modified version of the circuit. Of course we were joined bu the dogs.

What ensued was 15-20 minutes of non-stop work out action with all three of us rotating through the exercises taking small time outs to throw the ball for Maggie. It’s pretty funny to watch.

Having Patrick doing the challenge with me definitely helped push me even with my feeling sort of weak going into it.  I did the circuit in a little over 15 minutes, a good 3 minutes plus faster than my first attempt.  Pat did quite well too, finishing about 30 seconds after me.

Patrick and I had more fun playing with the Xbox Kinect, specifically the sports game.  Pat beat me pretty easily in track and field.  The most amazing feat was his throw of 111 meters in the javelin which was clear off the field.

We really had fun playing doubles volleyball, especially when we hooked up with another pair of human beings via Xbox Live.   The guy we were playing had a rating of 11 and I was rated 2.  Well despite the disparity in skill rating we gave them some good matches, in fact I believe we wound up winning more games against them than we lost.

Of course the best part of the games were the few seconds you get to taunt the other team after each point you win.  Pat and I were laughing our asses off at some of the insulting gestures we got our on screen avatars to perform.  Of course the other team returned the favor whenever they scored a point.  It was good fun.

Sunday night Ali prepared a pasta meal that was quite good.  Too bad most of us were still sort of full from the big Mel’s meal earlier.  After dinner Ali, Maureen, Teresa and Patrick watched the Oscars while I edited the footage from our 20by12 work out.  I watched a little of the end of the show but really could care less about it.

This morning Patrick and dad woke up before I had to head out to work.  They were heading out later in the day to take Pat back to the airport before dad and Teresa start their return trip home.  I thanked Pat for being my running, workout and video game partner and encouraged him to come back anytime.  I honestly can’t recall anytime in my life that I did not enjoy Patrick’s company.  He is such a good kid.

I wished dad a safe journey.  It seemed to me that he enjoyed his time in the sun and warmth of Florida which I was happy about.  Ali, who is off today, said they pulled out around 11 to go sight see a little bit around olde Naples before they hit the highway.

I know I am going to have two depressed dogs when I get home.  They had so much fun playing with Maggie and Clara, especially Sadie, who also took turns snuggling with pretty much every one of our guests.  I have a feeling they will be walking over to the guest bedrooms repeatedly over the next few days wondering where their buddies went.

From my perspective I thought the visit went well.  Sometimes playing the role of tour director can get difficult but I think all in all we filled their time here with a good variety of fun activities without spending an arm and a leg to do so.  Hopefully it won’t be another two years until they decide to come back.