Last posting of good camera photos from the Florida trip with Michelle. So we did all things manatee….Harry Potter World and the rest of Universal Studios…but on the last full day, we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa. This was kinda for me. I love to be with animals. If you aren’t familiar with Busch Gardens, it is a huge zoo and with some roller coasters thrown throughout the park. We didn’t ride any roller coasters, but we did have a blast seeing all the animals. Michelle had never seen kangaroos live before. They are weirdly cute little guys (okay, some are not so small). They have long claws….thick tails that they balance on when walking and fighting. We also saw some black swans. I don’t think I had ever seen one in person before. They are just so pretty. There was a black swan couple with a nest with three eggs. We went into an aviary where they had these gorgeous birds called lorikeets. They are a part of the parrot family but are smaller. They were zooming all over the place. One landed on Michelle’s head. To be very honest, I was laughing so hard that I didn’t even get one photo of it. Michelle stayed relatively calm considering there was a very colorful bird sitting on her head. We both decided that Joe was right there laughing with us. We also saw flamingos…so many of them! They were so brightly colored they almost hurt my eyes as they were standing on bright green grass. There was a beautiful pink bird called a Roseate Spoonbill. They almost became extinct at the turn of the century because women wanted their pink feathers for their hats. The color of their feathers are so beautiful….from a blush pink to a hot pink. We saw a few Asian elephants…and got a kick out of one of them who was playing in a spray of water with her trunk. The lion and lionesses were active and putting on a show, which was nice. They had some adorably cute porcupines. Who knew they were so cute and photogenic? Cheetahs….yep…they had them, along with zebras. Michelle and I went on a giraffe safari excursion. It was pretty fun. We had a small group of people and we went out into the acres of their Savannah area standing in the back of an open air truck. We got out there and got swarmed by the giraffes. Evidently we were supposed to calmly hold out our harms away from the truck with lettuce and the giraffes would just simply take them from us. Well, quite quickly we had 5-7 giraffe necks in the back of the truck with us. I had a giraffe neck over my shoulder as he went for the guide’s waist band, where he was holding the lettuce. The guide was relatively calm but kept saying that “This is not how it is supposed to work!” He had to keep holding his hands up in the air with lettuce in them to get the giraffes to lift their heads out of the back of the truck. There was one man who was petrified. There was a grandma (called Nanny by her twenty-something granddaughter) who kept getting the back of her neck nibbled on by a randy giraffe. Some people thought it was a bit much….Michelle and I thought it was a great time with a great story to tell. The guide was a young man who talked with us for quite a while after we got back. He said he has actually gotten a concussion from a giraffe swinging its neck on a tour one time. Michelle told him that was the best “fun fact” story ever! Anyhow, we had a fantastic day. Considering I started out thanking Michelle for suffering through the zoo with me….we both left laughing and she has a lorikeet and giraffe story and got dippin dots (her favorite) – so I think it was a win.

After dropping off Michelle at the airport to fly back to Kansas City, I went to the aquarium in Clearwater, Florida. This was the home to Winter, the dolphin that lost her tail and had a prosthetic tail. They made a movie about her. This was her home until her death in 2021. Their residents are marine animals who cannot be released back into the wild. Many of their dolphins have sonar issues….they are deaf and cannot hunt for food and protect themselves from predators. The have the bottle-nosed dolphins that you and I envision when we think of dolphins and they also have two rough-toothed dolphins, Rex and Rudy. They are very different with longer noses and just a different look all the way around.

I went out on a boat ride with one of their marine biologists. They dredged an area in the gulf and then we looked at what they pulled in. It was very interesting. We also went to One Tree Island….home to – you guessed it – one tree and a flagpole. I walked around the aquarium and marveled at the 1.5 million gallon tank…watched divers scrubbing tanks (that is a big job!), and watched the otters play and the sea turtles fly through the water. I love turtles, so got a few good shots of them as well.

The Clearwater Aquarium Center announced this morning that their oldest dolphin, Hemingway, died during the night. I have a couple of photos of him here. They aren’t very good but I saved them to post in his honor. They believed him to be 37 years old. When I saw him two weeks ago, he just looked sad. There are docents all over the aquarium to tell you about the animals. One of them said he was missing his friend, an older dolphin who died a few months ago. He was placed in a tank with a younger male and that rallied his spirits for awhile. My heart goes out to the staff there who obviously love their animals and who are mourning his loss.

Tampa Electric Company has long pier that goes out into a bay filled with warm, clean discharge water from their factory. I put a few photos on a former post which were taken with my cell phone. These are more close up photos of the manatees who come into the warm waters during the winter. Michelle and I had already done a clear kayak ride, a snorkeling trip, and this one we were able to stay dry and just look out all dozens of manatees along with some babies. It is free….my recommendation is to definitely go….but arrive early, when they are just opening. I highly recommend it! We learned a lot and they have a sting ray petting tank and a cute gift shop with all things manatee as well. Definitely glad we made the time to stop by! Learn about the floaty potatoes!

I am playing catch up with photo processing pictures from my good camera. I have been travelling quite a bit so I am just getting some down time to go through some photos. Michelle and I went on a sunset tour on a boat in Clearwater, Florida. It was supposed to be an afternoon dolphin tour, but I had a scheduling snafu and so we ended up on the sunset cruise, which was really spectacular. We did happen to see a few dolphins on our way out to the gulf. Prior to going on the cruise, we took off our shoes and walked in the cool, white sand and dipped our toes in the surf and chatted for awhile. It was a relaxing start to our time in Florida! Something I learned about the brown pelican….which are all over the place in central Florida…..when their heads are stained with yellow, they are in the mating season. Brown pelicans are some of the smallest of the pelican family – and they aren’t that small. The heads are yellow on these brown pelicans…so they are in mating season!

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the beginning of year 4721 on the Chinese calendar – the year of the Rabbit. You are a rabbit if your birth date falls during the following years: 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, and after January 22, 2023. traits of people who were born under the sign of the rabbit: They are affectionate, talented, obliging, always pleasant, value security and tranquility. They can sometimes get too sentimental and superficial. They are cautious and conservative. Famous people born under the year of the rabbit: Albert Einstein, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bob Hope, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Frank Sinatra.

Chinese New Year starts on the new moon on the 1st day of the new year and ends 15 days later on the full moon (Lantern Festival). Special foods eaten on Chinese New Year: peanuts (long life), oranges (wealth), tangerines (good luck), and noodles (long life). Some of the traditions are wearing the color red (good luck), cleaning the house and then hiding the cleaning materials. People wear new clothes for the new year. There are lots of fireworks, the lion dance is performed, and family gatherings are very popular. Children get red envelopes (hongbao) from elders after bowing 3 times and saying “gongxi” several times. New bills are inside for good luck and wealth in the new year. Everyone stays up late on New Year’s Ever. It is believed that the longer the kids stay up, the longer the parents will live.

For the last 16 years that Lily has been a part of our family, we have celebrated today with Chinese food and cards to close friends and family with a photo of Lily and the animal of the new year. This is the last year I am making her suffer through the photoshoots. She is now 18 and if she chooses to celebrate, she can. Here is her final Chinese New Year photo for 2023.

Little known fact: Michelle and I are Potter heads. We both really like the magical world of Harry Potter. So, we saved a day to experience Harry Potter World. That was fun. We had frozen butter beer and attempted to not get poked in the eye with rogue wands being waved. We also went through other parts of the park, like Jurassic Park. We put 20,000 steps in and had a great time taking in the sites and just people watching. There were a lot of families all dressed up in Harry Potter costumes of some sort. The weather was great and we spent the day just wandering around. We finished our day at the Chocolate Emporium. I got the biggest and best sugar cookie I have ever had there. I made it last two days! The rest of our trip is mostly caught on my good camera…so it may be a bit before I can get to those, as I am heading to Houston tomorrow (driving). I will try to get them up soon!

I flew into Florida last Friday and stayed with Rich’s cousin, John and Kim. They were such gracious hosts as I showed up on their doorstep at near 1 a.m. We spent Saturday morning catching up before I went to the airport to pick up Michelle. She told me years ago that she wrote a report about manatees when she was in the 3rd grade and has loved them ever since. She had never seen one live before. I thought we should change that. We have been talking about this trip for several months now. We decided that the depths of winter would be the best time to get away from the snowy midwest and to reconnect with one another after the tough parts of the holiday season. We went to Clearwater Marina and spent some time soaking in the sun and walking in the sand and getting our feet wet in the surf. We then went on a boat to watch the dolphins play and the sun set in the gulf. I have some photos of that on my good camera, which will come later. We then drove up to Crystal River, where we stayed in an air bnb for two nights. It is a cute little town, and we had a great time eating at local eateries and going to art galleries to see local artwork. On Sunday, we got up and in 42 degree weather, went kayaking in a clear plastic kayak. It was a tandem kayak, so Michelle was in the front and I was in the back. We could see the fauna in the water underneath us as we paddled around Kings Bay. We found some manatees pretty quickly. That afternoon we then went snorkeling with the manatees. I took some photos but the guide in the water with us had a much better view and a much better camera. I bought those photos she took. I am not a good underwater photographer. We also went to the TECO Manatee Viewing Center in Tampa a few days later, where there were dozens of manatees (including babies) in a small bay. They discharge clean, warm water and the manatees love to come in there and warm up. Anyhow, here are some of the manatee photos from our three manatee experiences. Michelle and I were happy that we missed the Manatee Festival (which is going on right now). The winter is the manatee season…and we have decided that we love the phrase, “When life gets stressful, just relax and pretend you are a manatee.” Fun fact: they are huge and incredibly docile creatures. They don’t have an amygdala…the part of your brain that controls your emotions. They don’t get overly upset about anything. They are big swimming potatoes. I actually almost ran right into one, because I thought it was a sea wall. It was a barnacle covered manatee. They also have hair…about 2 inches long. If you ever get the chance to visit them….do it!

I have been gone over the last week to Florida. I purposefully did not bring a laptop or tablet to do work on. I wanted to devote my attention to just being in the moment. However, I had so many wonderful moments that now I want to share with you all. Before I move on to Florida stuff (which will be in another post) I wanted to share something very special that happened in the last 24 hours or so.

I flew home on Friday evening. I happened to be sitting next to a retired firefighter/EMT from Norfolk, Nebraska. He and his wife moved down to Clearwater a few years ago after a particularly cold winter snap. My phone screensaver has been Joe’s bunker gear when he graduated from the Olathe Firefighter Academy back in 2021. He asked me about it and I told him about Joe. I told him how incredibly awesome OFD was when he died. They literally carried us through that difficult time along with his army national guard unit. The man sitting next to me told me that Joe was also an awesome person because he, too, was a fireman, and a part of that awesome group of people.

I was in the middle of doing laundry and catching up on bookkeeping from work when the UPS truck dropped off a small package on my doorstep. It was from the Olathe Fire Department. I was blown away by the contents. Love those guys and gals so much. They really step up and do something wonderful when I really need it.

I know this is out of order, but I just got around to processing these photos. The day before I had my surgery, the sun was actually out, and I could use the natural light in my house to take a few photos of things that really defined my feelings of this first Christmas without my Joe. It was snowing outside and so I thought I would start out with the easy stuff…. easy on my heart anyhow. I wanted to take some photos of Tallinn outside with the snow gently falling. Well, that nut of a dog decided that he wanted to try and catch the snowflakes in the air. He just couldn’t help himself. He is a fruitcake, but I love him. Then I decided to test my dog lover’s patience even further and see if I could get a santa hat on him and take a picture of him in front of our Christmas tree. That is a two-person job. I am only one person. He enjoyed carrying around the Santa hat, but definitely not wearing it. I did manage to get some reindeer antlers on him that we have tortured many family dogs over the years with. He was not happy. So, I gave up on cute Tallinn Christmas photos and went to take some photos that were more for me…and how I was feeling without my Joe this year. I set everything up and Tallinn, who had unrequited love for Joe, just curled up around my items I had laid out and wouldn’t move. Joe wasn’t really fond of Tallinn, although I think when he was able to spend time with him when his two dogs weren’t there, he realized Tallinn was tolerable. But Tallinn really liked Joe…and he absolutely loves Tim. We joke that it is because he recognizes the ginger hair on them as being one of “his people”. Anyhow, I am guessing some of you will be thinking these photos are weird. They come from my heart though. I have been journaling letters to my Joe since right after his Celebration of Life. It allows me to talk to him and it is also a record or how far I have come in this grief journey….and how much further I have yet to go. This is my blog…so it is a no judgement area. This was me using my form of art to grieve my son this first Christmas. I was only going to keep these for myself but decided last minute to share them.

I wanted to hop on here real quick and give a happy birthday shout out to Lily Su Grace! Happy 18th birthday! It is amazing how much she has grown since we adopted her in China 16 years ago. She was so shy and afraid of everything…even a slide at the park terrified her….momentarily. She always seems to conquer her fears and just go into life headlong. Her dad and her brothers are always egging her on, but she has learned to give as good as she gets. Her quick wit is amazing and she makes me laugh every day. I don’t know if she understands what a gift that is to give to someone….to make them smile and get them to belly laugh. In every state but Nebraska, today she is the age of majority…an adult. She has less than 6 months left here, so she’ll be a legal adult somewhere soon! Speaking of somewhere….she is supposed to announce where she wants to go to college to us tonight. I am excited to hear where she wants to go so we can start helping her move in that direction. But for today, we are just giving thanks for this bright light that was added to our family a little over 16 years ago. Our family would be so much less lively without her. So heres to my beautiful, witty, snarky, clever daughter, Lily! Happy Birthday, Honey. We love you so very much! Here are 18 photos from across your life with us….taken all over the world.