Sandy is a hoot and a half. She started out the day by bowing to me for the laughter I've given her.
After a few sincere hugs, we went directly to the wine bar. Actually that meant we moved over two feet because we met in front of the wine bar. In Cypress Garden terms, the wine bar is a small counter with teeny tiny plastic cups, like the kind they deliver doses of medicine in at the hospital. We stood there while elderly John patiently explained about the wines and let us test 12,957 samples of authentic Florida wine. We shuddered simultaneously as one sample caused a "Boonesfarm" flashback.
We settled on a mango white with lots of cold water as chaser, then set about yaking for an hour or so. During this time, we were--I swear-- warned twice by a park employee (obviously with more authority than John as he just interrupted him) that we were missing the ski show.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt this guy--at least 60 years old--was a hallway patrol monitor in grade school...definitely the type to send you off to the principal's office if you were caught outside the classroom without a note. I know this because after his first warning that the show was starting in 8 minutes! we turned around so I could show Sandy where the bathroom was and he actually stopped us and asked where we were going? I said "the bathroom...is that okay? We're only going to do Number One" and I held up my index finger.
Later on, as we were still sitting there drinking our wine & water, he came up AGAIN and warned us that we were now officially missing the ski show. Both of us smiled at him and said, "There's more than one show, right?" 'cause we were just happy to sit in the A/C cool, out of the humidity and talk. I named him Nazi Man after that.
We finally decided to brave the heat and wait under a beautiful Live Oak shade tree for the next ski show to start. It was quite comfortable there and so we, yes, yakked some more. Then on to the ski show (see photos) then to dinner. Wow..the culinary delights were so difficult to choose from: hamburger/fries...cheeseburger/fries....grilled chicken breast/fries...hot dog/fries....nachos...oh, and here's a twist: a danish/coffee.
We both opted for the grilled chicken as it seemed the least offensive of the bunch. Little did we realize that they tasted like they had been cooked on Friday and were patiently waiting for naive tourists to come along. Sandy coated hers with mayo and I got past the dryness with an onsaught of ketchup'd fries. We were serenaded by an elderly Karaoke player and his gun moll.
Then the weather turned ugly. Up until then the sky had been a beautiful shade of blue with puffy clouds. Those who aren't glued to the Weather Channel may not realize that eastern central and coastal Florida has been in a flood watch for the past week. Saturday was the first day out of 6 that it wasn't pouring rain. Now the black clouds were back and we beat a hasty retreat to the Topiary Garden for some photo ops. There is another section at the back of the park with a botanical garden, but we never made it there. A couple politely agreed to take our photo together. The man using my Sony camera asked which aperture setting he should use and I said whichever one made me look skinny. I should have said "skinny and 25 years younger" but I think that's the more expensive Sony camera. The one with the optional time travel button.
I had torrential rain for the entire drive over and Sandy hit rain going west on her drive home. But we lucked out and had good weather for the day.
Thanks again for spending the day with me, Sandy. It was a hoot!
