2013 Favorite Pix

I'm narrowing down the 10-20,000 pictures I took this year. These may not be the best of the bunch but they'll have to do. Thirteen of these pix will end up on the rare 2014 Firecloud Calendar...the sunset should make the cover...

 Alaska Mountain

 Ballooning in Urgup, Turkey

Strange town in Cappadoccia, Turkey

 Moose in Chicken, Alaska

 Roman Ruins- Evora, Portugal

 Boats in Homer, Alaska

 Fishermen - Kenai, Alaska

Lizard on a hot rock in Turkey

 Sea Otters near the Exxon Valdez disaster site

Train in  Skagway, Alaska

Boat lights on the Bosporus

 Urgup, Turkey geology

Ice field near Valdez

Buffalo in Yellowstone

Yellowstone cauldron

Istanbul waterfront

Florida sunset

North Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona

North Rim 2

North Rim 3

North Rim 4

Zen and the Art of Tropical Eating

Sarasota, Florida

We have a new favorite place to eat in Venice. I found it on Tripadvisor. It gets the best rating of all the oyster bars in the area...the name is Cedar Reef Fish Camp...

Our waiter is Justin. He writes his name upside down with a crayon on the white paper tablecloth...we are intrigued with upside down writing and both take a shot at it.

The appetizer is salmon and bread things  with capers and a wasabi sauce. Very delicious.

I have the oyster basket.

She has the scallops...

The next day I make sweet potato casserole and two banana cream pies with graham cracker crust for an outing with friends...

We go on a long bicycle ride in Venice and end up at Sharkey's on the beach.

Mrs. Phred orders a pizza with apples and brie topping...

Venice has placed colorful plastic dolphins all over the city....they also have a lot of new plastic turtles....

I Am the Lizard King

I can do anything.....

 so Mrs Phred beat me at tennis again today...the scores were 6-0, 6-0, 6-0...Jim didn't say anything about the Lizard Queen....

Finding a six inch Megalodon shark tooth near Venice, Florida is highly unlikely. But you can buy one for $1,200. Less for smaller ones....

I poke around on the sand bottom at 30 feet in the 69 degree water for 90 minutes and don't find anything except some fossil manatee ribs....it's the most boring and uncomfortable dive ever...little fish start to follow me to see if I stir up anything good to eat. I'm cold all day...visibility is less than five feet....

The other divers have full wet suits. Two of them even have dry suits that they wear under the ice back in Ohio....

Jessica always comes up with teeth. They're not very big,,,,

My gear  still works ok...it's been a couple of years...it's way easier now to climb up the ladder with 60 pounds of weights and tanks strapped to my back...I'm ready for warmer water and prettier places....

March or Die

Sarasota, Florida

So...I've been doing these 12 mile walks to the Lido beach. Usually I'm so hungry when I get back that I put on two or three  pounds...The water temperature here is down to 73 F...my shorty wetsuit helps but it's still chilly in the water...

I have a little dive lined up this weekend...it turns out that Venice, Florida is the fossil shark tooth capital of the world...I'm hoping to find some six inch megalodon shark teeth I can string on a necklace and send to my youngest male grandchildren.

So...Veteran's day has come and gone...I'd like to thank myself for my Vietnam service...

I have another week long dive trip lined up on November 29th with two buddies on Blackbeard Cruises. It's a 60 foot live aboard sailboat that allows 20 or more very interesting day and night dives in the Bahamas. Food and rum are included in the price...Here is Mrs. Phred  bravely diving with me on Blackbeard's more than 20 years ago...she has retired her wetsuit...

Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight?....

Christopher Marlowe

On one of my many Blackbeard Cruises they ran aground...I watched while the boat dragged anchor at dawn and ran aground hard at high tide...we spent the day on the beach waiting for the tide to return...The boat turned it's side... They have three boats that you can tell apart by the color of the Biminis...

Hey little girl...going my way?

Mrs. Phred Finds a Tiki Bar

Lido Beach, Sarasota

Mrs. Phred has another birthday. She wants to have drinks on the beach at a Tiki bar and she finds one cleverly tucked away between two giant condos....you have to park and walk, but the ambiance is what you would like on a sunny 72 degree day in November....

I went ahead and booked the two week repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona on April 6th. The cruise hits the Azores and five Spanish cities we haven't seen before docking in Barcelona....We'll worry about getting back after we get there....

Halloween has come and gone....I'm working on getting my thumb out of the  I-phone pictures...

After a nine mile walk from Sun and Fun to O'learys on the beach I treat myself to several rum and cokes and a large order of french fries with lots of ketchup....the day proves to be counter-productive as I actually gain a pound...

That's a squirrel on my knee....he (or she) keeps coming back for more of my french fries....an agressive little beggar....

Mrs. Phred goes to see the Lilliputian horses perform..in the pictures she brings back they seem way larger than I would have expected...but maybe those are Lilliputian people in the background?

Mrs. Phred and Mom enjoy chocolate sundaes at Dairy Queen...I pass...

On the beach at O'Leary's

After the French fries...

The new $6 million dollar Wellness Center at Sun and Fun...

Looking out past the indoor pool at the outdoor pool....

Mrs. Phred heads for the Tiki bar on Lido Key...