A Great Long Weekend

We are sad that this weekend is over.  Our sunset cruise around Sarasota Bay was magical.  It started out rainy, but the clouds soon parted and the music started playing.  We saw dolphins, gorgeous sunsets, and lots of birds.  We definitely recommend LeBarge Sunset Tours!

Charlie finished his fifth week of radiation on Friday.  He is feeling some fatigue and also loss of his sense of taste.  We are considering acupuncture if the problem continues.

Friday night Charlie' brother Richard and wife Phyllis flew down from North Carolina to spend the weekend with us.  Their son Chris lives near Tampa, and he and his girlfriend also joined us at the beach on Saturday and another boat ride on Sunday.  We left from Marina Jack Yacht Club.

Here are Richard, Phyllis, Chris, and Elise on board the Mako Me Nuts, a deck boat that Jeff rented from the Freedom Boat Club.

We saw the Ringling Mansion from the bay side.  Very impressive!  Charlie and I visited there in 2015 when he first came here for radiation.

 Here is LeBarge in port, waiting for its evening departure.

Everyone has gone home now.  When you are away from home and going through something as stressful as cancer treatment, it means so much to have visits from family members.

Some Artsy Things

Still down here in southwest Florida, keeping an eye on the storm named Erika to see which track it decides to take.  

I brought my watercolor palette with me and fooled around with a sunset picture recently.  If you haven't painted for awhile, it helps to do some warm ups.  I consider this a warm-up because I recently did a similar painting of a marsh sunset.

Here is a nice surprise inside a ladies' restroom at The Crab and Fin Restaurant on St. Armand's Key, Sarasota.  The stall doors are painted like dresses on hangers or manikins.

Here are two more artsy things from the Ringling mansion.  I love the compass rose made of mosaic tile.   It is outside on the walkway leading to the mansion.

And here is another window facing the marble tile patio.  It looks like patchwork to me!

Every morning we get up at about 5:00AM and leave before 6:00.  On the way to Sarasota we see a sunrise almost every day.  God's own artwork!

Ringling Mansion and Circus Museum

During the first week of Charlie's radiation treatment, we tried to venture out afterward to some of the beaches and attractions in Sarasota.  Yesterday, we went to the Ringling complex to see the mansion and the circus museum.

John and Mable Ringling loved everything Italian, and built themselves a palace at the edge of Sarasota Bay much like the palaces on the Grand Canal in Venice.

All that tile in the foreground is a marble patio.  Even the boat dock is marble.

Most of the windows are tinted glass or stained glass.  I love the glowing patchwork appearance of the windows.

Here is Mr. Ringling's personal bar, with lots of beautiful glass, wood, and tile.

I loved this wooden door.

The grounds were beautiful, with bromeliads, 

banyan trees with aerial roots reaching the ground,

and a rose garden with lots of sculptures. 

On the same grounds as the mansion, there is an art museum and a performing arts center.  We saved the art museum for another visit, and saw the circus exhibits.  I was drawn to the costumes on display.

Here is a ringmaster's jacket and top hat.

The elephant blanket and this dress from one of the parades were the best textiles on display!

There was also a fantastic miniature circus that took up an enormous floor space.  It took fifty years to build.  The pictures don't do it justice.

For color inspiration, there were quite a few of the ornate circus train cars on display.

May all your days be circus days!