Tuesday, September 8, 2009

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend! Spending time with Mark, Jess, and Jess's parents, Wayne and Irene has been great. It started with a work day for Mark on Friday, but we were able to see him walking in therapy with two canes. His shoe with the lift in it was 'out for repairs' (actually to lower the lift for the third time which is good progress) but he did wonderfully. After PT, Mark went on to the rest of his busy day, and we showed Irene and Wayne the Fisher House and a little bit of the area around the hospital. When Mark was done for the day, he and Jess packed up and came up to the hotel to spend the long weekend their with the parental units!

Saturday, which was Wayne's birthday, we were all surprised by Mark who walked down to breakfast. His shoe had been completed and he and Jess thought it would be a great birthday present for Wayne to walk into the breakfast room at the hotel. They were right, it was, for all of us. Then we all headed to St. Petersburg to sightsee and go to the outdoor market. It was definitely fun and Wayne enjoyed the varied architecture of the city. From there we headed back to the hotel and had a late lunch. Jess took Wayne to Barnes and Noble to experience an American bookstore, I did some errands, and Rich, Irene and Mark headed to their respective rooms for a siesta. Then it was on to Ybor City and the historic Columbia Restaurant for dinner. The Columbia was opened in 1905 and is the oldest restaurant that has been continually owned by one family in the state of Florida. It is in a very unique building and we had a wonderful time.

Sunday took us on another adventure to see Tarpon Springs which is a city that was founded a couple of hundred years ago by Greek sponge divers. It still operates as a shrimping and sponge diving center today. There are beautiful old Victorian houses and waterfront areas. Although it was hotter than Hades, we enjoyed our time there poking around the docks and driving through some of the residential areas. Mark suggested we head to Tarpon Lake, which is nearby, for lunch at the Tarpon Turtle. The last time he and I were there about 12 years ago, it was a "rustic" place right on the lakeshore, where the boats pulled up to the dock for lunch. It has been completely rebuilt over the years and is now a very large, beautiful restaurant with docks. We enjoyed showing the others another landmark that Mark and I had been to years ago on a visit here to see my aunt. We got back to the hotel and Jess and Mark took us to see their new apartment which is in a complex right next to the hotel. We all loved it. It's a very nice open floor plan that Mark manages to get around very well. The bedrooms, living and kitchen are spacious and they have a large attached garage for the truck, which, by the way, Jess has taken to like a duck to water! Then we enjoyed a little pool time before heading out to dinner.

Since Sunday had been so hot, and Monday had the same forecast, we headed indoors to the International Mall for a bit of window (and for some of us, real) shopping. Mark and Jess needed to try out mattresses for their new apartment and settled on one, which they were able to order. Of course, the rest of us all had to try it out as well. After lunch we returned back to the hospital and Wayne and Irene got to see Mark's apartment there. He and Rich hung out there while the rest of us headed to the supermarket for the supplies we needed to make a meal at the Fisher House that evening. We had a wonderful dinner with our friends, RyAnne, Veronica, Bradley, Meredith, Mike, Ivonne and AJ, who of course, entertained us through the entire meal. It was a fun evening with FLamily (Florida family) as RyAnne has nicknamed the group.

All in all we had a great weekend, and unfortunately, Mark heads back to work today and we have several meetings today and tomorrow about Mark's future so the remainder of our stay here will be busy as well.