Saturday, March 19, Day 15, TWINS day Hammond Field Ft. Meyers

Click on picture to see the largest to view.
We woke with anticipation, Twins day. Not only that but will the tickets be there that we bought on-line for this event, they only cost about three times face. But I promised Shirleen a day at the ball park.

At the hotel I got a call from Dean our contact, sounds good, at least we have heard from the cloud. We drove over to the park at 10am, can’t wait to get there and take part in activities of the event. Got parked close to the waterfall. Walked over and no Dean, he did say either there on in the number one parking area. Many people walking around asking for any spare tickets. After five minutes I called, he said I am coming forward toward you. Well there he is with a big smile, shakes our hand and has five envelopes in his hand. I pass them to Shirleen, she checks to see the two in there. He said nice Corvette, he had a guy with a ’69 picking up some tickets also. He gave us his card, seems he and Mike both run this business all year long, this month is the only month he is home in Naples, I have his card, Executive Tickets. We watched the outside events, almost got walked over by Jack Morse, I even recognized him. Shirleen found a nice red Twins shirt, I found a nice polo, but there were no manly sizes left in that design. In the many designs there were only two manly sizes, well next time.

It is within a half hour of the game and we decide to eat, a couple ball park frank, Nachos and cheese and a water. We go to find our seats. The guy at the top of the walk said, you needn’t had brought that along, they get it for you?

We go down, down, till we get to the second from the front dugout row, not like the guy behind us who thought he had the first eats in the front row. As I, he did not know about these special seats.

That is the Tampa Bay Ray's dugout across from us.

The ticket says, Dugout Box section 106, row B, Seat ½. We sat down, full sun and temperatures said to hit 85 mid day. Game time 1:05pm. What a grand seat, worth every penny I spent. The lady in front of us is in a seat which allows them to go to the Ray’s dugout to talk with players. She is dressed to a T, with the southern charm hat on. We talk and she thought Minnesotans and even there ball park people are better mannered that theirs. She went on about Mauer and his good manners and that his good looks don’t hurt either. We went up to cool off before the game starts. Who do I run into, Pete Wendinger, they brought a bus load from New Ulm. Seems to never fail we run into someone.

Well we have now found a sheet that gives all of the Twins wins, losses and outtakes. Along with a special order sheet for food and beverages, prices a quarter or more per item.

It is time for the Twins to take the field, Mauer is the catcher today, what luck. Turns out my pictures are poor because we are to close to screen protecting us from foul balls.

Thome and

Span turned fuzzy. A couple kids were chosen to throw out the first ball. One was rescued from drowning by two EMT’s and they stood by him when he threw. There was a young, 10 to 12 year old to sing the national anthem. He hit the first note, then the mic went dead. A foursome behind us started singing loud and the whole 8,200+ chimed in to cover his disappointment. The game starts with the first three getting on base but none made it to home plate. Twins turn, out one, two, three. It was fun to see the crowd come to life when Mauer came to the plate to hit.

He hit a nice two bagger. The runs just came on, what a great way to see a game. High hitting and runs, with the Twins winning. Luckily there was a light breeze all afternoon, kept it bearable. Game over 9 to 2, hits 13 to 8. What a great way to spend a day.

Back to the hotel to do clothes and rest up from the heat, hit 91 when we climbed into the car.

We were headed to a strip of restaurants and saw a Lee Roy Selmon’s, turned out to be a great tasting smoked pork house. A couple beers for me, Yuengling and Shirleen a gin and tonic. Her three pulled pork sliders turned out to be to much for both of us, I ordered a Back Country Nachos – okra, tomatoes, pulled pork, cheese and chips.

That’s it for tonight. Jerr

Friday, March 18, Day 14, Fort Meyers

Any of these pictures can be clicked on for a bigger look, I think you can also save and print them? Nice Seminole carving at the Chamber office in Port Charlotte.

There are a couple of neat houses on the way to the wildlife sanctuary we missed yesterday so we drove out to Ponce De Leon Park again as it was adjacent to it.

Yellow blossoms on the tree by a stylish house.

The color of azalaes are dramatic.

Turned out it is only open at 11, and we are at 9:30. Off toward Ft Meyers, with a stop at the much acclaimed sea shell museum. We found it with no problems, foreshadowing, parked and walked into the main entrance. What a big big sea shell store. We looked at a layout of the area and said lets go for our walk, well the map made it look much bigger than it was. We now get the feeling that we are at Wall Drug South Dakota. We look at some of the shells and notice they have place of origin, Philippines and other western Pacific areas. We were interested in the Nautilus shell it said they originated in the Philippines and Palau Island. There was a book of shells to look through. What was the last item in it – description of the mollusk, Nautilus? They all originate in the Pacific. Time to leave; make sure you scratch off this as a stop unless you want to wear out the kids.

We headed into downtown Ft. Meyers Shirleen found an interesting place to eat,

The Veranda restaurant, http://www.verandarestaurant.com/history.html. It is 32 years old and is mentioned as one of the best restaurants in southern Florida.

We asked to be seated outside. He said that there were no tables left with umbrellas. He said wait I’ll look, yes there was one under a beautiful tree. Enough shade for two too sit by. Gracious metal chairs and tables in a quaint southern feeling courtyard. When I read the menu and it said that evenings required “dressy casual” attire, I felt underdressed even for lunch. A waitress appeared quickly.

The Veranda's romantic setting in two turn-of-the-century homes, combined with our Southern Regional Cuisine. Shirleen by our table, my southern belle.

Nice menu and description of the area from the early 1850’s. The old house had been lived in, expanded and refurbished by a school teacher. In 1972 it was made into this fine dining restaurant. Shirleen was looking forward to a burger, a Courtyard Burger with American cheese, these made with sirloin, sliced onion, tomato and lettuce; I the chiefs special, four large spicy grilled shrimp resting atop flavorful chard and a mound of grits perfectly blended with Vermont cheddar cheese, tasted like five year aged – WOW what a hit.

The bread that accompanied it was a light sweet brown bun/loaf brushed lightly with honey, and big pads of butter. The tree shading us is a meiwa kumquat tree with golden orange sweet fruit, the waitress said try one they are the sweet variety. So we did, and it was sweet and a nut inside like a peach.

That is the orange colored fruit in and amongst the green leaves of the tree, not a forbidden fruit.

We tried to see the Burroughs house but only opened twice a week Wed and Fri at 11am. We thought it would be nice to see where we are going to stay and check how far from Hammond stadium, looked like 9 miles or so. We drove around for a while then went to the hotel. I worked on yesterdays blog and all of a sudden it is 6pm. I had seen a restaurant named Two Meatballs in the Kitchen, pizza and Italian foods. With a name like that how can I resist? It was off the main street, turned into the parking lot, found a spot but a little tight because of one of the cars. I went around the side and found a spot. We walked to the door that was close to the outside seating, but no one out there. I pulled on the doors and they were locked, we walked away, then someone opened them for us. Well we are at the bar, opposite end from the main door which would have been right by the first parking spot. The people at the bar grinned, I said, surprising how we could find here from Minnesota but not find the front door. Chuckles abound. Walked to the front wait staff, they looked at us as to why are they standing in front of us, aren’t they done eating? I said we snuck in the back door. The place is really set different, on the outside seating are tables made for two sitting across from each other. In the center are four squares, against the other wall are bigger tables. Brought to the table are small freshly baked hot bread buns with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top with a little red pepper flakes and basil.

 These sit in a metal basket with non porous paper with olive oil in the bottom drowning the buns, a different twist to the common way of doing things. We ordered wine Shirleen’s cab and a monteplcno wine from Abruzzi Italy for me, a little lighter than a merlot.

We ordered a Margherita pizza, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil on a medium crust and a side of marinara sauce. Good taste but not like Jake’s. picked up gas, it is $3.56 per gallon. jerr