February 8, 2005: I went down to Florida to help my father celebrate his 85th birthday. First, male member of his immediate family to make it to that milestone year, so this was truly a noteworthy historic event. Now there's hope for the rest of us!! It had to be a quick trip due to other commitments, but well worth it. Joyce and Mike also came down, which added greatly to the festivities. Sally will go down later this month. The weather was ideal ... sun and 75o every day. Poor us!! I got to play a little golf with Dad and Uncle Jeff, Monday afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Those Hogan clubs that I borrowed from Uncle Jeff worked really great!! Monday night we ate dinner at the Roaring 20's music hall in Ellenton, which is the reincarnation of the Paramount Music Palace that used to be on East Washington (closed in '95). Even had Bill Vlasak at the keyboard of the mighty Wurlitzer. Turned out to be a real trip down memory lane. Be sure and check out Bill's rendition of "Hail, Hail to Old Purdue" in honor of Charlie's birthday. Tuesday ... the big day!... we went to Bradenton to pick up Kathy. We stopped by the Bradenton public beach for lunch and a little shelling. Julie, Doug, Uncle Jeff and Loa joined us for a sunset birthday party and dinner in Ruskin. Mike was able to successfully launch a very appropriate "Note in a Bottle" to celebrate the occasion from out on the end of the pier. We watched it slowly make its way south until we lost visual contact. It will be interesting to see if someone finds it and contacts Mike. That sun sure felt good.
If interested, the movie clips should be downloaded to your own computer before playing due to large size files. Right click over the movie you want to save and follow your browser's option for saving the file to your hard drive. This may take several minutes even with broadband connection so be patient. Then open the clip from there.
* Movie 1 -King's Point golf - 5,877 KB
* Movie 2 -King's Point golf - 8,050 KB
* Movie 3 -King's Point golf - 6,393 KB
* Movie 4 -King's Point golf - 8,939 KB
* Movie 5 -King's Point golf - 9,835 KB
* Movie 6 - Roaring 20's - 8,439 KB
* Movie 7 - Roaring 20's - 11,896 KB
* Movie 8 - Roaring 20's Purdue - 28,271 KB
* Movie 9 - At the beach - 4,478 KB
* Movie 10 - Birthday party - 4,859 KB
* Movie 11 - Birthday party - 6,523 KB
* Movie 12 - Birthday party - 6,012 KB
* Movie 13 - Birthday party - 6,521 KB
* Movie 14 - Message in a bottle - 27,260 KB
* Movie 15 - Walking on the pier - 2,937 KB
* Movie 16 - Launching the vessel - 6,512 KB