We celebrated Sandra’s birthday by – SURPRISE! – Hiking! WE tromped throughout Lake County at P.E.A.R. Park, The Florida Scrub Jay Trail, Palatlahaka River Park and the Crooked River Preserve. Above is a sketch of the many, many cypress knees at the P.E.A.R. Park interpretative trail.

For more of these hikes, Sandra will write more on her Florida Hikes blog shortly and the Genuine Florida Blog will feature the Florida Scrub Jeay Trail shortly.

Sandra and I went down to Punta Gorda to review a number of places for one of Sandra’s travel guides. Jennifer Huber, with the visitor bureau was kind enough to meet us for dinner at an interesting Mediterranean restaurant and then to a wonderful 1910 building that houses an ice cream shop, Chubby’s. Above is a sketch of the are underneath the porch of the 1910 structure.

We also covered the new Muscle Car City. It’s a museum of ‘muscle cars’. The most incredible part is that it’s in an old Wal-Mart building. See photos at Genuine Floria, by clicking here.

We later had some excellent seafood at Peace River Seafood and then Sandra and I made a return trip to Chubbys.

Wednesday we started off with breakfast at Brenda’s Restaurant, which also houses the Masons.  Brenda lost her original place because of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and the Masons were very kind to let her move in and save her business. Which clearly is a large and loyal one.

Then we continued on to hiking parts of the Babcock Rance. Below is a sketch of what’s left of a tree.

We made our way south out of Charlotte County and stopped in Bradenton and toured Robinson’s Preserve, along Tampa Bay and across from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Collectively we hiked 7 plus miles. Below is a sketch from there. We had hoped to stop at the infamous Shake Pit, but is had closed early. Instead we took US41 south through Ruskin and Gibsonton, Sun City Center and Tampa. We stopped in Temple Terrace and had some vittles at the Dairy Queen.

We hiked the Angus Goulson park in Chattahoochee, in North Florida. It’s a really nice trail with lots of hills. Sandra has sepnt time with Goulson, now in his 90s, and still living in the house he was born in near the park. To the left is a sketch made during the hike.

We also visited the dike at the Florida and Georgia border. The dike is where the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers meet there and move on into Florida.

I made the trip to the northern part of Okeechobee County to pick up Sandra, who’d been backpacking with friends for the past four days across the vast southern prairies of south Florida. I picked her up at the Fort Basinger trailhead where the sketch above was drawn.

We drove into the city of Okeechobee and got a New Years dinner at the excellent Lightsey’s restaurant. Above is a sketch of the fish that floated around and watched us from the tank beside our table. Below is the head of the wild hog posted on the wall above dinner crowd.

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Above are sketches drawn while walking in the Ocala Christmas Parade. I thought I would challenge myself by sketching as I walked the three miles in the dark of what I saw from the parade route. I had to draw QUICK!

Sandra and I found ourselves walking with the Republican Federated Women float. Odd for Sandra to do in that she’s a Democrat. She went along because neice Amber was one of the children riding in the small float. Amber is in red in the photo below. Below are photos of the float.

The various floats line up for action in the nighttime parade.

Sandra Claus, the Christmas Hiker!

This morning, Sandra and I attended a special event just for US Forest Service employees, volunteers, and partners. It was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ocala National Forest, which happened on November 24, 1908. 160,000 acres in north Central Florida were designated by President Teddy Roosevelt as public park space which is still being enjoyed bt Americans today. For more click here for Sandra’s entry at Florida Hikes!

To the left is an early water fountain in the Mill Dam section. Below is a windy spot of the park off a lake. It was rather chilly and the wind chill in the low 30s didn’t help the cold I’d developed overnight. Despite the runny nose, I didn’t want to miss this special event I got to attend.

We hiked 3 and a half miles from the Ross Prairie Trailhead. Here are sketches and a bit of film of me drawing Sandra took. The drawing above is the same I started and finished in the film.

For photos of the hike click here to see them at Genuine Florida.

Sandra and I hiked the Oxbow Trail on the Withlacoochee River. Above is a sketch I drew while on the trail.

Yesterday was door to door work for the McCain campaign all around concrete and asphalt. Early this morning was a 3 mile hike at Silver Glen Springs under trees and fresh air lead by Sandra. I was the “Sweep”, the person at the end making sure everyone is accounted for. This hike was part of the Springs Festival. A very good crowd showed for the early morning hike. Above is one of the sketches I drew during the hike.

Above our sketches from a wading trip Sandra and I took with a group from FOWA off the Charolotte County coast. Later we went on a swamp bus tour of the Babcock Ranch. Below are sketches from that trip ,while we were on the bus.

Still out in the Big Cypress Swamp! Here is another sketch made while in the swamp. It’s a lone cypress knee.

Below are more caricatures I drew today.