Oh the summer heat…

Is so miserable, and many beaches here in Miami and throughout South Florida are filled with that nasty sargassum so that’s a no go for me. And being the beach lover I am, it makes me very sad. But read on, because well… you’ll see.

Mazen, Nick and Ramzi at Shore Lanes in Merritt Island. That’s Mazen’s bag of toy soldiers in his hand.

Fortunately, we were lucky to cool off with lots of pool time on Fourth of July. But before that, on Friday, we cooled off at the Shore Lanes bowling alley in Merritt Island with my niece Nicole, her husband Tariq and their kids Mazen and Ramzi. We bowled a couple of games and when we were done, the boys enjoyed the arcade where Mazen walked out with almost 100 toy soldiers! After we said our goodbyes, Nick and Vance shot a few games of pool.

Nick hammin’ it up next to the DJ at the Exploration Tower event on July 3rd.

Here’s part of the Port Canaveral team, Victoria, Diane (Vance’s boss) and Vance, at the Exploration Tower event.

Then that afternoon, we went to Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral where Vance was working the Port’s booth at the Smoke on the Water Fire in the Sky event I mentioned in last week’s blog. Nick spent most of the afternoon into the evening entertaining the crowds, dancing next to the DJ who actually gifted him $20 for being such a great sidekick! The evening ended with a cool fireworks display.

View from our cabana at Heathrow Country Club.

Lake view at Heathrow Country Club.

On Saturday, July 4 we drove to Orlando where we spent the day with our friends Phil and Margaret at Heathrow Country Club, where they are members. The pool was fantastic, the barbecue grub and cabana where we lounged just as good and the entertainment of watching Nick, Phil and Vance jump off the diving board was something else!

Sunset in Lake Mary on July 4th. (Photo by Margaret Grupp)

Because the pool party ended at 4 p.m. we moved the party over to Casa Grupp in Lake Mary where we hung out by the pool until a terrible thunderstorm moved us inside. After watching the World Cup for a bit and sipping prosecco which Phil was nice enough to buy after asking me what I liked to drink, we grabbed a casual bite at Dalli’s Pizzeria near their house. The pizza there was really, really good. We then hopped in our cars and drove to Sanford to watch the fireworks along the St. John’s River. We grabbed some great parking spots and were able to see simultaneous fireworks going off in different spots. Thanks to Phil and Margaret for hosting us and I was happy to finally see their lovely home.

Dinner by Elizabeth

Sunday night, Nick and I welcomed Elizabeth home to Miami and on Monday she and I spent the day together thrifting at the Red, White & Blue store just blocks from house and grabbing lunch at Serious Sanji, also in North Miami, where we had fried rice, bao buns and shrimp shumai. We brought home plenty of leftovers and that night she made a great dinner for Nick and I, cooking up chicken tenderloin and a tomato/mushroom/basil orzo that was out of this world!

South Beach blue/green water

Chicken salad sandwich and house made chips at Big Pink.

Being in Miami, Elizabeth begged me if we could go to the beach together so on Tuesday afternoon we spent time on South Beach, where the seaweed was floating around but not horrible. The water was a bit warm but sitting under the umbrella after our dip with the beach breeze cooling us off was nice. Eventually, we packed up, put everything in the car and walked a few blocks to the iconic Big Pink Diner on 1st St. and Collins Ave. where we had a great lunch. This place has been around 30 years and is still really, really good. The whole time we sat there I was reminiscing about the late 80s and early 90s on South Beach, the many times I ate here and all the fun times I had on my own and later with Vance. Those were the days. Oh, and that chicken salad sandwich in the photo above was both my lunch and dinner that day.

We’re all smiles after winning first place at trivia at Old Tom’s Cafe in Miami Springs. L-R that’s Sean, Patty, Elizabeth, Nick, me, Gwen, David and Armando. We won a $50 Old Tom’s gift card.

Wednesday, we were the dream team at trivia, taking first place and only missing two questions! Elizabeth joined us before heading back to Orlando and all of our contributions got us a near perfect score.

That’ll do it for this week. Tomorrow we’re going to the afternoon Marlins game and when we get home, I’m gonna walk over to the Creative Shelter grand opening event. It’s the latest venture by renaissance woman/actress/performer/writer Susie K. Taylor who has now turned her talents to visual arts. Can’t wait to see what she’s come up with now because Susie is one fun, creative soul!

I may also go see the Miami One Acts Festival at the Sandrell Rivers Theater, perhaps on Sunday. The festival is the creation of my friend, playwright/actor Ricky J. Martinez with assistance from my good friend and fantastic writer Ruben Diaz. Ruben has written several scripts, one of which is currently in production!

And you know I’m going to send you to South Florida on the Cheap for suggestions on what to do this weekend and beyond and for any cultural events or happenings, check out Artburst Miami.

Finally, a photo of a cute birdie in the feeder, the pic taken by Nick who has lately been following my lead and snapping shots of birds and sunsets for me!

See you next Friday, right here, in your inbox. TTFN!