After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs I detested, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. Searching for meaning in my life, I abandoned my successful but unsatisfying career and set out on a six-month solo backpacking trip around the world to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. My blog features stories about the destinations I visit, people I meet, the crazy things...Read more here.... 
We’ve had an absolutely delightful week of sunshine, crystal blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70′s, but today the temps dropped and by dusk a fog bank blanketed downtown Sarasota, making for some ethereal scenes. I thought I’d share just a few photos:
Artistic photo of Pastry Art in the fog, downtown Sarasota
Those of you who have been faithfully reading my blog know that I am enamored with Sarasota’s commitment to culture and the arts. But this morning I saw another side of Sarasota – its passion for sports. I have always known that Florida (along with Arizona, where I also lived for 11 years) is the winter training grounds for Major League Baseball. Today I learned that Sarasota has been hosting spring training since 1920, longer than any other city in Florida. The Cincinnati Reds train here and a huge crowd was on hand to welcome them back at a rally this morning in front of the downtown library. The faithful came in all shapes and sizes:
Men in Reds T-shirts
And women in Reds T-shirts
You just never know when you’re going to be entertained. Today it was at a downtown coffee and pastry shop, where I stopped for a late afternoon snack. I had just settled down with my Vente Cappuccino when three cops walked in for their mid-afternoon coffee break. They were still standing at the counter ordering when a woman burst into the shop, demanding that they come over to her store and arrest her boyfriend. Two of the cops stepped outside to discuss the situation with her, but not before I heard her exclaim, “He maliciously embarrassed me.” Imagine that. Malicious embarrassment. Maybe there’s a new criminal code I don’t know about.
Although I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation, the ensuing pantomime through the shop’s front window was almost as entertaining. I watched for nearly 20 minutes as the woman got right up in the faces of the two cops, shaking her finger and berating them for their unwillingness to arrest her boyfriend. A homeless guy sitting at one of the outside tables watched open-mouthed, shaking his head and laughing as the situation unfolded. Continue reading
On occasion I have written about things that I consider indicative of the “Failing of America” – usually companies that have lost touch with their customers’ needs and desires or have forgotten what customer service is about. In these cases there is usually a lot of finger pointing going on – blaming someone/something else rather than taking responsibility for ones own actions.
So it was refreshing to receive an e-newsletter from USAirways today where they actually took responsibility for their own actions. After providing an overview of their current state of affairs (they are now out of bankruptcy and actually turned a profit this past year – setting aside $58.7 million for their employees to be distributed through profit sharing), they went on to discuss some of the lessons they learned throughout their restructuring and merger with America West Airlines. The following are DIRECT QUOTES from the newsletter:
On the subject of the A320 (aircraft) First Class overhead bin space (or lack thereof) there was this:
“If you’ve flown in First Class on one of 20 reconfigured A320s then you know that we blew it on the overhead bins by putting everything but the kitchen sink up there (e.g. oxygen tanks, video players, survival gear) and took up space that belongs to you and your bags. We sincerely apologize and Continue reading
Posted in Travel industry news | 
airlines, honesty, newsletter, The Failing Of America, Travel, USAirways | 
2 Comments
A friend from my previous life in real estate, Bill Holt, sent me an email the other day that contained a series of old black & white photos. Apparently, these photos were discovered on the film from a Brownie camera found stored in an old footlocker belonging to a sailor who was serving on the USS Quapaw ATF-110 in 1941. When developed, the photos contained spectacular images of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th of that year.
Recently discovered B&W photos of the attack on Pearl Harbor
These were definitely some spectacular photos, so I sent them off to my Dad, since he served in WWII. Dad was a belly gunner in a B-17-E Bomber during the war. For those of you who don’t know what a belly gunner was, after the B-17 was airborne, these airmen climbed down through a hatch that accessed a small plastic sphere in the rear of the plane. They curled up in an upside-down position while the sphere was hand-cranked down until it rested beneath the plane. Then the ball was rotated so that the belly gunner was sitting in an upright position, from where he could operate hand and foot pedals that turned the ball in a circle and fired machine guns at enemy fighters. Once rotated into this upright position, the belly gunner was totally cut off from the interior of the aircraft.
The belly guns and the machine guns in the main fuselage were the only weapons the bombers had because their payload was devoted to carrying the bombs. Up to the point where the bombers entered “the slot” (the target area), they had the protection of fighter aircraft that flew along with the formation. But once they hit “the slot” the fighters broke away and the bombers were on their own. At this point, the pilot Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized | B-17 bombers, belly gunners, Brownie camera, film, history, Pearl Harbor, photos, war, World War II, WWII | 16 Comments
I smile a lot these days. I wake up each morning with a smile on my face. I can’t wait to discover what the day has in store for me. As I go through the day I smile at everyone I meet and I find it’s infectious – even people who are seemingly having a bad day will smile and nod when I greet them with a big, sappy grin and say hello. I find I am surrounded by happy people and I thought I’d share with you some of the smiles I’ve captured as well as some of the things that made me smile.
Each Saturday morning I hike up to the downtown Farmer’s Market for my fresh organic fruit and veggies, olive oil, nuts, cheeses and fresh bread. I arrived this morning to find not only the Market, but also the entire length of Main Street blocked off for an Art Fair. Here are a few of the things that were making people smile:
Beignets, funnel cakes and French apple pie
Kettle Corn
Music
These giant fiberglass critters had the most amazing effect on people. I stood for about 20 minutes and watched as people came around the corner and were confronted by these behemoths. Every single person got a big grin on their face the moment they saw them:
Giant fiberglass critters were good for a smile
This guy got a big kick out of a giant frog
Last week on one of my walks I happened on a little park, tucked away in a corner of downtown. Bright blue benches, planters filled with blooming plants and more of Sarasota’s ubiquitous clown statues were backed by the most fanciful fountain I have ever seen:
Clowns gaze over the fanciful Pineapple Avenue fountain
Another clown statue, looking toward downtown Sarasota
The backdrop of the fountain
A detail of one of the many enamel insets of the fountain
These enamel inlays weren’t only on the fountain – they were all over the sidewalk as well! I really think they let children design this park – you can’t help but smile when you look at some of the sidewalk blurbs. I have no idea what they mean, I only know that they tickled me.
In the velvet black of night, Farthing slid to his beloved
Guided by a single star, the elegant swimmer entered the Gulf
Though very wise, the Eldersnails were not known for their excess humor...What fun!
And one final photo – every Monday evening I go to the Historic Asolo Theater at the Ringling Museum of Art to see screenings of historic films. This theater was built in 1798 to honor the legendary Catherine Cornaro, who was the bride of James II, the King of Cyprus in the 15th century. It was a popular venue, hosting some of the greatest theatrical performers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, until it was dismantled by the Fascist regime in Italy in the 1930′s. A Venetian collector/dealer, Adolph Loewi, purchased the theater and stored it in his personal collection until, in 1952, the Ringling Museum purchased the theater, brought it to Sarasota, and restored it to its former glory. The theater is exquisite in its design and detail and you can’t help but be awed by it. While not “technically” making people smile, it does indeed inspire:
Historic Asolo Theater at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art
Hope you enjoyed the smile tour – and that it made you smile, too! Keep reading folks, because I’ve just finalized my round-the-world itinerary and am anxiously awaiting my visas from a few countries. I’ll be spilling the beans about my six month trip in the next couple of days, so be sure to tune in soon. I’m getting excited now!
Posted in Florida travel | Art, Asolo Theater, downtown, Fairs, farmers markets, Festivals, Florida, Food, photos, Sarasota | 2 Comments
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