Visitors from half a world away!

My cousins, Vlasta and Mirek have arrived from the Czech Republic for 10 days in Florida. They landed in Miami, saw the Keys, went scuba diving, enjoyed the Everglades and with a small agenda in hand arrived in Port Charlotte on Sunday. It has been awesome to show them the hospitality that they showed me last April when I visited their home!

Vlasta, on the right, is my father's sister's daughter. Mirek is her husband. We are enjoying a lunch with "pivo" (beer) and sandwiches at Gator's after being at the driving range testing out the new golf clubs they bought in Florida.

Huh?

They bought golf clubs only to fly them all the way home to the Czech Republic?
Yes.
See, golfing in CR is very difficult. There aren't courses. There isn't really space. Golf courses were not really popular during Communist times so now the whole sport is getting a new awakening. Mirek is addicted to the sport. Vlasta enjoys it too.

Their time in Port Charlotte is only 5 days really if you don't count the day they arrive and they day they leave so it was organization time to get all the things in they wanted to do in the days they had. They arrived with their own rental car so this made things easier. All I had to do was find the things to do and we were golden. They even brought a GPS from Prague to direct them around the area. Perfect.

First, shopping. Sizes and styles are so much more diverse here in the U.S. so off they went to the mall. Packages in hand they arrived back with smiles on their faces.
Then it was finding a fishing trip for Mirek.

He loves fishing.
No, he's addicted to it as much as golfing.
He had asked before they came what fishing trips he could go on.
I found one highly recommended and not very expensive (some range from $1,000 to $60) at $160 for a full day's excursion. Mirek was excited!
I phoned, made a reservation for him and he was over the moon!
Vlasta was equally excited as she could spend a day by the pool in the sun with her Canadian cousin.
Everyone was happy.
Yay!

Then it was to find golf courses.
In Port Charlotte there is enough golfing to keep you occupied for a month and never play the same course twice.
Finding a tee time in the morning was another challenge.

See, it's getting hotter down here (like in the 90's Farhenheit with humidity in the 70% range) and playing in the afternoon is just a killer.
Also many courses are having their club championship as the Snowbirds are starting to pack up their kit bags and head home to the cooler climes. Folks that have been hanging out all season beating the course up need to show their awesome skills before heading to their northern courses. Word of the warm weather and courses opening up there has caused some increase in the departures around here.

Found two courses for them to play. They aren't super amazing golfers and I wanted to find long courses for them as they don't have that type in the Czech Republic. With limited space the courses are usually quite short. Also golf carts are very rare as they have to be imported from the U.S. They were excited to have the carts too.

So today (Thursday) they are off to The Palms in the Rotondo near Port Charlotte. We took a swing by there yesterday on our way to Boca Grande beach and they were both impressed with the spaciousness and greeness of it all.
I know they're having fun!

Mirek's fishing trip on Tuesday was a huge success. Spanish Mackeral and porkies (as they call them) filled the cooler.

                                          Vlasta taking a picture of the haul from Mirek's trip.

Thankfully (for me) the crew filleted the fish for each fisherman to take home. There were 6 men on the trip and I think they all had a good time. They certainly got their fill of fish!

You will note the electric knife in the crewman's hand. He was able to fillet a fish in about 20 seconds. It was unbelieveable how fast he could do it. As he held up the knife one time he said "not just for turkey you know". He was funny. Even had a repore with the pelican who came by for a snack.

As you can see this dude is no slouch in the size department. The hooked beak was quite menacing! Once he/she had it's fill it jumped into the water and swam away.

A successful trip in the books it was home to a fish dinner. We certainly have enough to enjoy. Mirek BBQ'd it last night and it was tasty. My creation the night before was putting white wine in the pan. We enjoyed both ways. Who knows how we'll do it tonight. Yup, there's still more!

A trip to the beach and the ocean (okay, Gulf of Mexico) was in order too. Yesterday it was off to Boca Grande, yes, my favourite place.
Vlasta and Mirek enjoyed the lovely waters and snorkeled and paddled around. The manatees were back on the other side of the beach head and Vlasta got a picture of a little nose coming out of the water (for manatees slowness they are still hard to photograph from the shore).
We all came home with much more colour than we started with. Even me and I'm a pretty seasoned veteran of the tanning department but I always get a little more roasted by the seashore, despite the use of sunscreen.

Vlasta on the gulf shores at Boca Grande. Note her pasty whiteness as this was at the beginning of our time at the beach.

Shells were collected but...
What's this???
One decided to crawl away.....

You can just see one pincer and his little eyeballs peaking out in the shell.
Yes, I returned him to the sea.

So, another successful day complete we got ready for their next day of golfing. Never a dull moment on one of their vacations.

In down time Vlasta relaxes by the pool or phones U.S. friends that are ex-pat Czechs and has a lovely time catching up.
This is exciting for her as she can yak away to her pals, with free long distance in North America at the house here she can catch up for as long as she wants and there is no time difference to worry about.

Mirek is parked in front of the Golf Channel on TV.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational starts today so I know what he'll be doing when they get back from golfing.
This is exciting for him as there is no time difference when watching a tournament on TV. Nothing like seeing something "live".

I am enjoying the fact that they are enjoying their time here! Can'tcha tell?

What's also nifty right now is the practice for a huge airshow in Punta Gorda this weekend.
There have been bombers, WWII fighters and helicopters flying their route over the house. It's been so cool to watch and listen to them. There is a visitor at the house diagonal from mine and he seems to know the planes just by the sound or glimpse in the sky. Betcha he was RCAF or something (yeah, they're from Canada too). He calls the names out to his other friends and when I'm outside I get an education too. I hope the airshow does fly over the house. I'm getting my binoculars out for the weekend.

Hmmm I wonder if this guy was practicing too?? Okay, maybe not but it was fun to see at the beach yesterday.

Phew, been typing for a while.
Off for lunch now.
I'm not having fish.
I know that's for dinner!

Cheers all.