St. Patty's Day Explosion

I was running about 10 minutes late today and left the house late to go to work.  It is St. Patrick's Day today and I had to spend a little extra time putting on my fabulous green eye shadow.  My 10 minutes late turned into about 35 minutes late once I was on Interstate 35W.  My sister called me while I was in the car and asked if I was at work yet and I said no and she asked which way I took to work today.  I take three different ways to work, depending on traffic.  I told her 35W and she told me that there was a natural gas explosion on 35W and Hwy 62, which I would be hitting in about 5 miles.  While on 35W, I could see the flames shooting way above the trees down the freeway.  My sister told me that they were shutting down both sides of 35W and 62 in just enough time for me to get off the freeway with virtually no issues. I was able to call my supervisor to tell her I would be late and the reason why and she said she could see the flames from her window at work. I got off at 46th Street and headed west. According to reports on the radio, the explosion was around 60th and Nicollet so I decided to head down Nicollet to see what I could see.  I got down to 58th where I could see tons of people on the streets and police and emergency vehicles blocking off the streets.  I turned and tried to find my way out of the neighborhood but they kept blocking off streets in the area so I kept driving through the area trying to find a main street so I could get to work.  And as always, I had my camera on me.  I took some pictures, all from my car, some with the window up and some with it down.  The smell of gas was in the air (not like rotten eggs, but more like a million grills all going at once) and it was HOT outside.  I could feel the heat from a block away. Amazingly, no one was injured.  The heat caused damage to Cub Foods' sign which was melted.  There were cars in the parking lot that had melted tires, one car was completely melted and a giant hole in the street above the gas line.  If you're interested in more professional pictures, take a look at the photo gallery from the Star Tribune.

Fort Myers, Florida: Miscellaneous

We left Minnesota very early on Saturday morning, February 26th and the temperature was -3*.  The temperature in Fort Myers was 87* and we had a 90* degree swing in temperature from morning until afternoon.  The weather was great except for one day it was cloudy and it rained a little bit, otherwise sunny and anywhere from 82-87* daily.  

You're probably sick of hearing about Florida but I have two installments left coming this week.  Then it's back to good old Minnesota life again. 

Flying over Chicago

Soothing my sunburned eyelids with cucumbers

Can you believe they still have cigarette machines?  We don't have these in MN.

Can you see the orange/yellow fruit in the trees?  That's starfruit. You can just pick it freely and here in MN, it's a $1.99 per fruit!  They were all over the ground below.

Cute little lizard with his neck puffed out

Spanish Moss on the trees

Palm Tree

Words illuminated all over the sidewalk

Cute little barrels for your wine corks

I bought myself a present while I was down there...

My first REAL Coach purse!  I'm so extremely happy with it.

Fort Myers, Florida: Downtown

Here are some of the things we did in downtown Fort Myers while were were there.

Music Walk- Music Walk is on the 1st Saturday of every month. They shut down a few streets and everyone is able to walk down the sidewalks and visit the businesses and bars while musicians set up and play on the streets.  

Art Walk- It's similar to Music Walk, however it's on the last Friday of the month so we were able to go to this also.  A lot of the art galleries stay open so you can go into them into the later hours.  There's also music being played on the streets.  We went into a few galleries and I bought a cheap ring in one of them. There was a sculptor who had a window on the corner of the plaza and every weekday from 5-9 pm, he works on his sculpture in the window so you can see his progression. 

The guy below is someone we saw at Music Walk actually but I thought he was more appropriate in the Art Walk section.  The purse that he is carrying is a fish and it is made of wood.  He is the artist and there are only 50 purses in existence.  They are all fish but all different.  So as you can see, it was a necessity to get a picture of this guy. M told him that he should give one of his purses to Lady Gaga.  He did tell us that she was coming in concert in April so I think he was going to try and see her.  He said he would never give one to her though and she'd have to buy it.  The cost of this purse?  $10,000.  Now you can see how much more of a necessity it was to take a picture of this guy.  

We also went out a few times in downtown while we were there.  Here's some of the rest of the evenings.

At Spirit of Bacchus with my Spicy Monkey the first night we were in town

We went to Red Rock Saloon on Wednesday night and met our friend Ryan there.  We had some drinks, ate, played pool and then headed over the Spirit of Bacchus for another quick drink.  

Fort Myers, Florida: The Beaches

We went to the beach three times while we were in Florida.  It would have been at least one more day if I didn't get a horrendous sunburn on under my eyes, on my eyelids and all over my legs the first full day we were there.  I used sunscreen but apparently it was not enough on my legs and I always forget about my eyelids. I have some pictures of how red my legs were and how swollen my eyes were after a night's sleep but I've decided it's best not to show them.  I did put cucumbers on my eyes the next day and that soothed them.

Sunday and Thursday we went to Fort Myers Beach.  The beach was completely packed on Sunday and it was very busy on Thursday.  There were three major colleges that had Spring Break that week.  I also found out that Fort Myers Beach is the 6th most popular Spring Break destination in the country.

I was trying to zoom in on the puppy but laughed when I realized how many butts I got in the picture

That's me out there

On Wednesday, we went to Captiva.  Captiva is an island that you have to drive through Sanibel Island to get to it.  The beach that we like on Captiva is low-key and much more quiet than Fort Myers Beach.  The water is more greenish-blue, it's saltier, which means that your more buoyant and it's colder.  Every single time we've been there, we've seen dolphins there and this time was no exception.  

Dolphin

Dolphin

Me

Ticketmaster

The nightclub, First Avenue, made ever-so-famous by Prince in the movie Purple Rain, is taking a stand against Ticketmaster.  First Avenue will be ending their contract with Ticketmaster on March 31st, 2011.  For those of us that go to a lot of concerts, this is HUGE.  They've partnered with another ticket provider called Etix and ticket prices will be 20-40% lower due to the decrease in service fees that Ticketmaster charges.

I've hated Ticketmaster for so many years.  With Ticketmaster, we would buy two tickets to a concert and end up paying for almost the face value of three tickets because the service fees are so outrageous.

Nice work, First Avenue.  This is a huge step in the right direction of making a stand against Ticketmaster as well as making the consumers happier.  I hope this catches on and more venues will do this also. 

 

Fort Myers, Florida: Nature

Last Monday, it was bright and sunny in Fort Myers so we decided to go to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve to walk around and look at wildlife.  We had been there at least once before but you never know what you'll see when you're there. We saw plenty of birds, turtles, a couple of snakes, lizards and a couple of alligators.  My favorite to watch were the birds because we were able to get so close to them. If you are scared of snakes, consider this your warning that there are a few snake pictures below.  Enjoy the nature and as always, click on the pictures below to enlarge.