Damn Poison Ivy, Summer of 2009

This story started many many years ago. No, it is not exactly what you think. Everyone was spared dealing with the dreaded poison ivy rash that itches and itches. No animals or humans were hurt in this story at least in the last 10 years. The story starts in the mid-1970's when Mr. and Mrs. Chatt Senior moved from a little bungalow in Rochester to a rural house with a few acres, lots of yard to mow and a small little woods. As Grampa Chatt tells the story, one day he was out in the woods grabbing wood probably preparing for the Coooold North East Snow Belt winters of Rochester, New York. He was cutting wood minding his own business, when he happened upon a poison ivy vine. That's right boys and girls, if you think poison ivy is only in leaf form you are sadly mistaken. I think I have this part close. Chatt Senior cut the vine and it snapped whipping in the air with sap flying right into his face. Immediately he washed, primped, and pampered his face in hopes he had minimized the damage.

As most of us know, the damage had been done. The next few days began the week plus long agonizing poison ivy rash that coincided with the high heat of summer. Yikes. No one likes poison ivy and Chatt Senior in his new country house had just formed a new enemy. Poison ivy. The next three-four weeks was just a blurr in the Chatt household. Chatt Senior went on a manhunt, nay, a crusade to kill every damn piece of poison ivy on the 10234 foot X 12567.25 foot land that was newly created as the Chatt palace. Very much like Santa Clause with his who's nice and naughty list, poison ivy was naughty and chatt senior checked areas more than twice to ensure the Chatt plot of land was extracted of all living poison ivy.

So why bring this story up now. Well I think it produces a little bit of an explanation of why I am a little crazy. It's not all me, there was some help along the way. Plus, after 30 years of sanitizing the Chatt lot of all poison ivy, this past summer on a walk with Chatt senior we stumbled across poison ivy on the Chatt plat. Of course this set in motion the famous poison Ivy story by Grampa Chatt.

So let me answer the obvious question coming to everyone's mind...Take note for all those that cannot forgive and forget. It appears that revenge can help. 30 years after the crusade of poison ivy sanitation on the Chatt complex, the resurrection of poison ivy for Chatt senior was of little consequence that mild summer day in 2009.

For the faint of heart don't look at the pictures below...they may hit too close to home for some of you.

Frank, Mark, and Larry Visit Key West for the Weekend 2008

Key West...we took the Key West Express from Fort Myers, Florida to Key West, Florida. It was a pretty quick trip until we started to hit some serious waves. I don't normally get sea sick however I must have lost my sea legs over the past 10 years because I was not feeling well. The Key West Express had drinks and food although towards the end of the trip when the waves got pretty big I don't think they sold much food. There were inside seats as well as seats outside on the deck. As I started to feel sick it helped to walk around on the inside and helped even more when I went up to the top deck to get some serious air.

We stayed in Key West for a few days and took in quite a few restaurants and shopping. We rented a GEM which is a Low Speed Electric Vehicle and was great transportation. I stood in the most Southern point of the United States. Our favorite restaurant was a place that was right out on the beach. It had an open floor plan so that garage door size areas were open to the beach. Great stuff!

At night we went down to the main drag where they have street performers, sidewalk shopping and great outdoor seating. It was a great spot where we had some good eats and watched sailboats as well as good sunsets. Nothing beats an Anna Maria Island Sunset but Key West shows a little promise.


Frank, Mark, and Larry at the top of the La Concha Hotel.


Key West Sunset with Sailboat passing by.


Main drag in Key West...where the action is.


Our rented GEM, Low Speed Electric Vehicle


Dining like you are outdoors on the beach.

The Chatt family enjoy a Tampa Bay Ray's game

The Chatt family enjoyed a company party in Tampa, Florida late Spring 2009. We went to a night game at the Tampa Bay Ray's. We all loved the hot dogs, chips, popcorn and soda. Grayson especially loved the batting cage and Tampa Ray touch tank. The Tampa Bay Ray's provide a ton of children activities before, during and after the baseball game. The rest of the Island Real Estate "family" participated in the celebration and I think we all had a great time. We saw several old friends that have moved away from the island and it reminded me we all don't celebrate life enough.

On a side note, this morning we sent Grayson off to First Grade for his second day of school. Jennifer and I took him out to the bus stop and we watched our young boy for the first time step up into the school bus. sniff, sniff :(

Look below for some great pictures of our Tampa Bay Ray's fun.

Pictures of Flowers by Jennifer

Jennifer has been practicing taking flower shots. I think many of them are quite good and figured I would share some of the shots with everyone. Of course the camera she has is not a normal point and shoot. It has some awesome features. Our original files are more than 3.5 Meg per piece and for every one's sanity I cut them down to 700 pixels wide. The below flower was taken at Big Bear Lake in California.




I believe the purple flowers below were taken at the Tampa, Florida Zoo.




The flower/weed below was taken at Robinson Preserve in Bradenton, Florida. If you are visiting Anna Maria Island and love nature walks, birds, or awesome water views then be sure to visit Robinson Preserve. There is a few paths throughout the park with a 3-4 story tower that looks over the Tampa Bay Skyway bridge as well as Tampa Bay. Simply fantastic. Bring your bicycle, Roller blades, or just walk the trail. A good portion of the trail is newly paved.




Another Big Bear Lake flower and a wider angle as compared to the flower above. The top picture came from the below flower cluster.





The flower below came from San Diego, California but don't know exactly from where. It could be from the hike where Grayson fell on a cactus and found 100's of needles stuck in his hand. They were all hair like and could not be pulled without tweezers. None the less Grayson was not happy and the hike was cut short, faaaast. More on that hike in a later post.



Hope you enjoyed Jennifer's handy work with the camera. Have lots of posts to catch everyone on and slowly but surely I will catch up from our 2009 Summer. Thanks for your patience!

Spring Extended 2009 Chatt Family & Tampa Zoo

I just reviewed pictures I just downloaded from Jennifer's camera and I am falling behind FASSST! Our summer trip up North has filled both camera's and there is no memory left....I downloaded over 1500 pictures that Jennifer has taken from Tampa Zoo, the trip to San Diego, Pennsylvania, and New York. Not to mention my trip to New York for David's wedding. So, I better get cracking and posting pictures.

Gram and Grampa came out in March and had some fun with Grayson. They went to the Tampa Zoo which is a fantastic zoo for children. Grayson has been to the zoo plenty of times but rarely participates in the rides. Jennifer picked up an unlimited ride pass and Grayson was the beneficiary. Grayson rode the boomer flyin bananas which represent giant bananas. The ride goes in a circle and has levers that allowed Grayson to go up and down although I am not sure he figured that out as the ride takes over without intervention. The jungle carousel is great for all ages. How can you not go on a carousel? The next ride? A camel, that is right. The Tampa zoo has a camel ride much like a pony ride except most camels can accommodate two riders. Finally, the last ride was Graysons favorite for now, the Treetop Skyfari ride. Grayson could not talk enough about the Skyfari ride. It is basically a ski lift that travels well above the zoo and lets travelers see most of the zoo from the tree tops. Grayson went on the ride seven times at least that is what he told me and Jennifer nodded her head, "yeah, it was alot of times."

Take a look below at the pictures and hopefully I kick the Chatt blogging into high gear as more posts on all our trips in the last few months as well as a bunch of great old pictures of the Chatt family. I am counting on Jennifer to scan some great pictures great Gram had. Jennifer, make it happen!