A Visit to Punta Gorda

Sunday Jan. 15

We awake, and over breakfast I ask Julie what she thinks about my friend’s proposal to give us each a full body massage. Julie says it’s fine with her, if it’s OK with me. I phone my Catwoman friend, and we agree on 2 p.m. Monday (tomorrow). This should prove interesting.

Today, Julie has arrangements to see her friends, Joe and Arvilla Glinski, from Stevens Point, who are both wintering in Punta Gorda, just north of Ft. Myers. Arvilla is a “Curves” friend of Julie’s; Julie has met her husband Joe a few times. Arvilla was also helpful and sympathetic to Julie right after Ken’s death in 2008. In addition, Arvilla is a quilter, so the two of them have become quite close over the years.

I agree to go along and also play chauffer, but first I head over to Anytime Fitness for a workout, because it’s been Wednesday since I’ve had a workout, and that was on the cruise, and it wasn’t the best workout anyway. So I have a good workout, shower, and get cleaned up. Back to the condo, and Julie and I head up to Punta Gorda. They have a very nice house in a gated community (with an actual person at the gate who lets people in). They are in their late ‘60s, so are about 10 years older than Julie. Joe is a very nice guy, and we talk about watches (he wants to know about my business) while the “girls” catch up on quilting and other girl stuff.

I’m very hungry at this point, and wondering what’s going to happen, and they finally ask us if we’d like to go out to lunch. We follow their Cadillac in my Prius. We find two restaurants that are closed, and finally the third pick is a place called “Phil’s 41” (because it’s on U.S. Highway 41 in Punta Gorda) and it turns out to be a VERY excellent restaurant. They have their own website (www.phils41.com) and I highly recommend this place if you should ever find yourself there. Julie, Joe, and Arvilla each have the fish and chips. I order an antipasto salad with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and salami. And for entrée, I have a crab cake sandwich and fries, and I am promised by the waitress that the crab cake is made with REAL lump crab, and has been reviewed as the best in the area. I wasn’t disappointed. It was quite delicious, and almost all crab with just enough “filler” to hold it together. If you don’t know, crab cakes can be made with many different types of crab. The cheap places, like Red Lobster and so forth, use snow crab which is usually not fresh, but frozen (or even canned) and they’re not very good. The very best places use fresh blue crabs which, when shucked  (or “fiddled”) properly, yield chunks (or “lumps”) up to about the size of your thumb up to the first joint. Most “foodies” will tell you the best blue crabs come from Maryland, harvested from the estuarial waters of the Chesapeake Bay. This is what Phil’s 41 serves, and I would make a special trip just to eat there again.

Anyway, we say goodbye to Joe and Arvilla, and head back to the condo, arriving at about 4 p.m. or so. We spend another quiet evening reading, knitting (Julie) and listening to “Celtic Thunder.” Julie watches a Green Bay Packer game on the TV, as they are playing the New York Giants at Lambeau Field. As you all know (or should know!) I am not a sports fan, but I can’t help but notice that the “Pack” has their collective balls handed to them on their home field, and I later find out from Dawn that this closes the book on Green Bay’s chance of playing in the Superbowl. Thank God, for I am growing of tired of every time I introduce myself to someone down here as being from Wisconsin, people saying “How ‘bout those Packers, huh?”  I have no fricking clue. Oh well, at least I can now tell these people maybe Aaron Eckhart will do better next season as quarterback if Coach Holmgren decides to keep him around.

Expenses: $20 lunch.

Bruce