blip meet with rower!

Imagine that, I had a blip meet with rower from Australia, here in Florida! Earlier this year when he was making plans to come visit, I thought wayne might enjoy Selby Botanical Gardens. Well, I was quite right! As soon as we walked into the Conservatory (hothouse) -- or as we decided to call it, "the sauna" - we saw many amazing and beautiful plants and a ridiculous amount of orchids. We only just started to take photos when we both remarked -we'd only just entered the space! I've added a couple of extra photos . . . although the one of the anole lizard was outside of the conservatory! There are paths to walk, more plants & trees to see and that's where we found the lizard. We also had fine views of Sarasota Bay and 2 lovely conversations with people we met there, one man who worked there but visits Australia quite often, and another younger man from Melbourne who had lived in the states for 20 years, but still spoke with an Australian accent. He and rower had a great conversation about Australian Football! 

After our visit there I took us over the causeway bridge (we had seen it  from Selby) to the barrier islands. I wanted to share that with wayne and he really enjoyed the different scenery and vegetation, nothing like Australia he said. We stopped at Longboat Key Pass to get out and take photos and then continued all the way to my mom's house in NW Bradenton. There he met my mom, we toured her extensive gardens (more photos), met her 3 dogs (extra photo) and had a refreshing coconut water with her. Then back home to meet up with Steven and have a delicious dinner that he cooked of Tilapia & Asparagus plus some fresh raw veggies I had cut up. Great conversation around the table ensued and it was simply a wonderful day. I really enjoyed observing wayne take many, many photos today. He is very skilled at what he does and yet we had ample relaxed time to chat and discovered more things we have in common. 
Thank you wayne for a wonderful day together!