The Melbourne Art Festival was this weekend...and this year I started off by participating in the Flamingo 5K Run. It's been going on for 27 years...this was the first time I participated. John was off on a fishing weekend in the Bahamas...and Brenna and Josh had signed up...so I decided to join them. It started at 7:30am...not my favorite time to do much of anything really..but I got up and it wasn't so bad...hahah
The route is nice...starts off near Crane Creek in downtown Melbourne, then you walk over the causeway turn around and head back over the bridge and back up to New Haven Ave near the main stage area. The temperature was supposed to get up into the high 80's-low 90's...so 7:30 am was a good time to walk. This is probably one of the biggest races I've walked in...so we let the runners go first and then headed off. (with the sensor tag system...your time starts when you actually cross the starting line)
When we were heading up over the bridge there were lots of runners/walkers in the mix
the runners of course took off and left the rest of us behind. I slowly (or not so slowly...hahah) walked my way through the slower walkers and found my pace.
As I went along I left the slower people behind...and got in the mix with the runner/walker group. As usual there were a handful of people that would jog past...only to see me coming up and passing them when they started walking....then they'd start jogging again. haha The crowd starting thinning out quite a bit when we made our way back over the bridge
According to Brenna I was 10th out of 29 in my age group...not bad for a walker. At the end I waited for Brenna and Josh to cross the finish line.
It was a beautiful day...but it was hot! We stayed a while, had a nice lunch at the
905 Cafe. Ran into some friends, looked around at the artwork and stopped by my brother David's booth. He was happy that 3 different pieces got selected for judging...felt confident that one of them would win
something!
We left the art show in late afternoon...because we had to get back in time for a surprise part for our friend Duane.
Duane came to the Melbourne area back in the 70's when he was at FIT. He actually taught Al (Owner/manager of Long Doggers) His family is in Rhode Island, he lost his wife a few years ago...so he doesn't really have any family in town. His buddies from LD decided they needed to get a little surprise party together for the big 60th birthday. Managed to get his twin brother Cal to come up for the day. (apparently he always says he's going to come...but then doesn't show up...so Duane definitely was NOT expecting to see him) Al and Scott did most of the planning. Al agreed to let us set up a tent, some tables, etc out in front of the place...like our tailgate parties when we were watching Tim Tebow.
When Cal arrived in town and suggested going up to Long Doggers...Duane figured the regular crew would be there. As they walked up he jokingly said..."Oh they're having a party and they didn't even invite us"
That is until he saw his friends and old friends from FIT who all yelled "SURPRISE!"
One friend from FIT made the guys a cake....
It was hard to keep the candles burning in the breeze.....so we sang a quick "Happy Birthday to you!"
and then of course ...Al had to get Duane with a pile of whipped cream to the face.
Since we don't know Cal as well....Al left him alone...but Duane took care of him!
But...no one got mad...
Instead he gave Al a big hug and thanks for everything.
We enjoyed meeting some of the old friends, hearing stories about FIT in the late 70's then 80's.
Al cooked up some clams and lobster, some wings....we had beer and or whatever we wanted to order from the menu...it was all nice. A fun afternoon.
*Tomorrow....Art Show Part 2.
And once again I was pretty much on my own with a handful of others in sight as I made my way up the little hill to the finish line.
After the race we went home, ate and got ready to head back over to enjoy the art show.
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