Saturday, October 20, 2007

Today At The Cedar Key Festival: I Ride With Miss Sara N. Dippity Again



Every so often I ride with Mrs. Sara N. Dippity. I never know when it will happen, she is just suddenly there ... like an imaginary friend that no one else can see.
Today she must have hopped in the back of the JEEP when I wasn't looking. The top was off after all and it's possible she slipped into the backseat when daughter Emma and I were chatting our heads off and soaking up each other's company.
Hang with me and I'll show you what I mean ...

First let's poke around the Cedar Key Seafood Festival a bit. Here's a tip: If you go to Cedar Key, skip the waterfront restaurants unless you value view over flavor. Go to Tony's on the main drag. It's so much better than the touristy waterfront places.


Of course, during the festival, you don't need to sit in a restaurant since the city park is filled with booths that offer grouper sandwiches, smoked mullet, crab cakes, steamed clams, shrimp salad, and oysters on the half shell.

I chose the Cedar Key School FFA's grouper sandwich, but they ran out of buns right before I got to the counter.
"We're getting more buns"... the cute FFA kids announced, "...but if you want your sandwich without the bread, it's only $5 instead of $6."

That was good enough for me ... who needs bread on fried fish anyway?



Emma and I sat down on a rustic bench down by the Cedar Key "beach" to eat. The timeless scene above caught my eye so I set my grouper fingers down on the bench and reached for my Sony.

It's at this moment that Miss Sara N. Dippity sat down beside me. I didn't see her as usual, but I know she was there ...

I had just finished taking a couple of shots, when a pretty young girl of about 13 stepped in front of me to pose for a picture with the beach in the background. From behind me, I heard her mother tell her to not block my shot. I had finished my shot so I turned around and said, " Oh, that's okay, I'm done."
The mother smiled.

The two of them got their pics and then wandered down between the beach and the bench where I sat.

I watched the lady shoot pics of her daughter and then crouch down for the more serious artsy type shots that real photographers do.

Something seemed familiar. I turned to Emma and said, " Hey Em, I think that lady is one of my blogger pals. I've only seen her picture on her blog, but it looks like her and I know she's written about a daughter that age."

I watched the lady carefully composing her photos.

"Plus, she's really into photography and that lady is shooting photos not just taking snapshots."

Emma squinted at the scene in front of us. "Why don't you speak to her."

"What if it's not her ... I don't want to freak her out."
My week old beard is at that scruffy, drug dealer stage and I wasn't sure how I would come off.

"True."

I swung the camera up, shot a few frames of the lady on the beach and decided to not risk scaring some poor lady who might not be the blogger pal I never met.
(Did that make any sense?)


"Emma, I'll post the beach scene and if it's her, she'll see it and comment."



Danielle's second comment on the first Cedar Key post of this morning pretty much confirms my first impression, that this was a blogger buddy.

So, Danielle, the cowboy on the bench sitting beside the pretty girl was me. Sorry, I didn't take a chance and speak to you ... I just wasn't completely sure it was you.
Still pretty cool tho.

Some might say this was just a coinkydink, but I know Miss Sara N. Dippity was along for the ride today.

I love it when she does that.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I love it when she does that for sure!! ;) What a kick we all got out of this photo...I so wish you had followed your 'hunch' ;) It would have been wonderful to meet you and your daughter. Very cool indeed ;) I'm off now to update my post (grin). Thanks for making a great ending to a wonderful day.

SophieMae said...

Drat! I really wanted to go down there today, but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it. Good Lord willin' and the crick don't rise, I'll be in Perry next weekend, though.

Miss Sara surely is an amazing character. Imagine, of all the benches in all the towns in all the world...

The father/son pic is AbFab! Nice job!

kathy a. said...

that sounds like a wonderful festival! would have been even without ms. sara along.

by coincidence, i once recognized a blogger whose place i visit, in person and at a local market -- and did i go introduce myself? no, i did not. i only met him in person today, at a picnic. about a year later, i think.

robin andrea said...

Small world when you've got Ms Sara along for the ride. Great story and a perfectly beautiful day at the beach.

Kandy Seaton Smith said...

Great post! What a cool "coinkydink" :)

Jim said...

Cool. Sorry you didn't meet Cousin Ginny. I'm still holding out for one of her handcrafted Cedar Key recipe books. She's 83 now, and no longer makes them. Sadly, I only found her branch of the family through genealogical research recently.

threecollie said...

Wow, really big wow, that is so cool

Anonymous said...

Sometimes life feels a lot more like 2 or 3 degrees rather than 6- it's wonderful to fell connected to the rest of life.

Abby always used to ask for "grouper toes."

If you/family get as close as Tampa in the next 10 days consider swinging over the bridge to St. Pete- I'll buy at the 4th street shrimp store.

Deb said...

Way cool to find another likely blogger friend there. I'm probably too introverted to have asked someone in a similar situation.

R.Powers said...

Deb,
It is pretty neat considering the place was packed with several thousand people.

Sharon said...

VERY neat! You must be a very perceptive and observant person. :)

R.Powers said...

Sharon,
Pretty neato.
I think it's my LE background that makes me study humans closely.