Neighbors, Beach and Captain Curt

Well today was our last day on the beach. We had a nice relaxing day. We set up camp again in our regular spot and Greg and I went on a really long walk up the beach.

You will never guess who we ran into. 5 of our friends from Centerville. Unbelievable. We were walking along and I heard my named being yelled from several people, I looked up and low and behold it was Susan Morgann, Beth Hanes, Cindy Scanlon, Ann Meyers and one of their friends and I cannot remember her name sitting on the beach. We laughed and laughed.... drive all the way to Florida and run into friends who live less than a mile from our house. Ha

We saw a really tall bird on our walk....

After our walk we were hungry and Susan Morgann told us about a place called Captain Curt's. She said it was "the place to eat" when you are in Siesta Key. It sounded a lot like Crabby Joes so we decided to go their for dinner.

Les and I ordered the World's Best Clam Chowder ( It really was very good)

Dinner was very good, Greg had shrimp, crab cakes, scallops and some kind of fish. Leslie had clam chowder with vegetables, Nick ordered chicken fingers and fries and I ordered a golden snapper Cajun broiled sandwich with clam chowder. We felt like you couldn't go to the ocean and not eat seafood at least once. Glad we ran into our friends today so they could tell us about Captain Curt's; it made for a very enjoyable evening.

On our way back to the condo we saw a really cool tree on the side of the road. Greg pulled over and Leslie and I jumped out to take a few photos. (Nick is glad he is not a senior yet)






We also had our nightly walk on the beach. It was over cast so the sunset was not very good but the breeze was incredible; I could have stayed out there all night long.

When we first started to walk out onto the beach we were swarmed by gnats... they were everywhere and they flew into your eyes, nose and hair and they wouldn't leave no matter what we did. It was awful. Greg was patient enough to stick with me since he knew I wanted to take a few more pictures since it was our last night on the beach. Eventually they left us alone but our family pictures will have a nice story behind them. :) Hopefully the gnats will not be noticeable.

After the gnats left us alone we had fun taking more pictures on the beach. We really were hoping for the clouds to lift so we could see another sunset but we didn't have any luck. It was still a nice night regardless.

Greg started acting like he was a photographer on a photo shoot....











A person can't even write in the sand without having THIS done to them.... geeesh!

Our time on Siesta Key has come to an end, but the memories will last a life time. We have enjoyed our "Little Slice of Heaven" as our condo was advertised. It was everything we had hoped it would be and more.

We are now packing up the van and getting everything ready for our early morning drive home. The kids are ready to be home to see their pets and friends.... oh and must not forget Anthony. :) Poor Anthony... he takes a lot of teasing from us. Good thing he is such a nice guy, he probably didn't think that dating the girl meant dating the family too. :)

We did finish the puzzle in case you were wondering. Greg and I stayed up till 2am to finish it. I couldn't have gone home without finishing it.

Nick also found a Doritos miracle tonight....

Leslie is currently speaking to Anthony and he would like to be mentioned in the blog tonight.

Anthony is a very nice young man and we all miss him very much. Ben has never had the pleasure of meeting Anthony and he looks forward to meeting him soon. I would talk more about Anthony but I have no material to speak of since Leslie runs out onto the patio like there is a fire in the condo whenever he calls. All I know is he has visited a few colleges this week, he doesn't have band camp this week, he now has unlimited texting and he was without the internet briefly. Nothing juicy! I now need to remove a picture from the blog where Leslie says she looks like a dead fish......I should have never given them veto rights!

Nick found robes in our closet with "Little Slice of Heaven" stitched into them like the ones at a hotel or resort.... he thought it was pretty funny.

This is Nick's version of packing....

God has blessed us with another amazing vacation that we will cherish as a family. Thanks for joining us in our journey to Siesta Key. Life is always an adventure regardless of the location so this journey of ours will continue as long as God will allow it. A big thanks to Ben for joining us and for making our vacation 100 times better. :)

Sun, Sand,Surf, Sharks, Seagulls, Snails, Snorkeling, Starfish, Smooching, Statistics and Sunsets

Today was a super day, and in case you didn't notice... the letter of the day is "s". We set up the cabana and had another day of fun in the sun.



Greg and Leslie took in a little more snorkeling. Lots and lots of sunscreen was used again today. We have moved up to 70 SPF on the shoulders.

Ben joined us on the beach today too... he really enjoyed himself.

We heard thunder in the distance so after a few hours of playing we packed up and headed back in. It is quite a production to set up and take down the cabana so we always try to wait out the storms to make sure they are truly headed our way before packing up. It was time for our afternoon naps anyway. :) How will we ever survive in the real world again without our nap time?

Greg learned a few more statistics today while searching shark attacks. Apparently 5 people a year are killed world wide by shark attacks and 150 people are killed each year by falling coconuts. Seriously???? Where are the news cameras when all these killer coconuts are falling from the trees? Have you ever heard of someone dying from a fallen coconut? Coconut allergies maybe, but never a fallen coconut. I guess we need to be more nervous walking under a palm tree than swimming in the ocean. :) We need to have a Killer Coconut Week instead of Shark Week. I mean no disrespect to those families who lost a loved one to a fallen coconut, just a little shocked by the statistics.

After lunch, naps and Sponge Bob we headed back out to the beach again. This time without the cabana since the sun was beginning to set. It was a great night to walk the beach. We found a lot of cool creatures.

Seagulls:

I thought this was a cool reflection picture

This one was enjoying an apple core

Starfish:

Snails:




Clams: (OK, I know it doesn't start with an "s" but he was cool just the same)


Sharks:
Greg has become friends with some of the locals. Maybe he shouldn't watch anymore Shark Week.

Leslie and I stayed out on the beach until it was dark; apparently it was couples night. There were couples everywhere... including one couple who stayed out in the ocean smooching for well over an hour.

I mean seriously..... a person can't even enjoy a sunset.....talk about shark bait. They kissed and smooched FOREVER.... it was rather disgusting really. Les and I had had enough so we walked over in front of where they were "swimming" and wrote this in the sand.


Here are a couple pictures of Leslie and I sitting on the beach together during "couples" night. :) We did get to pet and love on a little Pug dog who seemed to enjoy our company.

It was a beautiful sunset; the prettiest one yet. (if only all those people would get out of my way so I could take a good picture!) I will photo shop them out later.... muhaha!

Tomorrow is our last day on our beach. We will soak up every drop of beach we can.... maybe even give up our afternoon naps. Nah.... gotta keep the naps! Speaking of naps it is time to finish a puzzle and get some sleep.

Night, night.

Buffet, burns, bargains, bladder awareness and blisters

Today we woke to thunder and lightening on the beach.... which really was a blessing. For some reason when the sun is shinning you almost feel like you HAVE to go to the beach. You feel guilty for doing anything but the beach when the sun is shinning because you don't have the beach at home.

After the day in the sun we had yesterday at Venice beach, Greg's shoulders were a tad tender from a slight burn. He also had 2 huge blisters on his feet from all the walking we have been doing on the beach. I have what I like to call "bladder awareness". It isn't a full blown bladder infection, however I can feel my bladder and last time I checked you shouldn't be able to do this. I have bladder aching and well..... awareness of my bladder (fun stuff). A one day break from the beach is just what we needed. (wow we are getting old)

We found a local mall just 13 miles down the road so we decided to go shopping. We were a little nervous because years ago, while Greg and I were dating, we visited a mall in Florida called the Sunshine Mall.... it was anything but sunshine. It was a little hole in the wall with a pet store where they didn't feed or water their pets. We ate at Taco Bell while we were at the Sunshine Mall and the taco's and burritos were the tiniest tacos and burritos I have ever seen. This one experience was our only experience with a Floridan Mall so we were hoping for the best today.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a REAL mall. In fact we shopped quite a while in this mall and purchased many items. Leslie got some great deals at Forever 21 and Nick also found some bargains at Game Stop. It was a productive afternoon.

On our way home we stopped at a Chinese Buffet for linner. We picked up some Arby's on our way to the buffet for Nick, he isn't fond of Chinese food. We were excited to find out the Chinese Buffet had REAL ice cream. Most of the Chinese restaurants have this stuff they call ice cream but it isn't. It is sugary cold stuff... Our fortunes were as follows:

Nick: Your future is as boundless as the lofty heavens.
Greg: You will have a pleasant trip
Leslie: she is waiting to read hers when we are driving home... no idea why... ask her.
Me: The people's rules are the best laws (what does that even mean?)

We arrived back at the condo with still enough time to squeeze in our daily late afternoon naps. I will really miss these.

We snacked around later in the evening and then worked on this..... it will be a work in progress for many days. Very tricky....

Leslie was not interested in helping so we had to get someone else to take her place.

I can only handle one day away from the beach so we hope to have another beach day tomorrow. It is 1:15 am and Greg and I have to pull ourselves away from the puzzle to go to bed. It is very addicting.

Good night!

Shark Week = Shark Teeth

I had to use this picture for today's blog. I took this picture tonight and I was super excited to get the bird in the frame. Each time I drew a picture of a sun set when I was little I would always put a little "v" bird off in the distance.... it looked a lot like this photo with a few scribble marks here and there for effect. :)

Today we woke up and had a family meeting to discuss what we would like to do with our day. We decided on Venice beach to look for shark teeth. Those of you who did not know, Venice Beach is known as the shark tooth capital. We punched in Venice Beach into Emily (our GPS) and she told us Venice Beach was 13.2 miles away.

First of all there are 2 Venice Beaches.... one in Florida and one in California. The one in Florida is NOTHING like the one in California. One of the more obvious difference is there are no ladies rollerblading in thong bikinis (thank goodness). The other more obvious difference is the sand is gritty, black and so hot it is like walking on hot coals.

We had a little sifter and a big, net bag we used to sift wet sand to look for teeth. We did find some teeth but not as much or as large as we had hoped. It was fun looking for them though.



As we were searching we would see little tufts of seaweed float by and there were fish constantly bumping into us. We were stirring up food for the little fish so they loved it. One fish jumped up into Leslie's lap and flapped around a little bit. At first it was a little unnerving, but after 10 or 20 times we started to realize it wasn't a shark and it's OK. :)

Seaweed, sticks and fish passed us by but then THIS was bobbing past us..... EWWWWW... and let me tell you... it WAS NOT a Snickers bar.

We moved WAY down the beach after this.... poor Ben wouldn't even get in the water after seeing it, he just looked for shells on the shore.

The sun was getting very hot and we all figured it would have been easier to throw some chum into the water, catch a shark and pull all of his teeth. We didn't have our cabana and there was no relief from the sun so we packed up and headed "home". Even with 30 SPF we got too much sun.

After lunch at Taco Bell Greg and Leslie went out to the beach for some snorkeling. They found lots of cool stuff including this little guy. He is a sea crab.


Later in the evening we went back out to the beach as a family... took lots and lots of pictures.
















At this moment we are watching a show on Shark Week about 2 people who lost their lives to shark attacks right here in Naples Florida... not too terribly far from where we are. (well, when I say "we" I mean Greg, myself and Nick. Leslie is talking to Anthony, and when you say Anthony you have to say his name in a high voice and drag it out all sappy.... that is how we tease Leslie. smile)

Anyway, I think we need therapy. Not because we say Anthony in a high voice but because we seriously are crazy. Greg is so freaked out by Shark Week that he is googling shark attacks in Sarasota Florida. Seriously.... what is wrong with us? We go on vacation to a location where there are the highest count of shark attacks in the world during a month where if you do not wear jeans and a sweatshirt you will burn so badly your skin will fall off your body.

Today we almost forgot to take sunscreen to Venice Beach...... skin damage and cancer clearly was not enough of a wake up call. We must have the "oh it would never happen to us" syndrome. Lord help us please.

Having said all of this and coming from a person whom nature is one of her pathways to God, this place is incredible. Tonight while walking the beach I stopped to think of King David. Did he witness this kind of beauty while writing the book of Psalms? I could sing of His praise forever when looking at the sky, ocean and beach. I hear His whispers in crashing of the waves, I feel His gentle touch in the breeze of the surf. I know God is everywhere, but I feel His presence even more while burying my feet in the gentle, soft, white sand facing the vast, majestic beauty of the sea. I am in awe of his glory and am so grateful to witness his handy work here on this beach. Thank you Lord .. I am not worthy of the blessings you continue to pour upon me.

Ok, on a less serious note.... or a more serious note however you choose to view it. Greg has discovered during his googling that in Sarasota there have only been 7 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the last 115 years. Whoopie.....floaties here we come. Besides.... really? That would never happen to us. (smile)

Goodnite all!