Bye Bye Boat

Since we're selling our Florida home, we put the boat on the market too.  Sad though we are to say good bye to a boat that we've owned and loved for 14 years, we couldn't leave it on the dock if we no longer owned the house.

Fortunately, we found a friend who will love and care for it!  Our neighbors, Connie and James,

went out with us to see how it ran, and introduced us to

a new island, a new restaurant and a new friendship!

From the dock on the bay side of Palm Island, we walked across the mangrove swamp to the beautiful resort of Rum Bay.



We had a great lunch looking out to the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a lovely day for a boat ride.  We saw so many birds, dolphins, and a few other boats.

Truly a wonderful way to spend a December day in Florida!



Manatees in the Englewood Canal

We are back in Florida for a couple of weeks, sending my folks off to Alaska next week, and then cleaning and organizing and closing the house here for the summer.  Today dawned sunny and warm, so we decided to exercise the boat before putting it away for the season.

We decided to head out for Venice to our favorite restaurant on the water.

A lot of the channel markers have Osprey nests - this one had an adult and three babies.

A sailboat behind us in the intercoastal waterway had to wait for the Venice Island bridge to open. 

We ate at the restaurant in the background after finding a place to dock the boat on the big dock at the marina.

We spotted a Mangrove area full of white egrets, so slowed down to observe them.  That is when we noticed a big animal in the water.  

It actually looked like two big animals - we watched a while longer and realized it was Manatees coming out of the water to eat the mangrove leaves.

It is really hard to get a good picture of a manatee - they are very shy and just come out of the water for an instant at a time.  So it was very special to watch them eating when they made their brief appearances.

Motorcycle Ride to Wauchula

The Harbor Lakes Riders gather at 10 a.m. for a ride to Wauchula, FL, a cute little town in the middle of the state with a really great restaurant, "Paul's Kitchen".

The hamburger is so big it is hard to eat as a sandwich.

Ron likes liver, and knows his only opportunity to get it is to order it at a restaurant, so that is what he had.  If you really want to find the best places to eat, just hang out with motorcycle riders!  No one leaves Paul's Kitchen hungry!


After a roundabout way through the countryside, we stopped at a biker bar on Hwy 72 for a rest stop.

Bob and Rosemarie

Collette and Roland

Dave and Janet

Earl and Diane (Thanks for planning another great ride, Earl!)

Fran and Patti

Jerry and Monique

Linda and Bob

Bert & Briggitte

Other Florida Rides:

Pine Island Ride

Ride to Sharky's
Sarasota Island Ride
Solomon Castle
Motorcycling in Florida

Back to Georgia - January 2012

Maybe this wasn't the best place to take my folks just before taking them to their house in Georgia.

Both of them deciding what to buy.

What the heck?  Why not some of everything?  We filled the cooler in the back of the car, plus one tote.

Back in Georgia to warm temperatures, calm seas, and fishermen on the lake.

There weren't enough clouds for a really spectacular sunset, but it was pretty anyway.

My Folks Arrive in Florida

Out of cold snowy Alaska into Florida - time to stock up on Vitamin D, K, whatever you get from sun!

The pool was a bit cool but we all went swimming anyway, because the air temperature was really nice.

When Ron swims you know the pool isn't too cold.

Dick had to think about it for awhile, but ended up swimming a bunch of laps.  It really was perfect for lap swimming!

Englewood Farmers' Market

Another cold snap! Instead of sitting around reading we decided to bundle up and go to the Saturday Farmers' Market.  It is held twice a month at the Methodist Church a mile or so from our house.  There is a Thursday market that is closer, but we like this one better.

It is kind of hard to decide what to wear when we start out at 49 degrees, knowing the temperature will surely get better as the sun warms up the day.  We saw people in full winter gear and others in shorts.

We stocked up on tomatoes, oranges, avocados, and onions in anticipation of cooking a bit more this next week when we have company.

I am always tempted by the beautiful orchids, but resisted today.

We never did find the craft section in the massive church where they were holding a pancake breakfast and craft show.  We did get our exercise wandering around looking though.

Lemon Bay Park

They have been warning us that a cold front is coming, so on yet another beautiful day, we grabbed the chance to once again take the motorcycle for a ride.  This time we stayed on the east side of Lemon Bay where we found several parks and more salt water, but with an entirely different flavor than the sandy gulf side of our world.

The other side of the bay is Manasota Key, where mansions cover most of the available land.  On this side, Mangrove dominates, the water is shallow, and many birds and fisherman poke around in the water.

We talked to this fisherman, and he said he was catching "reds" and trout.  We watched him set up his line with a fairly large hook and shrimp as bait.

The interior of the park has miles of walking trails, some in brick, some in crushed shell topping.  Lots of places to stop and sit and watch birds and enjoy a pleasant day in the outdoors.

We found several places to launch a boat or put a canoe into the water.

And, of course, there are always birds everywhere around the water and even in the neighborhoods.

Blind Pass on Manasota Key

Another beautiful day in SW Florida found us once again on the motorcycle.  Manasota Key is the barrier island that sits between Lemon Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  The north road to the key is about 3 miles from our house.  So today we went north and took the bridge out onto the key.  We stopped at Blind Pass, where there are free parking lots, restrooms, and a lot of sandy beach.  Of course, since a lot of the beaches down here charge for parking, that makes Blind Pass a pretty popular destination.

Most people bring umbrellas as there isn't much shade to be found on the beach.  This is looking south.

And this is looking north.

lots of people looking for shark teeth 

Including us!

Here are some we found.

All's Well that Ends Well

The upheaval in our lives has ended suddenly.  Last night it still felt like we would never have our world back.  However, by about 8 p.m., our carpet layers were done and we could start putting the house back together.

We were scheduled for carpets on Friday, so on Thursday, we decided to take the boat out to get away from the cubby hole we were living in in the corner of the kitchen.  We came back about noon and this is what we found.  We never lock doors, so I guess they thought that meant to go ahead and get started a day early!

After all the aggravation of the past week, I have to say it was worth it!

We love the carpet, and neither one of us pulled our back out even after painting the entire house and moving every stick of furniture many times.

I think we will take a couple of days to just sit and veg and enjoy everything being clean and new.