i wish vacations would never end! tx is too far from fl

so, thursday. shea had to go into work for a couple of hours, and then we rummaged around to get all of the necessities for JAWS PART II...shark tooth hunting. we made the necessary stop at sonic and then off to the beach (fortunately we were traveling south, because the northbound lane was backed up for over a mile). after we found parking, we made our way onto the beach to find a good spot to set up.

searching for jaws...or at least pieces of him!

 we began the scoop and sift process, shea likes to scoop and then sift up on the beach. me, i prefer to stay in the water and sift there. this is due to my dislike for being dirty. i tried to sort through the pile up on the beach, but i couldn't handle it. i need to be in the water in order to rinse my hands and such. i also did my best to keep my back facing the sun, as to avoid getting too much sun on my front side (where i'd gotten an abundance of sun earlier-and was beginning to experience the beginning stages of bubbling-which would start the peeling). i found a few, but we finally took a break and decided to lay and soak up the sun. may or may not have fallen asleep-to great music...oops. when i woke up, shea was appreciating the hummus and salsa chips, so i joined her (i'd eaten most of the previous hummus at the house!). then we decided to walk down the beach and see what we could find.

while we were walking we experienced the viewing of an older european male-in-a-thong...it was a little sketch. and while trying to avert my eyes, shea made sure to point him out! ouch-my eyes are ruined!  a short while later, shea stopped at a fallen tree, where she found a crab and took a little break, while i continued on down the beach, and found a great little spot where the water was leaving a path of shells on the sand...so as i stopped to look more closely, i found several little teeth, when shea came over, she found several as well. and then along came an older gentleman and found 2 fairly good sized teeth, then kept walking. shea decided to run back for the go-pro. it was about a mile back. bathing suit running...she probably played the baywatch song in her head the whole way...wait, do they have a song? i decided that it would be really cool if we had a little robot that could 4-wheel-drive it in the sand to carry the go-pro and a towel down the beach, following us like if it were following us with a tracker. we'll have to get our robotics team on that! anyhoo, we ended up finding a good haul of teeth before we headed back.

special isolated tree-place-area...i'm sure you weren't the only one with this great idea!

when we got back to our spot, one second i was packing things up and shaking sand off the chair, the next, shea let out a little gasp, and when i turned around, there was this beautiful giant of a bird, right behind me! after a selfie, he started to move away, and shea set up the go-pro-we've become quite the bird corrall-ers!
slowly walking around the back side of the bird, it chose the perfect path straight past the camera!

bird-buddy!

such amazing birds-he was probably looking for food

the sun was pretty low, so we decided we needed to stop at the pier at sharkey's in order to get some fun sunset pictures. i am not a professional beach frolicker- i had to practice-about 3 takes later, there were some decent ones that didn't look totally 1980s robotic...but it wasn't pretty. when everything is in dropbox, i will update them! then we turned it into yoga poses and from there, karate. we played until the sun got too low, then we headed back for dinner at st. armand's. we ate at the daiquiri deck-soft shell crab sandwich, mahi bites and sweet potato fries-yum! i was in luck because shea was having none of the eating-of-the-legs, so it was a jackpot for me! (love sharing meals-everything should be tapas style!) as we ate, the live musician had a fabulous playlist, but his tone was a little off-he was flat/ monotone on pretty much all of the songs, which made it really difficult for shea to sing along with-which is not a huge loss. ;) i almost got video to prove it, but not quite. afterward, we stopped at the tourist trap shop, but didn't find the cap we were looking for. also decided against the henna tattoo-opting for kilwin's instead, because we hadn't had our ice cream stop yet! it's probably a good thing that we contained it to one ice cream stop this visit! the cones were perfect! totally worth it, even though we should've probably eaten less at dinner in order to really appreciate the full effect of kilwin's...kilwin's shouldn't be ventured on a full stomach, although, we are brave, and we took the challenge.

shea is a professional frolicker; i'll load more when they're available!

friday morning we got up early for parasailing. i turned on the keurig, and forgot to push the go button=no coffee for me. boo. we got to bridge street, and found parking, then we went in search of 200 bridge street-which was, no surprise, at the top of the pier. so we checked in, and they sent us down to the metal dock to wait for the bright yellow boat. there was a family of four waiting as the boat pulled up. we entered the boat and the captain & parasail pro began to give us instructions. the safety instructions were brief-very unlike kanakuk...we decided we would've felt 100% safer with hank at the helm! i trust his caribiners and ropes! on the quick boat ride out, we did see dolphins, and then we stopped pretty abruptly, because i think they accidentally ran over a crab trap and got something stuck in the engine, so parasail pro had to lower himself into the chilly water to get things untangled and back in running order! this guy was a mix of beach bum and skater dude-with the black leather and metal belt...you can imagine why they didn't inspire much confidence!

parasailing!

more parasailing!

and yes, to parasailing!!

anyhoo, at some point, small talk happened. not on purpose-almost out of habit; i blame this on my dad. i felt like i had to converse-it's not a terrible thing, it opens the possibility of networking...what if it had been someone who could have been helpful down the road? but i did learn that they were from iowa (slater, north of des moines), they are cyclone fans, none of them like seafood, last year they went to san antonio for vacation and their youngest son fell in love with taco cabana...they drove to florida, school ran from aughust 18 through june 6th because of snow days...the oldest boy hasn't finished his SB homework...too much trivia. shea laughed at me-self-inflicted pain; i don't love it, but i do it to myself. boo.

so we went first, and lifted right off. we upgraded to the longer line, so that we could fly higher! it was pretty cool, but we didn't see more...in fact we didn't see any sea-life apart from a trash bag floating below the surface. we couldn't figure out exactly what to do with our dangling feet, and finally opted for crossing them. it would've been even more fun had i not been dealing with the ridiculous burn on the back of my legs! ouch!

once we got back, we decided to walk over the drawbridge to the STARFISH for lunch. best seafood!! the wait was long, but always worth it. all tables were full even after we got through the wait in line. we waited around on the dock for a bit and when a family began clearing up, shea went over to grab their table. she waited patiently and one of the guys at the table even asked if she was waiting for a table, and knew that she was. just as the family stepped away, some man was walking down the steps, and said, "oh! perfect timing!" thinking that he was getting this table, but shea had already staked claim. they guy looked at her and asked, "oh, were you waiting for this table?" YEP! but she told him since it was just the two of us, they could sit on the other side. they guy declined and pouted about it, and he and his friend walked down to the end of the pier where there was a swinging bench. better for us! #notfeelingguilty when our food finally arrived, we had the most succulent scallops-so tender! delicious shrimp, calamari and hush puppies!

QUESTION posed by shea: in a fight, who would win, the heron, or the pelican? i say pelican, because they're tough...their beaks could break the heron.

we walked back to the car and then drove to the sea haag, where i contemplated purchasing some small souvenirs, but my friends aren't really into chachkies...but i love looking around this place. when we got back to the house, i found a place to store some stuff so that i don't have to haul it back and forth when i visit...as this has become my new favorite vacation-visit. and shea slathered up in coconut oil...if the temp had dropped 15 degrees, i fear she would've hardened like the tin man, and i would've had to start chipping away. fortunately nothing of the sort happened. although, all the way to the airport, i kept wishing i had coconut creamer in my coffee... #subliminalcoconutmessages

the traffic was ridiculous on the bridges between bradenton and tampa-ridiculous, i tell ya! but we arrived in time and the security wasn't bad at all. it was a full flight, and the person in the middle seat next to me encroached a little into my space-i found myself being super conscious trying to allow for the space needed..it was an uncomfortable 3 hour flight. and upon arrival, i really wished i hadn't worn shorts, because dallas did not greet me with a kiss of warmth-nope...it was more like a cold sholder...nastiness. ready for sun!

meeting a friend for breakfast tomorrow-love it when friends pass through!
jrob

and another weekend begins-no damp spirits here!

rain. boo.

FORTUNATELY, we're not afraid of the rain!! nothing can dampen our spirits! i met shea at her house, and waited as she packed up what we would need for the weekend. her roommates had their baby, and the last thing we really wanted to do was be in the way while family was there and they were trying to settle in with baby!

it actually worked out well that shea had animal sitting appointments. so on friday and saturday night we would be staying in st. petersburg, in a beautiful condo with an amazing view of the bay! but before we would get there, we had to grab dinner. this was the one area that we decided to try something not on the 'list.' shea has this great list of eateries and entertainment, but not as much, yet, for the st. petersburg area, so we put our eating experience into the hands of yelp. where would it lead us?

we ended up at station 9, because it sounded like a fun little spot. it was another little burger joint with a huge selection of burgers! we had very similar burgers, and they were pretty amazing! i had more burgers on this florida trip than i've had over the past 4 months in dallas-but they were perfect! it was cold with the air on and having just come out of the rain, but we were able to overcome the discomfort of the cold-over-comers that we are. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! i mean...the aesthetics of the knife-game over!

burgers for real people!

 how do you cleanse your palate after gourmet burgers? the only thing i can think of is kilwins! back by popular demand! now just to find it. so we drove around in the rain looking for kilwins (deceptively disguised because the front of the awning said: CHOCOLATES, FUDGE, ICECREAM with the KILWINS name on top of the awning at an angle, difficult to see in the rain), it took longer than expected to locate! but through perseverance and dedication.. more perseverance.. excellent google skills, we located it, and now to find parking on this busy little strip! apparently everyone on the peninsula had decided that due to rain complications, they would go to the movies-aargh! after a few minutes, driving around about a 4-block radius, we found a spot near a park and then walked over in the light drizzle, through swampy grass-no worries!

we may or may not have entered the ice cream shop and purchased 2 pints of mixed ice creams...i mean..maybe. shea ran back to the car to pull it around, while i protected our frozen assets-our investment! with just a little bit of rain, the paper bag was subject to disintegration...i had to be very careful-in my mind, i may have dubbed myself: PROTECTOR OF THE MIXED PINTS. 

when we arrived at the condo, i met mushka (sp?) the skinny, drunk, black cat. he really was super sweet, he just needed some love and attention and a little tuna...ok, a lot of tuna! i was given strict orders to not wake shea up at an ungodly hour (which translates to anything before 8:30/9-ish), so although it was raining outside, it was still a great view. i had some coffee and watched the clouds rolling by and jotted down the events of the past few days so that i would be able to write them up. when shea came out, she brought her go-pro to try to figure some things out-time-lapse, particularly; not quite figured out, we decided to go for breakfast.

rainy and still beautiful!

if it doesn't bother the birds, why should the rain bother us?!

 the rain was not letting up-oh well. off to the sea horse, in pass-a-grille for breakfast! i didn't ask where the name for the area arose. is it because it's so small that if you walk more than 400 foot in any direction down main street, you'll 'pass a grille'...or because the homes are so close, you could look over your neighbors fence and if you were in need for your little cookout, "hey, neighbor, could you pass a grill?" umm....well, none of these sounded quite right, so i looked it up, and the story can be located here. oh, and p.s. if you go more than 400 ft in either direction from the middle of main street, you'll be in the ocean on one side, and in the bay on the other! i understand it has been known to be called the shortest main street in america at one time...

the sea horse was an excellent call for breakfast, though, we split blueberry pancakes, half-order of biscuits and gravy, and a sausage omelette- it was just too difficult to choose! again thankful for sharers! and afterward, we walked around the little stretch to see what all was there-not much, apart from the little crossover suv that looked like an alien foil ship; seemed like a hazard for other drivers with the reflection from the sun! fortunately for our retina, there was no sun-YET!

we were hoping for farmers market to get a few of the necessities for grilling at the beach with lo and mitch, but unfortunately it was rained out, so publix, it was...and of course i would have to use the restroom while they were cleaning it-he did a way thorough job, as i had to wait impatiently for him to finish-by which time most of the shopping had actually been completed.

we kept praying for the rain to clear out-because grilling in the rain is nothing like singing in the rain-even with friends. and as promised by the weather service, it was indeed clearing. we got to the fort desoto state park, and saw the electronic sign informing that there was exotic tree removal going on. shea was certain it said exotic animal (although to be fair, she was glancing/driving). so we drove out to the northern-most part of the park and found lo and mitch waiting. it was SO good to see lo again after way too many years, and a pleasure to finally meet mitch. unfortunately, they were, in fact, removing exotic trees-or rather they had already removed them. sadly, that was where we were going to put up the hammocks. devastation. we unloaded by the shelter and talked for a bit over beet humus, carrot humus and chips. i wasn't sure about the different flavors, but surprisingly pleasing to the taste-buds! good call, lo and mitch!

they showed me the stumps that had long been their area. sad day-all of the good hammock trees-GONE! and to what end? apparently it was supposed to stop the erosion that the trees were causing-when they were originally planted to stop the erosion in the first place. australian pines...like i said, sad day. we ended up finding some evergreen shrubs that were big enough and strong enough to support the weigh of the hammocks! it was a fair little area, and we were able to watch a couple of guys out doing some kite-sailing-that looked like a lot of fun!

 anyhoo, we set up (are you getting the point that it was relaxing vacation?), talked and laughed. then shea pulled out the paddle board and caught some shots with the go pro-i mean, this is exactly they type of thing it was made for!

from the comfort of a hammock-make due without the australian pines!

don't be deceived, it was rougher than it looks!

shea and lo-roommates reunited!

 after a few hours, the water was beginning to slowly creep up onto our beach. we kept an eye on it, but stood our ground lay our ground (lay being the past tense of lie) and before heading in to grill by the shelter, it was necessary to try hanging the three hammocks horizontally in a stacked formation. with these crazies in them! good times-

mitch did the man-thing and got the fire started, while we pulled out the veggies and shrimp and skewered them up. we'd chopped the veggies earlier and shea proved that not only can she PLAY soccer (by the way her co-ed team just won their championship trophy for this weekend's game), but also she would make a formidable soccer mom-she thought to bring plates and forks-utensils are a plus!

look at those skewers and mushrooms!

"let's pretend we're really grilling." because this looks like a candid shot of really grilling, right?

you can't hurry grilling...but you can make it more fun, just add friends!

all we could do was hope and pray that everything would finish cooking in time, as the park closes at sun-down and we were dancing dangerously close to that fine line, you've probably heard the lyrics "you can't hurry love," well, i wouldn't know too much about that, but i DO know that you can't hurry chicken and shrimp- not if you want to avoid freakish digestive failures. chicken-almost ready! pretty sure lo and i were both a little worried about salmonella. the sun went down, and...along comes a truck speeding across the grass-the park ranger had to let us know it was time to leave. and of course we were doing our best to make it look like we'd been packing up and preparing to leave. so he went to tell the one last family that it was time to leave, and sat in his truck waiting for the last car to pull out. can't believe they weren't willing to extend the hours due to the rain delay! my understanding is that shea is habitually one of the last visitors to help shut the park down-why should this day have been any different?!

sunset

shea had a plan- so we wrapped everything up in the foil and stored it in the brand new cast-iron skillet to christen it, and moved our party to the marina, not too far off, where shea was certain she'd seen picnic tables before.. mitch and lo followed us to a gas station where we turned in and drove around the parking lot toward the back warehouse area, and i'm sure they were wondering where in the world we were taking them, then we all saw it-the picnic tables! sigh of relief-and the food was delicious and conversation exciting-so fun to hear about their plans and all that is about to happen for them! i pray all moves along smoothly!

we've given the skillet its first flavor! 

and we're not quite done yet-more to come!
julie

florida part 2, weekend 1 part 1: food, friends, fun, food

it's impossible. impossible to be on a diet and enjoy yourself on vacation with friends, because there are so many amazing restaurants, and so much socialization happens when you break bread...especially when it's coconut bread!

disclaimer: i may get some of this out of order, as i've been blessed to experience so much! my friends are amazing hostesses!

i got back to bradenton on friday. i arrived at the house fairly early in the afternoon, and i just hung out in shea's room while she was at work and took a nap and i think i may have written a letter or something. when she got home for work, we went down to sarasota and walked around st. armands-some of the cutest little shops..spices, trinkets, and nut-shop among the mix. the nut shop was fabulous, mostly because they had free samples everywhere! ah-the malted milk balls...the size of jupiter...

saturday was THE BLOCK! this is a group that shea and her roommate, brooke go to on saturdays as a way to minister to the kids in one of the local neighborhoods-lots of playing going on! it was so fun to watch them interact with their kiddos! they have so much fun and make those kids feel so loved on! #rolemodels

shea as the artist of the day, modeling poses 

they gravitate toward her and she gives them some big-sista love!

using the bubble machine! they are fascinated by that thing!

all kinds of games, sporting, and lizard hunting...thank goodness it got away! #whatpetadontknow

then we walked the crew home!

after that, we dropped brooke back at the house and made our way to anna maria island. first stop, and most important...anna maria island doughnuts, aka: the doughnut experiment. woah! so these are custom-made donuts. we walked in and the place was full of people, but the process went fairly quickly. step 1: get the form and make your choice of donut glaze, then one topping choice. so we got maple bacon, vanilla raspberry, chocolate heath bar, caramel sea salt, and caramel delight. only the two of us (don't judge). split them and it was amazing! the donuts are small-ish. they kinda' melt in your mouth. the machine in the back is kinda like the oldie in the book homer price, only a little different...fun to watch them grab the donut and dip-it was phenomenal!

get 'em while they're hot!

from the top, clockwise: caramel delight, maple-bacon, caramel seasalt, chocolate-heath, vanilla-raspberry...#meltinyourmouth

dear donuts, you can't hide from me just because you spell your name with the 'ough' ! nice try!

we took a walk up to the pier, and on the way we saw a little historical house. i pointed at it and read the sign that said: fell into the ocean in 1926. the little house by the sign was interesting, so we went to check it out. the guide was still there, and he told us the story of the place. it had been built at the end of the pier, and a family lived there. one night, the pier gave way and the house fell into the ocean, with a couple of people in it. fortunately they were able to get some help to get it out and it was relocated inland and eventually became a part of the historic society. it was really quite interesting. then we walked down to the pier. then we made our way back to the other side of the island, where the beach is.we took off around the bend and found a couple of rescue folk trying to save some turtle eggs-as the nest had been compromised and was about to be completely washed out. it was really interesting. (i had a pic i wanted to post, but i promised not to, as it is a controversial issue...integrity) hopefully the little guys hatch. we kept going, but the tide was way up and there wasn't really anyplace to walk, so we went back.

we ended up making our way to the beachhouse restaurant. there was a bit of a wait, so we walked a little ways on the beach, then sat on the deck until we were paged. once we were sat, we got to partake of the amazing coconut bread. yum. it reminded me of HONDURAS, because whenever we used to go to the beach, we would get a bag of coconut bread-rolls. they were a little lighter in consistency, but the taste was comparable. the coconut shrimp and fish dip with bread to dip. it was just what we needed before going into the ocean and playing with the go-pro and wiping out. sacrifice the body for the pic...that's what i was told.  then there was a little laying in the wind/sunshine to dry off. on our way out, there was a guy who was just standing there looking off into the horizon and i had no idea what was going on. i think i may have been in their wedding pics. #photobomb

patriotic- duh.

love the lighting-fine line between the sun colors and the grays in the ominous clouds!

coconut bread! we should have pulled a shea and "eat-a-half, pack-a-half" as they keep bringing more-don't want them catching on! (or just buy a bag to go, but that's not nearly as adventurous! :))

that evening, we went back to sarasota-st. armands and we walked down to lido beach for the sunset-everyone was watching the sunset; such a popular event-and the great thing is that God keeps doing it over and over and over again, and it just never gets old! as we were returning from the beach, we saw an older gentleman (not a surprise around here), but he looked like a santa clause. shea said she thought he was one of the drum-circle hippies. and there he was with a clip board on a corner talking to someone. 'hmm...maybe he's recruiting people and advertising for the drum circle sunday night', was our thought (we'll get back to this). when there is a kilwins ice cream shop in the area, you are wise to just go ahead and start there, and then decide if you have room for dinner...which is just what we did! just thinking of it-i exhale and almost forget to inhale because i'm savoring my first taste of caramel sea salt ice cream in a waffle cone! move over DQ, you're outta' your league!

kilwins-can't be beat!! i cannot believe i've never experienced this yummy-goodness!

so..this is supposed to be my LO,WISH YOU WERE HERE! look.

we then made our way to columbia restaurant (don't be confused, it's not columbian food, it's cuban). they had the signature 1904 salad-huge, so we split that and a mojito pitcher. both excellent choices! the waiter left the remainder of the seltzer water that he didn't use, and shea may have decided it would be best to take that with us, and scoop out some of the mint leaves that were remaining in the pitcher to take home and re-create..worth a try! E for effort?




up next, alligators and wolves!
julie