Florida - Spending time with family and friends

One of the best things of being in Florida at this time of year is that we have lots of visitors, both family and friends.  It was especially nice this year with very little rain, beautiful sunshine with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, and the gulf waters warmed up early.

Aunt Dorothy Murphy

Marianne and Uncle Ralph

Ralph, Marianne, Linda

Uncle Ralph and Aunt Dot joined us in late January and stayed until March 24th.  My cousin Marianne Palmer visited for three weeks and we all enjoyed spending lots of time at the beach, especially walking on Beer Can Island. 

Ralph Dimmick, Scott, Ralph and John

My brother John and a family friend, Ralph Dimmick, arrived in March for ten days.  We spent a lot of time at the beach and even went in as the water temperatures were in the mid-70s.  One afternoon we had a corn-hole tournament in the back yard.

Scott and MaryKay, Aunt Dorothy, Larry and Lori

My cousin Larry Boatright and his wife Lorie flew in from Oregon to visit his sister and my cousin, MaryKay and her husband Scott.  We spent a day in New Port Richey with them and then Larry and Lorie came to Bradenton for just a day.  We went to the beach for a couple hours but I hope they will come back when the water is a little warmer.

My sisters all visited too.  Diane and Dottie came for two weeks in early April.  Long walks on Beer Can Island, swimming, a walk through Bradenton's Village of the Arts, lunch at Saint Armonds Circle, and a couple nights enjoying music at local hang-outs filled our days.  They spent one morning kayaking in Palma Sola Bay while I had a doctor's appointment.

While walking on Beer Can Island one morning, we found an injured loon.  We picked it up carefully, wrapping it in my fleece jacket.  Then we drove it all the way to the Save Our Seabirds facility in Sarasota.  The staff thought it had probably been hit by a boat propeller and they weren't sure it could be saved.  But they gave it a vitamin shot while we were there so we can only hope it pulled through. 

 We rented a boat one day for a cruise around Sarasota Bay.  Although it was a beautiful day, it wasn't the best trip we ever had.  First of all, it took a long time to get to Sarasota and along the way we discovered the bay was very shallow.   More than once we had to slow way down and maneuver carefully around sand bars and crab pots.  The wind picked up later in the afternoon and it was a rough trip back.  We anchored in a small cove to eat lunch.  When we tried to pull the anchor, we discovered it was firmly latched onto some unknown obstacle.   While trying to pull up the line, my gold medal around my neck got caught on the line and disappeared into the murky depths.  In spite of everything we did, we could not dislodge the anchor and ended up cutting the line.  Wrestling with the anchor made us late returning the boat and we were charged an additional late fee.  All in all, not the best day.

 

My niece Gaylin, her daughter Haley and a friend came for a couple days during their Easter brake.  The girls really enjoyed the beach although they ended up a little sunburned, in spite of  numerous sunscreen applications. 

We had a fun afternoon staying in the back yard.  The girls took the paddle boat out in the pond and even managed to navigate their way through a small channel into a second pond.  They were quite proud of their navigation skills!  We all played the corn hole and the girls fed cut-up herring to the birds.  They were a little intimidated by the large blue heron, Fred, and the while heron, Pete.

Carol and Barbara flew down one weekend in late April.  We spent the first day at the beach and planned to go kayaking in Emerson Preserve on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the weather turned rainy and winding so instead we went for a wonderful walk at Beer Can Island.  The waves were awesome and we were amazed at how high the water was.  There was serious shore erosion as the waves ate into the dunes. 

Our very good friends Kathy and Paul Campbell spent the winter with Paul's daughter in Sarasota.  We spent a lot of time with them starting on New Year's Eve when we went to the Moose Lodge to watch fireworks at midnight.   Don and Paul played golf several times and Kathy and I played cards (hand and foot) on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, Kathy's son Eric had a very bad accident and she had to fly to Washington.  Eric is doing better but Kathy will be out there for quite a while.  Paul left recently to return to upstate NY.

Our friends Julie and Keith Antworth came to visit for a few days, staying at the Sarasota Bay RV Park just a mile from our house.  We had a great time with them, spending two days at the beach and a couple nights playing cribbage and dominoes.  I wish they could have stayed longer but they headed north back to Maine for the summer.

We will be in Florida until mid-June as Don's surgery to have some basil cell cancer removed from his face is scheduled for May 29th.  Once he is cleared to travel, we will be loading up the motor home and heading north.  We are looking forward to getting back on the road.