Friday: David had some extensive yard work to accomplish Friday morning, so while he was busy doing that, I took a walk in the "park" where they live. The "park" where he lives is nearly as big as Leisure Village (where I live), but I don't think it is as spread out--I could be wrong. Anyway, I walked down his street to check out the pond and the fountain, hoping with all my might there would be an alligator out sunning itself on the grassy banks.
Look! There is even a "DO NOT FEED ALLIGATORS" sign posted right at the edge of the pond. It's illegal and it's dangerous (the sign claims) to feed the wildlife. David told me that perhaps two years ago, they DID haul an alligator out of this pond and put it in a pond less frequented by old folks. Probably a good idea.
Once David was finished with his "to-do list", we drove to Caladesi Island in the afternoon. This is an uninhabited barrier island near Dunedin (pronounced DUN-E-DEN, NOT DUNE-DIN). It was a beautiful day (sunshine from start to finish), and this was my last afternoon to be in Florida. MUST GO TO THE BEACH!!
However, I told David that a trip to Florida would hardly be legit without a meal at "Frenchies", and he was very agreeable to oblige, reminding me that we had eaten enough fried food to put an extra 10# on the both of us (that might have been me that said that). David ordered the fried shrimp, and I ordered the fried groupie. YUM. We split the orders and shared.
After lunch, we took a ferry over to the island. The ferry "captain" was a very funny man, and told as many corny jokes as he could get away with as he took us over to the island. The ferry dropped us off not far from the beach, with clean bathrooms right near the ferry docks.
We were far enough from the water that it felt like we were the only ones on the island! David told me this is his favorite thing to do--go to a busy beach, find a quiet isolated spot, and enjoy the solitude!
I sat with him for awhile, but I figured if I walked a bit, I could maybe work off some of the extra calories I had put on over the last few days--plus, I have never been on Caladesi Island in my entire life and needed to explore it a little bit. Maybe if I walked real fast, I could get warm!
You can't really see from these pictures, but you can walk quite a distance down the beach. There were a few others out walking away from the crowd, looking for shells and other treasures--I enjoyed myself 100% doing that very thing.
There was an important corporate meeting of the seagulls of the Gulf being held ...
... they were not a bit bothered by me walking this close to them! They were all standing on ONE skinny leg discussing the woes of the world.
I hated to leave them, but I was nearly frozen solid after walking for about 30 minutes. I rejoined David and wrapped my Buc-ees blanket around myself, along with David's unused beach towel, and took a little nap. It was a wonderful afternoon.
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