Ken and I did our usual morning routine and were at the Best Western to meet Fred and Doloris at 9:30. We stopped at a Produce Market in Venice before heading to Caspersen Beach. We parked there and then got on our bikes to ride the Venetian Water Trail into downtown Venice. This trail is definitely a favorite of Ken and me. As the Martin's "tour guide" I feel some "pressure to provide exceptional sightings and experiences while they are here. Today I definitely delivered!!! We may not have seen a bald eagle, but we saw several gopher turtles, went to the Upper Crust for their delicious pastries, and the best thing of all, we had Florida Scrub Jays sitting on our hands to get the peanuts we were holding. We had tried to find some scrub jays on our ride to Venice with no luck, and I think Martins may have thought we were a bit crazy holding those peanuts in the air with no "takers". But, on the way back it was a different story. Even when we were out of peanuts and ready to leave, those 2 scrub jays sat on Ken and Fred's hats for several minutes. What fun!!!
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| This trail along the Intracoastal waterway is always a beautiful ride! |
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| We always see at least 1 gopher turtle! |
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| Sometimes the trail has to wind away from the water for just alittle, but it is still gorgeous! |
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| Our 2nd gopher turtle! |
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| We have arrived at our destination - downtown Venice! |
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| The scones were waiting for us! |
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| Our 1st Florida Scrub Jay and he found Ken! |
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| I think they are so pretty! |
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| This woodpecker kept watching all the action and he wanted to come to us for a peanut, but he was to "chicken"! |
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| No more peanuts and we were getting ready to get back on our bikes, by the Scrub Jays weren't ready for us to leave! |
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| They came for one last visit with Ken and Fred! |
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| They guys even changed positions, but the Scrub Jays still stayed with them! Amazing! |
We loaded the bikes and decided to go to Manasota Beach even though the sunshine was "limited", the winds rather strong, and the temperature in the low 70's. It felt a bit chilly! (Imagine that my fellow PAer's.) We ate our lunch on the beach and then I spent the rest of our time there looking for shark's teeth. Ken tried using his Florida snow shovel, but there were very few shells along the shoreline to sift through. I decided to just go back about 30 feet from the shoreline and dig though the sand. I could not believe how many sharks teeth I found! Ken, Fred, and Doloris decided to try my method too! We found over 200! I could hardly believe it! What fun! By 5 we were all wind blown and a little cool, so we left the beach and headed to our "residences" to shower and change!
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| By the time we got there at 2, the beach was not very crowded! |
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| Our new method for finding sharks teeth! |
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| Today/s find!!!! |
We decided to cook and eat together at the campground, so Ken and I started getting organized. Fred and Doloris arrived around 6:45 and we had grilled salmon, chicken, and pork with salads and quinoa. Tasted so good. Then we played Skip-Bo and the men won again. We get so close, but never seem to be able to win. I think they must cheat! There is no other explanation!!!!! The men won the Haus game too! Enough of that! The other adventage they had was that Barbie was on their side. Both Ken and Fred wore Barbie bandages and that seemed to give them an unfair advantage. Fred asked her for advice often, and she appeared to be good at both games!
They left by 10:45 after a glorious day in Paradise. Each day they are here we accomplish 2 or 3 things on our list of activites we need to do while they are here. We are definnitely Celebrating Life Daily!
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