3-10-24 Myakka River State Park

 We had shrimp on the barbie last night with a lemon garlic sauce, green beans and rice pilaf.  Everything was delicious!  We play two games last night and the girls won both - 9 to 6 in our favor - yay!

We decided to give Myakka another chance as we were disappointed last time.  It was better, but still not as good as before they took out the dam.  We saw great blue heron, great egret little blue heron, tricolored heron, cattle egret, white ibis, glossy ibis, roseate spoonbills (although from a distance), black and turkey vultures, blue-winged teal, osprey, assorted sandpipers, black-necked stilt, American crow, palm warbler, a number of gators and on our way out of the park, a lone sandhill crane!  We came back for lunch and then read for a bit out near the docks.  We will have grouper tonight with pasta and carrots.  Tomorrow looks like a beach day.

3-9-24 Farmer's Market, Tippecanoe Environmental Park, Venice Rookery

 We ate out at Yoeder's (the Amish restaurant) last night.  The food was good and plentiful, but I don't think we will go back again.  After dinner we went to the side patio where there was a gospel band.  Some people were sitting around in chairs and others were sitting in the golf carts in the parking lot listening.  The band was good, but the three female singers were slightly off key.  Back at the condo we played one game of cards: the boys won so it is 7 to 6 for the girls.

This morning on our way to the Farmer's Market, we stopped to take a picture of two sweet statues on either side of the entrance to a private home.  The market was wonderful as always.  We picked up fresh bread, grouper and shrimp for dinner, veggies and assorted other goodies.  I was surprised to see a pizza truck selling New Haven style pizza.  Russ and Dave gave dog biscuits to a variety of dogs.  We came back to the condo to put away our refrigerated items and then drove down to Tippecanoe Park south of Venice.  We were hoping to see scrub jays, but no luck.  We will not be going there again.  We then drove up to Venice to the rookery which was wonderful as always:  we saw great egrets, anhingas, black-crowned night herons, great blue herons and glossy ibis.  If you look carefully you can see a great blue feeding a chick and in another you can see a blue green egg.  We spent a bit of time there and then went into town as Cathie had lot an earring when trying on a dress the other day.  I also picked up a few more postcards.  On our way back to Siesta Key, Dave spotted a bald eagle flying overhead.  We had leftovers for lunch.  Russ, Cathie and I went down to the docks to read and were lucky enough to spot three dolphins.  They again came very close to us.  It was very exciting!

3-8-24 Lido and Longboat Keys

We played two games of cards last night and the girls won both!  The score is now 7 to 5!

This morning was very foggy early, but it burned off quickly and turned out to be a lovely day.  We started at Ken Thompson Park on Lido Key (a new site for us) and were pleased to see osprey nesting, another beautiful roseate spoonbill, a little blue heron, a juvenile glossy ibis and more snowy egrets.  We also spotted assorted shore birds and a mangrove tree crab hiding on the railing to the boardwalk through the mangroves.  We will definitely come back here again!  We then drove across the bridge to Quick Point Nature Preserve on Longboat Key.  We saw some needle fish in the shallow water and a lovely periwinkle bush.  We walked in the other direction and spotted a Great blue heron watching the fishermen under the bridge and hoping they would throw him a fish or two.  We then got back on Lido Key and dropped Cathie off at Armand's Circle for a bit of shopping while we went down to South Lido Beach.  The last time we were here we only saw one bird.  This time we doubled our count.  There was a great blue standing behind a fisherman on the shore, which made for a funny shot and another snowy egret.  I think we can permanently cross this one off our list.  We will go out to dinner at Yoeder's tonight.  This is an Amish restaurant not too far away in Sarasota.

3-7-24 Turtle Bay on Siesta Key

 We went for a walk this morning down to the docks to see if we could spot a dolphin, but we were unsuccessful.  We packed up the car and took Susanne to the airport as she flew home today.  We then went back to Siesta Key and drove to the other end of the island to Turtle Bay.  When we walked out onto the beach there was a great blue heron just standing on the sand - magnificent!  We surmised that he was watching the many fishermen and waiting for an easy breakfast.  We also saw a good assortment of shore birds - sandpiper, curlew sandpiper, ruddy turnstone and a snowy egret with the yellow slippers.  We walked quite a ways and looked for tortoise holes, but no luck there.  On the way back we passed a "shell tree".  Cathie added one to the collection.  Our calves were getting quite a workout so we crossed over to the road and passed some huge private houses.  The mermaid mailbox pictured was in front of one of them.  There were more shells her than at the white sand end of the island, but not nearly as many as on Sanibel.  We drove home to have a lunch of leftovers.  Russ, Cathie and I went down to the pool to read while Dave napped, but I had to come in early as despite the cloud cover this morning, it was really hot poolside.  I even went for a dip, but I dried off very quickly.  I think we will have different leftovers for dinner - trying to clean out the fridge!  We will play cards again tonight.

3-6-24 Red Bug Slough Preserve

 We had a big rain storm last night.  No rain this morning but it was very overcast and threatened to rain most of the day.  We decided to go to Red Bug Slough again, but the rain must have chased off most of the birds and ducks as we had a lovely walk, but almost no wildlife.  We did see a cardinal, lots of yellow-eared slider turtles (Dave and Russ were feeding them crumbs of dog biscuits from their pockets), a little blue heron, a butterfly and just as we were walking out of the park, a single roseate spoonbill (yay!  our first sighting this trip!).  We drove up to the mall.  Dave and Russ picked up a few books at Barnes and Noble.  Cathie and Susanne went clothes shopping, but came up empty handed.  We went across the street and had lunch at Ford's Garage again and then drove back to Siesta Key so Dave could have his nap.  The rest of us went to "downtown" Siesta Key (all two blocks of it) to look into a few shops.  I finally got to try on a pair of Oofos, but decided that the Nike slides I picked up at home were more comfortable.  Just as we got to our last shop, the rain came and it poured for several minutes.  Russ kindly offered to go get the car and meet us back at the shop.  Susanne found a lovely blue shirt so there was some success to the shopping trip. We are now back at the condo.  Cathie and I just finished marinating the chicken for dinner tonight and the boys will grill.  We will have roasted potatoes and salad with it.  Susanne leaves tomorrow.