Playing Tourist today...

It was cooler today in Florida, and we headed south, across the Sunshine Skyway, into Bradenton, where Jim lived for a time, and his son David was born there. He was amazed by the many changes there, and recognized little. Then on to Anna Maria, where my family and I visited in 1965, our first trip to Florida. Not many people were on the beach. There were more sandpipers, pelicans diving for dinner, and seagulls than people. We stopped briefly then went on siteseeing. We stopped at the Sand Bar, right on the beach and had grilled grouper, and an amazing salad with a strawberry yogurt vinegrete, topped with mango chunks. While we enjoyed our meal, we could see 3 dolphin (porpoises, Jim called them) swim around, then dive down. Neat! We stopped along a causeway beachy area to walk the dogs, and they had a ball. Addie went to the water, got her feet wet, and approached a very calm white egret who slowly moved away. Other dogs came and went, and Jake only had eyes for the dogs, rather than the group of 30+ seagulls at the waters edge. They sniffed things that they don't find in landlocked Indiana, that's for sure. I found a perfect small conch shell, but something was still living in it, so back to the water it went.
Jim got to go down memory lane, revisiting areas he hadn't been to in decades. I got my feet in sand, and smelled gulf waters again. Cool day.