Skip to main content

Summer Vacation

So many kids are heading back to school already, but my grandchildren are enjoying two weeks vacation on the Florida beaches.




The water temperature is about body temperature...no inching myself in like in the lake.  And the kids, especially Dane, are in the water like a flash but it seems it is the wet that lures them, not the temperature.  Warm or cool, water is water.

We went to the North Jetty Beach in Nokomis after dinner at a seafood restaurant the other night.  The children ordered a hamburger and chicken fingers, which kind of defeated the purpose (but I keep trying, without success to expand their palates, so that means I am insane).  It was too early
 for the sunset -- seniors and children go for the early bird specials.

But I did get a photo of the sunset when we got home.

Thunderstorms happen most evenings.

We went back for swimming the next day and we saw a mama manatee with a calf!  They came very close to the shore where we were swimming.  What a treat that was!

Saturday was more rainy than not.  We skipped the beach and went to the Big Cat Habitat in Sarasota.
My grandchildren are major cat lovers.  It was really very interesting to see just how "cat like" behavior really is across species.

There were other animals as well.  We saw bears, alligators, monkeys, koi fish, lemurs, parrots, lions, tigers, a bob cat, a Florida panther, llamas, goats, and chickens.  

Liger, lion and tiger mix, named Mia.



I have to say this was an educational experience because Dane got on the computer as soon as we got home to do research on endangered species.  His questions are endless.

But I LOVE Google.  "How old would Leonardo DaVinci be ifs he was still alive?" Well Google the year of his birth and subtract that from 2016 and you can figure that out. 

Google it  has become my go-to response.

We went to Siesta Key.  The sign says it is the #1 beach in the USA.  I forgot to take a picture but the sand is white and powdery.  Kristen bought a shirt so I guess that will have to be the proof that we have been there.  Being #1 means that the rest of the visiting population is there so it is a "did that once" kind of thing.  There are some advantages to an off-season visit.


Comments

  1. SextantJuly 31, 2016 at 3:36 PM

    Sounds like you all are having a great time. Lovely photos. I love the one of the turtle. Google it is a great response for those questions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jenn JilksAugust 1, 2016 at 1:46 PM

    Such fun with the grandies, isn't it?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. KailaniAugust 1, 2016 at 3:27 PM

    Good to 'hook up' with you again, Olga!

    Aren't grandkids GRAND? :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. KaySeptember 7, 2016 at 1:26 AM

    My granddaughter has already been in school for a week. I sure hope it's cooling off in Illinois. I've never seen a manatee before. From what I see it's hard to imagine they were mistaken for mermaids at one time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotteSeptember 19, 2016 at 6:42 PM

    It seems like your summer is filled with joyful times with your grandkids. I love the photos.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more

New Furniture

 We went shopping for a new couch. I liked this one, the first store we went to. Of course it would be an impulse to buy the first one so we trekked around to other stores -- something we liked more, a better deal? No surprise that we ended up going back to that first store the next day and purchasing that couch for our living room. Also a matching love seat for the den where we watch TV. Because I had replaced my old love seat with two recliners. We couldn't keep three households worth of furniture after all. Well, my recliner was not big enough to accommodate both Levi and me. Poor boy had to watch TV from his bed on the floor. There! This is much better! Spoiled much? The little tail on the floor belongs to his toy squirrel, Buddy. It's like having a toddler with the need to be picking up toys or risk tripping over them. But his very favorite play thing is that bathmat that can be found anywhere but the bathroom floor.
10 comments
Read more