Monday

Monday morning comes along and BAM! I am sucked into a frenzy for work, so I better keep this short! :-)

We had a nice weekend, (and Sarah did clean her room nicely and we had a relaxing evening).

Sunday we finally got over to Oscar Scherer State Park for our canoeing. It is a fairly small state park in south Sarasota. We rented our canoe and took off up the river (or it is actually more of  a creek).

I had forgotten how nice and relaxing it can be on a Florida river, we definitely have to go canoeing here again soon! Sarah even took over my paddle a few times and did a great job paddling!

It was a very hot day, but the river had a canopy of old Florida trees shading us for most of the trip. We saw lots of fish, birds and one little alligator, not more than a baby, perhaps 2.5 feet long, sunning on the banks of the river. Too bad I forgot my camera, it was very beautiful on the river!

After our river adventure we had a picnic up by the spring fed lake in the park, called Lake Osprey. We did not go in, they did have a swim area and people were enjoying the nice warm spring waters, but they also had a sign warning for alligators... Crazy people!

After our picnic we went over to Nokomis Beach on the island Casey Key.

Ken had gotten a special Beach Tent, and I had been very sceptical to this, but it was SO NICE! A perfect little shade place to get out of the sun every so often. This will definitely make it possible to stay at the beach longer in the future. We didn't get home until after 5 PM, a very nice day indeed!

Next weekend it is Memorial Day weekend, and we are renting a boat for Saturday, which is our new tradition. We also bring the dogs on this trip, which they (at least Bob) seem to really enjoy. Sunday will probably be another beach day.

We are lucky to have so many options for top notch beaches around here. The only hard part is to decide which one to go to, but they all have different characters for sure, so it all depends on what you are in the mood for. On Sunday I think we will go to Longboat Key, where it is more private and great for snorkeling.

Now, back to the grind.