Beach Bums

(Who, me? says E.) Yes, you! And Sparky, and Nick and Ritchie--we were all beach bums for the day at the Lido Key Beach today. Kelly and I checked it out when we did our excursion to the St. Armand Circle in Sarasota yesterday. We thought it looked wonderful! She is now back home, hard at work...It was a wonderful visit and too short of a vacation for her!

Lido Key Beach is about a 30 minute drive from the Manatee RV Park in Bradenton in good traffic. We had to go in two cars because Eldo and Sparky had more junk to take to the beach than a family with kids....Beach mats, beach chairs, cabana, towels, picnic lunch, cooler, magazines, tote bags, you name it, we had it! But first, we had to set up the cabana, which is Sparky's baby. For some reason, if there are people watching, it takes her twice as long to set it up!

But we got it.

It was an extremely hot, intense sun kind of a day at the beach today. At first, the water was totally calm.

It was 74 degrees!  We dunked ourselves repeatedly to stay cool......We ate our picnic lunches...We people watched...the guys were on bikini/thong watch...Not too many of those today even with the crowds at the beach.  Later, the wind picked up and we got some mini waves.

It was our last day to visit with Nick and Ritchie...Tomorrow, they head towards home which is Grand Rapids, and we head to Wachula, FL for a few days.....We'll really miss them, they are wonderful people and friends to treasure.

On the way home, we saw the "Colossal Kissers" or as some Sarasotans call it, "The Big Smooch".....It's about a 20 foot high statue designed to withstand a force 3 hurricane. Apparently, the statue used to be in San Diego and now it's here...Residents either hate it or love it...Interesting, at any rate!

If you ever get a chance to look around the St. Armand Circle, not too far from the Mote Aquarium and the Lido Key Beach off the St. Armand Circle, it's a very cool area-- tons of restaurant cafes, cool boutiques and a unique quadrant layout around a roundy round...one of those roundabouts that send you off in different directions.

We had a fun day at the beach today...Best wishes to Nick and Ritchie as they make their way home for a few weeks. They have a trip planned to Alaska. Wish we were going with them!