Jackpot at Anna Maria Island This Morning....

Sparky has been VERY busy subbing in first grade this past month. As a matter of fact, she hasn't missed a day of school yet in first grade. The first teacher had surgery, so Sparky opened up the classroom for her. Then, while finishing up that assignment, another first grade teacher at the same school, tripped backwards over a family pet, and broke bones right around her elbow. Ouch! Sparky was in for another two weeks!

The kids are delightful....Sparky has been posting little stories on Facebook, but for anyone who has missed those, here's a couple for you....After taking an oral reading screening test about babies and what babies do, a little boy had a puzzled look for a moment and then asked, "I wonder why babies cry so much?" He pondered that and before I could answer, he replied, "Maybe it's because they poop so much!" Indeed.....

Another day we were outside and it started to rain....The kids immediately wanted to know if we were going inside. Now, when you have first grade, we try to get the kids outside 90% of the time because we really DON'T want indoor recess for a myriad of reasons. So, even if it's raining lightly, we remain outside unless it's a thunderstorm warning. The kids have a nice big cover over the playground so they can stay dry if they really want. But most of them really enjoy the rain. It's the worriers that want to go in. It was just lightly sprinkling. "Mrs. Sparks, are we going inside? It's raining."

"No, we're going to stay out...."  It started to rain a little harder..."Mrs. Sparkles, it's raining. Are we going inside?"  "Why, are you melting?"  "No..." with a grin. "Then go ahead and play. You're ok!" And off they went, running around in circles and screaming and yelling like you've never seen. One little girl, running around, held her arms up high and yelled, "I just LOVE it when it rains!"

Off to Anna Maria Island this morning for breakfast....Then we went over to the Anna Maria Island City Pier. We hadn't been there in three months...Too hot, too rainy, too steamy...Still hot, still steamy, but we thought we'd go see what there was to see. Apparently, it's a good time to see dolphins! A pod of dolphins swimming up close and personal right up to the pier.

They were chasing the fishermen's bait, grabbing Spanish mackerel right off their hooks when they could!

At one point, we saw a cormorant with a fish and a dolphin circling it.... Uh-oh!

The dolphin swam right up under the cormorant, you can't see him here but he's right there. They proceeded to have a little tussle with the fish, the dolphin grabbing it right out of the cormorant's mouth and swallowing it!  Eldy saw another dolphin grab ahold of a fisherman's baited hook and make a run for it. He let the line run out for a bit, not wanting to hook the dolphin, and then finally, he said the heck with it, he didn't want to lose his entire line. As he started to reel the line in carefully, the dolphin grabbed the fish off the hook and made off with it.

This is the most dolphin we have ever seen at the city pier. Usually, it's just a solitary one hanging around and they are usually much further out. But the mackerel are plentiful right now. One of the fishermen said that the dolphins have been very active and very present the last two days, and that September and October are great months to see a lot of dolphin and fish activity at the pier. Woo hoo!

Lots of people fishing today, even some young ones...We love to see them with their dads, (usually)...A great family activity for sure!

A wonderful morning...breakfast on the beach, dolphins at the pier, and stories to share....It's a great life here in Bradenton, FL! Even if it is too hot and steamy for Sparky some times!

Back to Normal, Sort of…..

The wave of visitors have come and gone…..Family came and went, more family came and went, and just recently, Eldy's nephew came for one day and a night, and then it was back to normal, just Sparky and Eldo. No more wonderful pickle ball with friends over at Sun 'n' Fun. Our friends have left for cooler temperatures. Sparky is still subbing right up until she leaves for Washington, D.C. next week, to see her oldest daughter, who is being deployed overseas in June. But she sure misses pickle ball! She will have to try harder to find some outdoor places to play in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. There are some indoor facilities, but indoor pickle ball is not as much fun as outdoor, Sparky just likes outdoor better. But as it gets hotter, Sparky will start playing now and then indoors. Those hotter temps are coming, it's been in the mid eighties this week!

We're back to investigating garage sales and estate sales, now that most of the snowbirds have left town, we're looking for things we can't live without, or some yard tools that of course we sold when we left Indiana, thinking we wouldn't be needing anything like that! You never know what you'll see…Sparky really loved this lemonade stand, she was such a cutie, and look how professional the parents made her lemonade stand!












You never know what you might see at an estate sale/garage sale in this area. How about this Old Town antique canoe? It was very cool!

We are true Floridians now….complaining at the height of the season that parking is at a premium, fussing at having to stake a seat out for Happy Hour way before happy hour begins anywhere. We should just have our own happy hour, right? Quit complaining, Sparky!  Even the estate sales have cleared out as far as having to get a number to wait in line to get in the door. We don't do waiting in a line for 45 minutes or more in the heat in the peak of the season. We like going in the off season, it's fun to look to see what's out there. Even though we've pretty much got the house the way we want it decorated for now, there's always SOMETHING that we can find to add to it. (She's managing to add all kinds of things, folks, we're running out of room already, fusses E. And we haven't even picked up our storage shed stuff back up north yet!) Now it's the big projects that will have to wait down the road-- like replacing bathroom cabinets and sinks, and something different in the kitchen in the way of lighting, and maybe carpeting in a couple of rooms, and…..Good thing Sparky is working! We've got all kinds of stuff coming up…a family reunion this summer in Traverse City, a visit seeing Sparky's oldest daughter, and who knows what else?

So….weekends come and go….Farmer's Market in downtown Sarasota….This is Siesta John and his woodie…..heh heh heh…..Notice he's playing in his bare feet! Always great music at the Sarasota Saturday morning Farmer's Market.

And always, fabulous organic fruits and veggies, and wonderful things to sample and eat...

We visit the beach sometimes, usually Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island and the city's island pier…Sparky saw this really cool sea grape (?) leaf. She swears that's an imprint of a regular oak leaf on it, a double imprint at that. You sure don't see very many regular oak trees around, especially at the beach! As a matter of fact, Sparky hasn't seen a single oak tree at the beach.

We always like to visit the Anna Maria Island Pier. There's always LOTS going on…We've seen a dolphin lazily swim very close to shore, chasing the fish in just yards from the swimmers, we've seen a whole bunch, herd, whatever, of brown cow nosed rays---over 60 of them swim back and forth for over a half hour alongside the pier, dolphins stealing fishermen's bait, an angler accidentally hooking a ray, another hooked a pelican and today, it was another ray just swimming along by himself.

Sparky couldn't resist taking a photo of these two cute young anglers…Usually the fishermen or women are lots older and more grizzly looking, skin baked by the sun.

We like to go get pizza at the Main Street Trattoria in Lakewood Ranch and eat it outside….

There are so many places to sit outside at cafes in Sarasota and Bradenton, it would take you a year to sample them all.

Sparky rides her bike at least a couple times a week. Sparky likes these birds of paradise blooming shrubs.

She's always looking for gators, or the elusive bobcat which residents have seen quite a few times in the nature preserve on the back nine and whom we saw cross the road in our subdivision one day…Today we saw a red fox moseying around the golf course just outside our backyard!

And the days fly by…...

Breakfast at the Tiki Hut, Anna Maria Island

Sparky had heard that there can be lots of dolphins seen around Anna Maria Island's piers, about 30 minutes from our house. It was a free fishing day, so we thought there might be LOTS of action both from the fishermen and the dolphins hoping to snag something. Off we went to Anna Maria Island....The first pier is sort of a historical one, but part of it has been shut down due to a restaurant failure and some remodeling issues. Some fishermen still come out to the pier part that's open and they fish...It's a beautiful setting, early in the morning.....We saw one dolphin in the distance....

We went to a larger pier next....The Anna Maria Island Pier...It has a working restaurant on the premises, and the prices were very reasonable. We were too busy looking for dolphins and talking to fishermen to stop and eat there today, but we'll try it another day....Did we see dolphins? Yep! One going down....

And one coming up....

Always interesting things to see and hear on the fishing pier...Not sure what these folks are looking for, but there's SOMETHING down there catching their eye.

If you're lucky, you might hear the latest fishing yarn of the one that got away...Or the one that gave you a fight...Eldy talked to a young man who had caught a small shark last night. The guy was somewhat wasted, wasn't watching what he was doing, and the shark promptly latched onto his wrist and bit him! The guy's friends had to pull the shark off his arm, leaving bloody bite marks.

As it was, walking around the pier, if you are not fishing, you gotta watch out for the arm back, ready- to-cast-swing from all these people fishing. Wonder if they ever hook somebody behind them? Everybody seemed to be careful today, on not hooking a really BIG catch, like Sparky!

reflections from the restaurant window, a safer place to stand!

By this time we were getting hungry..We thought we would eat at the Gulf Drive Cafe...It's totally tiki huts! A big giant one for a big seating area, another big one for the bar, and then individual ones out on the beach. What a setting!

You can eat inside the restaurant, on the boardwalk beside the restaurant, or on the beach. Naturally, we picked the beach....it was GREAT! Food was nothing out of the ordinary, but VERY reasonable prices for breakfast considering the setting. Most places we would have paid double for what we got and for being right out on the beach, your toes in the sand.

We watched the divers out a ways in the water, looking for the remains of a sugar boat down below in the waters...jet skis, paddle boarders, and the birds....

A beautiful morning, a beautiful day...and Sparky got to see her dolphins...And Eldo got to see some bikinis...Although not as many as he would have liked.   :-)