Okay, I know I'm all over the map but I'll fill in the gaps eventually. Today was our afternoon off so Del, Jess and I headed to Caladesi Island. We keep hearing about this place ranked as the top natural beach in the united states. It was pretty nice! We drove to Honeymoon Island (the beach we went to on monday - also verra nice) and caught the ferry - $9.00. This isn't at all like the Toronto Island Ferry, it's a pontoon boat which actually holds a deceptively large number of people. The water is turquoise and shallow - surrounded by mangrove islands. The beach is also a state park and nature preserve. The sand was amazing, fine and white. From where we lay, it looked like we could walk across the bay to Honeymoon Beach, it was so shallow. We're hoping that next year, we can put in a workout that entails paddling to Caladesi for the day. After a couple of hours, we decided to head home. One thing I wanted to mention - when you buy your ticket, you're given a return time. We arrived at 1:00 and were advised that we had to leave on the 5:30 ferry. However you are able to return earlier if there's room on the boat.
Since it's midweek wednesday - we were able to jump on the 3:30 ferry. On the return trip we saw 3 bottlenose dolphins and our boat driver Capt. Ron stopped so we could watch them playing in the surf. He had warned us that the boat's motor was unreliable and kept cutting out on him and we had a dramatic demonstration of this just as we were cruising into the dock. Without an engine, Capt. Ron couldn't steer or reverse and we heard him yell "Hold on!" just seconds before we crashed into the dock piling. One chubby lady (representative of the female american population in this area) was tossed to the deck and it sounded like she was working up quite the court case as we disembarked. It was a great afternoon trip and although we decided we'd be happy just going to Honeymoon Beach in the future, it was a great experience and were happy to have done it. We stopped at Panera's for a latte and to pick up some dinner. Happy hour had already started by the time we got home - Pete and Del were heading out for a bit of tennis (with the aid of some Crown Royal). A nice relaxing day. I'm starting to get used to this!

Happy birthday to Louise and Mia!