Our baby Owl swooped in for a visit

So B' called us earlier in the week and asked us if she could come for a 'visit'. Well of course my little owl...this mama bird misses her way too much to say no...and I'm sure her dad will want to see her too! ha

Since she had to work today and it's about a two hour drive, she didn't get here until a little later in the day but still got here in enough time to chill at the beach...there's always time for that!

After the beach, we collaborated and gave in to a cheap hotel and a hot shower at the Motel 6. And that's pretty much exactly what we got. No frills, no thrills and no bed bugs are just fine with me! haha We were also very ready to wake up in the morning and get going, since J' actually ended up sleeping in Joon Van instead of the (almost twin size) bed!

[caption id="attachment_1980" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Uh-oh...a bed 'Bug[/caption]

And where do you think we were ready to get to?.... Siesta Beach baby! We figured it was the best Beach to show off to B' since she's only seen beaches like Daytona & New Smyrna. We found a fab spot...Actually we totally creeped in on these guys that were pretty much having a beach party! haha They had it all, they had a tent set-up with two huge coolers that you could put a sailfish in, a keg on ice, and music pumping. Even though we didn't 'join' the party, we got some second hand party "smoke"! Along with the party we succeeded in sun tan's, lots of laughter & whimsical pictures. I have to say we had quite the amazing day together.

[caption id="attachment_1981" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mama Bird with her baby Owl[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1982" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Since everyone always does cute tootsie pics, we decided to get a little fugly[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1983" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Our lil Owlet with Papa Owl[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1984" align="aligncenter" width="300"] We got each other's backs[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1985" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Joon Van Shenanigans[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1987" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Buckets up...Cheers![/caption]

 After a long, strenuous day of holding down our sheet on the sand & keeping our suits in the right spots for maximum sun exposure we once again settled into a hotel. A different one tonight though, the Motel 6 was just too much of not enough for us. (These were also the only two nights of the entire trip we got a room). Tonight we rented out a room at the Days Inn. It wasn't that bad actually. It was cleaner and the room was much much bigger and J' even spent the night with me!

[caption id="attachment_1988" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My pooped lil babies[/caption]

 We only have B' for one more day so hopefully tomorrow will bring just as much amusement as today.

PEACE

60- Hiiiiii by Ayevangabond

Keep on Truckin': Venice

[caption id="attachment_1992" align="aligncenter" width="300"] They have the most amazing trees in Florida[/caption]

 So pretty much we just stopped in Venice for an hour or two to walk around and say we saw it! haha

They have some cute stores there, but a little too pricey for my taste. Although I did find a store that had just what I was looking for (a decorative pill box) and exactly the price...$4.00!! I couldn't resist and it works well for what I needed it for. As my sista would say, "What a ganga!" (gong-gha)

[caption id="attachment_1994" align="aligncenter" width="300"] How funny is this sign?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1995" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Downtown Venice[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1996" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My goodness Venice, what tall trees you have![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1997" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I’m in Venice at Sarasota and St. Augustine…what?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1998" align="aligncenter" width="300"] These things are everywhere and so gruel![/caption]

PEACE

 

Piddling around Casey Key

Getting a little "tired" of the same scenery, we jumped over to another key. We went from Siesta Key over to Casey Key. Over on Casey Key we found a few more beaches. I think there are three or four beaches all together over here. We decided to see what Nokomis Beach was all about. We drove through the streets and looked at the huge, beautiful houses and dodged many people due to the closeness of the road to lawns/houses!

[caption id="attachment_2001" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This is only a small part of this house![/caption]

After house gawking, we turned around and went back toward the beach. We ventured out onto the "sand" or lack there of, I should say, compared to Siesta. THIS is the beach you come to if you want to shell-hunt! Although I read somewhere later that you are not supposed to take the shells...ummm, what? You are on a beach with shells...where do the stores get them? Anyway...I didn't take any because I knew they would just break or get lost in the van anyway, but it was cool. I can't remember the last time I saw a beach like this, I'm sure I was very young.

[caption id="attachment_2002" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Shells, Shells, Shells galore[/caption]

After walking the beach, we headed back to Joon Van, not really the kind of beach we want to lay out at due to the sand sloping at a 45* angle toward the water...haha. We popped over to the other side of the street and found a primo spot right by the drawbridge and marina. The drawbridge pretty much opened into the ocean, so it was awesome to see these boats come through and go on their journey to sea. We also walked under the drawbridge and investigated the area on the other side of where we were. It was just a bunch of little 'sea-cottages' with docks, very cute.

[caption id="attachment_2003" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Why ARE we so serious?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2004" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our draw bridge spot. We saw some of the coolest boats come thru here and the van is literally right behind us![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2010" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our drawbridge spot. I can’t believe there was no one here, even in January![/caption]

We frolicked here for a while. J' got his computer out and worked a little bit. I played with Savannah and then I watched a guy fish for a long time. He plopped right beside us in his truck and his chair and ate his peanuts (or whatever they were) and caught little fishies. He was nice though and threw all of them back. I know there was another reason but I'm just gonna go with, he was nice, kay! After J' started feeling cooped up we went over to North Jetty Park to see what we were missing. That was super rad and a great place to spread out and enjoy Florida.

There is a beach, plus an actual Jetty you can walk out on and that's the place to fish if you enjoy that.

[caption id="attachment_2005" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I like Big Birds and I cannot lie ♫[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2006" align="aligncenter" width="300"] North Jetty[/caption]

 We stayed here for a while after finding it. It is a great place to park and we were able to find a spot where no one bothered us. I know it's January but we still got lucky I think. The spot we had was as close as you can park to the beach with showers (yep, freezing cold showers, but showers), actual bathrooms within sight, we were right underneath this HUGE Oak tree that provided us with shade...thank you Mother Nature! And there was no one around, it was awesome. It was even right by the playground and we were happy to have only one family come and their kids were not that annoying...haha

[caption id="attachment_2007" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Now, it's official[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2008" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I was craving strawberries for days & not one store had any, but then we went to one special Publix and they saved the day(s)! I finally got some and they were delish![/caption]

I wasn't feeling all that great the 2nd day we were at North Jetty Park so I asked J' if there was any way to put the bed down and open the door, so what did my man do? Just that, he rigged me up a nice little bungalow up in Joon Van. He's so dope! So Nanna and I hung out with fresh breezes and tv 'on' the beach & J' worked right beside me.

☼   Life really couldn't be any harder! ☼

[caption id="attachment_2009" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Bed down, door open, wonderful world![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2011" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My hottie patottie[/caption]

PEACE

55- North Jetty by Ayevangabond

Ketch-up: Sarasota

Hmmmm....okay let's see, over the past couple of days we have been to about 3-4 Wal-marts, 2 Targets, 1 or 2 Best Buys, & a Radio Shack. J' wants to get a TV so we don't have to keep going places & spending money (out of our budget) to watch the games, so we have been everywhere that would sell the exact TV he wants. Found that no one carries it & we'll probably order online. We have also gone sticker shopping -I got a bad-ass ring too (we started collecting stickers from all the places we've been or just liked to put on one of our main 'bed' boards in the van). We spent a couple of days in Siesta Key on the beach, really only an hour or so because we get bored or I get hungry, then once we pick up to go and check on Savannah we always end up moving on...haha.

[caption id="attachment_2013" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Siesta Beach parking.Better get here early, they fill up fast![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2015" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I guess everyone is on the beach! Siesta Beach picnic area[/caption]

Then, today we finally got our TV. We ended up ordering it online and had it shipped to us down here, to a private postal service. Even though it cost $5, instead of the $3 they told us over the phone, I don't think it was that bad of a deal. I mean, we got a package on the road...how cool is that!? So yay, we got a TV!! Now we can watch the games and even have a little something to do at night when we both don't want to read or do computer stuff. I think it will be a nice break and a nice treat since we haven't had TV in almost two years!

[caption id="attachment_2016" align="aligncenter" width="300"] TV Time![/caption]

Since we had left the beach to go pick-up our new purchase, we decided to find a new place to hunker down for the day. We drove over to the place where they had the Farmer's Market that one day, Phillippi Estate. They have a huge park there and docking stations for kayak's to get into the river so we figured it would be a nice quiet place to spend the rest of the day (no overnight parking there).
So glad we did too. J' was able to work at a picnic table under a gorgeous tree, Savannah was able to do her thing, sneakily though since they don't allow animals in the park...tee hee and I walked around & took pictures. It was gorgeous there, glad we stopped for a few hours.

[caption id="attachment_2017" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Antique Rose Garden[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2018" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I thought all roses smelled the same. NOPE!! These roses smelled like mango & cherry candy… so yummy![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2019" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Such a neat little place this is[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2021" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Another beautiful rose, that smelled so sweet it almost smelled edible.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2022" align="aligncenter" width="300"] J’ working away in Sarasotaville[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2023" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Phillippi Estate[/caption]

PEACE

51- January day at Siesta Key by Ayevangabond

The Sarasota Idle

We moved around a lot today. We're not really getting the REALLY hot and sunny weather we had hoped for in Florida, but we do get spotted days and it's not totally freezing, like back home, so it's a plus anyway ya slice it. J' really had to get down and do some work so today was more of a work day than a play day but it's gotta be done. We put in a Borders in our GPS, got to it, loaded up everything to take inside and after our loooooong walk from the parking lot discovered that they closed their doors. Luckily, a Barnes & Noble (who probably put them out of business) was just a half mile down the street. We sat there for a couple of hours, until our computers were close to dead (only one plug-in and it was taken), then got back in the van, plugged in and drove "across the street" to the mall (Westfield Sarasota Square). It's a pretty nice mall. We sat in the Food Court and worked for a little while longer until J' couldn't take the exhaustingly slow internet speed there. From there we got back in the van, ate a little something and worked a little more.

[caption id="attachment_2029" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Internet at the Mall! YES!!!! Can you find the most interesting name on the list? haha some people…[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2030" align="aligncenter" width="300"] J’ working & me people watching at the mall[/caption]

J' really wanted to watch the game (Broncos vs. Patriots) so while he was working I was trying to find a place to go....again close and within our budget. We found a few places and went to three of them before we made a decision. We were looking for a good atmosphere with good seats and a good price. We ended up at a place called Crusty's Pizza.

[caption id="attachment_2031" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Crusty's for the game[/caption]

We walked right in, found a great spot to sit right in front of a bunch of t.v's! They had a plug-in right where we were sitting with free wi-fi...not that J' would want to work now, but at least it was there! The food wasn't too bad either. It was nice and we were able to watch the game without any annoyances and crowds & we barely paid anything. It was what we were looking for and we found it, so I don't think you can ask for more than that!

PEACE

 

Artsy Fartsy Sarasota

Since we've been in Sarasota for a few days now, we decided to actually see what Downtown Sarasota looked like instead of going straight to the beach. We found a parking spot right on the main street and were surprised to notice we didn't have to pay for parking (where we were), but as we walked across the street, there was meter parking and a daily parking stand where you get a ticket to put on your dashboard...we got lucky. We walked around and looked at all of the cute shops that they have. It was still pretty early in the morning so not a lot of people out but it was nice just the same. Still very refreshing.

[caption id="attachment_2034" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Window Shopping[/caption]

We walked all of Downtown, down to Selby Five Points Park. It's very artsy and beautiful down there. We saw the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, The Sarasota Opera House, the Public Library which is huge and gorgeous, a Starbucks that looks like it cost a million dollars for a cup of coffee and art EVERYWHERE. It was neat and I'm glad we stopped for the time we did.

[caption id="attachment_2035" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Selby Five Points Park[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2036" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Starbucks (I wonder how much it cost to live up there?)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2037" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Proposing Art![/caption]

After the park we were on our way to the beach and since the morning never really turned into a hot afternoon, as we were sitting waiting for one of the drawbridges to go back down, we veered off into a parking lot of have lunch. We ended up spending half the afternoon here because it was so quiet and sooo windy outside anyway.

[caption id="attachment_2038" align="aligncenter" width="224"] She could sleep anywhere, any time[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2039" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My Babaa’ working on a windy day[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2040" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Just right off the main road. Crazy no one else is here…all ours for the day![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2041" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A girl snatched my camera out of my hand as I was self-po’ing it and took this picture! Weird but nice of her![/caption]

PEACE

48- Resting by the Bay by Ayevangabond

Staying Alive in Sarasota

[caption id="attachment_2095" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Breakfast of Champions… Homemade Oatmeal!
@ Sun’n'Fun[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2097" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My lil’ begger, but she’s a good girl![/caption]

After we had a nice relaxing morning of breakfast, coffee, showers and laundry…~> DETOUR: oh, and we met a super cool couple across the way. They were in their mid 60′s maybe 70′s, I can’t remember now. Jim started to talking to J’ as he was coming back from a tennis match & we were packing up. After about 15 minutes of talking, Jim invited us to come and talk in the “cabin” of their RV. They had a pretty C’ class, with a nifty layout. His wife Denita came in right behind us. We probably talked over an hour about different campgrounds, RV’s and places around the U.S. to travel. It was really nice of them to invite us into their ‘home’. We’ll never forget Jim saying that he sings with a quartet and that they sing Baptist Hymns…but they supe ‘em up a bit!
After saying our good-byes we headed out and turned right onto the highway. While accelerating, we both heard a big sound, like a scream almost and J’ pulled off to the side and said, “That sounded like our belt!” Good thing my hubby is quite the man and unfortunately it was our belt. We tried to back down the exit ramp (for about 10 minutes at turtle speed because the Advance Auto Parts was exactly where we got on the ramp), and there was no way in hell that was going to work with the cars hopping on the Interstate at 65 mph. So, we bit down and prayed real hard that we could make it the mile and a half that we had to go (we had to go to the next exit, get off, get back on the highway and end up where we started). With J’ driving only about 35-40 mph we made it to the car place. And once again I am a lucky girl to have a handy hubby that knows how to change it. He did it himself and it was a bitch. He said I couldn’t really him so, I kept him hydrated!

[caption id="attachment_2098" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our belt! I’m glad we were where we were and J’ knows what he’s doing.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2099" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Joon Van looks all tore up due to J’ having to get his tools out of the back. (It normally doesn’t look like this!)[/caption]

The belt took about two hours to change out and then we were back on the road. We ventured over to Turtle Beach today. It was very different from Siesta Key, very low key, not a lot of people and not a lot of sand space. We walked the beach, there were tons of shells there. I found a huge Abalone, it was beautiful. I wanted to keep it but knew that it would probably only get broken in the van so I put it back in the sand, maybe an animal can make a home from it. We walked until right up to Sunset, another beautiful one at that.

[caption id="attachment_2100" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Turtle Beach[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2101" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Self-po[/caption]

When you travel as a couple sometimes you have to find a good place to put your camera to take a self-po! With better lighting by the sun, this wouldn't have been that bad of a pic! Oh well, next time.
PEACE

46- Waking up in Sun'n'Fun by Ayevangabond