Spring Break from Retirement in Florida

We left home at 5 a.m. on Good Friday, March 30, headed for Treasure Island on the Gulf of Mexico - our favorite place for a beach vacation.  We drove through a LOT of rain and holiday traffic, but finally arrived at about 5 p.m., in time for a walk along the beach.  The South Beach resort is behind us where we stayed once with Mom and Coleman.  

Right next door is the old Trails End - now Treasure Island Ocean Club, where we spent several summer family vacations.

The fence wasn't around the pool back in the day.

There seemed to be a shore bird conference going on - as always.  Randy took opportunity to provide some exercise for our unsuspecting feathered friends once or twice.  I couldn't believe he actually walked right through the middle a few times without chasing them off.

The water was very calm the first few days we were there so we saw lots of porpoises playing just offshore.

What a perfect day somebody had for their wedding.

This is total relaxation for us - walking this beach.

Our motel lights up the palm trees on the beach at night.

We walked south on the beach to this outcropping in the mornings.  It took about 45 min. to get there.  The beach is narrow with trees so we enjoyed the shade provided.

You can see the nice shade on the beach behind us.

At John's Pass we enjoy watching the pelicans who are always there waiting on fishing boats to provide them some easy nourishment.

We had a one bedroom apartment for three nights and an efficiency unit the other three nights.  We ate all our meals IN, which helps stretch the vacation budget a lot.

He spent a lot of time playing his guitar - can't leave home without it ya' know!

the courtyard area at our motel

"our" pool

nap time?

They like the beach too.

Milton shuffling at Casa del Sol, where Mom used to live.  We played with him too, but forgot to take any pictures.

Lettuce Lake Park - where we had a lot of picnics with the family over the years.

Alli was trying hard to stay under cover I think.

But when this one came out of the water onto shore, Randy caught a great shot.  We were only 15 or 20 ft. away, up on the boardwalk.

Swimming away, back to safety from all us tourists shooting his picture

The egrets are so stately looking.

No trip to FL is complete without strawberry shortcake!  I found these at the Chancey Rd. Flea Market the morning Randy and Milton went golfing.  Good thing cause they didn't have any at the local fruit stand or Winn Dixie.

Milton is Mom's 2nd cousin.  Their grandpa's were brothers.  We really enjoyed our 4-day stay with him.

The wind-blown look. . .

We were glad somebody built this cool castle for our enjoyment!

Lots of Canadians stay here - we were in good company.

Dumping the sandy shoes before going inside for a tomato sandwich

The Gulf was riled up our last weekend, and a storm blew in a couple hours after this.

Patience!  I couldn't get the crackers out fast enough for them.

Our last morning walk on Sunday, April 8. The weather pattern changed with rain in the forecast so we left a day sooner than originally planned, on Mon., April 9.

The sunset our last night was one of the nicest.  We took these pictures from our motel.