Beautiful Day at Fort DeSoto Park

  John got up early to take his walk and get some sunrise pix.

 

The sun is just starting to peek thru

 

What a pretty amber color

 
 

Neat clouds over the lake





Here comes the sun!

There's Harvey and the Jeep and if you look
Closely, Kylie's there, too!

When he got back we had breakfast and got ready to go to Ft Desoto Park and Beach in Tierra Verdi, about 45 minutes north of here.  It's located in Tampa Bay so hopefully the water will be warmer than the ocean.  We left about 9:30 and other than the many small tolls we had to stop to pay it was a very enjoyable ride.

I love the palm trees along the water.

That's the Tampa Bay bridge in the background...

...we're getting closer...

...and ready to cross over.

This is a long fishing pier that was probably a
docking area for ships in earlier years.

  It cost $5/car to get in the park.  There was a HUGE American flag just inside the entrance and we headed to the right toward North beach and the old Ft Desoto.  There was some maintenance being done with big, noisy equipment, so we avoided that area.  There are many pavilions and bathrooms conveniently located on the grounds as well as lots of parking and a few snack stands. (I noticed THOSE signs right away!). We picked our spot on the white powdery sand and had a wonderful day reading, playing yahtzee, and looking for shells.  Unfortunately, it was not a very good walking beach because parts were closed on both ends!  John will have to make up his steps later today!  I didn't find any "baby ear" shells, but it was fun to finally be able to go out in the water and look.

I think I found a good one!

I found lots of "auger" shells, some other neat ones, and a bunch of "butterfly shells for my mother.  But my find of the day was a stingray barb and a crab claw!  We didn't know what either one of them was until we asked the guy at the snack bar.  The water was so clear you could see to the bottom even when the water was up to your waist.  And, being in the bay, it was very calm and warm... probably about 68-70 degrees.  It was very warm in the sun, so it was great to be able to go into comfortable water.  The beach got pretty full and there were a lot of people in the water all day.

The beach is filling up!



The water was so beautiful.  See the sand bar
way out in the distance 

The seagulls were moving in... the lady
behind us was feeding them.

A little boat sailing by

Mr. pelican flying by

Lots of people were enjoying the warm water...

...and playing in it, too

  About 2:00 a threatening cloud passed over but luckily didn't amount to anything!

Luckily, this big, mean cloud sailed on by!

  The rest of the day was absolutely gorgeous!  We left at about 4:45 and stopped at the snack bar to get a snow cone (which was huge!) and chatted with the clerk for a while after he identified my barb and claw.

Look at the size of that thing.  Sure different
from the little ones we used to get from Fink's!!

  We mentioned that we saw a stingray jumping out of the water several times and he said that was probably an indication that he was being pursued by a shark!!  I'm glad we were leaving!  He also said that there is an incidence of a stingray sting at least once a week!  Who'd a thunk it!!  He said to use very warm water or urine on the sting because the ammonia in urine helps with the pain.  So watch out for those stingrays!!

View of the bay and beach from the snack bar

A sailboat in the bay on the way home

There's the huge Am flag at the entrance
to the park that you can see on the way home.

  When we got back we chatted with the neighbors across the road, had supper, and skyped with Arlene and Bennett.  We talked for almost 45 minutes.  He can now recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the ABC song.  It was great to talk with them!! And guess what... my new phone arrived!!  I called Bonnie to make sure it worked and it did!!!  She said it was perfect... yippee!!  Then at 9:30 John challenged me to shuffleboard.  I won the first one, he won the second, and he won the bully.  It was fun!  Needless to say we didn't get to bed very early.  But I did stay up a bit longer to play Word Twist.


Clockwise from top left-double shell gorgeous rust brown color, jingle shells-they are opaque,
shell with a design that looks like brown plaid, auger shells, asst. shells including an
olive shell, slipper shell with barnacles attached and separate barnacle, and in the middle--
the infamous stingray barb, crab claw and tiger eye shell.

These are the butterfly shells my mother likes for her miniature Christmas tree