South Beach Adventure: Friday April 4

Another day at the beach. Kim and I took a short walk, looking for shells along the way. I can always find shells! And I did add a new one to my list, a Pointed Venus Clam shell. But more exciting was the Brittle Star I found. These are related to starfish but aren't actual starfish. This one lost parts of his legs in transition (very fragile) but I hope to get the rest of him back to Minnesota. I think his legs, thin and colored like they are, remind me of snakes...eeww.

Came upon a group of people staring out into the water. What do you think was out there? A dolphin was feeding close to shore. Many people, including me, were trying to take a picture but the dolphin's body did not stay long above the water. I heard that a couple of days ago there was a reef shark in the shallows near our condo. My nieces even saw it! But, unless you are right there, you usually miss these things. You know, you have to be in the right place at the right time.

When we got back to the condo, Kim and Collin had a date with a realtor to check out condos. I was able to convince Mom to come downstairs with me and sit outside. It was quite windy but not too hot yet. We spent a couple of hours outside before I thought we should go in and eat.

However, while we were downstairs in the community room we saw historical articles on this site and the condos here. It was very interesting. This used to be the Commodore Hotel in the 40's, and at one time had a restaurant, a lounge, and even cottages. In 1976 it sold for the purpose of building these condos. The lounge had been called 'Smugglers Cove' so that is what they decided to name the new condo building. The old pictures showed a beach empty of all this development. I'm sure it was so different then.

This is what it looks like today.

Actually I quite like these condos. There are only six stories and everyone faces the Gulf. The beach out front is close to shore so you can hear the waves all the time. Many of the huge condo buildings down the road may have a beach but not all condos face it. Also their beach is quite large and the buildings are set back from shore quite a ways. I'm sure you cannot hear the water in those condos. We even have a grassy yard that everyone is supposed to set there lounge chairs on instead of on the sand. That is very very nice also.

Caroline came and joined us. We tried to take 'selfies' with our iPads but that didn't turn out so well so you can't see our pitiful efforts. Everyone was enjoying the sand and the sun and it was nice to watch families introduce the beach and the ocean to their children. Others were fishing, and for the first time, someone was flying a kite. What fun!

We went inside for lunch. We have quite a bit of food to eat before we leave tomorrow! However, I still walked down to the Publix grocery store for a few things...and real estate literature (just for fun). The flowers around the condo building were beautiful so I took pictures of the Hibiscus.

Here is what it was like at home this morning -

Where would you rather be, hmmmm? Here...

Or here?

Ok. That really isn't fair now, is it?

I had to put out a display of some of my Coquina shells I've collected this week. They are all so different that I have a hard time passing them by!

We went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant called "Flippers" located a the base of Lovers Key Resort. It was the best food any of us had had in Florida. I had a fettuccini with scallops, shrimp and lobster in a basil pesto cream sauce. Everyone raved about the chef, and for good reason we found out. He had studied under Wolfgang Puck for 4 years. We will definitely be going back some day!