Sunday was the Lord’s Day and He gave us another lovely day! Breakfast at Mickey D’s and then off to find another beautiful beach. And we did! Imagine that. Back out to Anna Marie Island and made a left turn down to Longboat Key and parked at Coquina Beach. Beautiful snow-white sand and gently rolling waves! The end of the beach at the south end of the island was a pleasant place to sit and watch the boat traffic going from the bay to the gulf and the vehicle traffic on the bridge, which connects the island to the next. At Sarasota there is a little park and fishing pier that parallels the causeway bridge. As we were looking for Rt 41 to head back north we came across the 25 ft statue of the sailor kissing the nurse. She even had seams in the back of her stockings just like in the original photo from the war. Dinner was at the Oyster Bar just north of Sarasota and we would recommend it to anyone. My salmon was delicious!
Monday we met Sharon and Dick in Ellenton and had a good afternoon shopping and laughing. We met Nancy (Sharon’s friend from Toledo) at the Roaring 20’s Pizza Restaurant and spent the evening stuffing ourselves with yummy thin crust pizza and listening to the most amazing gentleman who played a HUGE theater Wurlitzer Organ that took up one entire end of the building with all its bellows, pipes and reeds. The magnificent organ sounded like an entire orchestra and the different cymbals, drums, horns and xylophone parts were placed all around the room and were lit up whenever their notes were called for. The American flag blew in the wind when a patriotic piece was played! When he played the Phantom of the Opera, the lights flashed and the bass boomed. The Wabash Cannonball had a very loud, very powerful train begin its slow churn to movement and then roared thru from one side to the other.
As we were chatting with Nancy and asking about her summer cottage up on the chain of lakes near Coldwater Michigan, the folks next to us overheard us and we found out they were from the same chain of lakes. Now what are the chances? The younger couple with them was down visiting from Marshall Michigan and we found out that Jackie works for State Farm! We had fun sharing the evening with them. Before they left, I dared her to email or call our State Farm office back home and tell them I said Hello!
Tuesday brought another “cold front” and it rained and was windy all afternoon. As the evening got closer, it got even colder and stayed just as windy. The forecasts all show cooler temps in the low 60’s for the rest of the week. Night temps are to get down into the low 40’s. Not nearly as bad as the reports up north tho!
