Our Weekend, in a Quicky

Randy dropped Ant off with his mother on Thursday, so we had the rest of the weekend to ourselves. And boy, did we stay busy!

We didn't have any big 4th of July plans. We could have seen my brother perform at Tampa Improv, but didn't want to fight with the crazy crowds and drunken tomfoolery. Instead, we took Roxy to the dog beach at Davis Island. She had an absolute blast! Two hours of running, swimming, romping with the big dawgs and playing fetch. She's a natural in the water.

Later we decided to head out to Honeymoon Island, catch a good tide, and try for some late afternoon fishing. This proved to be a terrible idea. I guess we didn't take into account the holiday weekend and the fact that the beaches are insane this time of year! We left empty handed. And after being at the beach twice in one day, we were cooked.

Saturday~ I was excited because we were taking the kayaks out for the first time this year. I have no idea what we were waiting for! We went to Weedon Island and checked out their 4 mile canoe trail. It was absolutely beautiful! We brought our fishing poles and saw the fish, but just couldn't seem to catch any of them. Much of the trail is down tunnels formed where the cypress trees formed canopies. Many of the tunnels are so narrow, we had to take apart our paddles and use only half. When we had gotten to the 1 mile marker, the skies grew dark and there was quite a bit of booming thunder. I'll admit, I was a bit scared being in the water with the paddle and our fishing poles~ seems like a good lightning target to me. I felt safer when we were inside the mangrove tunnels, but there was still quite a bit of open water. Luckily, the clouds and thunder blew by without so much as a drop of rain. Then the sun came out full force. Being the smart Floridians we are, we had no sunscreen, add to that the burn we had from Friday, and you have two extra crispy beet red morons!








That brings us to today. We had asked my brother and his wife, my bf Tara and her husband to come to the dog beach. My brother had "too much to do", I think he was just blowing us off. But
Tara and Danny were game. Tara's got a Boston terrier, Booker. Booker is older than Roxy and she (or Ant) usually tires him out easily. It was also Booker's first beach trip! They brought my goddaughter Elena for her first beach trip too. Tara and Danny did not listen to me and weren't dressed for the beach! Tara had told me that Booker is afraid of the water and they have to force him in the pool. Well, all it took was one toss of the tennis ball and Booker was off! We couldn't believe it! Roxy came and went since she likes to see what the other dogs are up to. Booker was nonstop fetchmaster! He has a tiny little mouth and it took some work to grab the ball. At one point he was hitting it and hitting it but just couldn't grab it. What he did get was too many gulps of water. Danny and I watched him go down and then he didn't come up! His whole body was limp and his head was not coming up this time. Danny had to grab him and pull him out. Booker had a time out, he was a little dazed and confused, but ten minutes later he was back in the water looking for more tennis balls. What a trooper! Book really impressed us today! Then, typical Florida weather, the skies grew black, thunder rumbled, and lightning flashed. We had to call it a day.