Boca Grande

Today was a nice mid-winter day here in Florida.  The temperature scared 70 but we are not actually sure if it got there or not.  It was a bit windy but the sun came out and 68 and sunny seemed way nice to the snowbird population.

We went to Boca Grande.

This is the hosts' residence.  Barely visible but still evident is the fact that the house backs up to water.

See it peeking through on the left?  The locals refer to it as Spring Lake.  Mid-continent folks like me point out that the water there is brackish, salt mixed with fresh and that I personally once spotted a manatee back there.  That's no Lake of the Isles, it is a small arm of the sea.

Just a couple of miles away, however, is the real sea.  The attraction at Boca Grande is the real sea, in this case a small arm of the sea known as the Gulf of Mexico.

Today we saw dolphins, a whole bunch of dolphins.

We walked all the way down to the end where Santini and friend posed with an exotic bit of former flora and future driftwood.

The FT wanted a photo with those grape leaf things that she likes so she could show the photo to her mother (who also likes those grape leaf things).

We are pasty white skinned mid-continent types so we tried to be careful not to overstay our moments in the sun.  It was a spectacularly nice day and we saw dolphins.

We had lunch at the South Beach Bar and Grille, an establishment that is rapidly becoming fixed as a traditional lunch spot for the visit to Boca Grande.  The FT agreed to forego the Key Lime pie blind taste perhaps because the piece she had at the SBB&G looked way too good to save part of for later blind taste testing.

Artistic presentation.  Good pie.

We stopped on Banyan Street once we got back to town.

None of us know positively why it is they named that street Banyan Street.

My life experience down at the plant compels me to wonder whether or not Banyans are native to southwest Florida or if perhaps they are invasive.

By unanimous acclamation, the FT had to pose in front of the 3rd Street Cafe (corner of 3rd and East Railroad).

It appears they have everything there that she needs.  From right to left, rum bar, lunch, dinner, brunch, and not terribly visible behind her there on the other side of the door, beer.  Truly full service.

And we made it home in time for sunset.

All is going well here and no shoveling was required to clear space for even a single one of today's photos.