Friends!

Tuesday
This morning, I made it out for the sunrise, walking to the little fishing pier, then back along the beach, enjoying the changing colours in the sky and watching the birds along the way - terns, gulls, Brown pelicans and snowy egrets. After breakfast, I took my coffee outside into the sun, then about 11am we drove down to Holmes Beach, further south on the island, to meet up with our friends, Jan and Steve and their daughter Chelsea. They are renting a beautiful home right on the beach - ideal for their huge big Labrador Hastings! We spent some time just sitting outside chatting and enjoying the ocean view, and occasionally throwing a toy for Hastings to retrieve (!), then Jan, Steve, Roger and I went out for a few hours, leaving Chelsea at home to read - she is a PhD student, so has a lot of reading to do while she is home on break. The four of us went for lunch at Armand’s Circle, an elegant shopping and dining area near Sarasota. We have driven through it before but never stopped, rather wary of the prices - you see a lot of Rolls Royce’s, Bentley’s, Porsche’s etc driving around! However, we were pleasantly surprised with the lunch prices at any rate of the place we went to. We had a lovely lunch and chat, then went for a walk along the front, before returning to their house. We were treated to a glorious sunset, sitting at the back of their place, drinks in hand - I did have to go and fetch my cardigan though, as it really cooled off. They then fixed us dinner, before we came back at about 8.30. A lovely day. Until this year, it had been a couple of years since we’d seen them, and then this year we’ve seen them twice - back in June at their home in Colorado, and now here in Florida!