Sunday at the Florida Froeschkes

 7-4-2021 - Sunday

Bridgette got up early to meet a friend for a hour-long walk this morning.  When I got up, John was wrestling with Andrew, dogs were barking.  But Bridgette got home and put a stop to all that nonsense, then everyone was mad at her.  John went out and started mowing (today is the only day this week that rain isn't predicted).  She made us a great breakfast, and everyone got back in good spirits.  This place is finally living up to the "bed and breakfast" part!

 Catalina wanted to go snake hunting again, so after John (with Catalina's help) finished mowing the front yard, John sprayed them with bug spray, and off they went on their bikes.  Fortunately, they were unsuccessful again.  (They even drove over to their old neighborhood to check out a pond over there.)

Meanwhile, Joe took the motorhome over to fuel it before Florida runs out of gas.  With even the threat of a hurricane here, gas becomes a problem, so John had advised him to fill it up before the storm got any closer.  He said there was another guy at the gas station filling up his gas cans.

Bridgette has a little flower garden in front of their front patio.  She won't need to worry about watering it for a few days.  I really like the green/purple plant, but it probably won't grow in Arizona. There's more of the these purple plants beside the house, too.  And pineapple plants out front, and a blueberry patch on the other side of the house.

Joe and John worked on the Jeep, trying to track down the water source for the puddle in the floorboard.  They put some caulking on something, so we will see what happens during the next rain (probably tomorrow).  Actually, the Elsa storm track now shows it coming in as a tropical storm just north of Tampa, so we will probably get a few inches of rain out of it, starting Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.  But rain is predicted Monday afternoon anyway, so I'm sure we won't have to wait long.

Doug and Barbara came over about 3:00, and we watched the Nascar race.  Tonight was Taco Night, Bridgette's specialty.  Bridgette said this might be the last dinner we get, so I took a picture.

We were going to the beach right after dinner, to watch the fireworks, so clean-up was in a hurry-up mode.  John even took away Joe's table while he was still eating.

I think Joe was still shocked that they took his table away.

We left for the beach about 6:00, going through Bradenton to Longboat Key, and Anna Maria Island, their favorite beach.  We have been here many times before.  It wasn't crowded, and the water was very nice (much warmer than Lake Michigan's 45 degrees).

The kids brought their boogie boards, and they headed out into the water, ready to catch some waves.

Catalina caught a good one and got a nice ride.

John and Andrew waited for a big wave.  Caught it!

The waves got a little strong for Catalina, so she played in her private pool for a while.

With Grandpa supervising.

Me, too (nice hair).

John and Andrew came in for a little rest (I think John was the one that needed the rest).

The sun is starting to go down, but the temperature here is great.  Very refreshing.

John and Andrew went back out for some more boogie boarding.

Meanwhile, Biology Bridgette is investigating the seaweed.  You know, you can take the girl out of the biology department, but you can't take the biology out of the girl.  She and Catalina found a live clam too.

We also had a heron stop by.

A little family time in the pool.

Here's a good ride for Catalina.  The waves seemed to have calmed down just a little.

Finally, everyone got out of the water, and we settled down (sort of) to wait for the fireworks.  But there were still things to be explored.

Finally, it got dark enough and the fireworks started.  They were pretty far away, but we could see the high ones going off in several places.  

They set off several at a time, and Joe kept thinking it was the Grand Finale.  I think we were at Grand Finale Number 10 by the time we left about 10:00.  And all the way home, we could see different towns setting them off -- every direction we looked.

We were at the beach for 5 hours, and it was 11:00 by the time we got home.  When we left the house, Joe  ad said we should have enough gas in the Jeep to make the trip, but by the time we got off the freeway, the gauge was right at the red line.  Another "Joe-ism" when I suggested we stop for gas - "The low fuel light hasn't even come on yet.  We don't know if it has a low fuel light, but if it does, it hasn't come on yet."  Like that was supposed to be reassuring.  But at the very first stoplight after we got off I-75, the low fuel light did come on, so he pulled into the first gas station.  We don't really know how much fuel that gas tank holds, but I'm afraid we are going to find out the hard way (when we run out).

Tomorrow we will start getting ready for our trip to Indian River next weekend.  I think shopping is on the agenda, after Bridgette gets back from her work.  The rain isn't supposed to start until the afternoon 
(a balmy 77 with 83% humidy at 9:30 a.m. -- the humidy was higher an hour ago).  Another day in the sunshine state.