Caspersen Beach

 

After a couple of days on the east coast we decided to head to the warmer west coast.

Caspersen Beach was the beach of choice for a couple of days.

For snorkeling,

 more snorkeling,

and more snorkeling.

 I'll give you 5 dollars.

The sand dollar bones are pretty abundant.

 Merry much richer.

Money, money, money.

We also searched the shells for

fossilized shark's teeth.

 Eliza digging for shark's teeth.

 Adam collecting shells.

 Beachy hair.

We were also stalked by a gopher tortoise who was sure we had something delicious.

Myakka State Park

While staying in Venice we stopped to see the canopy walk at the Myakka State Park.

This is at the top of the observation tower.

Adam on the canopy walk.

 Grace looking very concerned about more than 4 people being on the the canopy walk at one time.

 Merry admiring the air plants.

This is what Florida really looks like.

It is sort of hard to impress Jacob.

He is not a fan of heights so he didn't go up on the tower.

 Other than the wildlife (children) we brought we saw lots of other animals.

A  nanny deer supervising 3 spotted hoodlums.

 Ole black water with an accessory.

 A limpkin looking for snails.

 An irate rabbit eating grass.

 A tricolored heron supervising the marsh.

 Squirrel girl scaling the trunk of a moss covered sabal palm to admire the needle-leaf air plant.

A yellow-crown night heron who is not nocturnal.

Black-bellied whistling ducks. 

We saw lots of other unphotographed wildlife, it was super cool.

Family pictures

 Family picture torture is always a must on vacation.

 These are at Brohard Park, Venice, Florida and courtesy of my tripod and remote..

 The storm looming behind us.

Silly faces.

What really happens during family pictures.

 All of the kids.

The parents.

Saying goodnight to the sun,

by play fighting in silhouette.

At the circus

A visit to the Ringling Circus Museum.

My circus performers.

Luckily on the day we decided to go, Bello the clown was there performing.

We sat in the front of the audience so the Grace got picked to help with performance.

 Bello gave Adam a red balloon.

 Which got into all kinds of trouble in the museum and at the playground.

Eventually it had to be rescued by Jacob balancing on the playground railing with a stick to rescue the balloon from the trees.

Merry admiring the circus posters.

 Jacob was going to run away to join the circus.

Grace testing her mighty strength. 

Brian and I in the beautiful circus grounds.  I loved the Banyan trees.

 Me as the ringmaster of my own circus.

Let the vacation begin

Instead of taking a cross country this year we decided to stay and play in our own backyard.

 Our first stop was Henderson Island to snorkel at Bathtub Reef.

 The snorkelers ready to dive.

You can see the reef behind us in the water.

 Even Brian braved the water.

 For some reason sand on the east coast of Florida gets stuck on you more than sand on the west coast Florida.

One happy snorkeler.

Relaxing on the sand.

 Sand castle construction worker.

After a day at the beach the pool is a must.

Pool boy.

The next day went went to St. Lucea beach to collect shells because a couple of bull sharks had come into the tub of the reef during high tide to go grocery shopping.

 The kids building a sea wall.

Merry searching for shells.

More of the sea wall.

Me relaxing on Jacob's boogie board.

Adam posing.

 Other highlights were a pancake/checker run to Cracker Barrel and

visiting the Stuart Fish and Pig.