Sooooo…another beach day to write about……O…K……this week at the beach is truly testing my ability to make very similar days sound different. You’d think after all these years of stretching the same half a dozen gags over all these trip reports I’d be fine. Let’s see how we go.
We were up early at around 7am. We had arranged to Facetime Rebecca and Louise’s Mum at 12 back home. Having dragged my tired sack of bones from my bed to chat, once that was done I went straight back for a bit. There was no theme park queue to be at the front of after all.
Once up for a second time, guess where I went? Yep, the supermarket. I was picking up the usual stuff for lunch but I also needed a book. I don’t get much time to read in real life but on holiday I tend to devour books at an alarming rate. However, it would appear that the population of Siesta Key are either illiterate or all own Kindles as it took a very long search to find a shop that sold them and then the choice was pretty poor. Having picked up a fairly standard holiday thriller I returned home and got us over to the beach at around 10.30.
There was a lot of wind today, but with all this rich food we were eating, that wasn’t too much of a surprise. After such a strenuous morning we all rested until around 12, avoiding direct sunlight and trying to keep our umbrellas from blowing down the beach. Emily and I went for a wander up the shoreline.
I’m not sure how far we walked but it was the furthest we’d walked since we last saw a theme park.
We encountered some strange and wonderful beasts, native to the area…
These are probably called the orange billed black heads or similar…
This one, probably has a latin name such as hugioscruffygit.
Whereas this creature I think was called something like Mutton As Lamb With Cheesewire Up her Arse.
When we reached this it felt like a natural place to stop so we did.
We had a sit down for a few minutes taking in the smell of our skin crisping nicely in the midday sun.
Then we walked all the way back.
Emily resumed her place under her umbrella and I nipped back to the house to get our lunch. We endured doing lots of nothing for the rest of the afternoon. There was literally nothing worthy of a photo or me making a note of it. Some might say that’s an ideal afternoon.
At around 4.45 we headed back to the house and everyone rested and readied whilst I made some notes. As I opened up the camera to look back at our very eventful day, I noticed it had ever so slightly completely broken. The large LCD display on the back looked like a kaleidoscope. Having experienced a very similar issue at Vero Beach some years ago I diagnosed it as having sand inside it and being irreparable. It did still take photos, as this classic proves.
But clearly a new camera was required.
Once everyone was ready we headed to a Best Buy which I had located online. I left everyone in the car and made a very swift trip inside to pick up the cheapest point and shoot camera I could find. The Canon Powershot was the one I walked out with, having exchanged it for $119. I have to say, the photos from here on in are much better. All these blurry ones weren’t my fault after all!!
We stopped for gas and filled the car with $30. Not actual dollar bills you understand. I swapped that amount for an appropriate liquid. Tonight we were following our sat nav to Applebees.
It was just a five-minute wait to be seated at our table….
and this was done by a young girl with EMO tendencies and an impressive fringe which made me all sorts of nostalgic.
As we perused the menu, drinks were ordered…
Emily had a Blue Long Island Iced Tea…
Louise had a Sangria…
and clearly I now had a camera that worked!!
We shared some Mozzarella Sticks for appetisers…
Then we entree’d as follows….
Me – South Western Steak Salad…
Emily – Burger
Louise – Steak with Garlic Mash and Broccoli
Dad – Chicken and Shrimp
Mum – Who clearly couldn’t wait for me to take my photo….a cheesey chicken thing. I’m sure that’s exactly what it said on the menu..
More cocktails followed and I ordered the Deep Fried Apple Cake thing…
Everyone else said they didn’t want any but I asked for extra spoons and sure enough I had to fight everyone to the death to stop them eating more than me.
The bill was $135 plus tip. Our way home was only interrupted by our daily pharmacy stop, this time at CVS. I didn’t make a note of what we bought other than “more bloody ointments and potions”. Our lovely beach house was beginning to look like a classroom at Hogwarts.
We excelled ourselves tonight by being in bed at 9.30.
Till the next time……
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