Well this trip was bound, as is this mortal coil,  to ride the sine wave roller coaster and yesterday was a prime slice. The daytime portion was unbelievably good, the nighttime, not so much.
The day started with Lily, Laurie and I heading of for Caladesi Island north of Clearwater on the Gulf.
    The drive was very pleasant across the causeway from Tampa then north to Dunedin to take the ferry to the Island. If you like the Florida tropics, palmettos and palms, beautiful beaches this is pretty close to paradise. The 20 min passenger ferry from the state park was lovely with a history of the area from the captain including the way the area, bay and island have been reshaped by various hurricanes.
     Caladesi Island itself is really a wildlife refuge where people are allowed to hike, beach, swim and fish with conditions under the watchfull eye of the Florida Parks and is the only natural island on the Gulf Coast.
   We walked the five minutes across the dunes via the boardwalk to the beach which was a couple of miles long and beautiful. The park rents chairs and umbrellas, which you really need, as even with mass amounts of sunscreen, you're not going to want to spend extended time in this intense sun. We parked ourselves, there were probably 20 other people on his huge, beach which was wonderful. For me one of the downsides to it being so hot was the ocean was in the 80's, so not tremendously refreshing when you've been in the heat.
    We did some beach-combing and then as Laurie and Lily settled in for some reading under the brollies, I decided to take a walk south on the nature trains through the palm and palmetto dunes. I was wonderful bringing me back to days at FIT JBC in the 80's when I was in college. I walked about a mile and then decided that the heat was too much and took a shortcut to the beach for the return hike. The shell acquisition was particularly successful on this return trip. No Rattlers or tortoises, but the natural vegetation including cacti was superb. The birdlife is spectacular with sandpipers, pelicans and all sorts of shorebirds, hunding for food in the littoral zone. We also learned the "Stingray Shuffle" (everybody form a line?) to keep from stepping on one or getting stung.
    As I found nice whelk shell a the woman of a couple, in a very English accent as where I had found it. We got to talking and the told me they were there with their daughters to celebrate their 15 Anniversary,  and that they were married here on the island 15 yrs ago! They were very nice and we chatted some more while waiting for the return ferry.
   After we had has enough sun (we all got some burn even with mass sunblock!) we headed back to the snack bar by the ferry dock for lunch and drinks. We chatted with a couple from CT who now lived in Orlando and were in a boat club and had taken a 20' center console out to the island for the day.
   The return trip was great and we had a nice drive back to out hotel. We when out with Iz and Hanna and her parents for a nice meal in Ybore, the old section of Tampa. It was a nice meal but everyone, especially the girls seemed tense, and we all felt that Iz didn't care if we were there or not. An emotional and not pleasant evening because of this. The emotions of leaving your child/sister  in a strange place for college are pretty intense and I think this was the time when it all came our. So some drinks were had and tears were shed. I went off to bed and Laurie and Lil stayed up talking in the balcony. The all of a sudden herd strange noises and rushed down to see the fins and blow holes of a pod of dolphins swimming by....

"After the waves were breaking, ancients eased in their pain, mothers took fire in their hands,'
Then the dolphins came..."  TTDC - MeccaLiy