Vacation Pictures, Part II

Oh my! Yesterday was quite a Halloween. We went from 50s and rain to 30s and flurries. And the wind was brutal! I’m surprised we had as many trick-or-treaters that we did. Still way more than we ever got at our last residence on a good weather night!

I was still hoping for more, though (and would have gotten them if the weather cooperated), so yeah, I have lots of candy leftover.

But was October one crazy month or what? Started out breaking records in the 90s and ended on flurries. And I thought March was bad!

Good time to post pictures of Florida, right? To think the warm weather wasn’t all that long ago.

Can you see that little creature on the walkway? That's a gecko. There were bunches of them around the hotel we were staying at in Key West. Maybe he was waiting for the shuttle. :)

On this visit to Key West, we toured Ernest Hemmingway's house. His house was the first one to have a built-in pool. Not by his choice, though. That would be his ex-wife's.

Hemmingway's favorite bar was Sloppy Joe's (not the one that's there now). When it closed down, he decided to take one of the urinals and use it here as a fountain.

This is where Hemmingway did a lot of his writing. I could easily write in there, too. It was a very nice space.

One of the many six-toed cats roaming on the premises. They allow each female one litter before having them fixed. You can tell they are all well taken care of.

Chickens and roosters like to roam Key West, too. This one managed to sneak into the restaurant. The wait staff ran after it, squirting it with water to get it to leave!

I finally had a chance to wear my swimsuit (no, I don't have a picture of me in it) and make it to the beach. The water was so warm! We only spent about an hour out there (didn't want to get sunburned, and didn't!), but it was a wonderful hour.

One of the few houses I saw decorated for Halloween. They went a little crazy, didn't they?

After our stay in Key West, we headed up to Sarasota/Bradenton to watch Daughter play Footy in the the US Australian Football League Nationals. Her team won their last game and came in fifth place. In case you're wondering about the scoring, her team had 4 goals (6 points each) + 6 behinds (1 point each) = 30 points. The other team only had 3 behinds.

We've been to Sarasota before but had never visited the beach. We were told we needed to see the Siesta Key Beach. That it is considered the #1 beach in the U.S. So we made it out there just after sunset. Wow, were we impressed! The beach is HUGE!

And the sand! It was the softest sand I'd ever felt. Powder soft!

I would have liked to have seen the sun set, but this was pretty, too!

Oh, and while the sun set, the moon was rising. It was an absolutely lovely night. I hope Nationals are held there again. I'll make a point of going back to this beach during the day! In my swimsuit, even!


So … Can you believe it’s November already? I miss summer.

Happy Friday!

Stacy