I just got an Email from my brother who lives up north.  -40° at 6 AM this morning, really cold.  Then his thermometer said “LL”, whoops, does not compute. Really Really cold!

I thought I send you some pictures that might help you warm up or make you really really mad at me .  In October we went to place called Boca Grande Marina which is on the island of Gasparilla.

Boca Grande Marina

It was a pretty uppity up place.  They even had golf carts we could rent

Golf Cart Parking

for a small fee $$$.

The first day we had breakfast at this very cool looking restaurant in a hotel

Pretty Swanky

See those brown pipes on the ceiling?   Those are their fire sprinklers and they are all covered with a bamboo looking wrap so they fit in with the old decor of the restaurant.

The food was really good but a little expense.  We had 3 people waiting on us.  I think that was because we were practically the only people there and their waite staff was bored ;).

They did have this really cool coffee table in the lobby

Did they get the shells from their beach?

and their porch was beautiful

Look at that wood shine!

So after our tummys were all full, we hopped on the golf carts and decided to see the island.  One of the places we saw was Banyan Street.  I’ve seen a longer Banyan Street on the way to Stewart when we went to buy the boat, but this one was cool none the less.

one

two

three

Now a banyan tree drops it’s roots from it’s branches.  These three trees are actually all connected.  Cool huh?  Do you remember me mentioning that we have a blind woman in our boating club?  She had never seen a banyan tree so her husband is letting her “see” one

Ahhhh, so this is what they look like 😉

When we got back from that little escapade, Gary and I went into the resort bar.

Beer Taps

Isn’t that cute?  It’s a little boat stern that they put their beer taps on.  How clever!  And the beer wasn’t too bad either.

Did I tell you how swanky this marina is?  They even put a mat down by each boat

Mat to wipe our feet on before we get into the boat

Now THAT is classy!

Later that night we had our pot luck dinner on the dock.  Here is Gary having a relaxing Honey waiting for dinner to start

Happy Hour

And here is Gary’s feet when we got home

Nope, not chicken pox

The No Seeums were eating him up like no body’s business.  I only got one or two bites.  Can you tell who bathes in our family ;).

The next day we took the golf carts out for another tour of the island,

Nice Trails

this time we stopped for a brewsky.  See what I found?

Cigarette machine

Man!  I haven’t seen one of these in a coons age!  Remember when they were 45¢ and you could even get matches out of the machine.  A real blast from the past.  Of course who can afford them now a days?  Glad I quit that vice 

Later that night we went to the Pink Elephant for dinner.  So……..does anyone but me remember these?

Little Plastic Pink Elephant

It is a little plastic animal that hangs from your glass.  I remember those from when I was a kid.  I don’t remember where we got them from but I was tickled to see them again.  I snarfed up three to take home 

So the next day, before we headed home, we took another golf ride.

Captain Gary

The Captain drove the golf cart, I think I was a little too wild for his tastes…..and heart ;).  So we drove until we saw this

beach

and this

beautiful sandy beach

and this

Captain in shorts and crocks enjoying the nice sandy beach

I know….I am such a tease.  This is what you have been waiting for, pictures of the nice sunny beach to help you warm up.

I hope it helps!  So stay inside and keep warm today.  Be sure to keep your tongues off those metal pipes!