WINDY IN DUNEDIN

Jan 11- We are on our own today as Evelyn and Sid have friends visiting them today. I have been doing laundry and thought it would be a great time to bring the blog up to-date. The sun is shining brightly today but with a north breeze which is making it coolish today. The other Loopers that are here all have cars and are out today so it is very quiet on the docks.

Jan 12- I have spent most of this morning cleaning the brass items in the boat which are badly in need of it. A very famous Looper we all know and love arrived and is docked beside us. He is Spiritus (Eddie's Weather Wag) as he is known on the internet. He does the weather reporting for any Loopers making the night or day crossing from Carribel to Tarpon Springs. They made the crossing last night so have spent all afternoon catching up on their sleep. We will have docktails tomorrow to welcome them to the marina. Sid and Evelyn and ourselves are biking north into the Honeymoon State Park today. The park was named that as it had about 30 cabins on the island and was advertised as a wonderful honeymoon spot back in the 1930's. While we were having a drink at the refreshment stand in the park we met a couple at the table next to us from London, Ontario and their friends were from Denver, Colorado. We had a lengthy chat with them and then headed back to the boat.

Dave biking to Honeymoon State Park

Sid and Evelyn away ahead of us

Looking out to Caladesi Island

People fishing at a local beach

Views from the Information Centre

Sid and Evelyn outside Information Centre

Beautiful beach on Honeymoon Island

Washroom stop

Views from the restaurant on Honeymoon

Jan 13- It is a cool cloudy day again but we will not let that deter us from our mission, getting some exercise. We are biking into Dunedin again today. There is a bike shop along the bike path heading to Dunedin and Dave and I are putting on new bike seats as ours are too hard on the butt. After about 10 minutes at the bike shop we were on our way and our butts were much happier! Although it is mid week the town of Dunedin is bustling with people and sightseers like ourselves. We wandered the little shops and then had a treat at the local ice cream parlor. They have the best key lime ice cream I have ever tasted. We sat for awhile watching the goings on and then headed back to the marina. We had dinner then we invited Sid and Evelyn and Eddie and Linda to come and play Sequence for the evening. I think a good time was had by all.

Jan 14- Another overcast somewhat cool day today, no one is moving too far today. We busied ourselves with little jobs and cleaning inside. It has brightened some so Sid and Evelyn and ourselves are walking about four blocks to Publix to get groceries. We have decided to try Koby on this walk to see how he makes out. He is very nervous of the noise of traffic but he did fine. We had dinner then we all got together again to play cards.

Jan 15- We were awakened this morning by the pounding of rain on the boat. They were calling for possible tornadoes along this coast, but they did not appear here. Dave has been approached by a fellow Looper on Corsair about crewing for him to do the night crossing possibly on Tuesday if the weather permits. He called John his uncle to see if he might like to crew as well. John has consented to go so they are just waiting for a weather window to open up.

Jan 16- We are all up early this morning as we have John and Pat coming over to take us over to the Wagon Wheel Flea Market for awhile. This flea market is in a huge field and it would take a whole day to go through it all. It has outside and inside vendors selling anything and everything. It is around 70 degrees and the sun is shining which makes for a pleasant day. By 1:00 pm we were tired and hungry so off we went to have lunch and headed back to the boat. We sat out on the dock for some time chatting and then John and Pat had to leave. We had planned on playing cards this evening but I am exhausted so we will take a rain check.