Rainy Day

Gulf pier at Fort De Soto Park

The promised rain ("one and a half inches an hour") came in spurts until early afternoon, but it certainly didn't seem measurable to me. Each little shower refreshed the air briefly but then steam began to rise from the ground -- above 80F, like all but two days this month. We decided the weather was good enough to spend a couple of hours at Fort De Soto Park.

The second gull took longer to leave

The park has great capacity and the parking lots are often full, but not today. The park was as close to empty as I've ever seen it in the five years we've been coming here. Maybe that's why I enjoyed our visit more than ever before, even though most of the migrating birds seem to have left the area. There were lots of resident osprey, herons and shorebirds, along with the ever present laughing gulls. Bob had the nerve to compete with the gulls for a picnic table and, to my surprise, he won.




A windy day at Fort De Soto Park

For the first time, we accidentally ended up at the second fishing pier, where the fishing seemed to be great, especially for a large dolphin methodically swimming along the full length of the pier, back and forth. Schools of small fish moved in dark blobs from one location to another in the water. Bob asked a couple to take our picture: we look a little weathered but happy, which we were.

We had a shared salmon dinner at the end of happy hour at our "go to" restaurant in Pass-a-Grille, Sea Critters Cafe. Bob enjoyed the sides of black beans and rice, and swiss chard as much as I did . We ended the day on the Boca Ciega facing dock, where the sunset was reflected in the eastern sky.

Last of the sunlight reflected in the building across Boca Ciega Bay