Food and Palm Fronds

It's our last day in Florida. By the time the sky looks like this again, we'll be in the air headed toward England.

Yesterday was pretty low-key. There was lots of eating. We went to breakfast with Dave's parents and their neighbors at the Cortez Diner right down the road. (I had French toast.) Then we ran a few errands and came back here for lunch (sandwiches), and I did three crossword puzzles. My vocabulary is now refreshed with useful words like "bah!" and "eeriest."

Later we went to dinner at Mar Vista, a popular seafood restaurant on Longboat Key, where I had yummy but rather dearly priced shrimp and grits. We ate at an outdoor table beneath a spreading buttonwood tree, and I got two glasses of wine that were filled right to the tippy-top. Talk about a holiday pour!

Here are some more photos to give you a sense of the atmosphere here in Bradenton:

It's been great not having my heavy camera to tote around, but I have missed it. There have been a few photos I was either unable to take or had to take differently because I had only my phone. But it's a circumstance that has made me think differently as a photographer and I guess that's not a bad thing.

We've been checking in on Olga in her kennel every day. I know I haven't posted any dog-cam photos, but that's because they mostly look like this:

Not very exciting, right? And kind of pathetic. Poor girl! It's like she's in jail.

But the kennel (sorry, "luxury pet hotel") posted some photos to Instagram of her out and about with the other dogs, and they were a bit more lively. Here she is rolling in leaves, as she loves to do:

That Weimaraner looks very doubtful. Like, "Can you believe this crazy dog?"

Anyway, we're going to enjoy our last few hours among the pelicans in this tropical paradise, and then we're off to Tampa to see my step-sister, return her car and catch our plane. For better or worse, normalcy returns tomorrow!