Stormy Weather

Yesterday was a quieter day - not so much rushing around.

A walk along the beach in the first light to see all the local wildlife. The beach was almost deserted and there were rays feeding in the shallows and thousands of birds of all varieties - terns and gulls and wading birds of many different kinds.

Then back to the apartment for a leisurely morning until contractors working somewhere else in the building drove us out. One of the problems with Florida during off-season - it's when everyone renovates their condos.

Up the coast a bit to Madeira Beach for a visit to Books to the Ceiling, another of our must see used book stores. Then off to John's Pass, a bit of a tourist trap - a boardwalk along the water with restaurants and shops selling tshirts and souvenirs. Our main purpose for being there was lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. When we were out on Sunday we saw a huge advert saying We Love Bubba. How could we not go and check it out. They're a chain of restaurants themed around the film Forrest Gump and it's as cheesy as anything. But the food was excellent if a tad on the pricy side - well, someone has to pay for all the memorabilia on the walls! We had a selection of different seafood and shared a Mudpie for dessert - it was the biggest mudpie you ever saw in your life - it could have fed 10 people!

Groaning from too much fried shrimp and chocolate icecream we made our way back to the apartment and lay by the pool for a bit until the wind got up and the rain started. This was the northestern edge of Hurricane Ike as he crossed far to the south of us on his was towards Texas. The storm lasted about twenty minutes before the skies cleared again.

This morning it is windy again and the sea is quite rough. The wind woke me and I could hear the waves crashing onto the beach. Once it's light I'll go out and see what's going on.

We're off to Tampa today, again trawling the book and comic stores, plus there are a couple of quilting shops and at least one yarn store. I'll report back later.