The Bangles

We went to Busch Gardens in Tampa to see The Bangles in concert last night.

Sunburned

We went to Fort DeSoto Beach yesterday and stayed in the sun too long. Today I'm sunburned and really tired. It's a beautiful beach with white sand and clear water. Going to the beach out there is a sort of like going camping. You need to bring along food, water and shelter from the sun. Next time we'll bring a beach umbrella to get out of the sun once in a while.

Chameleon on the Lanai

This morning we found a chameleon on the lanai. I shut the screen sliding door while Alfonze chased him around. The little lizard finally got so worn out that Alfonze was able to pick it up and put it outside. I don't mind the frogs and lizards, because they eat bugs. I was used to leaving the slider door open, but I think I'll keep the screen door shut now.

Tree Frog in the House

When I got up this morning there was a tree frog sitting on the toilet seat. It startled me, but not enough to surprise the frog. The last thing I wanted to happen was for the frog to jump in the toilet to try to hide! The frog jumped on the floor and Alfonze threw a small hand towel over him to try to catch him. Just when he thought he had the frog cornered, the frog ran up the wall. We finally caught the frog and let him go in the backyard.

I didn't even want to think about where the frog came from. It's material for urban legends. Could alligators and snakes get in through the toilet, too?

Grandma Apple says that they follow you in when you open the door. That made more sense than reptiles in the sewers. Tree frogs and chameleons like to hang out in nooks and crannies around the door frame at the front door. That's probably where the frog followed us in.

Beach Hopping

We went to Fort DeSoto's North Beach yesterday. The water is really clear, which makes it a great place to go snorkeling. It's one of our favorite beaches. In the past you had to wade through a little bay that had lots of stingrays. You had to be careful and shuffle your feet to avoid getting stung. I never got stung, or witnessed anybody getting hurt, and the beach on the other side was so great that it was worth the crossing. They filled that little bay partly in by sand, so we didn't have to wade through the stingrays! Yippee!

Fort DeSoto Park:
http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_Ft_DeSoto.htm

The sand is white and the water is so clear. There was a soft, cool breeze that made us not want to leave. It was refreshing after a week of muggy weather and smokey air.

We got a lot of smoke from the forest fires that were at the Georgia/Florida border this week. Here's an amazing satellite photo. The fires where hundreds of miles away.

Weather.com Blog
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_12513.html?from=wxcenter_news

Today we went to a place in Ruskin called Simmons Park. It is on Tampa Bay. We went there after taking Grandma Apple out to lunch for Mother's Day. We didn't intend to go in the water, but just to check it out. What a difference the bay water is compared to the Gulf water. The beach had more rocks and the water had a lot of debris in it. The debris was mostly chopped up leaves and twigs. Alfonze said that it looked and smelled just as he remembered it 20 years ago. Yet there were still a lot of people having fun, despite the dark water.

As we were leaving Simmons Park we noticed huge birds nests on top of telephone poles. They were built on top of wooden pallets that were attached to the tops of the telephone poles. If you've ever seen those kinds of pallets up close, you know those nests have to be big. I don't know what kind of bird was up there. Here's a photo of a bird peaking out of its nest.