An excellent day at the beach

We set aside Saturday as a “day off” so that we could spend it at Lovers Key State Park with our friends, Debbie & Ken, who we had volunteered with there 2 years ago.

After stopping off at the farmer’s market, we arrived at the park by noon.  After catching up with them for awhile, and a few other volunteers and rangers, we decided to ride bikes down to the beach.  Tom and Bryce borrowed a couple of bikes from the maintenance shop, but I had my new bike with us.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and there were lots of people at the beach!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed straight for the water . . . it was a wonderful 74 degrees!

We just tried not to think about what could be swimming around in the water near us!!

After cooling off, we took a walk on the beach to the south end of the state park.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are lots of osprey nests along the beach, 

and we saw several of the large birds hunting for fish along the estuary.

We arrived back at our towels, and were able to snag a few rental lounge chairs that had been deserted.  We all soaked up a little sun . . . some more than others, and they were paying for it later!!

The beach started to empty out as people packed up to catch the last tram ride back to the parking lot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily, we had bikes, and could stay as long as we wanted.  We’d had enough sun, though, and were getting hungry, so we decided to head back.

Lovers Key State Park is not a campground, but there are 6 resident volunteer sites near the maintenance shop.  We headed back to Debbie & Ken’s site, where we enjoyed a BBQ of salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn and watermelon . . . and chocolate chip brownies for dessert.

After our delicious dinner and more catching up, we enjoyed one of our favorite activities from our days at Lovers Key – biking to the beach at sunset!  There were a few others with the same idea . . .

We walked along the beach, enjoying the beautiful evening sunset!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is definitely one thing I miss . . . we don’t have these excellent views in our RV Resort!

Truly spectacular!

The folks on this boat were probably enjoying the view, too!

Ken & Debbie

Tom & I and Bryce

We continued our walk on the beach, and found several more osprey and their nests.

We also ran into some friends . . . volunteers Kevin & Doris, and their son, Sean, who they had just picked up from the airport. 

A few more shots of the glorious sunset . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . . and then it was time for everybody to leave the beach . . .

Back at Debbie & Ken’s, we ended our evening with an excellent campfire and roasted marshmallows!  It was a great way to end a beautiful day!