Spring Fling 2011 - Day 13

This day was slightly more "partly cloudy" (which was a good thing) and also slightly warmer, but still very pleasant.  The day's objective was Myakka River Sate Park which is also in the Sarasota area.  Jean & Peter were a bit disappointed as their decade-old memories of earlier visits were of lots of water/large lakes, huge numbers of alligators, and few people and today's realities were exactly opposite on all counts.  The shorelines have retreated at least 100 yards all around, alligators are few and far between and there are vast numbers of people!

We managed to park (slightly illegally, like many others) near the lake and enjoyed another leisurely picnic.  Later we moved into the shade for a relaxing afternoon, somewhat apart from the crowds, relaxing and reading.  We visited one of the huge new concession buildings, three times in my case, once to buy a memento mug, once to buy three cups of ice cream for our dessert, and once to buy a Christmas tree ornament, all apart from the obvious reason for going there!

We drove through much of the properly paved portion, largely along one edge and eventually headed home for a late dinner.  As we were finishing Jean got the feared phone call to confirm that a cancer-wracked sister has been given but 2 to 4 months, which led to somber discussions of cancers in general, and of the sad deaths that eventuate.  In the short term they are making no changes to plans, but a definite pall was cast on the day.

Not a lot of pictures were taken, but a few have been uploaded to Flickr & may be found here.