No traffic but plenty of toes

Monday we went to the beach.    Nothing special about that, we go to the beach often.  We sit in traffic on our way often, even though its less than a mile to our destination.  Yesterday we beat the lines of cars and found a beautiful empty stretch of beach.     Pam and John (Pam and Vic also for that matter) beat the traffic by riding their bikes over the bridge to the Gulf beaches.   We don't have bikes.

Ahhh, no one ahead, no one behind

What we do have is a little blue and grey Zodiac with a newly tuned up Johnson, at last pushing out a strong, steady stream of water (thanks to Mr. David's A-1 Johnson Rejuvenation and Repair Service).  This resort has a small boat launch a few sites down from Beluga.   Off we went, slowly down the canal running behind our resort and out into Sarasota Bay.

I didn't take pictures when we were full underway, the Zodiac is a wet boat, splashes and spray are part of the fun.    Not for the camera though.     We went under the Cortez Road bridge, putted slowly along Anna Maria Island - noting the stopped traffic - and under the Longboat Pass bridge to beach ourselves on the flat white sand.      We left the Zodiac safely above the tide line and walked along the island.

Where the pass meets the Gulf lots of large driftwood trees are lodged in the sand.   It made us think of the beaches in Oregon.    The water color is not the same, nor is the temperature, but the smooth silvery skeletons of the dead trees took us to the wild west coast beaches.

see Dave?

not everything was dead

We spent a few hours just relaxing and walking and wading before it was time to shove off and motor back, past the stopped traffic.

Back under the Cortez Road bridge, under the stopped traffic.....

back into the entrance to our canal....

And home again without seeing a single car in front of us.    A lovely lovely way to go to the beach.

sea fog rolled in near sunset