Longboat Key

For many years Monica and her family have been going to Longboat Key for their vacations. This year a few in her family were not able to go due to employment situations, still, the majority were able to make it there. They all have timeshares on the same week, meet at the swimming pool every day, some go fishing in the surf and some just lay in the sun. Pat and I were invited to spend the week with Monica and Rita. It was mostly relaxing, laying in the sun, dunking in the pool to cool off, eating and of course sleeping. The sleeping was done in the sun, on the beach, on chairs in the room and even in bed at night. It amounted to twice as much sleep per day as I usually get. One evening we all met in the activities room and played Nickle-Dice. There were about ten of us playing. I won twice and John won twice. At one point John was interrupted by his five year old grandchild who requested a ruling on an incident at the pool table. It involved a scratch and the boy was being told something different than what his "Poppy" had told him. He knew his Poppy was always right he wanted John to straighten out the world for him. The tears in his eyes revealed his sincerity that Poppy would rule in his favor. (I don't know how it came out because John left us and went out to settle it.) Shortly after that Kim took the boy to bed. As a vacation site Longboat Key is ideal. Many condos, timeshares, unique houses, exotic tropical scenery, breathtaking sunsets, beautiful beach, pools, salt water fishing, boating and tennis courts. It sometimes rains in the afternoon but after the rain it always clears up in time for the sunset. It is only a short drive to St Armonds Key where there are many restaurants and shops. This is the place that John Ringling chose to exhibit all his statues and they are distributed through the large traffic circle in the center of the Key. A great spot to visit. Pat and I went there, on the day we were going home, to see their Art Show and get some breakfast. We went to an upstairs restaurant that had a view overlooking the center of the Circle. We split an omelet. It was a very nice morning.