Back to the Beach

Hey All - 

Summer has really started heating up down here. A couple days ago the "feels like" temperature in Tampa hit 111 degrees. Wooooo! 

July 17th was our 28th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by spending the weekend at the Hilton in Clearwater Beach. We were worried about Red Tide, as it is really bad in some areas down here, but Clearwater seemed unaffected so far. The sand was soft and white, the water was warm, and it was quite lovely. (But hot!)

So mostly, I'll be sharing pics from that trip, with some other miscellaneous pics thrown in for fun.

First, some family selfies from John Chestnut park. These are from probably a month or two ago, which you'll be able to tell because Eddie is smaller than he is now.

We're so photogenic! 

So yeah, actually, at the last vet check, Eddie was 43 lbs and Eva was 46 lbs. So he is quickly overtaking her, which you can see here.

He's a MONSTER!

Also, I am very proud of myself for putting this image together...

Ok, so enough puppies (for now). I'll also take a moment to share pictures of some other creatures that have visited us lately.

This is the cicada-killer wasp which we originally thought might have been a murder hornet since it was about 2 inches long. Biggest damn hornet I ever saw. We left her alone in our lanai and I guess she probably ended up starving to death, because I don't think we have any cicadas in there.

Nope, nope, nope

We also had a visitor the other afternoon out by our trash cans.

Oh hello.

Ok...so, beach pics!

This was off of our balcony...

And these were from off of Pier 60 - which is the pier you see above.

So Saturday evening, a big...and I mean BIG...storm rolled through...

Just slightly omnious clouds. :-)

Then lots of thunder and lightning and watching dumb people continue to stay on the beach or worse - in the water! EEEEE. But I guess no one died. 

After the storm retreated we went down to the beach and were rewarded with a really beautiful sunset. So here, in no particular order, are 10,000 sunset pics. 

Also, Glenn got some sunrise pics in one morning when I was sleeping.

Anyway, we had a very relaxing little getaway.

We continue to take the dogs down to the marina and other nearby destinations to socialize them. This is down at the Safety Harbor fountain.

Also spotted on this outing:

Glenn also continues to ride his bike daily where he gets to see dolphins off the causeway.

Mama and baby

You can see it spouting water.

Glenn got caught in a bad rain storm the other morning, but was again rewarded...

Yesterday, he went out with his Glow Riders team for a ride through Dunedin, and was treated to another beautiful sunset.

Pretty darn nice. 

Ok folks, well, that's about all we have for now. Looking forward to seeing you all in person in a few weeks. Love you! 

Summer has begun!

Hey all - 

Hope you are all well and enjoying lovely weather. Summer has officially started here and we're doing our best to enjoy every minute.

Eddie is having a blast!

Man, does this dog love to swim.

And doesn't the pool water look nice?  Here he is admiring the view (check out Eva on the other side).

And here's Glenn with their undivided attention...

Eddie still thinks he's a lap dog.

One of our friends commented on this pic, "You're gonna need a bigger lap!"

Ok, so I have a ton more Eddie pics, but I'll spread them out a bit. So last week we found out that our house is actually at the end of the rainbow.

If you look closely, you'll see it's actually a double rainbow.

We have so much natural beauty down here - Glenn made me this arrangement from clippings from one of our bushes outside.

We also recently had my office floor redone - it was previously moldy gross carpet, so we had it replaced with the same wood-look tile we have throughout the main area of the house. So much nicer!

In other news, we've now returned to eating out on the weekends. Here's us on one of our first nights out at Parts of Paris.

And here we are in front of the famous dog (and cat) mural in Dunedin. The sign, which you can't fully read here, says "Welcome to Dogedin."

Our other big project we had done after the office was having the entire exterior of the house painted. It desperately needed it but it was kinda a pain - we were pretty much trapped inside for three days as everything was taped over and tarped. We couldn't even look out the windows or let the dogs out, unless we leashed them up and took them through the garage door. But it turned out really nice.

If you look back at the rainbow pics for comparison, you'll see the yellow is more vibrant and everything looks cleaner. 

Oh, hello!

Whatcha doin'?

Here are some pics from Glenn's morning bike rides.

Catching some rays

And I even got a shot of an elusive Florida kangaroo.

Kidding! That's actually this guy...

On Sunday, we took Eddie to a dog trainer in the morning and he was the only one in what was supposed to be a group class. So, essentially, we got ourselves a personal dog trainer. She was excellent with him and encouraged us to take him out more to dog parks, stores that allow dogs, and other places to expose him to lots of people, other dogs and settings. (She also taught him how to do puppy pushups and "Relax").

So Sunday afternoon we took the dogs to John Chestnut park, which has a nice dog park. Despite being a little nervous at first, Eddie did great. He played with all the other dogs and was very friendly and polite (to their owners too!) Eva was being antisocial, but it was fine.

Dirt mouth

Glenn is the Dog King

We also had a herd of deer show up right across the road from the dog park. 

And there were three giant woodpeckers hanging out there too!

All three are in this pic. Bonus points if you find them all.

Skipping back to Saturday night, we had a date night at St. Pete Beach. We had planned to take a sunset cruise, but the boat company canceled on us due to an insurance issue on their end. So, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Castile, and then went to an old place in Pass-a-Grille Beach called the Hurricane which has an awesome view from their rooftop.

As the sun went down, we went down to the beach to be closer to the action.

Yeah, that's a lot, but it's been a while. :-)

And just for tradition's sake, I'll end this post with a pic of a sleeping puppy.

Love you guys!