This has always been a favorite photo of how our summer storms come in from the east. The contrast between the white sand of Siesta Beach and the black clouds are startling.
This is more like the springtime in Florida, not much rain this time of year...
We've had some doggie friends stay with us the past two weeks over Christmas while our friends were out of the country. They are often called our "god-dogs" they are like part of the family. Our dog will stay with them when we are out of town. It makes for a small house when you have three herding dogs around...err...underfoot! It is hard to get them all in one photos so...I used food!
...but they do go through his toy basket and take out all his toys, and tear them up and leave the all over the house and yard...
Roxy has settled in just fine, she's the youngest, and the center of everyone's attention.
We were able to get the "old man" out of the house and take him with us to a restaurant. Ah...it's good to get some attention again.
Flash loves to watch the pool filter, and is sometime timid about walking past it to go outside. Then he sees a squirrel climbing the banana tree and he's over it and outside he goes.
Roxy will go anywhere, anytime and is always in your face as well as the other dog's face (which Tucker despises) but he tolerates it. She will also lay on you snuggle with you and listen to anything you say!
This is usually the way I can get a photo of all three when they are sleeping, and often in the same room near each other or us. Monday they will be back in their own home when the owner returns...
...and Tucker will have his futon back all to himself!
This dog was having so much fun, I loved watching him run along the sand bar. 
It has been a while since I've linked to Watery Wednesday, I thought you all might be a little tied of all my beach, sea birds, sunset photos. Now that I have something from the boat and a little different, I'm adding this to Watery Wednesday. 
We were a little last this week so we just hopped on the beach over another ramp and skipped the crowded pavilion.
Headed toward where the starting line is you can see how crowded it is.
At Siesta Beach there is a long walk on the soft white sand to get to the water. After the rain it's usually easier because it's packed down. It's not bad though I love it.
We usually set up by the green life guard stand so Wade can find us when he gets there. He comes here straight from work and runs in the second run.
We are at the green life guard stand looking toward the south where the run is going on. We missed it this week but stayed to watch the second runners. The beach is full of families and they usually stay to swim and just hang out at the beach. i always run into a lot of kids from school here.
As we were sitting there the typical Florida, afternoon, summer weather comes rolling in. It seems funny that we still need to wear our sunglasses when you look at these black clouds. Often we'll see some type of clouds during these runs. This time there were some pretty dark clouds, but not any thunder or lightning. Wade usually has to call from work to see if it's raining here and if we should even go. Everyone's leaving and the run is still in progress! Still no lightning. Hey where is everyone going?
Looking towards the north it's still pretty bright.
The wind is picking up you can see the sand blowing.
We decided to pack it up but still wanted to wait until Wade was finished running before we left, still no lightning.
No rain and no lightning (otherwise we would of been gone if there were lightning) but the wind is really blowing the sand. It looks like a blizzard blowing the white sand around like that.
Maranda wasn't happy that we stayed, we were really getting sand blasted. Think of it as a full body exfoliation! It didn't start to rain until Wade was back, he was surprised to see us still there, but we didn't care if we got wet. By the time we got to the parking lot it was full of cars going nowhere. We were soaked and decided to wait with Wade in his truck until the rain let up a little. We weren't going anywhere anyway. It was like a concert just let out with the traffic in the parking lot all jammed up. We had to wait to even back out of the spot. Good thing we were not in a hurry!
Last minute checks on the boat before launching. It was hot that day so we stopped in the shade...every little bit helps.
Even used the Bimini top, even though it looks a little goofy. We just got in here and didn't get the top up yet.
The last time we were out on the jet ski and kayak I took some pics of birds on the pilings. I wonder if they each have their own number. We decided to head south toward Venice .
This is the first bridge we come across, or go under. It's a one lane, swing bridge. The traffic has to wait and alternate going over the bridge. We are small enough it doesn't have to swing open for us.
We can go under it, even though it pretty low.
An Osprey nest was just beyond, pretty close to the bridge. You can see the baby's little white head. The baby is pretty big now.
Here is another one a little farther down.
I bet we saw about a dozen nests along the way, and many more flying by, and fishing!
Everyone was very active today!
The next bridge is the one that goes out to Casey Key. I forgot to get a photo of Stephen Kings house as we went by earlier. Oh well, next time.
There used to be a dolphin that hangs out around here, and so many stupid people would feed him. They had to put up this sign telling people not to feed the dolphins. This sign is for the same people who need a sign to make sure they buckle up. They would feed the dolphin then be surprised when they bit their fingers, trying to get the fish...sheesh! We saw a couple of dolphins earlier, but it's hard to get a photo of them, they do move quickly.
Oh yes and pelicans....I love to watch them fish, and fly!
This is Marker 4 in Venice, just under the bridge on Business 41 before you cross to get into Venice. Or channel marker 4 if coming by water.
We stopped for lunch and in the shade with the fans blowing it was very comfortable.
The ceiling is full of paddles. We usually get to come to places like this during the off season, when all the "snow birds" and tourists go back up north. Now we get to go to restaurants without the long wait.
The view from out table, we got to sit near where our boat was tied up.
On the way back, and more birds. If he stepped in the water he would of been swept away with the tide. The tide was rushing out so fast, we had a hard time getting the boat under the bridge here. 
We called our friend Eric who runs The Waterfront Too restaurant, what channel marker his restaurant is at. Channel marker 20. So we went down this channel.
To reach his restaurant. He had to go through a lot of red tape to put in his dock, but it's a nice new one. Straight ahead...
Another bird, he was hoping for some leftovers. Hanging out on the rail of the deck on our way out. We didn't eat here just stopped in to say "hi". The bird was scared off as we walked by.
Then flew down on the dock and we had to untie the boat, so here we were again.
Just as we got back into the ICW an Osprey was doing some fishing. We saw him sitting on the pole as we went in. Can you see him skimming the water?
Okay another one in a nest. I wonder...are the females the ones that stay and feed the young?
Farther down as we were turning in to go back to turtle beach, we saw another osprey dive and catch a fish. He was flying right over us and I took several pictures, but my camera doesn't zoom very much. This is the best one that you can actually see the fish that he caught!
The end of our trip down the ICW. (They didn't know I was taking this photo), we really did have a good time. It was nice to get a chance to take it easy on the water...and not on the weekend. We even saw a manatee...sort of, as much as you can see from a boat in the wild. One nice thing about a jet boat, no exposed propeller to hurt anything! There were no problems, the boat ran fine! 
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