I Like Turtles.

It seems that all the Florida soft shelled turtle babies hatched at the same time near my workplace today! In an effort to save them, we picked up all we could find (probably around 15 or so) and removed them from the roadway in favor of a nice waterway. I know they can be aggressive as adults, but as babies they are very very cute. I stole a photo for my blog before releasing this one.

Beautiful Bradenton and Sarasota!

First off, our digital camera batteries have gone to the big battery heaven in the sky, so no pictures for the time being. :(

We traveled to Bradenton Saturday night to spend some time with a high school friend of mine named Kylee and her wonderful husband Richard. We figured that if we got to see some beautiful scenery along the way, so much the better!

Bradenton is a lovely young town that we immediately liked. It was nice to see some countryside for once! Kylee and Richard also graciously decided to be our tour guides for a little jaunt around Sarasota and its barrier islands. The Sarasota Marina was gorgeous. The weather was perfect for sitting along the water and just watching the sailboats bobbing in the breeze.

Longboat Key was probably my favorite nature wise though. There were actual sections where the beach still looked natural! And the white sandbars projecting their fingers into the beautiful blue-green Gulf was oddly striking for me. Maybe it's because we get to see natural coastlines and sandbars so little these days.

As far as animals go, we saw and heard the usual birds. I think I saw a shrike, which excited me. Otherwise we mainly spent time observing a spectacular canine specimen of the beagle mix variety named Peanut. :)