A Step on the Journey: Memories of Anna Maria

Images of Anna Maria!!

A pelican, these birds fascinated me with their kamikazi dives into the ocean and their voracious appetite for fish! So much so that one hooked itself on Aaron's fishing rod in pursuit of take-out dinner!

Sunrise on the island, amazing that i was up this early!

The little girls found a new friend and the neighbour dog found his niche, with an admiring fan club all set to smother him with love and feed him "cause he's hungry, mom!"

Terns on the beach, looking a wee bit wind-blown, much as we did at the end of the day, with sand in every possible nook and crevice.

Apparently, there are some problems on the island! Heehee!

And some rowdy tourists got locked up in jail!

Oh, i am so itchy. Why am i so itchy? Perhaps i've got fleas, or maybe some sort of contagious skin disease... nope, i'm peeling. Yep, read it and weep. Peeling. From a sunburn. In March! I love it! Who gets a sunburn in March? I'll tell you. Someone who just returned from much warmer climes and has enjoyed an early kiss of the sun's burning rays. Albeit a very funny looking sunburn. Apparently i am incapable of applying sunscreen consistently and am now consequently left with big blotchy pieces of skin on my legs, alternating red and white. Perhaps i could hire myself out as a human barber pole, if i spin on the spot quick enough, and blur the colours, no one would know the difference, forgetting about the arms, legs and hair that might give me away that i am not a barber pole, but in fact a sunburned human girl.

In all seriousness, i truly enjoyed my time away. It was short and sweet. I left on Monday afternoon with Dad dropping me off in Buffalo and via Atlanta, arriving in sunny Sarasota... okay, maybe not sunny since it was about 10:30 at night but warm at least. Melissa and Fran picked me up at the airport and we drove the half hour drive to Anna Maria Island, which is where both of their families had rented vacation homes.

I spent three full days with Jeff, Melissa and their family, soaking up the sun, walking on the pier, unsuccessfully evenly tanning myself, unsuccessfully angling for fish (although Aaron did catch a pelican! That was pretty monumentous in our estimation, but apparently quite common on that pier, since there were posted instructions on how to retrieve a hook from a bird's mouth!), playing games, riling children up right before bedtime with "doctor, doctor, we're all tangled up" and "spoons" which turned out to be far too violent and had to be stopped. Some of my most vivid memories include:

- waking up early in the morning to go shell seeking on the beach

- feeling the warm, warm sun on my pale, cold skin and tasting the salty sea water on my lips

- playing in the ocean waves with the kids and feeling like a big kid myself

- not having my watch on

- doing some cross-border shopping with a grand total of 17 people! I'm sure the store owners were nearly having coronaries when they saw the mass invasion and later stared in disbelief at the chaos left behind in their dressing rooms!! Head count, anyone??

- a very rough landing in Newark on the way home; due to high winds playing havoc with the airplane, the pilots had a tough job to land that plane safely and received a warm round of applause from the passengers when they finally managed to wrestle the plane to the ground! The lady beside me nearly passed out and i wasn't too sure about the whole situation either! Aah, the joys of air travel.

- chatting with a very jet-lagged and frustrated Scottish fellow, with flaming red hair, who was having much difficulty with the multiple delays imposed on our travel schedule by the windiness of the day. I did my utmost to calm him down and help distract him from our woes and uncertainties and it sure helped pass the time!

- shivering away in my bed at night due to my sunburn... feeling i would possibly never get warm again in my life and wondering if it was possible to die from shivering... also worrying whether it was possible to bite your tongue in two due to your jaw chattering so badly!