Longboat Key - Briefly

Our school day today was a little rough so I'll just move on to the part where late in the afternoon, we drove to Longboat Key, only about 2 miles away, and got out to see the beach. The only hiccup came when we all got out of the car, along with Heidi, only to discover that pets aren't allowed on the beach. We put her back in the Yukon, but she kept barking ("Not fair! Not fair!"), so we piled right back in the car and drove a little further to see if there was any other beach access where dogs were allowed. We found another public beach access and yet again, no dogs allowed. The good part was that this parking lot was deserted so we wouldn't have to worry about barking disturbing anyone while we took a short walk on the beach. It was only about an hour until sunset.

The beach was nearly deserted as well. The sun felt warm, not hot, and the water felt warm on our toes as well. We had so much fun looking at the shells which are so much more interesting and abundant than any I've found on the Oregon Coast. We got to watch a dolphin pod swim by. We watched several pelicans diving into the water with a splash. We saw little fish jumping in the surf. Then I saw two bigger fins really close in the surf as well. We kept watching and all of a sudden a little ray or skate came jumping right up out of the water too! It was so cool! Brighton saw another one pretty close to his toes too; he thought that was quite exciting!

Spotting these little bitty clams(?) that would come up in the surf and then
bury themselves again when the wave receded. Their shells were
every imaginable variety of shades.

Little clams (?) are burrowing in Spencer's hands.

We stayed right up until the sun was setting, but there was a little cloud bank that kept it from being as spectacular as we'd imagined. It was still quite pretty though. It really helped to reset the tone for the rest of the night to get out and have a little fun together. We are all looking forward to more beach exploration to come soon...