Treasure Island to Anna Maria Island

We began our second day at Treasure Island attending church at the Church By The Sea on the other side of John's Pass in Madeira Beach.  It was a few miles away so we had to ride our bikes to get there.

On the way home, I had a real craving for a big breakfast so we stopped in at The Gator Restaurant.  It was a large meal that my cardiologist and electrophysiologist in Houston should not find out about!  Afterwards, we went for a bike ride to work some of that off.  Treasure Island has beach access points about every other block and we just picked one for a walk on the beach as we headed toward the south end of the island.  What were the chances that we would arbitrarily pick the one by the Belmar Hotel which just happened to be hosting a sand sculpture contest for the weekend?  

First of all, you can get a sense of just how large these sculptures were with the people standing in the background.  Apparently, the meaning of this one above is that the lady is having a headache/nightmare of some sort and the thoughts inside her head are portrayed on the back side below.

And in another interesting coincidence, two sculptures were of hearts, convicting me again of the breakfast I had eaten earlier.  Check these out.

And the chambers of the heart.

OK Dr. Seger and Dr. Perrin, I promise not to do that again (for a while anyway).

I want to take this opportunity to thank Jeff and Suzanne Wright again for allowing us to use their dock for 2 days.  They have a beautiful home there.

We had three days of thunderstorm weather forecast to begin this afternoon.  So, we left Treasure Island early this morning to get in a short run of about 30 miles  to get across Tampa Bay.   Here's the well-known Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the distance (we crossed the bay a few miles south of the bridge).

And I'll end today's blog with the Christmas Tree Of The Day (per Rhonda's new requirement) from the restaurant here at the marina.  After I took the picture, one of the waitresses came over and thanked me for taking it.  She said the owner is not a fan of Christmas trees (and we sensed maybe even a bit of a Grinch) so she bugged him to get one displayed and she was given the responsibility for getting it done!  So, after I took the picture she said she walked up to him, and said, "See, I told you so.  Customers want a Christmas tree at Christmas."  Good for her.

We'll be here for about 3 days to wait out this stormy weather.